Karl the Viking is a British comic character, appearing in strips published by Fleetway Publications. Centred on a Saxon-born Viking warrior in the 11th century, the strip mixed historical adventure with fantasy, and first appeared in the boys' anthology title Lion on 29 October 1960. Drawn by Don Lawrence and written by Ted Cowan, the character's appearances ran for four years.
Creation
Don Lawrence began work as a professional artist for Mick Anglo's Gower Street Studios in the 1950s, particularly on Marvelman Family, before falling out with Anglo over payments. He then pitched to Amalgamated Press, contributing odd strips to various titles before finding his niche on Tiger'''s "Olac the Gladiator", which established Lawrence as a historical action artist. He was tapped to provide a similar strip for Fleetway Publications' flagship boy's weekly Lion. Lion editor Bernard Smith paired him with the experienced writer Ted Cowan, who had created Robot Archie for the title in 1952 among numerous other works for AP and Fleetway. Ken Bulmer also worked with the pair to create the character.
Publishing history
The strip debuted in the 29 October 1960 edition of Lion as "The Sword of Eingar" before being renamed "Karl the Viking" from the second serial onwards. It was a firm favourite, running for four years. For most of the run Lawrence and Cowan remained as the creative team, though Lawrence's schedule saw Ted Drury take over for three months in 1963. Cowan meanwhile would hand over the reigns to future novelist Michael Moorcock for the final arc of the strip; he and Lawrence would work together to devise "Maroc the Mighty", which would replace "Karl the Viking" in Lion from October 1964. The character also appeared in Lion Annual stories; these gave Lawrence the opportunity to work in colour, and his painted art for the character was a major factor in his selection for "The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire" for Ranger.
"Karl the Viking" was twice reprinted by Fleetway and successor IPC Magazines. Audience research showed that readers typically only stayed with comics for three to five years while the low production quality of newsprint British weeklies meant issues were rarely saved or collected, and thus modified reprints were considered a valid cost-cutting exercise. The first such modified version of "Karl the Viking" came just two years after the original run ended, when the initial three arcs were reprinted as the adventures of Rolf the Viking under the title "Swords of the Sea Wolves" between 1 October 1966 and 7 October 1967 in Lion. The second came in 1969 as IPC attempted to salvage the failing Smash!, modified to "Erik the Viking" and printed between 3 May 1969 and 3 April 1971, ending when Smash! merged with Valiant. Both of these modified versions would generate a small amount of new material - a "Swords of the Sea Wolves" strip was created for the 1968 Lion Annual, while a text story featuring Erik the Viking featured in the 1971 Valiant Annual.
As Lawrence's reputation grew on the back of his work issues of Lion featuring Karl the Viking became sought-after collector's items. In 2008, British comics expert Steve Holland worked with the Netherlands-based Don Lawrence Collection to compile the complete series into four hardback collections, available either individually or as a boxed set with a slipcase. In 2018 "Karl the Viking" was among the IPC-owned properties acquired by 2000 AD'' publisher Rebellion Developments, and in 2020 they released the complete "Karl the Viking" strips across two volumes in their Treasury of British Comics series.