Valhalla (comic)

Valhalla is a Danish comic book series. Originally commissioned for and published by Interpresse, it has been published by Carlsen Comics since 1987.

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History

During 1976 and 1977, Henning Kure and Arne Stenby at Interpresse, a Danish publishing house, were planning to create a comic series based on the world of the Vikings. They offered the place of illustrating the comic to the young cartoonist Peter Madsen, who accepted, and also enlisted Hans Rancke-Madsen, a writer who had shown great skill at writing dialogue and characters. The team set out to draw the first album in a series of the adventures of the Norse gods, based on the Elder Eddas. Thor would very much be the hero of this series, along with Odin and Loki, who is presented as Odin's blood brother.

Valhalla started in 1978 as a strip running in the Danish newspaper "Politiken". The first album came out in 1979. It was very well received, with several subsequent albums.

The tone of the albums has focused on humor, but the characters, and much of the plot, are based on the stories and legends in the Elder Eddas, and many albums have often featured deeper human issues. The albums are of high quality, and each took one or several years to produce. The first album was released in 1979, the second in 1982, and the thirteenth in 2006. They are very much in the tradition of finely drawn and well plotted Franco-Belgian comics like "Tintin" or "Asterix", which also served as inspiration for the Valhalla comics.

On January 5 2007, Valhalla was published on the Internet for the first time as the Danish paper Jyllands-Posten began publishing the 14th album, "Muren" ("The wall"), in their online edition. One page is posted weekly in the form of an animated Flash program, attempting to transfer the large album pages to a format suitable for the web.

Creative Teams

Valhalla would become the major breakthrough for illustrator Peter Madsen, who has developed greatly during his work on the series. Apart from doing the art for all the albums, he has been a co-writer for most of them. By far the most high-profile member of the creative team, the series is often referred to as "Peter Madsen's Valhalla".

Hans Rancke-Madsen has been the major writer of the series, together with Peter and other co-writers Per Vadmand and Henning Kure. Rancke-Madsen has written for all albums but eleven and twelve, but will return for the thirteenth album.

The colouring has always been a great part of the art of Valhalla. The first eight albums were coloured by Søren Håkonsson. Peter Madsen did the colours himself for the ninth album, while albums ten to twelve were done by Jesper Ejsing. Håkonsson returned for the thirteenth album, where he did half the pages, the other half being done by Madsen.

Album Titles and Summaries

"All the individual albums that were originally published by Interpresse are now published by Carlsen Comics".

15. Vølvens syner ("The Sibyl's Visions), "Carlsen Comics (2009)". The final album in the series will contain the story about how Vafþrúðnir sets off Ragnarok. Planned for release in 2009 [ [http://www.petermadsen.info/pages/vh/future.html Valhalla ] ] .

The albums have also been collected in anthologies in some countries. All albums have been translated into Swedish and Norwegian with the earlier albums also translated into Dutch, German, French, Finnish, Icelandic, Faroese and Indonesian, so somebody who knows these languages or anyone a bit familiar with Norse Mythology can enjoy these renditions of the adventures of Thor and Loki.

The Animated Film

Valhalla was made into an animated film in 1986. The story is based on albums one, four and five, focusing on Tjalfe, Røskva and their meeting with Thor, Loki and Quark.

Although the film was in some ways a milestone for Scandinavian animation, it received mixed criticism. The production was hampered by trouble such as changes in the creative team and economic difficulties, and was passed on between studios to end up with Swan Film Production. In the end it cost nearly 30 million Danish krone, which it had no chance of bringing back in. No follow up to the film was made, although six short spin-off films, featuring Quark, were made by Swan Film Production. Quark is also the protagonist of his own comic series, of which several books have been published. Several more shorts were planned, but the studio collapsed from the troubles the Valhalla film had brought.

In 2003, the movie was released on DVD in Denmark.

tamp and playing cards

In 2002 "Post Danmark" the Danish postal service made four stamps featuring Danish comic book characters. Peter Madsen drew the artwork for the Valhalla stamp and he also made a deck of playing cards with his characters. The other three stamps featured Rasmus Klump, Jungledyret Hugo and Cirkeline.

References

External links

* [http://www.valhalla-comics.dk/ Peter Madsen's Valhalla 11] . The official site for the making of Valhalla 11. Shows the step-by-step process used for several pages and also features other album information and art by Peter Madsen.
* [http://www.petermadsen.info/pages/vh/valhalla-eng.html Peter Madsen's official homepage] . (In Danish and English)
* [http://www.carlsen.dk/ Carlsen Comics] . Current publishers of Valhalla (in Danish).
* [http://www.jp.dk/ Jyllands-Posten] . Publishing the 14th album online.
* [http://fp.image.dk/fpeplaschke/valhalla.htm Vidunderlige danske tegnefilm - Valhalla] . A site chronicling the story behind the making of the animated film (in Danish).