Manga Review: VINLAND SAGA Omnibus vol.1

Japanese artist does Vikings better than the West does its own craft.

It’s no secret that Western comics have been circling the drain for close to a decade at this point. Despite the success of the Marvel movies in that same period, the Big Two hired nothing but boutique-sexuality pronoun warriors to write and draw their books, leading to a sharp decline and quality and sales.

A couple of YouTubers took note—chief among them Ya Boi Zack—and soon started an independent counter-movement that produced quality alternatives for diehard consumers. The main problem for these indies has been distribution; normie comic readers who don’t spend time online have simply stopped buying the DC/Marvel stuff in stores. Rather than back crowdfunding campaigns, they go for the next most accessible thing: manga.

The sales numbers bear this out and it’s easy to see why: Japan’s big artists haven’t gone the same route as America’s. They still have stories and characters at the forefront of their books, backed by high-quality illustrations.

While I’m no connoisseur of the eastern arts, I have been dipping into the backlog of more successful titles in recent years, often with delightful results. Today I finished the first omnibus of a long-running series by Makoto Yukimura called VINLAND, an illustrated Viking saga set 1,000 years ago.

The Story

Viking dominance in Europe covered a span of roughly three hundred years, from 850 AD to 1150 AD. This story is set right in the middle, and while it doesn’t give you an exhaustive view of everything, you can easily get a grip on what’s going on: there are Danish raiders who travel from place to place when the weather is good, sacking and stealing and killing as they please, returning home to hole up for the winter. Within this lifestyle we’re introduced to some central figures, namely Askeladd and Thorfinn. The former is a successful raider, and the latter is a slave in his employ, bound and determined to kill his master.

After we see a run-of-the-mill raid, complete with tactical siege-breaking and wanton mayhem, the story mostly turns to the past, explaining Thorfinn’s origins and his feud with Askeladd. In the space of about 500 fast-moving pages, we see that Thorfinn grew up in a village in Iceland, listening to stories from Leif Ericson himself, the Scandinavian explorer who landed in America 500 years before Columbus. In the back of his mind, Thorfinn has always known there was a place across the sea that didn’t know the wars and conflicts of Viking Europe.

But he can’t go there until he settles his score with Askeladd, who killed his father.

The Characters

Thorfinn establishes himself right out of the gate as a feisty firebrand who, while skilled in combat, still has his vulnerabilities. Askeladd is a worthy nemesis, as he’s a veteran of a trade where men die easily. Askeladd isn’t afraid of Thorfinn killing him in his sleep because he has his father’s sense of honor, and will only fight his master in a sanctioned duel. Thus he serves faithfully as a raider, doing what the Vikings won’t and carrying out Askeladd’s orders, always with the hope of earning another shot at a duel.

I really liked the generational story here, especially once you meet Thorfinn’s father, Thors. (Yes, very original Viking names.) He himself was a hotheaded warrior in his youth, but fatherhood softened him, and in a violent battle he faked his own death and fled north to raise his children in peace. Now the Viking affairs have spread to Iceland and Thors’ secret is revealed. A man who thought he’d escaped his past now has to deal with a village full of young men who look up to him and want the glory he earned in his day.

Each of the characters shows you another side of the theme of this book, the reality of violence, the desire for peace, the cost of freedom, the folly of youth, the inescapability of conflict. Somewhere off in the distance, ‘Vinland’ (their name for North America) looms, a promising escape from it all. But Thorfinn knows his father once tried to run, and his past still caught up to him.

For me, that quarrel he has with himself is what makes him such a compelling character, and easy to root for.

The World

When I read Robert Kroese’s Iron Dragon series, I became aware of just how little I know about this period of European history. I can’t vouch for its authenticity, nevertheless it feels consistent and believable, like an honest depiction of the era as much as I grasp it. There’s some talk of England and France, but so far we’re just focusing on the Scandinavian part of it. No magic, nothing supernatural, though they believe in gods and the afterlife, as was their way.

This is not a world with grocery stores and credit cards.

Politics

None

Content Warning

Sparse language, but there was a pair of F-bombs, and a little kid taking a leak off the side of a boat. Combat violence.

Who is it for?

If you’re on the fence about comics generally and manga specifically, this is a great entry point. It’s 500 pages but you can read it in an hour. The characters are admirable and relatable, the setting is immersive, and it reads like historical fiction at a great clip.

Why buy it?

It’s a powerful tale of classical virtues, of heroism and courage, bravery, family, the faults of youth and the hard-won wisdom of age, and the endless human ability to dream of something better. To boot, you can read a manga over and over and appreciate the artwork with fresh eyes each time; that’s why I add physical copies to my library.

In fine, there’s a reason why manga continues to beat Western comics, and books like VINLAND are it. Check it out.