Barbarian Lord

By Matt Smith

“Smith’s debut graphic novel has guts, gore, and glory set against a harsh, Viking-influenced backdrop . . . An easy summer reading pick.”—School Library Journal
 
“A sword untried is a sword untested,” says one raven to another as they set out to witness the fate of the finest farm in Garmrland and its owner, Barbarian Lord. When he is cheated out of his lands and banished, Barbarian Lord begins a quest for allies and for justice, encountering monsters, ghouls, gods, and mediocre poets along the way.
 
Combining the rich traditions of the Vikings and Nordic lore with sword-and-sorcery—and slyly understated humor—this graphic novel introduces an original hero with classic flair, brought to life in Matt Smith’s beautifully drawn, detailed, and action-filled black-and-white illustrations.
 
“An accessible, memorable thrill of a graphic novel.”—Bulletin

“This plot is nothing if not action-driven, the multitudinous battle scenes and abundant swordplay (and excellent sound effects) making this an excellent choice for readers interested in Game of Thrones but who perhaps aren’t quite ready for some of its more mature subject matter.”—Kirkus Reviews

“All bend knee and hail! Barbarian Lord!”—Previews

“Interesting callbacks to Norse mythology will make this graphic novel an easy pleaser for fans of Rick Riordan’s books and K. L. Armstrong and M. A. Marr’s Blackwell Pages series.”—School Library Journal

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Jul 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9780547859149

Matt Smith

Matt Smith drew his first Conan the Barbarian adventure when was eight years old. A children’s book illustrated fascinated by traditional lore and comic-book heroes, Matt lives with his wife and their dog in Lexington, Massachusetts. Visit his website at www.barbarianlord.com, find Barbarian Lord on Facebook, or follow him on Twitter (@barbarianlord).

Book preview

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Reviews for Barbarian Lord

[readingbeader · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

HRAAHH! There is a lot of grunting dialogue in the comic, and stilted language that masquerades as poetry. The drawing and inking is black and white on nice paper. My comic fiends have read it--but they read everything I have.

[benjaminhahn · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Finally, a comic book which seeks to emulate the pithy sayings of the Icelandic Sagas as told by Snorri Sturluson. The art style is a little towards the cartoon style, at least when it comes to faces, but natural forms are great. A lot of care was taken to write clever dialog consistent with skaldic traditions. Clever jokes abound and many easter eggs paying tribute to Robert E. Howard, Star Wars, and Tolkien. Not really a mash up, but more of a stew. If this were a cartoon on television I would buy the box set. A very surprising and satisfying find.

[sullywriter_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Touches of Beowulf, Tolkien, Norse mythology, and PG-rated Game of Thrones in this action-centered tale.

[krau0098 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I got this to review through the Amazon Vine program. I love graphic novels and was excited to read this one. It probably wasn't fair to this book that I just finished reading Vinland Saga, since that book is absolutely awesome and deals with similar subject matter.This is about a Barbarian Lord who gets exiled from his home country and is forced to seek refuge in a neighboring kingdom. There he must prove his worth through a series of quests.I honestly didn't enjoy the art style that much. The lines are very heavy and very cartoony, none of the characters show much expression and the artwork didn't add a ton to the story.The dialogue and story are very simple and the writing didn't flow all that well, I had to reread portions to figure out what was being said. Given the fact that there wasn't much here, it was pretty slow to read.I had trouble figuring out if this story was supposed to be taken seriously (if it is then this was horrible) or if it was more tongue in cheek and meant to be a parody (if this is the case then this was somewhat funny). The fact that I couldn't tell the difference though tells you something about the story.I did read the afterword and Matt Smith mentions drawing inspiration from He-Man. This book totally reminds me of some sort of Viking He-Man novel. So I guess if you were a huge He-Man fan you might enjoy this. It even has a skeleton-like villain.Overall an okay read but not great. As I said if this was a parody, it was kind of funny. It it’s meant to be taken seriously it’s a disaster. I am going to settle on...eh...it was okay. I would recommend taking a quick look through it before purchasing to see if you are a fan of the artwork style...I wasn’t.