Joe Kubert’s The Viking Prince

Guest post by Matthew Ilseman

There was a time when boys read historical swashbucklers. They popular books by writers like Harold Lamb and Raphael Sabatini and movies staring the likes of Douglas Fairbanks. Even in comic books, often thought solely the dominion of superheroes, there were historical swashbucklers. Case in point, The Brave and The Bold which featured three heroes of yesteryear, The Silent Knight, The Golden Gladiator, and most notably The Viking Prince.

The Brave and The Bold was published during the end of the “Golden Age” of comics when superheroes were falling out of favor. By the mid 1950s, the comic book medium was actually dominated by Western, War, Crime, and Horror comics.

The Golden Age is sometimes thought of as a time when the writing and art in comics were often of low quality. This was often true but there were stand outs such as Will Eisner’s The Spirit which may still be the best comic book ever written. The Brave and the Bold from what I’ve seen was another particularly in the area of the art. 

The Viking Prince was created by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert who is one of the best artists to have worked in the comic medium. Kubert’s work on the character is collected in a hard bound volume called The Viking Prince by Joe Kubert. Kubert is also known for work on the characters Tor, Hawkman, and Sgt. Rock.

The writers of the stories are Kanigher, Bob Haney, and Bill Finger. These are the type of writers I think of as “talented hacks.” They were hacks in the sense that they probably thought of working writers not “artistes,” but one would be wrong to dismiss them completely. Kanigher and Haney would do good work on various DC war comics which tended to be grittier and more adult than the superheroes. In fact, Haney was a naval veteran of the Pacific. I’ve heard Kanigher was a vet as well but I can’t confirm it. (Interestingly, when they worked on superheroes it was usually some of the goofiest written.) Bill Finger is best known as the co-creator of Batman.

The main draw of the book is, however, Kubert’s art. It is realistic and dynamic.

The writing, most of which is by Haney, tends to be entertaining in a Boy’s Adventure way. That is to say it is fun, but not much more. Still they are a lot of fun if you can accept certain things.

The Viking Prince is a youth who is found by fishermen unconscious. When awaken, he has no memory, but is skilled at arms. He is given the name Jon and is assumed to be prince or nobleman because of said skill. He becomes the defender of the village from the evil Thorvald who raids it. 

At least that is before the story is rebooted and he becomes a wanderer trying to reclaim his kingdom. Haney was not big on continuity. 

On individual level the stories are enjoyable so I suppose you can consider them differing legends of the character.

The original stories are very much historical swashbucklers. There is very little of anything supernatural, but a lot that is improbable. Jon ends up in both Arabia and North America for two stories. He fights a rival in a duel while swinging on ropes. Jon fights beasts from the prehistoric era including a herd of mammoths and a then a Tyrannosaurus Rex (both of which survived by being frozen in the fiords,) but there are many stories fighting human villains in the mode of Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant.

After the reboot, the stories become more Sword and Sorcery mixed with Fairy Tales. Jon meets mermaids and dragons while trying to complete the “12 Tasks of Thor” to reclaim his throne.

Obviously, these are not historically accurate.

Jon is, of course, handsome, brave, skilled at arms, and noble. He does not actually go on sea raids like actual Vikings did. (Though his father is shown doing it.) He spends a lot of time rescuing beautiful women. (He does get saved himself by beautiful women a few times, too.)

So these are definitely stories for young boys. That does not mean adults (and girls) can not enjoy them. Kubert’s art elevates the sometimes simplistic and goofy stories. Plus, it is a type of story that does not really get written much anymore. It is the type of stories we need more in our society to get boys to read.

The Brave and the Bold would go through a lot of changes over the years. It would become a “try out” book for whatever concept DC wanted to explore. The Justice League would make its first appearance there. Eventually, it becomes a series of team ups with Batman (most of these also written by Haney.) The popularity of certain genres change with the times. Still, even during its superhero phase they would reprint Viking Prince tales in the back. They seem to have left their mark and should not be forgotten.