Interview: Catching Up with the Viking Kings - Sword Daughter Writer Brian Wood and Artist Mack Chater

One of the strongest books of last year was survivalist story Briggs Land.Â Now Brian Wood returns once more to the world of Vikings, bringing along Briggs artist Mach Chater.Â The pair have delivered another great book, due out in June.Â So what better time for Comic Crusaders to catch up with the pair to discuss father daughter relations, the impact of trauma on a family and how best to avoid certain TV shows that could color influences:

Comic Crusaders: Guys, this isn’t the first project you two have worked on, Briggs Land being an example.Â How has your partnership evolved over time?

Brian Wood: ”‹I think with any partnership, you just learn more about the other person, their strengths and weaknesses, and the finished product gets better as a result.”‹ Â A big difference between Briggs Land and Sword Daughter, though, is how much the art is helping to drive Sword Daughter. Briggs was heavy on dialogue, very tightly plotted and my writing drove this forward.Â Sword Daughter is more open, more visual, and allows Mack a lot more creative leeway.

Mack Chater: Â Our discussion/development process works great. Brian sends me ideas, I send him things I find, and the stories/scripts/art develop in tandem. On a more technical note, for me the layouts page designs are more freeing now, since SD is a creator owned we develop the whole thing together. Story/art/font design/colour…

CC: This book seems quite a departure from your last book.Â Why a Viking story and why now?

BW: Sometimes you just get an idea and have to run with it.Â We were going to go on a hiatus anyway with Briggs Land. This here keeps us busy and working together.

CC: How has the popularity of shows like Vikings or films like the original Conan, which also features a child lost impacted the narrative that you both were aiming for?

BW: Â ”‹For me, not at all.Â I’ve made a point to never watch that TV show, just to avoid any unwanted influence, and I don’t consider Conan to be Norse… call me a purist!Â It’s fantasy, like Marvel’s Thor. ”‹I like my Vikings historical and grounded.

MC: To be honest, I haven’t really watched the Vikings tv show. Once we started talking/developing Sword Daughter I kind of avoided any shows that could influence any design stuff I was doing

CC: Brian, this isn’t the first time you have written about Vikings.Â Could this be seen as a continuation of Northlanders?

Â BW: Â ”‹I personally find the Viking era to be dramatically rich – I can find endless inspiration in it.Â We’re adding in some unusual influences, mashing the genre a bit with the introduction of elements of Samurai cinema, something Mack and I both love.Â So yeah, I“ve written Vikings before but this is something different. Sword Daughter is not at all a continuation of Northlanders, not directly.”‹

CC: Mack which do you prefer, Â the real world of Briggs or the not quite world of Vikings, although I will say the book definitely has a real world/lived and died in feel.

MC: I think the thing that runs through both are great and interesting characters. That’s always my focus with a story. But both books have their challenges! Finding the right references/environments for Briggs to make it feel authentic was a challenge I really enjoyed. On Sword there was a ton more reference at hand, but find the right jacket or sword, etc. to suit the characters has been really fun too!

CC: What I found interesting in the book is that we take the unconditional love of a parent ha for their child as a given.Â Here it seems that the child has unconditional love for her father. What prompted this idea?

”‹BW: The child, Elsbeth, has a very fraught relationship with her father.Â He abandoned her, and even if she understands the reasons why, that’s a terrible emotional injury she carries.Â It’s going to take some time before she trusts him again (and before he forgives himself). In the first arc of the book, she keeps a physical distance from her father – she doesn’t let him come near.

”‹CC: The dialogue is interesting in that we read Elizabeth’s inner thoughts, but she doesn’t seem to be able to communicate verbally.Â How is this going to impede her quest?

BW: ”‹It impedes my writing!Â Haha, it really does. But yeah, she’s feral, raised by herself in the woods, so she doesn’t have language.Â Not now, anyway – we know at some point she does.”‹ As a fun narrative element, she communicates on the page with these little emojis Mack designed.

MC: The simple challenge for me, has been trying design Elsbeths ’emoji language’! Trying to figure out the right shapes and symbols has been tough but fun. I think it adds to the tone of the whole story though – makes for interesting visual and storytelling challenges.

Â CC: What’s it been like working with JosÃ© Villarubbia?

MC: Simply put – an absolute dream come true. JosÃ© has coloured some of my FAVOURITE comic books, as well as colouring some of my favourite artists! (Toppi anyone!!). But with that, he brings a wealth of knowledge and experience, and there were specific colour ideas Brian and myself had in mind for Sword Daughter. JosÃ© knew exactly what we intended and then some!

BW: Crossed it off my bucket list.”‹ Â He’s a legend.

CC: What’s next for this father and daughter?

Â BW: ”‹So we have this massive revenge quest they’re undertaking.Â That’s the overarching plot, hunting down those responsible for burning their village and taking them out.Â The more intimate storyline is Dag and Elsbeth learning how to relate to each other, the push-pull of that, and how the sword is a factor in their relationship going forward.”‹

CC: As his is an ongoing, what other plans, if any do you both have in the pipeline?

BW: ”‹We’ll get back to Briggs Land at some point”‹, Mack and I.

MC: We always have plans for more tales! But my main focus right now is making this the best book I can, unique and intriguing for the readers. And for people who just like a bloody good revenge story!

Thanks for the chat gentleman, good luck with the book!

For an advance review of Sword Daughter, please click here.

Author Profile

Johnny "The Machine" Hughes

I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow

Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network