'Sword and the Ring' Debuts on Kindle

Fenriswulf are proud to present the first book in the re-telling and re-imagining of the epic 'Ring of the Nibelung' saga, Of Gods and Gold, which has just been launched for the Kindle platform (Book 2, Of Valkyries and Vengeance, is now in the pipeline).

Due to the limitations of the Kindle format, this version isn't nearly as fancy or detailed as the print offering available via this very website (which integrates text and pictures in our very own 'graphic fiction' stylee), but all the artwork remains intact, as far as the previews suggest anyway, and this does rather open up interesting new possibilities for illustrated works. (Once Chaz has finished writing it, the Angel of Vengeance cycle will likely be next.)

As a special launch treat we'll also be offering it for free, from August 5th - 7th.

UK readers can get it here.

US readers can pick it up here.

'The Sword and the Ring' - Book One

The culmination of over 20 years of scribbling, sketching and writing, the first volume in 'The Sword and the Ring' series has just been released in its first print edition. Some of the finished artwork was first conceived while I was still at high school, and the idea of a full-length illustrated fantasy inspired by old Norse myths has been around for longer.

The first volume, 'Of Gods and Gold', is roughly equivalent to the 'Rheingold' prelude to Wagner's Ring Cycle - a short-ish overture to the epic drama which will follow. Characters of my own creation rub shoulders with gods and heroes of legend, while the familiar core plotline remains recognisable and intact. Darkly humorous, and maintaining the usual FWB sense of quirkiness, a Kindle edition may follow if I can figure out how to keep the rather intricate formatting.

"Since the dawn of the Nine Worlds, the gods of Asgard, led by all-wise Wotan, have enjoyed prosperity and power. Wotan's noble house of Aesir rules the heavens and all Middengaard, the realm of men and monsters; yet on this peaceful stage will be wrought curses, war, treachery and ultimately, disaster. The two-faced trickster Loki, once a blood-brother of Wotan, seeks to spawn an unholy dynasty to rival the Aesir, while gold stolen from the River Rhein sets in motion a tide of torment that will drown all who come into contact with it. Sensing doom, one-eyed Wotan broods and begins to gather warriors of Middengaard to serve as his private army, while struggling to repair the growing cracks in his marriage to Fricke, and his relationship with his thirteen unruly daughters, the Valkyren..."

A New Look for Fenris...?

For a while I've been considering changing the FWB logo and coming up with a different illustration of the old Viking wolf-god for our visual identity. Not necessarily because I think the old one is lousy - I still really like it after all these years - but the FWB catalogue has branched out a lot since it was first created.

Recently, as part of work I'm doing on my epic Old Norse graphic novel/fantasy cycle, I came up with the following illustration - the goddess Hel and her two brothers, the serpent Jormungand and of course, Fenris (here depicted as a goofy cub who still has a lot of growing up left to do).

I thought about perhaps adapting the portrait of Fen here as a new look corporate ID. What do you folks think?



-Posted by Chaz

'The Black Flag' Flies on Amazon Kindle

Chaz originally submitted his first full-length graphic novel to Amazon's Kindle program back in December, then promptly forgot all about it during that period of the lousiest weather ever, becoming officially self-employed, and doing lots and lots of commission works while stuck in the house.

In the meantime, 'The Black Flag' has shifted a respectable number of copies both on the UK and the US Amazon sites - something Chaz was very pleased and surprised to discover tonight. Now that the Kindle project appears to be bearing some fruit, this is definitely a medium into which Fenriswulf Books will be planning more releases in the future (despite some of Chaz's earlier dismissive comments regarding the future of the e-book reader...well, times do change!)

Channeling the likes of 2000 AD's Slaine through the mythical Irish background of the Morrigan and the Battle of Magh Tuireadh, 'The Black Flag' pushes the notion of a Celtic revolutionary underground through a darkly futuristic vision of the British Isles. Anti-heroine Georgina Buadach Macdubhgaill invokes the myths of the good gods of ancient Ireland to bring blood and battle to the streets of London...and in the process, draws another cycle of history to a brutal conclusion.

Here's the link for UK Kindle shoppers.

And for US Kindle shoppers.