document.write('<ol>\x0d\x0a    \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a            <li class="tumblr_post tumblr_text_post">\x0d\x0a                \x0d\x0a                    <div class="tumblr_title">This Week at Standard Attrition</div>\x0d\x0a                \x0d\x0a                \x0d\x0a                <div class="tumblr_body">\x0d\x0a                    <p>Threads from my new message board, which is also home to Jason Aaron, Brian Azzarello, David Lapham, G. Willow Wilson, Cliff Chiang and Jock:<br/><br/><a href="http://standardattrition.com/viewtopic.php?t=129" target="_blank">What&#8217;s your favorite curse word?</a><br/><br/><a href="http://standardattrition.com/viewtopic.php?t=199" target="_blank">The Fixing Comics Thread</a><br/><br/><a href="http://standardattrition.com/viewtopic.php?t=195" target="_blank">The Official Standard Attrition Photo Thread</a><br/><a href="http://standardattrition.com/viewtopic.php?t=186" target="_blank"><br/>The Five Greatest Things Ever Put On This Earth</a><br/><br/><a href="http://standardattrition.com/viewtopic.php?t=175" target="_blank">Dubious Films You Love Anyway?</a>  </p>\x0a<p>&#8212;  </p>\x0d\x0a                </div>\x0d\x0a            </li>\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a                        \x0d\x0a    \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a            <li class="tumblr_post tumblr_text_post">\x0d\x0a                \x0d\x0a                    <div class="tumblr_title">Free Comic Book Day plans:</div>\x0d\x0a                \x0d\x0a                \x0d\x0a                <div class="tumblr_body">\x0d\x0a                    <p>Cliff Chiang, Will Dennis, and myself will be here:<br/><br/><b>Upstate Comics</b><br/>  \x09\x09Freedom Business Ctr.<br/>  \x09\x091097 Rt. 55<br/>  \x09\x09LaGrangeville, NY 12540<br/>  \x09\x09845-452-3320     <br/><a href="http://www.upstatecomics.com/" target="_blank"><a href="http://www.UpstateComics.com" target="_blank">www.UpstateComics.com</a></a></p>\x0a<p>-</p>\x0d\x0a                </div>\x0d\x0a            </li>\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a                        \x0d\x0a    \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a            <li class="tumblr_post tumblr_text_post">\x0d\x0a                \x0d\x0a                    <div class="tumblr_title">Northlanders #5, Notes &amp; Reviews</div>\x0d\x0a                \x0d\x0a                \x0d\x0a                <div class="tumblr_body">\x0d\x0a                    This post contains NO story spoilers.<br/><br/>When I launched this series, speaking for myself, I was taking a massive risk.  It&#8217;s an 8-issue first arc, not able to be collected until almost a year after release, and I took a long view with the story.  I wanted it to feel epic, and I wanted it to pay off in layers upon layers down the road.  <a href="http://www.dccomics.com/graphic_novels/?gn=9839" target="_blank">The first issue</a> wasn&#8217;t the first self-contained episode in a miniseries, it was the first 15 minutes of a long film.  It&#8217;s a HUGE risk to take for a creator-owned monthly comic, but I wanted to take it and we took it.  I had the whole arc mapped out in detail.  I knew what I was doing.  I felt it would pay off.<br/><br/>Imagine my frustration when some reviews of #1 said it felt incomplete.  I was ready for it, having heard all the same things about DMZ.  But it was frustrating all the same, because of course it&#8217;s incomplete, being a part one of eight, and also because I knew the whole story and I knew it would pay off.  I just had to hope people would hang on.  By issue #4 I knew people would start to get a sense of something much larger and much more complex unfolding.  And by issue #5 I knew the full breadth of my intent would be apparent.  Last post I called #5 the keystone that holds the cathedral dome up&#8230; and if you forgive me likening this story to a cathedral, you&#8217;ll see my meaning.<br/><br/>Some quotes:<br/><br/><blockquote>As Brian Wood continues to flesh out his uncharacteristic journey into the sword and sandals genre, Northlanders becomes more and more compelling. By exploring Sven&#8217;s childhood adventures outside of Grimness and the Orkney Islands, the author provides a deeper examination of his main character&#8217;s motivations, and in the process validates the events from previous issues with a new sense of intrigue. If it was Brian Wood&#8217;s intention to make Sven a more sympathetic character, than this issue undoubtedly succeeds, as the flashbacks in Northlanders #5 help to take the title from a mere slasher to a more complicated story about independence and personal growth. (<a href="http://comics.ign.com/articles/869/869055p1.html" target="_blank">IGN)</a><br/>\x0a</blockquote>\x0a<br/>Sven&#8217;s a dick, he&#8217;s a murderer, this is a revenge story, nothing more, seen it already in a hundred films.  It&#8217;s a splatter comic, etc.<br/><br/><blockquote>I also really enjoyed how the issue helped to define Sven&#8217;s distaste for the barbaric pageantry of the Viking age, and in particular his home of Orkney Islands. Wood portrays the character as having misgivings about the system in which he was raised, and this fact is made all the more powerful by the events in the previous issue which saw the politics of his home town destroy the key to his happiness in his country of escape. This turn of events proves perfectly poetic and continues to push the book into less familiar and more cerebrally intriguing directions.(<a href="http://comics.ign.com/articles/869/869055p1.html" target="_blank">IGN)</a>\x0a</blockquote>He&#8217;s a self-loathing Viking, I said in early interviews.  He&#8217;s got reasons for that.  He&#8217;s arrogant and elitist.  He&#8217;s got reasons for that.  He doesn&#8217;t even physically LOOK like a Viking&#8230; reasons for all that too.<br/><br/><blockquote>As the story of Sven progresses, Wood has filled many of the voids lingering from the series&#8217; inauspicious beginnings. It&#8217;s a rare feat for an author to make previous issues seemingly better as respective pieces of storytelling by fixing their problems with subsequent releases, but I feel like that is exactly what Wood is accomplishing here. Wood spent four issues mindlessly spilling blood, and now, as he starts to fill in the gaps of Sven&#8217;s life, the previously empty violence takes on some semblance of meaning, making the series much more compelling, and to that end, much easier to recommend.(<a href="http://comics.ign.com/articles/869/869055p1.html" target="_blank">IGN)</a>\x0a</blockquote>\x0a<br/>I know I&#8217;m hammering home my point here, but I feel fucking great that this is all coming together nicely and that people are starting to see it.  I wrote this issue during my vacation in London over New Year&#8217;s, when I was signing at Orbital Comics.  It was a working vacation, and I sat in the lounge of the hotel while my wife and kid slept, every night, sweating over this script.  It dawned on me at that point, all of this, how crucial it was to get this issue right, to have it address everything in the past as well as line up the rest of the story.  I used up all my lead time on this issue.  And I feel I did it, that I succeeded.  It&#8217;s one of the bigger accomplishments in my writing career.<br/><br/><blockquote>Major pieces of Sven’s psychological drive are revealed in this issue, as Brian Wood provides a nice historical background for the character. There are many sociological themes at play here, including the way youth considers its place in the world, having the courage to take alternate paths, and a nice religious paradox is also presented. What I’m beginning to like most about Northlanders is the mature and complex ways that the characters interact with their lives and their realities, in a very unapologetic way&#8230;  I can say that I love DMZ. I love Local. But Northlanders is quickly becoming the book I look forward to reading the most in the Brian Wood stable. It’s full of surprises, charm, introspection, and ruminations on the human experience. With this issue, I feel like Northlanders has stopped being Wood’s new book with great potential, and has simply become one of his greatest works. (<a href="http://thirteenminutes.blogspot.com/2008/04/42308-reviews.html" target="_blank">13 Mins</a>)<br/><br/><br/>\x0a</blockquote>\x0a<p>If you&#8217;re one of the ones that stuck around, thank you.  I hope its paying off for you.  If you&#8217;re tradewaiting, thank you&#8230; I hope come October you love this book.  If you dropped it early on or never bothered with it in the first place, I hope you change your mind and give the trade a shot.  Or you can <a href="http://www.khepri.com/north.html" target="_blank">catch up on the singles here</a>, including the sold-out ones.<br/><br/>The next story arc, simply called <b>LINDISFARNE</b>, is a two-parter (#9, #10) that takes a much more historical look at the infamous raid on the monastery at Lindisfarne, Northumbria, considered the start of the Viking Age.  No series about Vikings could be complete without it.  Dean Ormston provides beautiful painted art, a sample page of which is <a href="http://northlanders.net/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br/><br/>The next arc after that, which has no firm title as of yet, is a six-parter (#11-16) that will be illustrated by <b>RYAN KELLY</b>.  What&#8217;s it about?  All kinds of things, but of I had to sum it up right this instant, this far out, I would say it&#8217;s:  a serial killer story set in Viking-occupied Ireland.<br/><br/>And we&#8217;ll see Sven again, in time.  We&#8217;ll also see Davide Gianfelice on this book again too.<br/><br/>Thanks, (I mean that)</p>\x0a<p> - </p>\x0a<p>(<a href="http://brianwood.tumblr.com/post/31160801" target="_blank">permalink</a> / <a href="http://brianwood.freeforums.org/brian-wood-f1.html" target="_blank">discuss</a>)</p>\x0a<p>-</p>\x0d\x0a                </div>\x0d\x0a            </li>\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a                        \x0d\x0a    \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a            <li class="tumblr_post tumblr_text_post">\x0d\x0a                \x0d\x0a                    <div class="tumblr_title">Northlanders #5 - This Week</div>\x0d\x0a                \x0d\x0a                \x0d\x0a                <div class="tumblr_body">\x0d\x0a                    <p><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2255/2202115939_f872d7b739.jpg" height="500" width="323"/></p>\x0a<p>Why did Sven leave Orkney? How did he get to Constantinople? Why does he reject his heritage so harshly? Who&#8217;s the girl? Who What Where When Why How??<br/><br/>I&#8217;ve been referring to this issue as the keystone that holds the roof dome up. This flashback story explains everything that&#8217;s happened so far and sets up the end of the story arc. Don&#8217;t miss it.<br/><br/>&#8212;</p>\x0d\x0a                </div>\x0d\x0a            </li>\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a                        \x0d\x0a    \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a            <li class="tumblr_post tumblr_text_post">\x0d\x0a                \x0d\x0a                    <div class="tumblr_title">Northlanders #1, Online + For Free</div>\x0d\x0a                \x0d\x0a                \x0d\x0a                <div class="tumblr_body">\x0d\x0a                    <p>Sold out, and out of print, DC/Vertigo has posted the complete first issue of NORTHLANDERS <a href="http://www.dccomics.com/graphic_novels/?gn=9839" target="_blank">right here</a>.</p>\x0a<p><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2069/1789824521_d75f55b0d5_m.jpg" height="240" width="156"/></p>\x0a<p>&#8212;</p>\x0d\x0a                </div>\x0d\x0a            </li>\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a                        \x0d\x0a    \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a            <li class="tumblr_post tumblr_text_post">\x0d\x0a                \x0d\x0a                    <div class="tumblr_title">Northlanders #8</div>\x0d\x0a                \x0d\x0a                \x0d\x0a                <div class="tumblr_body">\x0d\x0a                    <p>Here&#8217;s the cover (by Massimo Carnevale) to the last installment in the &#8220;Sven The Returned&#8221; storyline.</p>\x0a<p><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3252/2415927745_6a145e3ed3_o.jpg" height="737" width="482"/></p>\x0a<p> - </p>\x0a<p>(<a href="http://brianwood.tumblr.com/post/31160801" target="_blank">permalink</a> / <a href="http://brianwood.freeforums.org/brian-wood-f1.html" target="_blank">discuss</a>)</p>\x0a<p>-</p>\x0d\x0a                </div>\x0d\x0a            </li>\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a                        \x0d\x0a    \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a            <li class="tumblr_post tumblr_text_post">\x0d\x0a                \x0d\x0a                    <div class="tumblr_title">This Weekend: New York Comic Con</div>\x0d\x0a                \x0d\x0a                \x0d\x0a                <div class="tumblr_body">\x0d\x0a                    <p>My schedule:</p>\x0a<p><i>Friday:</i><br/>3-4pm - Minx &#8220;Your Life In Pictures) panel (room 1E09)<br/>4-5pm - Vertigo &#8220;Welcome to the Edge&#8221; panel (room 1E08)<br/>6-7pm - Signing at the DC Comics booth </p>\x0a<p><i>Saturday:</i><br/>2-3pm - Signing at the DC Comics booth<br/>3-4pm - Vertigo Voices Panel (room 1E08) </p>\x0a<p>&#8212;</p>\x0d\x0a                </div>\x0d\x0a            </li>\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a                        \x0d\x0a    \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a            <li class="tumblr_post tumblr_text_post">\x0d\x0a                \x0d\x0a                    <div class="tumblr_title">2008 Eisner Award Nominations:</div>\x0d\x0a                \x0d\x0a                \x0d\x0a                <div class="tumblr_body">\x0d\x0a                    <blockquote>\x0a<i>Best Writer:</i><br/> Ed Brubaker, Captain America, Criminal, Daredevil, Immortal Iron Fist  (Marvel)<br/> James Sturm, Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow (Center for Cartoon Studies/Hyperion)<br/> Brian K. Vaughan, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Dark Horse); Ex Machina (WildStorm/DC), Y: The Last Man (Vertigo/DC), <br/> Joss Whedon, Astonishing X-Men (Marvel); Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Dark Horse)<br/><b> Brian Wood, DMZ, Northlanders (Vertigo/DC); Local (Oni)</b>\x0a</blockquote>\x0a<blockquote>(<a href="http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=153595" target="_blank">link</a>) </blockquote>\x0a<p> <br/>That&#8217;s some tough competition, there.  </p>\x0a<p>&#8212;</p>\x0d\x0a                </div>\x0d\x0a            </li>\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a                        \x0d\x0a    \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a            <li class="tumblr_post tumblr_text_post">\x0d\x0a                \x0d\x0a                    <div class="tumblr_title">Seth Kushner Shoots Me</div>\x0d\x0a                \x0d\x0a                \x0d\x0a                <div class="tumblr_body">\x0d\x0a                    <p><img src="http://www.brianwood.com/wood_kushner.jpg"/></p>\x0a<p>See it bigger <a href="http://sethkushner.blogspot.com/2008/04/graphic-novelists-day-9.html" target="_blank">here</a>.  This is for Seth&#8217;s <a href="http://sethkushner.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-project.html" target="_blank"><i>Graphic Novelists</i> project</a>.</p>\x0a<p>&#8212;</p>\x0d\x0a                </div>\x0d\x0a            </li>\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a                        \x0d\x0a    \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a            <li class="tumblr_post tumblr_text_post">\x0d\x0a                \x0d\x0a                    <div class="tumblr_title">The New York Four, by Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly</div>\x0d\x0a                \x0d\x0a                \x0d\x0a                <div class="tumblr_body">\x0d\x0a                    <p><a href="http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&amp;friendID=92159514&amp;blogID=375666264" target="_blank">MySpace has a 25 page preview up here. </a></p>\x0a<p>The New York Four is an original graphic novel I created with artist Ryan Kelly, which will be in shops and for sale online in early July.</p>\x0a<p> - </p>\x0a<p><a href="http://brianwood.tumblr.com/post/31187898" target="_blank">(permalink</a> / <a href="http://brianwood.freeforums.org/brian-wood-f1.html" target="_blank">discuss</a>)</p>\x0a<p>-</p>\x0d\x0a                </div>\x0d\x0a            </li>\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a        \x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a                        \x0d\x0a    \x0d\x0a</ol>');