Titan launches first Dragons: Riders of Berk

By John Freeman on May 29, 2014

Swooping in from DreamWorks Animation’s smash-hit TV series Dragons: Riders of Berk, Titan Comics has just released the first volume of a series of all-new original adventures of Hiccup and Toothless.

Dragons: Riders of Berk Volume One is a thrilling all-ages publication and a broadening of the How to Train Your Dragon universe, written by Simon Furman with absolutely fantastic art from Iwan Nazif.

The story is great fun, revolving around some frisky dragons… and when one goes missing, Hiccup soon finds himself captured by rival Vikings keen to get their hands on the flying reptiles best trainer!

Simon (the co-creator of Marvel’s Death’s Head character) is of course the ultimate fan-favourite Transformers writer, having written hundreds of stories about the robots in disguise since their first comics appearance in the early 1980s. He’s currently writing all-new Transformers comics for IDW and for Titan and has also been busy co-editing Metallica: Nothing Else Matters (published by Omnibus Press), an original graphic novel by Jim McCarthy and Brian Williamson, originally scheduled for publication last month but which seems to have been put back until October.

Malaysian artist Iwan Nazif is widely regarded as a rising comics star whose credits include Dark Horse’s popular comic series Kult, based on the classic role-playing game of the same name. The art really is absolutely gorgeous, as you can see below.

Set in the mythical world of burly Vikings and wild dragons, originally published as a series of books by Cressida Cowell, How to Train Your Dragon was already a great concept, but the films from Dreamworks have brought the series huge international success, the box office of the first prompting production of Riders of Berk, which airs on CBeebies and the Cartoon Network.

Netflix is to release new seasons of DreamWorks Dragons from spring 2015 onwards through its deal with DreamWorks Animation, after the two companies struck a deal last summer to become the exclusive home for new programming from the studio. (Netflix will also premiere three new original series: King Julien, Puss in Boots and Veggie Tales in the House in late 2014).

Here’s some preview pages from this first 64-page collection…

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.