King Arthur has been depicted as a noble king, a legendary warrior and the center of countless tales of chivalry. But what if he was just a brutal warlord surrounded by a bunch of equally savage knights?
That’s the premise behind Rampant Swine, a new comic from Si Spurrier and Christopher Mitten, coming from Ignition Press in November. The book takes its inspiration from the ancient Welsh tale How Culhwch Won Olwen and reimagines Arthurian legend as a bloody, psychedelic historical fantasy in the tradition of Conan the Barbarian.
“I’ve been itching to get my hands on King Arthur for years. He’s had it too easy for too long,” Spurrier said. “Rampant Swine is mine and Chris Mitten’s hallucinogenic, gore-drenched, resolutely horny take on the oldest Arthurian myth there is: How Culhwch Won Olwen. Our intention throughout has been to impale every cliche, slaughter every assumption, piss on every lazy monkish trope and have an absolute fucking blast while doing so. Rampant Swine is a historical fantasy full of self-knowledge; a tale which is annoyed by the toxic virtue-signaling of its own official version, retelling itself in a more mischievous spirit. It wears its fictionhood like armor. It slithers between the epic and the intimate, the mundane and the miraculous, all drenched in the visionary beauty of Chris’s ethereal pen. For those who loved The Green Knight or The Northman, those who thrill to the smart savagery of Conan or Red Sonja, those who delight in the interweaving dance of fact and myth, this book is relentlessly beautiful, charismatically violent, and utterly unique.”
The story follows young knight Culhwch, who arrives at Arthur’s fortress seeking help with 39 impossible tasks assigned to him by the giant Ysbaddaden in order to win the hand of his daughter, Olwen. Arthur and his warriors join him on a quest involving giant slaying, monstrous boar hunting and magical treasure theft, all against the backdrop of a Britain “forged in blood, mud, magic and monsters.”
“I’ve always loved Si’s work, his talent and how he crafts a story,” Mitten said. “We worked together about 15 years ago on a story for MySpace Dark Horse Presents and it was such fun, so to get the chance to work with Si again all this time later, and on a story like this, a story that’s pretty much dead-center of both our wheelhouses, is a great feeling, really something special.”
Here’s a look inside:
Rampant Swine #1 features colors by Brennan Wagner and lettering by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou. The issue has main covers Mitten (shown above) and Joëlle Jones :
plus a variant cover by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola:
Rampant Swine #1 goes on sale Nov. 25.