Matt Shanks: Small adventures in words and pictures
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Hendryk Gundaarson’s surprise

Hendryk Gundaarson was armed and ready to conquer. The elders of Ooyek, a small but powerful Swedish kingdom, made young Hendryk endure great physical and mental anguish in preparation for this day and he thanked them dearly. The mythical beast of his childhood stories was sure to prove a worthy adversary and give him his pick of Ooyek’s shieldmaidens; especially Thorfridha. Alas, when he arrived on the desolate frost-bitten wasteland that was the Arctic he began to question the scale of the images in his reference books and the intensity of the tales that were told around the campfire. The mythical ‘penguin’ creature was but a mere 2ft tall. Thorfridha and the rest of Ooyek were set to be bitterly dissapointed upon his return. He must prove his worthiness some other way.

Artist notes: I often work with the TV on in the background. I was sitting on the couch one night just aimlessly sketching when the ABC TV series The Vikings came on. It obviously got in to my subconscious because shortly after that, Hendryk Gundaarson appeared on my page. It seemed natural at the time that he should be conquering new worlds.