Geek Native is lucky enough to show an exclusive page blueline pencils from Kurt Komoda from the now-funded Rinholm Graphic Novel.
The comic book anthology is the next Chalk Horse collab by D. Koch of Mordite Press and Thor Olavsrud of Burning Wheel Headquarters. You’ll find an interview with them both below.
The Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign for the three-chapter graphic novel has hit its funding goal and will take readers through the barrows of Sakki Downs to the Otherworld.
Day one has an exclusive. It’s day one at the time of writing. You’ll get a digital print of the ‘Last Stand’ art, and that becomes an exclusive, limited-edition, numbered, and physical print if you are also back high enough to get a physical item.
For Geek Native’s graphic novel fans, please tell us what Torchbearer is? Why is it different?
Thor: Torchbearer is a fantasy roleplaying game of desperate adventure. You play adventurers who have been forced into the life because they have no better, safer options. They occupy the lowest strata of society and it feels like it. Beginning characters have to focus on survival: food, water, light, the gear they’re carrying on their person. You can feel the tension in a session rise when the characters start running low on torches or water. Suddenly, scavenging materials to craft more light sources or locating a source of potable water become your top priority!
The choices around those things are meaningful, but the tools for managing them are streamlined and simple. Over time, if they’re smart and lucky, the characters will grow in power, wealth and prestige. They’ll still have to make hard choices, but about different things. If your character becomes a famous hero or villain, you’ll feel like you earned it.
What’s Middarmark, and why does it lend itself to a graphic novel?
Thor: Middarmark is a setting inspired by my early childhood in Norway, Norse mythology, the sagas and Scandinavian and Nordic folktales, especially those my grandmother told me when I was little. I would also include Scandinavian/Nordic history and Anglo-Saxon literature, like Beowulf, as significant touchpoints. As much as it draws on myth and legend, it’s also inspired by the end of the Viking Age and the beginning of the High Medieval period in Scandinavia.
Civilization has risen and fallen many times in the Middarmark. Folk—humans, dvergar, alfar, huldufolk, and so on—nominally control the Middarmark, but the vast wild places beyond the walls of their towns, villages and steadings are full of trolls, dragons and spirits that would differ. At the same time, tribal kingdoms and queendoms are rapidly adopting feudal trappings, much to the consternation of people who until now have largely been free of aristocracy and overlords.
It’s a world in flux, in need of people with will and vision to change it.
Does it help to know the RPG to get the most from the graphic novel?
Koch: The story really stands on its own, whether you’re familiar with the game or not. It draws from many familiar tales and folklore like Beowulf or the Icelandic Eddas. But for those who know the game, we’ve sprinkled in some fun Easter eggs and references that connect back to it. For instance, there’s a moment where we get to see a Camp Phase—where the adventurers are recovering from their wounds and planning for the next part of the dungeon. It’s a little nod to fans of the game, but it’s also a moment that anyone can relate to.
Similarly, does the graphic novel introduce anything to the game that completists might want to know about?
Koch: Rimholm dives deep into the setting. One main theme explores the parallels between the adventurers’ curse and malediction upon the city.
However, we have a saying that, “Your Middarmark May Vary (YMMV),” so, we try to keep the lore loose. On the one hand, we need to provide enough of the lore and setting so that it helps people understand the world, but then we also want people who play the game to make it their own.
All of the Chalk Horse books are connected and have been building up to this. Again, it isn’t necessary to read all the books, but we want to reward those that do. For example, in our first book, Rimholm Dagbok, an in-game artifact, a dwarf outcast’s journal chronicles an escape from Nidavellir and arriving in Rimholm to deliver a warning about the curse that sets up a lot of the characters and situations. The Slumbering Storm Giant details a rift between Jotunheim and the Otherworld, which is a whole aspect of the tensions between the realms. In Ridders of the Gottmark, the rise of the lendermenn marks a shift in Bjorning society that provides background context for the precipitating events of the comic.
How did the graphic novel project come to life?
Koch: I started designing third-party Torchbearer supplements with Mordite Press in 2014 when the game first came out. In 2017, when Burning Wheel HQ released the Middarmark gazetteer, I sat down in my kitchen and was so captivated that I read it all in one sitting. I was delighted by the familiarity of Norse folklore, but intrigued by its differences. I recognized elements from Scandinavian folklore and Norse mythology, but reframing it through fantasy reshapes what is known and is not confined by history.
One line about the founding of Rimholm really caught my attention:
“With timbers from their mighty ships, the Bjornings raised a city upon the bones and ashes of the nameless fishing village.”That line really resonated with me and made me want to explore that more. There was something there. So, I reached out to Thor to collaborate, and now, seven years later, we’ve created a few books and materials to expand on Middarmark and the region around Rimholm.
Before the pandemic hit, we had just started writing for the comic. Then, the world was thrown into chaos in 2020, and the comic took a backseat. We released our other books while work on the comic continued in the background. Over the years, I contacted a few of the phenomenal Torchbearer artists we had worked with to see if they were interested. And here we are four–almost five–years later.
What’s your development process like?
Koch: I would say the process is very collaborative.
I love working with others. Even though being creative is an intensely personal and introverted process, my goal is to create things that bring people together. So, for me personally, collaboration is a way to get me out of my comfort zone and bring in more perspectives. I’m most interested in the overlap and intersection of ideas.
I also care a lot about community. As geeks and nerds, we often feel left out or misunderstood by the mainstream societies. But when you sit down at a table with strangers and become friends through the game, it’s something really special.
From there, when I decide to explore something, my first impulse is to ask, “Does this thing already exist in the world?”
If it doesn’t, then let’s make it happen.
When I first talked to Thor, I had an idea for several books all about Rimholm. We discussed which ones were the most appropriate, and we’ve nearly made them all. There’s still one game supplement from that first meeting that we’re working on in the background. It’s a secret for now, and it’s still a few years away from being finished.
What do you hope readers take away from the Torchbearer Rimholm graphic novel?
Koch: There’s lots to enjoy. First, I think people will enjoy seeing what a Torchbearer adventure is like. You can experience it purely as an action-adventure story.
Then there are those who love the world and setting and want to spark the imagination or explore more about trolls, draugr, and all of that.
And, there are deeper layers about fate, obligation, and duty for those who want to dive into the more philosophical aspects.
Kurt Komoda Rimholm art
Rimholm Graphic Novel tiers
Backers at just $18 are rewarded with a digital copy of the comic and the Collector’s Edition, and those who can step up to $38 get the softcover print of the Rimholm book added.
The next step up is $89, which is about £69, which adds the hardcover of the Collector’s Edition to the loot pile. That’s a 48-page comic with an extra “making of” section that won’t be available again.
The last tier, which, like the previous levels, has worldwide shipping, is for backers who can pledge $160 and add a canvas print and a set of 5″ prints.
Chalk Horse are running this campaign for two weeks and estimates fulfilment in April 2025.
Quick Links
- Back: Rinholm Graphic Novel
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