The Vikings: Trail of Blood, Cover Painting by Clifton-Dey

The Vikings is a series of Men’s Adventure novels written by English author Kenneth Bulmer (14 January 1921 – 16 December 2005) under the pseudonym Neil Langholm. In some cases, Bulmer used not only a different name but also included in the books a detailed imaginary biography giving specific personal details substantially different from the true ones. For example, the Viking series published under the name “Neil Langholm” included biographical details intended to create the impression that the series – as appropriate to its subject – was written by a Dane:

Neil Langholm was born in Copenhagen in 1931, but was educated in England at Eton and Oxford. He started his career as a veterinary surgeon but gave up in 1960 to begin writing full time. He is the author of several bestselling western and science fiction series, which he writes under a pseudonym. Mr. Langholm now lives with his wife and five children in Ruislip. His hobbies are breeding dogs and archery.

Bulmer’s works are popular in translation, particularly in Germany, to the extent that in some cases they have been published only in German editions, with the original English-language versions remaining unpublished.

Bulmer did some work in comics, writing Jet-Ace Logan stories for Tiger scripts for War Picture Library, Lion and Valiant, and helping to create the British comics antihero The Steel Claw. Paul Grist‘s comics series Jack Staff acknowledges this in the real name of its character The Claw, Ben Kulmer. Bulmer was also active in science fiction fandom, including travelling to the United States in 1955 as the TransAtlantic Fan Fund (TAFF) delegate. In the 1970s he edited nine issues of the New Writings in Science Fiction anthology series.

Richard Clifton-Dey (29 May 1930 – 5 April 1997) was a British artist, born in Yorkshire, known mostly for Western and science fiction subjects. His most famous work of art may be Behemoth’s World, which appeared on the sleeve of the album Cultösaurus Erectus by Blue Öyster Cult.He started painting in the 1960s and was one of the most highly respected of British illustrators during the 1970s and into the 1980s. Much of his work was for book covers, either for science fiction, fantasy, action-adventure war books, romances, or gothic horror (with some interesting forays into advertising) including Michael Moorcock‘s Hawkmoon novels and  Lord Tyger by Philip José Farmer.

This painted cover for the fourth installment of Bulmer/Langholm’s Viking series entitled Trail of Blood is a keen example of his work –featuring graphic detail of a decapitation in a battle of Vikings versus Native Americans. This happens to be an early example of speculation fiction to address possible European settlement of North America several centuries before Columbus.