Valhalla year by year

Peter Madsen's last year at high school. Interpresse's Comic Album Editor Henning Kure asks him to do the pictures for a planned album series on the Norse gods. Hans Rancke is taken on as text writer, Søren Håkansson as a colourist.

The public's first glimpse of the new comic in serialised form in the Danish magazine Billedbladet.

Valhalla comic album No. 1, Cry Wolf, is published under the slogan "The old gods are back". Actors from the Viking Plays in neighbouring Frederikssund ravage the streets of Copenhagen disguised as Norse gods. The comic album is published simultaneously in Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and Icelandic (Godheimar), 100,000 copies in all. This proves to be on the low side and before long new print runs are made.

Valhalla 2 - Thor's Wedding is published, with Per Vadmand as co-writer. Valhalla 1 - Cry Wolf is published in a special edition for use in Danish schools. Both albums published in Dutch.

The educator's edition of Cry Wolf receives The Danish School Librarians' Association's Childrens' Book Prize.

Valhalla 3 - Odin's Wager is published. Work begins on the fully animated feature film Valhalla

The animated feature film Valhalla opens. The character Quark is made into a newspaper strip cartoon, the following year even into a comic album series. Valhalla albums published in Finnish, Indonesian, German and Faroese (Valhøll).

The animated feature film Valhalla is awarded the Public's Prize for Best Film for Children and Youth at the Cannes Film Festival

Valhalla 4 - The Story of Quark is published.

Danish Minister of Cultural Affairs Ole Vig Jensen hands over the "Ping" Prize for 1989 to Peter Madsen. Valhalla 5 - The Journey to Utgard-Loki is published.

Valhalla 6 - The Golden apples is published. Valhalla is published in French (with a mute aitch, of course). The first French title is Le rage d´Odin (Odin's Wager).

Valhalla 7 - The Serpent in the Abyss is published.

Valhalla 8 - Freya's Neclace is published. Freya's Necklace is elected the best foreign comic album of the year in Norway. Peter Madsen receives The Norwegian Comics Forum's "Sproing" Prize. The Serpent in the Abyss is elected best comic album of the year at Tegneseriemekka ("Comics Mecca Convention"), Ballerup, Copenhagen.

Valhalla 9 - The Big Challenge is published. Peter Madsen colours the album himself.

Valhalla is awarded the Swedish Prize "Unghunden" ("The Young Dog"), which is given "with a view to further comics for children and youth in Sweden".

Valhalla 10 - The Gifts for the Gods is published. The colourist is Jesper Ejsing. Twenty years have passed since Henning Kure, Hans Rancke and Peter Madsen first got together to describe the Norse gods in strip form.

Valhalla 11 - The Magic Mead is published.

Peter Madsen is awarded The SAS Prize for Best Nordic Comic Album (The Magic Mead) at the Raptus Festival in Bergen, Norway.

Valhalla 12 - Through Fire and Water is published.

Sandrew Metronome Video Denmark publish the animated feature film Valhalla from 1986 on DVD.

Valhalla 13 - The Ballad of Balder is published in serialised form from 27 November, 2005 in the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten. A new coloured page is printed each Sunday until October, 2006.

Valhalla 13 - The Ballad of Balder is published in album form in September, 2006.

The Danish edition of the 14th Valhalla story, "The Wall", can be read on the newspaper Jyllandspostens' website, www.jp.dk from January 5th, 2007 onwards.