When all three of the conditions are fulfilled, you get Wolfskin.
By Ellis standards, it's a fairly straight forward Barbarian comic, chronicling the adventures of a Northish warrior, known only as the "Wolfskin", the title used for Northish berserkers, as he's the only one of his people in this part of the world. He wanders the earth, doing barbarian stuff like mercenary work, but mostly he kills people to appease his "murder god" (yes, you read that right) "Wrod". Althugh the Wolfskin has a code of honor, (he is quite protective of children, for example) he is also 100% more barbaric than a guy like Conan ever was; for example, the first issue has Wolfskin practice ritual cannibalism.
This comic contains examples of:
- Arrow Catch: The Wolfskin's fast enough to catch arrows. He's also strong and skilled enough to throw them back for a lethal Catch and Return, as a would-be assassin discovers in the first issue.
- Barbarian Hero: The Wolfskin is a classic example, altough he is far more brutal and barbaric than the usual lot.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The Wolfskin isn't named in the narrative. As he's usually the only Wolfskin in this part of the world, he's normally just called Wolfskin by others.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The Wolfskin's race is named by others as the Bregga, and are fairly obviously Vikings. There's also the Noi who resemble Samurai in look, but whose knowledge of gunpowder puts them closer to the ancient Chinese.
- A Fistful of Rehashes: In the first issue, the Wolfskin comes to a Highmid village, split between its former leaders, two feuding Noi brothers who each want him to destroy the other. He ends up killing everyone in the village.
- Frazetta Man: One alternative cover shows the Wolfskin vs an army of these.
- Gorn: Among other things, the Wolfskin likes to cut his enemies testicles off.
- Male Frontal Nudity: In the first issue, there's a bathing scene where the Wolfskin gives us a good look of his "animal cock".
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: In one story, the Wolfskin comes to a city where a bunch of criminals trade in child slaves under the cover of their barrel-making business. He kills them all, then announces his good deed to the townsfolk. Turns out the townsfolk were very much aware of what they were doing and are pissed at him for ruining their source of income. They chase him out of town, for his troubles.
- Underestimating Badassery: The first issue of the first series starts with the Wolfskin attacked in the woods by a band of Highmid men who mistakenly think he's working for their enemies. He brutally kills them all before their master, a Noi man, establishes that he's a Wolfskin - an Oh, Crap! moment in its own right - which means his code of honor doesn't allow him to kill for coin and they attacked him in error.
