Vinland Saga is a relatively new (2005) historical-fiction comic book written and drawn by Makoto Yukimura, the guy who made Planetes. I wouldn't exactly say it's particularly historical, especially with some of the combat, but it's entertaining and that's what counts, right? The comic opens up with a siege of a Frankish fortress, and a band of vikings led by a man named Askeladd takes the opportunity to help the attacking forces in return for half the bounty. Being that they are vikings they end up sacking the entire fortress in spectacular fashion and getting away with all of the plunder.
The plot revolves around a young viking lad named Thorfinn who is tagging along with Askeladd in hopes of avenging his father, who was killed by Askeladd in battle. The duo eventually get themselves involve with the Danish invasion of England, and run into Thorkell, a fellow viking who switched to the English side because it was too boring to fight them. Thorkell is a crazy giant Viking guy who likes to throw giant, sharpened at the tip logs at enemy ships to sink them, and he he has on one occasion uppercut a horse. I'll leave it at that since I do not want to give much of the story away.
Overall it's an entertaining comic book series with a great cast of characters, crazy battles, all with an interesting story to boot. I highly recommend it.
Links-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinland_Saga_(manga)
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/ manga.php?id=6121
http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=1568
** continued: It is because of this that the only really feasible way (unless you can read Japanese and are willing to import it) to read the comic is through fan-translated releases of the comic known as scanlations. I'll refrain from linking to the online fan-translated version for now since I don't know if BYOND staff would be okay with it but I'll be sure to ask them about this in the future.
I think they've only translated the first 2 volumes. (at least when I last read it)
It's an awesome series.