National comic strips / books

[WHAM]

Here in Finland we have quite a few home-grown comic strip artists who are well known in here, but barely known outside of our borders. To promote Finnish comic strips and to see what other countries have to offer, I declare this the "National comic" -thread! Post some examples of comics released and known only or mostly in your home country!

Example 1 - Fingerpori (Pertti Jarla, Finland)
The comics mostly display slices of life of the people in the fictional City of Fingerpori, but also occasionally display historical characters like Hitler, Stalin and the likes, as well as other comic-book characters such as Mickey Mouse and the Phantom. Most of the jokes are plays on the Finnish language, but some of them could translate very well if worked on a bit. I think you can find translated comics online if you google them.

Translation (panel by panel):
1. Hitler's Bunker 1945 - "Donnerwetter, it has come to this..."
2. "You did your best, but we were betrayed."
3. "No, I mean someone has come into this towel here"

Example 2
Cursing Hedgehog (Milla Paloniemi, Finland)
The comic strips varying from single panel shots for multi-page stories mostly center around the comic's namesake, a simple black'n'white hedgehod and his violent overreactions to the minor annoyances in life, often emphasised by the gratuitous use of the Finnish curseword staple "PERKELE!". The character has become very loved due to being small, cuddly and foul-mouthed, much like many Finnish people.

Translation: "How do hedgehogs scratch their backs...?"
"OW! GODDAMMIT!!"
(They do not)

Example 3
Villimpi Pohjola (Trans: "Northern Overexposure") (JPAhonen, Finland)
The comic is often centered around a number of university students and their life in the capital of Finland. However, the stories tend to take some rather surreal turns every now and then, inserting video game humor among other things to add to the comedic value. Personally these are my favourite and I think they've actually worked on some official english releases (with poor success in sales, though)

Translation: "I'm not really in love with Anna, but it would be best for the kid to know where we stand from the get-go. I just need time to make sense of the situation."
"I don't want to repeat my mistakes -HURK-"

"So that's the chef's special...?"
"Did you order 'with all spices'?"

"Ever since I decided to stay away from other women my life's been a living hell..."

"I-I don't even know that position!"
"The Polynesian fifty-seven."

[Eric]

If we had an election, I think the U.S.'s representatives would be one of the following: Jack Kirby, Carl Barks, Will Eisner, Charles Schulz, Bill Watterson. But this requires an all-day think. In the meantime, I'm really looking forward to discovering new artists via this thread.

[Ben X]

Alan Moore. BOOM.

[Crimson Wizard]

Something weird I found other time :
comic strip series about Hare Ptz (sic) and his imaginary friends.





- No, really, you expect me to say something?

[veryweirdguy]

Any other Brits got any idea who their favourite comic artist type person is? Or any idea where I could buy their work?

[WHAM]

No offense, Crimson, but... that's... actually pretty close to what I would have expected a Russian comic strip to look like!

[Crimson Wizard]

Here's more... err.. standard-looking Stalin vs Hitler comic.

Spoiler

[close]

[Retro Wolf]

On the little comic strips you get in newspapers: Dilbert is not from my country, but we get it in our newspapers. We do have our own homegrown comic strips, but not one of them I find amusing. Dilbert makes me laugh 99% of the time.

http://www.dilbert.com/

[Billbis]

I'm already in love with this thread !

I am a big fan of Matyo, a not so well known french comic strip artist (but its reputation is growing).

-I want to have James Dean face.
-*Poof
-No ! Not the head he have now !


-I have the non-refutable proof that God does not exist.
-And nothing will prevent me telling it to you...
-I don't care !

[InCreator]

Pesakond (litter/brood) is sometimes quite funny, although it's pretty random--
It's about rude alcoholic woodland animals



Hedgehog: I wanted to tell you something, but forgot
Wolf: Well, fuck off then
Hedgehog: Exactly what it was! Fuck you too
Wolf: Share a taxicab?



Wolf: We could praise the Bear for a change?
Hedgehog: Yeah
Rabbit: Bear, get your ass over here!

Wolf: You made it so quickly!
Hedgehog: Yeah
Rabbit: Well done, now fuck off

[Crimson Wizard]

If there is something common in northerners, it is a love to hedgehogs.

[Snarky]

The most popular Norwegian comics in Norway are probably Pondus, Kollektivet, and maybe Nemi and Lunch. I'd like to highlight a couple of others, though:

Zofies Verden ("Zofie's World") is a cut-and-paste comic in the Lichtenstein mold, generally with absurdist humor:



Woman: Ssshh! Keep your mouth shut, Steinar. Talking only makes you seem stupid.



1: What's that noise?
2: Hello?
3: Good thing I started wearing night-makeup in case of a break-in...

The other is the artist Thore Hansen. He's made a number of comics, including Satyren ("The Satyr") and the sci-fi Stasjon Nexus ("Station Nexus"), but he's most known for his illustrations, which were almost all I could find online:

 

[WHAM]

3: Good thing I started wearing night-makeup in case of a break-in...

Ha! Made me laugh!

InCreator's comic reminded me of a similiar Finnish comic, which also is a take on the rude woodland creatures -theme we seem to have going on.
It's called "Kamala Luonto", and translates to: "Horrible Nature". The comic is mostly about the woodland animals behaving like woodland animals, with the added layer of jokes brought on by human-like commentary of their own actions, such as pondering on the morality of killing another creature while munching on a baby bunny.


1a: "Yipee! Awesome!"
1b: "What's so awesome?"
2: I forgot!
3a: "Well I don't care! Yippee!"
3b: "That guy is insane!"

[Adeel]

This is a very nice thread. So many interesting comics to read. Today, I'm introducing my fellows AGSers to my country's Facebook Comic Page: Mango People (Mango means "Aam" in Urdu and the word "Aam" is also used to describe common - they could've just used Common People but that doesn't sound too nice ).

Mango People is a team consisting of three to four university students/lads. They weren't much famous in the start but they got high fame when they started Piddi Series (means: Little Girl Series). Piddi Series is concerned with Piddi, of course, but also covers her family. Piddi Series is based on the humour on average life of Mango Pakistani Person and that's why this series has won the hearts of many.

Enough for the introduction, following is one of their comics which I like the most:



(Starting from the top most and left to right):
1.
Mom (to her elder son): Son, take Piddi to school.

Elder Son: My sleep...?

2.
Elder Son: Damned Life.

3.
Elder Son: Wow! Who's this charming lady?
Piddi: Our New Science Teacher!

4.
Elder Son: Get up! I'll drop you at school.

5.
Piddi: Which school opens on Sunday?