Scandinavia and the World

[Antonio the Sixth]

http://satwcomic.com/

Recently fell across this webcomic, it's really awesome. Basically you can think of it as a more elaborate Polandball, with characters representing countries (mostly Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland, though America is there quite often too) and plenty of jokes about history, politics, cultural traditions, and national stereotypes (as well as lots of complete, hilarious nonsense). There's also quite a lot of homoerotica, but much to my surprise, it didn't really bother me much (it's often very cute, actually).

[Antonio the Sixth]

No comment? Anyone who knew it? Anyway, here are some of my favorites.


- International politics/news events:

http://satwcomic.com/denmark-the-artist

http://satwcomic.com/the-north-sea-lotto

http://satwcomic.com/the-clock-is-ticking

http://satwcomic.com/leaking

http://satwcomic.com/epic-battle

http://satwcomic.com/too-little-butter

http://satwcomic.com/government-down

http://satwcomic.com/you-look-away-for-one-minute


- History:

http://satwcomic.com/pretty-swastika

http://satwcomic.com/making-friends

http://satwcomic.com/they-grow-up-so-fast

http://satwcomic.com/who-s-your-daddy

http://satwcomic.com/not-norway

http://satwcomic.com/parenting

http://satwcomic.com/the-boogeyman-comes-at-night

http://satwcomic.com/make-a-good-impression

http://satwcomic.com/hurry-hurry-hurry


- Culture and stereotypes:

http://satwcomic.com/america-has-spoken

http://satwcomic.com/not-a-yahtzee

http://satwcomic.com/gay-eggs

http://satwcomic.com/nothing-is-perfect

http://satwcomic.com/coat-of-arms

http://satwcomic.com/raising-children

http://satwcomic.com/robots

http://satwcomic.com/friendship-flag

http://satwcomic.com/new-nordic

[Antonio the Sixth]

Well, my favorite is Sweden. Not surprising since it's also my favorite country IRL, but we'd probably get along well as two overly-serious nerds.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Sorry Antonio, it's just hard for me to appreciate it when it just makes me want to consume Hetalia: Axis Powers instead.

Well, mangas are a tad more time-consuming than a couple random comic strips available online, so there's a tradeoff.

[Antonio the Sixth]

No comment? Anyone who knew it? Anyway, here are some of my favorites.

I'm a long-time fan. Humon does some intresting comics. Actually a bit surprised you haven't found it before now.

Well, I haven't really been looking for anything, so I just found it casually while wandering on TV Tropes. Actually, there's a lot of interesting things I've discovered through it (also a lot of horrifying things, but whatever).

LOL, every time I see Denmark I just want to punch it in the face... Yup, I'm definitely Sweden.

[Antonio the Sixth]

OMG yeah, that coat of arms cartoon was awesome.

[Antonio the Sixth]

What in God's name is going on with Canada?

You mean the running joke about Canada being America's hat? I assumed it was based on geography.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Its pretty good, but I think too much rests on the Denmark-Sweden dynamic. Norway as the quintessential Mr. Nice Guy is boring. Since Norway is the "ex-wife" of both Denmark and Sweden I think it would work better if they made it female and added some of the hyper-patriotism for which Norwegians are justly famous along with some other typical Norwegian traits.
Norway should be creative, philosophical, stubborn, fiercely independent minded and immensely proud of herself - and obviously far richer than Denmark and Sweden. I could see her driving down from the mountains in her big gas guzzling 4WD to tell Denmark and Sweden exactly how great she is doing without them and the rest of Europe.

After all: "Its typical Norwegian to be good", as Gro Harlem Brundtland informed the world.

Yeah, it's true that Norway's character is a bit underwhelming compared to the others (Finland Iceland have very clear characterizations too) aside from the "nature loving" bit. I doubt Hummon could change the character as much as you advise, considering how long running the series has been, but she could definitely add the wealthiness and develop the backstory with Sweden and Denmark (she has worked on it before, but never in a Norway-centric way).