Old is the New New
Väinämöinen is a supremely badass figure in mythology.
Finnish folklore and mythology in particular are full of wizards and magic of all sorts. The culture and history of the Finnish people is rife with interesting stories and ideas that aren’t really reflected in many other cultures. They are unique in many ways, anthropologically speaking. It stands to reason that a people with a history of totally awesome magicians may be able to provide far better entertainment to our pathetic modern culture. I’m looking at you Harry Potter. You pussy.
In case you’re wondering, I do have a vendetta against JK Rowling’s iconic character. I made it through three of the books before giving up entirely. I wanted to like the damn things, they had so much potential, but as a franchise hell bent on keeping up with its readers as they aged, it presented some rather horrible scenarios wherein the main character could act like a supreme douche and get away with it. I found it intolerable.
I look at ancient myths and find infinitely more value than anything writers today can live up to.
This is, personally, my favourite strip so far. Comic writers shouldn’t have favourites, probably, but I do. I can’t help it. I love mythology and I always want to learn more about it. I guess this is more the sort of comic I’d thought of when I started Happle Tea and maybe we’ll see more strips like this. It’s been a tough semester at school and I’d like to spend more time writing strips once the Winter arrives and I hole up in my cave for months on end.
Also, I attempted to record myself drawing this strip but the software and website I used weren’t really great. I am going to attempt it again with some other things next week, I think. If you’d like to check it out anyway, you can view it here. Because of the quality, a lot of it is inexplicable and because of my internet connection the roughly 1 hour and 45 minutes it took to produce is broken up into 4 unequal parts.
Oh, and I’ve been updating randomly at the blog, if you’re into that sort of thing. There are some sketchbook drawings and backgrounds from a simple pencil animation I’ve been working on.
And a big thanks again to my brother, Jonathan, for being totally awesome and always supporting me. And helping me with my writing when I need it. Thanks bro!
Discussion (28) ¬
Glee! Finnish Mythology! I feel all warm and snuggly. I do love when you go into that, old gods are the best. How can you beat drunk, horny, hungry, and funny?
WAIT! I spy no GLASSES on Lil’K! What kind of foul sorcery is this!?!
manly wizzards are awesome.
Väinämöinen also had a great sword. dont him? geez THATS A TRUE MAGE!
@Ryoff *cough* I uh…I swear the glasses were always there. I didn’t just add them 16 hours after the update because I was too tired to remember that my main character wears glasses while I was drawing this at 3am >___>
I once forgot to draw fur and eyes on a dog I was drawing once. And then another time I forgot to put a tail on a squirrel.
Teh heh heh~ It must have been my oversight, as they are CLEARLY here now.
Ha ha ha.
Bummer bro.
Isn’t that what all mythology is? People acting like douches simply because they have more power than everyone else? And getting away with it?
Pretty sure it is. That’s every single tale about Heracles, for one thing. And most of the Norse gods. And practically every Judeo-Christian prophet.
Also, I don’t like Harry in the Harry Potter books. But I do love the books, as the side characters ARE generally fantastic.
Either that thick-ass book is just 7 really huge pages or the rest of the story ditches Potter for a REAL adventure.
harry potter should sink to the depths of niflhenheim. i hate that stupid boy. he is a BITCH!
i also hate those gay vampires from twilight and, i want to be sincere i hate most of those stupid new trendy books. where are the old good C.S Lewis books? where are the old good Tolkien books? WHERE ARE THE BADASS HEROES FIGHTING FOR REAL? WHERE ARE THOSE I CANT SEE THEN ANYMOOOORE!!!!!
;__;
Oh, I’ve got a theory right there! Those (the sucky ones) are the books one could buy at a supermarket or say a gas station (duno bout America, tahts the way it is around here). If u can buy a book from the same store taht you could buy some Pringles from, its deffinately worth no more (in many cases much less) atention and brain activity spent on it that you spend on mister Pringles. So its ok. The BAD thing, it turns out is they try to sell u Pringles at the book store. Why? Because people want brain chips and not brain excercise, and are ready to pay more for it, especcialy if it makes them seem intriguing and intelligent in their own eyes. And why am I saying something everyone out here knows and use rhetoric quesitons i answer myself? Because it makes me feel awesome xD
Harry Potter has no depth to it. I’ve read every book and I enjoyed them but they’re by no means “good” books, simply entertaining books.
Children’s entertainment is fucked nowadays though. Put on any programming for kids and you’ll be so freaked out by sensory overload that you will have no doubt in your mind why kids are so fucked up and diagnosed with ADD so often.
True on both things.
kids should learn to be badass adults, so the worlds could be more simple.
they should listen to mithology, not those stupid tales of nowdays. compare a kid from our times, and a kid from those times, our kid is a mere crap in front of the old times kids.
we need more badass heroes.
@K: i imagined lil K wearing a sombrero…. lol
Kids should read Happle Tea.
It should be required reading starting in 1st grade.
Children would be extremely capable and dangerous if they read Happle Tea. Kids all playing CSI with real torture and running away to look for Sasquatch.
Väinämöinen has a lot of ‘sisu’ – the older generation in Finland are some of the toughest people on earth.
Huluu Soumilainen!
Dear Scott,
I don’t know if you’ll see this comment way back in the archive, but thought you should know: I made this my background, and had to change everything on my desktop, and it was totally worth the confusion I will have trying to find things now. Your comic is awesome, and I plan to tell everyone I know.
All the best,
Eric.
This makes Ensiferum’s song Old Man so much better.
granted… kids ARE douches.
Also granted… and this is fridge brilliance here… Harry Potter got away with so much for pretty much the same reason that the castaway gets treated like a king by the natives before being thrown into the volcano: he was a sacrificial goat. By the final book it’s made pretty clear that Dumbledore knew of the prophecy concerning Harry and Voldemort, and was basically grooming Harry to make a sacrifice play to stop Voldemort’s reign of terror. He quite literally did not expect Harry to survive.
the secret to liking harry potter is completely ignoring Harry.
or even just enjoying making fun of him.
i think this is the first strip to literally make me laugh out loud in an unladylike manor
Hahaha
I stopped at book 3 too
This makes me proud to be a Finn ~<3
you drew Voldemort as a chibi… I like it.
AVADA KEDAVRA!