The End of the World As We Know It - A1 Prologue

[thorny]

Page 48, in the comments (first mention of the issue I think, though I didn't read all the comments on all the other pages, and a couple of pages haven't shown me any):

comment from sootnose:
·

This is really nicely drawn and the plot is interesting... And there's always a but! But I got to say I'm quite disappointed that it seems everybody in the comic is white. I'm Finnish myself so I know what the street picture is like in here, and while I don't think that having an all-white cast is unrealistic by any means, it's still a choice you as the creator have made. I would have liked to see non-white people, somehow especially in a comic set in the Nordic countries, considering how hellish the mental image non-Nordics have of Nordic countries. You know, the one where every Nordic person is tall and white and light haired and -eyed. That one. If you had included non-white people, it would have perhaps made non-Nordic readers question their views of Nordic countries. And something, something... Blah.

There's some brief discussion responding to this, but the discussion doesn't seem to me to really be getting the point. Minna says she's not thinking of anything in her character designs except drawing cute (to her) boys, though she does seem to have gone to some effort to include a couple of women on the team; there isn't any sign that it's occurred to her that the fact that she assumes everyone's white could be its own sort of problem. And sootnose was being very cautious and tentative about the issue.

The year was 2014, for what that's worth.

[dmeck7755]

Well Something I did not notice when I read the comic the first time through (I was in a hurry and wanted to catch up)
Page 25 The guy  (without a mask mind you) gets off the train and his female companion notices the rash.  Can we say super-spreader!!

And Kaino is giving them her best "stink-face!!"

On ward..

[wavewright62]

Kaino, my beloved.  Kaino gives great facial expressions, including her stink face and her ;8 > lying face.  She is the first character we see in the Mikkeli portion (although mostly to give something visual to Esko's radio show, which was the only shout-out to ARtD in the piece), and frankly she gets better lines and more development than Aino.  She even gets her own version of the slapstick swamping wave.  She was given a lot of development for a character who was completely forgotten in the Y90 part of the story until the family tree.  (I've written more than one take on Kaino, who is one of my favourite characters.) 

Spoiler: pet theory • show

She's still my number one suspect for the mage who became the kade.
Magic appears in the Hotakainen family;
the earrings and 'non-seasonally-appropriate' frock point to a possible tendency toward vanity;
the stink face at strangers and interrogation about masks gives further hints at a person who is not afraid to think herself better than others.  In my experience, that tendency is often rooted in insecurity and secret envy.

[dmeck7755]

Spoiler: pet theory • show

She's still my number one suspect for the mage who became the kade.
Magic appears in the Hotakainen family;
the earrings and 'non-seasonally-appropriate' frock point to a possible tendency toward vanity;
the stink face at strangers and interrogation about masks gives further hints at a person who is not afraid to think herself better than others.  In my experience, that tendency is often rooted in insecurity and secret envy.

Hmmm. (Could be Rabbit!! could be!)It all lines up.  That may also be why The Kade targeted the lakes region.  A special grudge to the area and its inhabitants (neighbors)

[tehta]

Oof! Got the comments working for me again, and re-read the Finland sections.
New things I noticed (not really in the comments, though):

• Minna discovering the joys of sleeping on the floor on page 28.
• Minna getting a gaming handheld for Christmas, just as one is featured in the comic.
• All the insane swan decorations on the boat.
• The famous pizza-eating cat

I also found the kissing comment, which was apparently prompted by one reader's reaction to the Reinir & Lalli pic on the same page (wanting them to kiss). I didn't start wanting the characters to kiss until much, much later...

Finally, I love Saku, especially his dramatic heroic death scene with "I loved you both". (I like Kaino too, but feel like having her be the kade would be quite cruel... killing her little niece and all that.)

[Jitter]

So, Finland! The radio conversation sounds very familiar!

Someone noted in p 24 comments, how it’s weird there’s a worldwide catastrophe ongoing and people are mostly complaining how it’s irritating (I assume they mean both the radio dudes here and the Danish ferry passengers). This has been extremely common during the Covid-19 pandemic - many people seem to think it’s more important that they avoid any inconvenience than that others are protected.

Of course right at this point (page 24) people don’t know what they are facing, not even that the Rash is lethal at all. Although clearly many are suspecting it’s very serious, entertaining border closures and the restaurant already having decided to stay closed.

Also interest in what Sweden will do is spot on, although in the reality we took very different approaches. Which incidentally didn’t help with the inconvenience complaints.

The non-Esko radio person is probably going to feel bad about saying “unless people suddenly start topping over and dying”, because the news about deaths will come maybe a couple of hours after Kaino is in he station (p 34).

Also funny discussion in the p 24 comments how someone worries about Kaino doing crosswords while driving. When JoB pointed out that she’s probably waiting at the station, the person mentioned they hadn’t been thinking about it being a station at all because their city doesn’t have one. Such an interesting example of how you see what you think you see (or, in other words, believing is seeing).

[Jitter]

More pages of the Finnish act.

I realize the global pandemic effort has failed to fully use one precaution: making sure people don’t lick other people. If we all asked each other, like Tuuli does here, to confirm we hadn’t, would the Covid be ovr by now? Hmm?

Also we justify had pizza and the year-old specimen here disgusts me!

[wavewright62]

Interesting comment from Minna in the comments, "I only draw girly guys and booby gals! And chubby people?"

[Jitter]

Which page is this? It’s also a weird comment, as Sigrun at least is none of those.

[tehta]

I saw that comment too! Maybe under the playing card of Lalli and Reynir, where people were saying that they though Lalli was a flat-chested girl?

(I am guessing that Minna was classifying Sigrun as 'booby', as she is visibly not-flat-chested. And Mikkel as 'chubby people', since he's DEFINITELY neither one of the first two categories. Also, I am guessing her comment was a joke about that she enjoys drawing, because she has plenty of well-designed secondary characters that are none of the above. Trond, for one. Or even Onni.)

[JoB]

Which page is this? It’s also a weird comment, as Sigrun at least is none of those.

(Page 35, last (of five) occurence of the term "girly", a bit above the center of the entire page / comments section.)

[tehta]

Okay! Sweden!

I just reread the comic, and I muss confess I like this set of people less than the previous ones. Even Stig, who shows some positive qualities at the start, turns into a weird dictator who tortures his own family by withholding toilet privileges. I suppose that being the few (two?) people in the car who actually understands the severity of the situation is some sort of explanation, but it's certainly no excuse. (I am a bit surprised that things are so bad on day nine, even though, as the newspaper says, there have not been that many deaths yet.  I just feel like denial would last longer, even with many deaths... Those closing words though, hmm.)

Seriously, though, Emil is not perfect, but to me he is more likeable than any other member of his family, by far. Maybe all those nannies helped, after all.

There are lots of fun little sketches under the comics, many of which I missed when I first read this! Like the bees under page 43. (Oh god, Lalli's boots strike again.)

I will be reading the comments the rest of the week...

[dmeck7755]

Okay! Sweden!

I just reread the comic, and I muss confess I like this set of people less than the previous ones. Even Stig, who shows some positive qualities at the start, turns into a weird dictator who tortures his own family by withholding toilet privileges. I suppose that being the few (two?) people in the car who actually understands the severity of the situation is some sort of explanation, but it's certainly no excuse.

I gather Stig must have a tendency wander off a lot, as Ulrika tells him not to.
it is really cruel not not allow a pee break.  (I'd be singing from the rooftops) Cleaning up the car would really suck. 
But it probably was the last time it was ever used...

Seriously, though, Emil is not perfect, but to me he is more likeable than any other member of his family, by far. Maybe all those nannies helped, after all.

Also a few generations have passed, plus it seems Emil's parents were not around, so nannies had to do it as you said...

There are lots of fun little sketches under the comics, many of which I missed when I first read this! Like the bees under page 43. (Oh god, Lalli's boots strike again.)
I will be reading the comments the rest of the week...

The first time I read the comic, I was in a hurry to catch up, so all of these things people are pointing out was missed by me.
The comments are truncated for me, so it is difficult to read them. (Tried multiple browsers, though if I really want to read something cut and paste to a text files seems to work fine.)

One thing I have noticed, was Minna was way more interactive with the readership than later.  It is a touch I liked and am sad it did not continue.  (But comics are a lot of work, and time to comment long..)

On pages 44-45 you can see where Emil get's the "pat-pat"

[tehta]

I can''t really read the comments very well either. But this will improve in a few weeks, when they switch to the current platform (this will happen exactly when we start to meet the team!)

The discussion of why the paper would be empty rather than shorter was interesting. (Apparently, that's just how papers are printed, on large sheets of paper.)

[Jitter]

The Sweden arc has some of my most anf least favorite parts of the prologue. I love the blank newspaper, Stig’s worried face when he first picks it up, and the coins he leaves for it just in case (I wonder if they are able to ay for the gas, probably it is a pump with payment automation).

But, I hate the old parents. Not as in them being irritating persons, which they are, but they break the flow by being both stupid and obnoxious, especially as they are named characters. Bah.

Moved comments about the photo spread to a thread dedicated to infopages. And anyways they were scheduled for next week.