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

[tehta]

I hope people don't mind. Jitter said non-mods should take some initiative, so... Hey, everyone! This week we are supposed to reread all about Dalsnes.

I have just reread the first four pages, focusing on the comments, and I am very amused by people's guesses as to what the five prologue locations would be, based on Page One (which included Seattle, China, and the White Cliffs of Dover), plus their guesses as to what the apocalypse will be (zombies). Also, I learned (from Minna's replies!) that Goran is half-Swedish. Making Trond a quarter-Swede, and the Organizing committee more than 50% Swedish. Not sure where I am going with this.

[dmeck7755]

I kinda thought each prologue panel was one of the Nordic countries
Under 5 (silent) Iceland
Under 4 (stay)Norway
Under 3 (still) Finland
Under 2 (stand)Denmark
Under (logo)Sweden

Norway and Sweden could be reversed.  It was hard for me to tell.  Though the mountains under 4 looked bigger.

(as a chuckle I typed Under 5x and misspelled each one differently )

[dmeck7755]

I kinda thought each prologue panel was one of the Nordic countries
Under 5 (silent) Iceland
Under 4 (stay)Norway
Under 3 (still) Finland
Under 2 (stand)Denmark
Under (logo)Sweden

Norway and Sweden could be reversed.  It was hard for me to tell.  Though the mountains under 4 looked bigger.

(as a chuckle I typed Under 5x and misspelled each one differently )

If you go in story order it would be
Under (logo)
Norway
Under 2
Denmark
Under 3
Finland
Under 4 (stay)
Sweden
Under 5 (silent)
Iceland

[tehta]

Story order looks correct to me.

[Jitter]

It’s definitely the story order, those are not just the countries but the hiding places of each of the prologue groups. And some of them are in the pictures too, at least the Hotakainen boat is there!

When I started reading, I knew already it’s Nordic and that it’s a post-apocalypse tale. But I remember wondering all through the Norway bit whether it’s going to be climate or disease, because of how much it’s raining and they are complaining about it. And the broken road looks like it hasn’t been just your average rainy day.

But, the page Gøran is holding up on page 4 panel 4 is interesting. I’ve looked at it before as well. On Day 0 the Rash was already spread quite widely around the Mediterranean (the map is actually Day -2 situation as it’s yesterday’s paper).

And there’s a fat joke Fortunately not very many of those throughout, nothing like ARtD.

Oh and thanks tehta for getting started! I edited the topic to add A1 Prologue to it for future use.

[Keep Looking]

I do have to say that the character dynamics in this section of the prologue (probably the most out of all of them) remind me quite a bit of ARtD - which isn't exactly surprising, given that ARtD had been Minna's most recent project before SSSS's beginning. I think it's also potentially that these particular characters are all similar ages to the main characters in ARtD.

I do remember reading this section after covid hit and being struck by how much it does have the same feel as those first few months of the pandemic - where it's just kicking in that this is happening now and everyone's either panicking about it or downplaying it as 'just a cold', and there's no precedent yet for what people and countries are supposed to be doing. Especially Iceland closing its borders for "financial reasons", aha.

[Jitter]

Oh yes, they “then she’ll be bedridden for a week” was also one of the reasons why I was uncertain whether it’s going to be a disease or not. I think I decided it’s probably a disease but then it’s still raining like crazy on the Denmark part. Only the TV discussion settled it.

I have no idea how I had time to think about it so much that I can still remember because I read it all in one go. I guess I was impressed

In the comments there were (besides familiar names!) people saying how the overall feeling is warm and cozy, despite it being an apocalypse tale (this was known to the readers at the time already) and that’s very true! I love the background “paper” effect of the first page, and the color scheme is great.

[Jitter]

BTW on page 5 Gunnar says he was planning to get stuff such as fruit and booze. Is this the only reference to alcohol in the entire comic?

(No, the Y90 Dalsnes hall doesn’t have tankards, I have checked repeatedly)

[dmeck7755]

I would think that distilling would be a farm craft.  Other than the recreational aspects, it is helpful as a disinfectant, fuel, weapon.  I can’t see that they would not have any.

Also beer.  If water is questionable, there is enough alcohol in beer to kill a lot of nasties.

I can see wine also, but it is harder to make.  If you can get acetic acid yeast, you’d have vinegar.  That is really useful stuff

[JoB]

I would think that distilling would be a farm craft.  Other than the recreational aspects, it is helpful as a disinfectant, fuel, weapon.  I can’t see that they would not have any.
Also beer.  If water is questionable, there is enough alcohol in beer to kill a lot of nasties.

You narrowly avoided forgetting about the use of (stronger) alcohols as a general preserving agent there ...

... but no, I don't remember any mention of alcohol elsewhere, either. Though I have to say that beverages in general aren't a big topic in SSSS, as opposed to fOoD. There's the famous "liquid gold" scene, but hardly anything else; even while the team was out in the Silent Lands, no reference was made to how much effort they had to spend to find water safe to drink even for their non-immune members.

[thegreyarea]

Well, here I am for the reread! Yupiiii! 

Page 1: Great art, I thought. Almost monochromatic, balanced, had that "old paper" look and fancy font. Also transmited very well there would be different locations ahead, even if back then I wasn't able to distinguish them. We are, I believe, still to find out what are those lines perpendicular to the boat on the Finland panel. I remember thinking on some aquaculture...
Also Gio asks in the comments if "Is that a person standing on the upper right corner on the second pannel?" I think it's a church tower, but who knows.

Page 2: So beautiful! I remember asking myself who has the patience to draw such a detailled map, and wondered if Minna copied it from some place. And that awesome connection between the map and the view of the small town encircled by the mountains! 
I didn't knew that I would spend hours in the future trying to find the Dalsnes (without success*). My first thought was about the rain. Would this become some kind of "biblical flood"?

* there are locations, but they don't match the map, and there are similar places, but with wrong orientations and missing features. If anyone know more I'd love to hear.

Page 3: Very interesting dialogues, and I love the "My cat is the devil" part. I remember asking myself "Are there towns acessible only by unpaved roads on wealthy Norway?" and "People have to pay taxes for having a paved road?" It sounded very strange... Also I haven't noticed until now that the background from the previous page extends behind the panels of this one. Very well done.

I'll go to page 4 later today.

[Jitter]

Of course you have to pay taxes to have roads, they don’t just appear Quite a lot of taxes, if you are in Norway. Probably not “road tax” separately, but in general the funds come from taxes. I’m sure you know this but still, what sort of question was that

I’m not sure the road was unpaved to begin with, the water may eat away the underlying structure causinf it to fall, and the fallen rocks and water hide the edge so that we don’t see if there are remains of pavement or not. The same may have caused the pavement to crack along the road too to generate the uneven-looking surface.

And I think it is a person, standing outside of a house, in the right of the Bornholm panel. See how it’s separate from the building (although church towers like that do exist), and there’s a big church in town.

[thegreyarea]

Of course you have to pay taxes to have roads, they don’t just appear Quite a lot of taxes, if you are in Norway. Probably not “road tax” separately, but in general the funds come from taxes. I’m sure you know this but still, what sort of question was that

Yes, of course our taxes pay, among many things, for our roads.

It's just the way it's written is like they would have to pay extra. Ingrid says "What? No! I don't want to pay taxes for that!" If she already pays her taxes (based on her income, I suppose) she should feel that she has the right to have a paved road, as people on other towns have. It should be "Yes, we pay our taxes [also] for that!"
Unless she is such a conscious taxpayer that she considers the paved road an unnecessary investment, because there are better places to spend the taxes she already pays.

However there would be many advantages on having a paved, reliable road connection, starting exactly for being unconstrained by weather/sea conditions to do their business (like receiving supplies and/or tourists) or emergencies, like the need for an ambulance.

I’m not sure the road was unpaved to begin with, the water may eat away the underlying structure causinf it to fall, and the fallen rocks and water hide the edge so that we don’t see if there are remains of pavement or not. The same may have caused the pavement to crack along the road too to generate the uneven-looking surface.

It's possible, but the way Sigrun* says "They should just pave it already" implies, IMO, that it's unpaved.

And I think it is a person, standing outside of a house, in the right of the Bornholm panel. See how it’s separate from the building (although church towers like that do exist), and there’s a big church in town.

Yes, I think you're right. It does look more like a person.

*It's so strange (to me) to "call" someone else Sigrun... Probably, as I'm sure you can imagine, because never met anyone else with that name...

[Jitter]

Oh I forgot the mention about paving! I was thinking the same, that it would seem likely it would be paved already. Although, Dalsnes is apparently very tiny. And lucky, for having lost the road and thus being saved from the apocalypse!

[JoB]

Of course you have to pay taxes to have roads, they don’t just appear Quite a lot of taxes, if you are in Norway. Probably not “road tax” separately, but in general the funds come from taxes. I’m sure you know this but still, what sort of question was that

Well, technically there's also the system where an investor builds the road and the users get to pay them back as they use it (i.e., toll roads). I suppose that, for such small, backwater roads, an investor also could have the Dalsnes community pay back in some other form - say, a monthly "rent" - to avoid having to install+run toll booths. Which the community could then collect from the locals in form of an extra "tax" (which would actually make it a communal fee, not a tax, but non-bureaucrats have always been mixing those up).