Key posts by Minna through the comments and on twitch

[Yannick]

((025))
Minna Sundberg
I almost die from an anxiety attack every time I even hear my neighbour's door bell ring, no amount of time with strangers in my home is short enough to make it not terrible. Even having to sign for a package at the door now and then feels like an intrusion of my territory/safe place. x3

Minna Sundberg
I have terrible social anxiety issues in real life, anything that involves other human beings makes me ridiculously nervous. D: Online I'm...normal? (-ish.)

Page 7 = 7 Nov. 2013
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((026))
Minna Sundberg
Nopes, the blonde with chin legth hair is a girl, Sigrun is a lady name. :B

Page 9 = 11 Nov. 2013
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((027))
Minna Sundberg
Random fact: "Askel" means "step" in Finnish. :B

Page 9 = 11 Nov. 2013
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((028))
Charadas
Hey Minna, I just got curious... are you using some kind of web-engine (like wordpress) to make and manage your websites or did you build them yourself (if you did, you're about ten times more awesome than I first thought)?

I'm trying to build a website myself and I have a hard time figuring out if it is wordpress that is messing with me or if I'm just not cut out to build websites

Minna Sundberg
No web engine, I've coded the thing myself, mostly just with HTML and PHP to automate things. Which means that on one hand I mess everything up now and then all on my own, and every time somthing isn't working I have no one to blame but myself.

But on the other hand I don't have to worry about the kind of issues other people seem to have with Wordpress and its many different plugins. Like waking up one morning to find the whole site messed up because of some update and then not knowing how to fix it. x3

Page 10 = 12 Nov. 2013

[Yannick]

((029))
Minna Sundberg
I'm still trying to figure out the routine of coloring the SSSS pages so that part currently takes a couple hours longer than the aRTD pages. But I think I'll eventually get it down to a similar time once I know what I'm doing again, heh.

Hmm, let's see...last week was the first time I started to have some extra time over to work on non-book stuff, and so far I've managed to draw the linearts of 3 and 1/2 pages + rough sketches and dialogue for 7 more. And since the linearts are the most time-consuming part that equals about 2,5 new pages done. Except none of them are really finished, nyeheh. :B

Page 11 = 14 Nov. 2013
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((030))
Besucherin
There is a Dalsnes in Norway, but it's very small and at a river near the Swedish border...
and nowhere near Bergen, the big city where Aksel's grandma lives.

The Andalsnes you found isn't too far away from Bergen, but I'm not so sure if it's close enough to Bergen to justify a short trip there just to get the paper and "booze and stuff".

Minna Sundberg
The Dalsnes in the comic is a purely fictional village, a very tiny place with just a couple of hundred inhabitants in total.

Page 12 = 15 Nov. 2013
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((031))
Minna Sundberg
They were already noticeably sick when they arrived (and therefore taken into custody), and had also managed to infect plenty of people arriving on the same boat.
And of course it took some time to establish what kind of illness they had , rather the fact that they no-one had any clue. But I won't say more yet, there's plenty of prologue left for all that.

Page 14 = 19 Nov. 2013
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((032))
Minna Sundberg
Eeeeh, I'm not exactly going for 100% social/economic/political accuracy to be honest. And that goes for both the prologue and the main story itself

Page 14 = 19 Nov. 2013

[Yannick]

((033))
Minna Sundberg
I've mentioned it before, but I guess it can't hurt mentioning again: no zombies in this comic, nopes

Page 14 = 19 Nov. 2013
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((034))
Minna Sundberg
{Braidy} Nooo, he's not the scout. His position in the crew is more "Why are you even here? Why didn't you just stay at home, stupid!" The scrawny lad with the hunting rifle is the scout.

And thanks. Drawing older people has always been something of a comfort zone for me. It doesn't matter if I accidentally draw something a bit wonkily and they end up looking ugly, because that just adds more character! 8D

Page 20 = 29 Nov. 2013
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((035))
OrigamiOwl
Just a question about InDesign: is it complicated to learn how to use it?

Minna Sundberg
I...don't think it's very complicated to learn? But it's hard for me to say since it's one of the few programs I use that I didn't tech myself to handle, InDesign was one of the core focuses of most digital classes back in school. But I paid really little attention during those classes and I still learned the basics, so it wasn't too hard I guess.

And there's just so many guides online on how to use InDesign! Whenever there's a problem Google will bring forth an answer, and it's usually something really simple.

Page 20 = 29 Nov. 2013
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((036))
Minna Sundberg
Just to confirm what JoB and Falk already said, in case someone else has misunderstood the situation: the first stages of the illness are really nothing remarkable at all, no symptoms for about a week and rather tame symptoms for a good while after that. The only really dramatic thing about it at this point is the fast spread rate.

The original patients were already noticeably sick when they arrived, so naturally they're way further along than any of the people they contaminated on the trip. And obviously we don't know yet what happens in the later stages of the illness. But it'll all become clear sooner or later. (Later ).

Page 20 = 29 Nov. 2013

[Yannick]

((037))
Minna Sundberg
Nah, portraits have never been my thing. I hated drawing humans before aRTD and only did portraits if I had to in class or whatever. But maybe I could start getting into it now that I don't hate drawing humans anymore.

Page 20 = 29 Nov. 2013
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((038))
OliveEwe
:O Minna I think I am in love with braid guy..... Is he taken?

Minna Sundberg
He's not. x3

Page 20 = 29 Nov. 2013
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((039))
Minna Sundberg
I needed to finally decide what kind of clothing they'll be having underneath. It's long-sleeved black turtlenecks with zippers, comfortable and practical.
And black socks! Because black socks don't start looking quite as disgustingly dirty as other socks do after wearing the same pair for a few weeks.

Thanks to everyone who votes this month!. I...think we made it into the top 10 during the very last day last month?

Page 21 = 2 Dec. 2013

jonnysshaw
you're going to break into TWC Top Ten!! Only like, seven more votes, and a whole day left to go! So so awesome, considering that you didn't put the vote button up at the beginning of the month.

Also, I just realized that the vote button wasn't even put up until the 18th! That means that there has been an average of 560 votes per day

der matologe
http://www.abload.de/img/screenshot424z7c8q.jpg

Page 20 = 29 Nov. 2013
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((040))
Minna Sundberg
the largest city I've lived in was Espoo in Finland with 250k people. It's the second most populous city in Finland next to the capital

Page 22 = 3 Dec. 2013

[Yannick]

((041))
Minna Sundberg
Just kidding, I'm not aiming to make anyone depressed even in the long run. Maybe just for short moments now and then. x3

Page 22 = 3 Dec. 2013
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((042))
cheppoly
Oh well, maybeeeee.....in the distant future, when SSSS is finished and there's a fundraising campaign for the final book, we could meet all the prologue characters again in an extra epilogue?! Ahh, what a nice dream.

Minna Sundberg
Hey, it's not impossible. I have the stories of the prologue characters mapped out, and occasionally I've even entertained the tought of creating a one-book side story about what happened to them after the prologue.
But that's way off in the future if I ever decide to act on that thought! But you'll still find out little things about them through the main story, even though they won't physically really be in it.

Page 23 = 5 Dec. 2013
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((043))
Minna Sundberg
I got such a flashback to working on that prologue page of aRTD with the radio broadcast, that I just had to give the second radio dude the same. Say hi to Esko again! I had imagined the fictional village where Hannu and Ville lived (which I named Hokanniemi) to be in the same-ish part of Finland where the city of Mikkeli is located, so why not have the same radio show? And there's your aRTD cameo for those of you who were hoping for one, hah!

Page 24 = 6 Dec. 2013

Minna Sundberg
I totally put that reference there on purpose, I had this all planned out from the vey beginning. (No, I didn't. x3) Hannu and Ville will be fine, they'll go live on a small island in the middle of some lake and defend temselves with crossbows.

Page 24 = 6 Dec. 2013
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((044))
song
Hey how did you draw all that map? did you refigured real maps into your style or did you legit just draw the maps from scratch? either way... impressive.

Minna Sundberg
I've used a real map of the area (from google maps) as a reference when I was sketching, occasionally even overlaying it on my sketch a to make sure that at least the major bodies of water/land were in the right place. After getting everything sketched out correctly I just draw like I would draw anything else. Plus I have a folder of maps from different ages that I use as reference for what kind of little details to add in the end.

(Oh, and naturally I didn't have a real reference for the Norwegian map, since it was a fictional area.)

Page 24 = 6 Dec. 2013

[JoB]

I scanned the comments below the World Map (page 66, 20-Feb-2014) today, so let me copy them here ... :

((045))
minnasundberg
Svalbard was too "pointless" for them to cram in on a map like this, and too far north to fit anyway. There's no settlements on the islands and there hasn't been a need to raid the seed vault yet.

((046))
On the switch from IntenseDebate to Disqus:
minnasundberg
Yeh, but I prefer having to click "show more comments" once every ~40 comments or so rather than "show comment thread" on every other comment. I might switch back if ID gets updated, but I'm not holding up hopes for that anymore. Its development seems to be in a limbo. :/

On the possibility of settlements not shown in said map:

((047a))
Specifically, on Scotland and England:
minnasundberg
There's actually a few in-story reasons!
1: WAY too high overall population density (which is also why the southern parts of the Nordic countries are empty) which is VERY bad for reasons to be revealed.
2. Too far south and therefore not cold enough winters. Also very bad for reasons to be revealed.
3. Not strong enough natural defenses. For example all the Finnish settlements that exist are located on islands surrounded by labyrinths of lakes and the Norwegian ones in fjords shielded by the sea and high mountains. Very good for reasons to be revealed!

And small surviving populations on those little Scottish islands and stuff have moved to the larger/safer Nordic settlements decades ago.

((047b))
minnasundberg
Ehh, I wanted to write a Nordic postapocalyptic story, and therefore I've established survival lines and story concepts that let me do that. Not really trying to discriminate against Anglophones or anything.

((047c))
minnasundberg
Of course there still COULD be surviving populations anywhere in Europe, especially in the mountains.

((048))
minnasundberg
[...] And yup, lots of research! I had a huge excel file with suitable places (+ population statistics) that I scouted out over a year ago, and I've been gradually revised and edited that list for when I'd eventually put this map together.

((049))
minnasundberg
"Known" in this context simply means that there's some kind of official data on the current state of the area. People (at least the academics) do know that there's huge continents out there far, far away, but it's all part of the Silent world as far as they are concerned since no-one's scouted that far. Most of the dark areas on this map don't even count as part of the known world.

((050))
minnasundberg
You're very correct in your assumptions. I'll eventually make an illustrated chart of the most common professions in each category, but peasants is mostly farmers, (food)hunters, fishers and craftsmen, while academics are the properly educated people like doctors, skalds (historians) scholars(scientists and researchers), mechanics and politicians. And military is pretty self-explanatory.

((051))
minnasundberg
I have a pretty fleshed out story arc in my mind about a VERY far away journey for our heroes, but first there's so many places to visit and stories to be told just in the Nordic area that it''s not on the agenda just yet.

[Unlos]

All of Minnas comments on Disqus here. For slightly easier searching when looking for a particular comment, since searching throuh google usually yields nothing.

[Unlos]

Because I always have to search for these by clicking each and every page, here are links to Minnas various in-blog pictures:
Captain Sigrun
Braidy portrait
Christmas card
Lalli and Braidy pin-ups
Colour experiments
Birthday hooray
Character portraits 1
Hiveworks hooray
Onni preview
Onni the mage
Derelict airport

[Sunflower]

EDIT:  I'm adopting Yannick's careful archiving methodology.

An important post from Minna re: shipping, p. 251 (Jan. 20, 2015):

(52)

I sense a comment quarrel brewing, so I'll throw in my official word to defuse this:

I'm fine with the shipping comments, both jokes and the more "speculative" sort. As long as shipping wars between fans don't start happening and obscenities are kept away from the comment section it's all OK. (Same with the many "Sigrun/Mikkel/Emil is so hot, I want to marry them!"-type comments, totally fine as long as they don't become... unsavory. ;3 )

And I promise I'm not going to write things just as fanservice, if something happens in the story it's because I want it to happen. I won't say if there's going to be any sort of a romantic side aspect to any of the characters in SSSS , but if one appears it would be because I wanted to try writing a romantic subplot, not any other reason.

That is...all? Have fun in the comments, everyone! Disagreements are fine too, just making sure things stay civil. ^_^

[Unlos]

World info pages (links to the the first of these found on the about page

Page 66: Map of the known world
Page 67: The different nationalities of the world
Page 68: The first rule
Page 86: Map of the Keuruu-Pori waterway
Page 87: Mages
Page 102: The blessed felines (1/2)
Page 103: The blessed felines (2/2)
Page 118: The Cleansers(1/2)
Page 119: The Cleansers (2/2)
Page 156: Dalahästen
Page 178: The difference between beasts, trolls and giants
Page 195: The nordic languages
Page 196: The great language tree


I would have put in the links to the lot of them, except that makes the message forbidden...

[JoB]

I would have put in the links to the lot of them, except that makes the message forbidden...

* ahem *

[Unlos]

* ahem *

Ahh. I've been meaning to explore the wiki.

[Sunflower]

From pg. 261, Minna's official pronouncement re: Emil's two new friends:

(53)

Amadán Dubh
So we've seen a giant, and I'm assuming that these things are beasts. Are we ever going to see a proper troll?

minnasundberg
Ah, these two are both trolls, they can look very different from each other and their original form. Beast most often look much more like the animal they once were, at least on the outside (we haven't seen any of those yet.)

Amadán Dubh 
Even that little face hugger thing? That came off a human?

minnasundberg
Oh yes. And it's not that small, it's actually a little bigger than Emil. There isn't much distance between the two in the last panel, so there's barely any perspective distortion between the two.

[Sunflower]

Our Dear Creator has spoken on the ETA and potential print run of SSSS books.  Sure to hearten fans who haven't ordered yet (at least, the first 1,000 of us...)

(54)
Hikaru Rabago 
I thought Minna sent them out already my mind goofed then. I ordered the SSSS book sometime in October, and I have aRTD from last time but it was such a busy year that I never paid attention as to how long it took for it to arrive.

minnasundberg
Haha, oh gosh, I'm not that fast. For the aRTD book it took a little over half a year from print drive to when I was able to start sending out anything.
The SSSS book is going to be a couple months longer since it wasn't even drawn during the print drive + I'm moving in the middle of everything.

The original time estimate still stands: I should be able to start sending out the copies in late spring. ^_^

woolly socks 
I'll remind Minna, when she's drawn and published all of the material that'll go into the first book (yes, it's not all even done yet), that the readership has noticeably expanded since the print drive, and there are probably a lot, A LOT of people looking to buy the book in addition to those who've already pre-ordered, so having the first batch be really, REALLY big is probably a good idea.

I mean, if you're going through the trouble of printing, it's easier and cheaper to print a massive batch at one go and sell those, than to have to reprint when you run out etc.

(55)

minnasundberg
The print drive went well enough that I'll be able to afford printing about 1,000 extra copies on top of the ones that'll go to the backers, so there will be a bunch left over.

I'll put those up for sale after all the backer books are sent out (which according to my schedule should be sometime late spring.) ^_^

[BrainBlow]

Minna on the books salvaged so far:

Thomas Cranor
Did they get the books?


minnasundberg
Ay-yup, the ones that they gave Mikkel earlier are all safely stored in the back of the tank. So they won't be leaving completely empty-handed!