Author Topic: Key posts by Minna through the comments and on twitch  (Read 126290 times)

Kis

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Re: Archive - Key posts by Minna through the comments
« Reply #180 on: August 05, 2018, 11:05:47 AM »
The chatlog for yesterday's stream is mostly done, but there are still things that we can't make out, and the question about crew's livestock isn't answered, because Minna's voice is muted now. If somebody remembers the answer, please update the doc
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Somewhat okay: :uk:
Know a few words: :sweden:

Windfighter

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Re: Archive - Key posts by Minna through the comments
« Reply #181 on: August 07, 2018, 06:48:03 PM »
So we learned from the Twitch-session that Emil would probably be speaking Dalmål, so let me offer you this site where you can listen to different dialects in Dalarna! Just chose whichever "Socken" you want to listen to, it'll take you to a new page where you can just press play.
I assume Mora or Sollerön would be the most common dialects (since Sollerön is the safest place and Mora is the capital) so maybe start with those first?

(For any Swedes I suggest listening to Älvdalen and try to see how much you understand without checking the translations (nor the transcription)!)
Fluent: :sweden:
Decent: :uk:
Phrases: :spain: / :japan:
:book1+:

My stories frequently features themes such as death, suicide, mourning, etc; I cannot give precise warnings for each individual stories, as it would spoil the intrigues.

Kis

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Re: Archive - Key posts by Minna through the comments
« Reply #182 on: August 08, 2018, 05:16:54 PM »
I saw someone ask during the stream about Minna's comment on our crew's voices
I've found it:
"Heh, I don't have terribly specific descriptions for most of them, but let's see here: Emil and Reynir have about as androgynous voices as they look, more manly than girly though, Lalli is pretty much half-whispering whenever he speak, Mikkel has a deep, even bear-voice, Tuuri has a cute, chattery and very feminine voice, and Sigrun has the kind of voice that a female cop on a police-drama show might have. Not the sexy girlish type, the badass boss-cop type."

Windfighter, the link is very helpful, thank you. I'll probably use this site for listening exercises (:
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Talimee

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Re: Archive - Key posts by Minna through the comments
« Reply #183 on: August 11, 2018, 02:28:35 PM »
Chatlog Digest: 04.08.2018

The people of the chat were very prolific in asking questions and Minna equally prolific in answering them. Therefore have a lightly digested write-up here. If you want to read the whole thing, here can you find the google-doc.


Trolls

Spoiler: show
Q: Is troll meat edible?
A. (0h10min): It would corrode your intestines like acid. It’s not actually acidic, but it would be corrosive to eat, and you wouldn’t get any nutrients from it.

Q: Whatever became of the Saimaa ringed seals? Are there any immune stock left 90 years later or did they all succumb to the Rash?
A. (0h14min): There might be some left, if some of them survived they probably would have multiplied and been fine. But they’re so rare nowadays that there’s a big change that even if like ten of them survived they wouldn’t have been able to breed without congenital diseases taking them out. So it’s possible there are some, but unlikely.

Q: Are there any bugs or bacteria that can eat troll-flesh since otherwise they wouldn’t really decay, would they?
A. (0h20min): Yeah, they decay normally. Bugs and bacteria are able to consume them.

Q: Will we ever see instances of troll-troll predation?
A. (0h22min): Yes, we will.

Q: Do Trolls digest flesh they consume, or do they assimilate it? If the latter, would they still be able to consume immune individuals?
A. (0h28min): They digest it, and wouldn’t have any problem eating the flesh of immune people

Q: How dangerous would rash-infected bats be? Would they swarm the countryside like locusts or would they be too mutated to even get airborne?
A. (0h35min): They wouldn’t be able to fly. They’d be like gross rats with really long arms.

Q: Do Notoros have a sort of hive-mind?
A. (0h42min): No, they don’t have a hive-mind, but they have an animalistic “follow-the-leader” thing, so if they see one of their kind doing something they will automatically focus on that doing the same.

Q: Any ideas on what brought down the giant on page 697?
A. (0h48min): I can’t remember what was on page 697 without looking.

Q: How well do trolls fare on dryer areas? City nests seem quite humid and drippy, but on the other hand trolls in the wilderness seem quite adaptable.
A. (1h17min): They would be doing okay as they are pretty adaptable. They can develop to fit into their habitat, so desert creatures would develop abilities to hide under the sand and retain moisture better. But they do need some moisture so they’ll die if they can’t get any water.

Q: Do trolls procreate in some way, or do all trolls come from infected humans or other mammals?
A. (1h39min): They are not known to procreate.


Characters

Spoiler: show
Q:Why does Lalli hate cats so much?
A. (0h15min): Because they don’t like him. And they don’t like him because he’s too much like a cat.

Q: What was the big waterfall we saw Reynir near in the dreamworld once, when he was in the boat? And why was he in the boat, was that significant in any way?
A. (0h17min): No, it was just a really cool scenery. I just wanted to draw it like that. It was kind of necessary for him to be in the boat.

Q: Cake vs pie vs ice cream: which would Lalli like the most/least?
A. (1h1min): Ice cream the most. Pie the least.

Q: Does Emil know how to play any sort of instrument, and, if so, which?
A. (1h2min): I think he would have been taught to play the piano, but he’s probably forgotten how to play it by now.

Q: Who among the crew would carve the best looking jack-o-lantern?
A. (1h29min): Mikkel.

Q: Who makes the worst looking jack-o-lantern?
A. (1h31min): Sigrun. She would have the most trouble concentrating.

Q: Are Reynir's powers special for Icelandic mages or can they all walk on water?
A. (2h01min): Well, he can’t walk on water in real life, only in the dream world. Other Icelandic mages would be able to do the same, so he’s not special in that sense.

Q: Silly followup, if Reynir stumbled and fell walking around the dreamworld, would he go under or would the water carry him?
A. (2h05min): I’d like to say he’d go under because it would be kinda funny, but I think it would carry him. He’d have to want to go under for that to happen.

Q: Followup followup question: is it the water that assists Reynir in walking on it, or Reynir that has the power to stand on it?
A. (2h7min): He technically has the power to stand on it. The water doesn’t know anything about it.

Q: Why Emil propped Lalli up on his shoulder that one time? Was it for warmth, or comfort?
A.(2h11min): For warmth for Lalli, mostly. Maybe a little bit for comfort too.

Q: Do any of the characters knit or spin? I would imagine clothing production is a lot slower in year 90.
A. (2h49min): Yeah, it would be a lot slower. And no, I don’t think any of them know how to do anything properly. Mikkel would know how to fix holes in socks and pants, but none of them would be able to produce their own clothing in any sort of fashion.

Q: Does Emil speak dalmål?
A. (2h54min): I guess he would be speaking that.

Q: You described the voices of the main crew a while ago, how would you actually describe Onni's?
A. (3h03min): There’s kind of this super common way Finnish men tend to speak. Like, they all have the same voice in their 20’s for some reason, so he would have the same voice as other young Finnish men, except he speaks pretty silently. He doesn’t raise his voice very often, more like mutters a little bit.

Q: Are Lalli's dream outfit's belt and shoes made from tuohi (I think "birch bark" is closest term I can think of as English)?
A. (3h09min): Yes, they’re made from tuohi, aka birch bark.

Q: Sigrun strikes me as someone who would enjoy to dance. Does any of the crew dance for fun/ritual purposes?
A. (3h20min): No, I don’t think they do, but if Sigrun was feeling [??] she would definitely like to dance, like one of those Spanish dances where you have a rose in your mouth and dance around. She wouldn’t be out clubbing or anything, but she would like more fast-paced, classical dances. Maybe square dancing, too! (Yeah, flamenco! That’s the one I was thinking of.)

Q: Speaking of Sigrun, when did she start training as a troll hunter?
A. (3h31min): Probably really early in elementary school age because in Norway anyone who would want to become a troll hunter would have to start training really early. Also because she’s the daughter of the town chief, she’d be extra eager. But it would be really intense training (learning how to use a short sword and stuff like that).

Q: What is Ensi's luonto?
A. (3h42min): I don’t really know. I’ll come up with something for the future.

Q: Who in the crew has the biggest potty mouth? Who says the most swears?
A. (3h49min): Probably Sigrun. Emil too, maybe, even though he’s supposedly well-mannered, but he’s kind of a brat, so he would swear.


Worldbuilding

Spoiler: show
Q: Is music and the playing/listening of it popular in the post-rash world? If so, what types of music are popular?
A. (0h22min): I imagine they would listen to the kind of music that was in the 1800-1900 maybe? [something how it’s called in Swedish and Finnish]. A harmonic kind of stuff.

Q: What do people do to entertain themselves?
A. (0h29min): Cinema, books, theater, some have television & radio (television would probably only be old tapes and DVDs that still work, but they would be pretty rare and you’d have to be pretty rich to use those). Basically anything except video games, and it would depend on where they are (Swedes and Icelanders would be more affluent and have more access to that. Norwegians and especially Finns wouldn’t have that. Norwegians would entertain themselves by going hunting).

Q: How expensive is paper and are there graphite pencils?
A. (0h32min): Paper is not too expensive because the area has a lot of paper production industry, they could reclaim some of that. They could probably salvage some pencils from cleansing operations.

Q: In SSSS world would anyone talk about famous movies? Would they be passed down like legends?
A. (1h11min): A lot of them would be archived (DVD archives) or passed down in history books. Literary experts would know about them. Those who are interested would know about them, but most people would not care.

Q: What would be the status of old Norse archeological sites in places like Iceland and Sweden? I imagine there’d be less upkeep, but with the revival of the old religions would any have symbolic or cultural meaning? Or have they been completely forgotten?
A. (1h20min): Maybe old churches like in Norway would be in use but older sites [missed part] no one would care to keep them around.

Q: What exactly are the entities that reside in the Dream Sea? Are they ghosts? Trolls? Ghost trolls?
A. (1h26min): Neither. They’re more like regular spirits that live somewhere between our world and underworld. In Finnish mythology there’s Tuonela, and there are a lot of nameless evil creatures in the river that would kill you before you get to the other side of it. They’re like those things.

Q: Do mages' dream clothes exist in real world? Would Lalli have this dream uniform lying around somewhere?
A. (1h50min): No, they only exist in the dream world.

Q: Have there been any death cults worshiping trolls, willingly getting infected, and stuff like that?
A. (1h59min): Probably! Especially in the beginning.

Q: Do mages consciously decide how they appear in the dreamworld or is it automatic (or subconscious)?
A. (2h08min): It’s subconscious and automatic.

Q: Do cats appear in the dream world?
A. (2h09min): Maybe. I haven’t thought about that, really. It would make sense if they could, since they can see spirits and such. I might have to think about that a little bit more!

Q: Do people in the SSSS universe knit clothes from fur that cats shed?
A. (2h21min): No, I don’t think they would do that. Why would you do that when you have tons of sheep around? Cat fur sounds like it would be kinda itchy, but maybe it’s super soft?

Q: Are there any cat related good luck charms that are commonly made/worn?
A. (2h24min): No, I don’t think there would be that many. Cats are seen as more like working animals rather than spiritual protectors. I’m sure some would be making them.

Q: Since rice doesn't grow in the north, do people in the SSSS-verse make karjalanpiirakka the old way with barley crust and barley filling? how do they make pulla with nowhere to grow cardamom? or does that get grown with the fruit in icelandic greenhouses?
A. (2h39min): No rice, so I guess they would eat it the old fashioned-way from before rice was imported. Cinnamon and Cardamom would be grown in the greenhouses, but it would be pretty expensive.

Q: Is Iceland the only place with greenhouses?
A. (2h51min): In the comic it would only be feasible in Iceland because they have a supply of geothermal energy. I don’t know if the other countries would have good enough power plants to keep them on in the winter. It wouldn’t really be a priority compared to everything else.

Q: Considering how easy the rash spreads, how do people determine who's immune in year 90?
A. (2h53min): I’m not 100% certain, but I think it would be some kind of tissue test, like you gave a skin, blood or bone marrow sample and sent it to a testing facility when you were a child, and they tested how your cells react to the pathogen.

Q: If most surviving Finns are in the Saimaa region, does this make the "standard" Finnish dialect in the SSSS-verse very Karelian? Does Onni have a strong murre?
A. (3h00min): It would be Karelian and Savonian, since Mikkeli and the surrounding areas are in Savo. It would be an Eastern-Central kind of murre (= dialect). I’m thinking more of a Savonian kind of murre because that’s what I’m more accustomed to.

Q: People have been speculating up and down about that mention of a kade, are we ever going to meet one in the comic?
A. (3h38min): Yes, we will.

Q: What would you say is the Norse word equivalent of Kade?
A. (3h40min): I don’t know if there’s a corresponding creature. In Finnish mythology, they’re just people with magic powers who use them for evil. The word is kinda synonymous to “envy”, so they are people who cause harm in the village, but you don’t necessarily know who is doing it. The word “kateus” literally means envy, but it also describes actions of a kade. It’s a little different in the comic world.

Q: I don't see much skiing in canon, and I would have assumed it's a major form of transportation. Does it somehow attract trolls?
A. (3h51min): No, it’s definitely done a lot. You haven’t seen it a lot because we’ve been in Denmark in most of the comic, and it wouldn’t have been effective to ski there because of the rubble and the poor snow conditions, but if we were going to see the northern parts in winter, we would see more people skiing.


Misc. information, personal stuff & widely S4-related

Spoiler: show
Q: How long have you been painting seriously, and what type of art school did you study at if at all?
A. (0h34min): I started drawing seriously when I was about 15. I didn’t go to art school, but I had afterschool art classes once a week when I was a child. I went to graphic design university but it wasn’t really for drawing. I’m about 99% self-taught.

Q: Do you enjoy doing the design for the books and other materials? (using that graphic design degree)
A. (0h36min): Yes, I do enjoy it. I haven’t used my degree for anything but I learnt a lot from it.

Q: What inspired you to write Stand Still Stay Silent?
A. (0h38min): I don’t quite remember exactly but I was really into post-apocalyptic stories that year and I was thinking how cool it would be if someone made one that was set in the nordic countries and then I thought it would be even cooler if I did it hehe. So that’s why I started doing it.

Q: Can you tell us something about the earlier drafts/versions of SSSS?
A. (0h39min): Yes. The earlier versions didn’t have any of the magic stuff. It was just [...] post-apocalypse adventure. Also, the earliest versions were just about Finnish and Swedish characters. Then at some point I started learning Icelandic (for completely different reasons) and wanted to add an Icelandic character but having Finnish, Swedish and Icelandic cast without Norwegian and Danish characters would’ve been weird, in my opinion.

Q: Did you have the ideas for SSSS before A Redtail’s Dream?
A. (0h41min): Yes. I started A Redtail’s Dream because I wanted to draw SSSS as best as I could but I hadn’t done any proper comic projects before so I wanted to practice first. It took me about a year to come up with the idea for A Redtail’s Dream after that so I almost gave up at some point because I felt like I wasn’t able to start a comic so I would give up at, like, page 4.

Q: Is this really the last chapter (chapter 21), or will there be an epilogue?
A. (0h52min): There will be a really short epilogue (not like the prologue). I think less than 10 pages is what I have planned. It will kind of bridge the gap between the end of the last adventure to the start of the next one.

Q: What do you like about streaming?
A. (1h5min):
1. Pressures me to work on things I wouldn’t normally work on
2. Get to interact with you guys a little bit since I don’t go to conventions and things like that.

Q: You draw water so well! What inspired you to draw it?
A. (1h9min): I was looking up to how it was drawn in Asterix and Obelix comics. It was drawn really well so I was just copying from there to begin with. Then I was looking at some other European comics as well.

Q: Have you learned animation by yourself?
A. (1h18min): Yes, those sprites were first proper animations I have ever done. The first one took several weeks because I had no idea how to make it and the other ones were drawn on top of that.

Q: Do you have any more research trips you would like to make, like your trips to Iceland and Copenhagen?
A. (1h25min): Yes, I’m going to need to go to Norway at some point. I’ve only been to visit relatives but not to go touristing since I was a child, so I don’t remember much about the nature and stuff like that.

Q: Are there any songs that inspired you to some scenes or illustrations you draw?
A. (1h26min): Yeah, I don’t remember any specific ones, but I do know that some things were inspired by some songs, and I just draw with them playing in the background.

Q: Do you have an OTP for any of your own characters?
A. (1h37min): Not really. Since I’m the creator, I kind of already know what’s going to happen in the story, so I already know what their future relationships are going to be. I think that’s a term that can only apply to fan speculating.

Q: What did you think the first time you saw people cosplaying your characters?
A. (1h35min): I thought it was really cool! I wasn’t really familiar with the concept of cosplay. I thought it was some kind of Halloween thing, since I don’t really go to conventions, but once I found out what it was, I thought it was even cooler.

Q: How often do you have to look up skulls?
A. (3h08min): Pretty often!

Q: What was the strangest thing you ever needed to reference drawing the comic?
A. (3h16min): I don’t know about strange, but I keep having to look up things like rotting corpses and diseased eyes and gross things like that. I used to have a picture in mind that I’d like to find, but when you Google it, you find things 10 times worse than what you’re looking for, so I’ve had to scroll through some weird images sometimes.

Q: You're very patient to draw all these neat details. Does it feel meditative?
A. (3h59min): Yeah, it kind of does. I can usually just zone out if I did a good job on the underlying structures of things.

Q: Twitch is a totally different thing from what you do normally anyway, Minna.
A. (4h11min): Yeah, it’s pretty different. I usually don’t do anything social online, but streaming seems like I actually get something done. I don’t want to hang out on social media all the time because it seems like a waste of time, but here I can actually be productive while I’m being social, so it works out.

Q: Is it going to be a print? It doesn't look like it'd be an upcoming page...
A. (4h19min): No, it’s not going to be a page. I might make it into a print. I’ll look over what I have to make into prints in a couple of months, in time for Christmas and stuff, and this might be the one. It’s been a long time since I’ve added any new prints, so I’ve forgotten what I’ve drawn since then.
[22:31] <@amity> And they care about only two things: Emil/Lalli fanfic, and chewing bubblegum.
[22:31] <@amity> And the word is, they're all out of bubblegum.

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Talimee

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Re: Archive - Key posts by Minna through the comments
« Reply #184 on: August 13, 2018, 04:26:24 AM »
Good morning, day or night! This week much earlier, thanks to many lovely collectors and editors, I present to you the minutes of Minna's twitch live-stream.

chatlog: 11.08.18

Trolls

Q.: Can troll spirits be encountered in the Dream World?
A. (40min55s): I think so, yeah. Maybe if they’re sleeping… I wonder, if trolls do sleep. I have not thought about it. I think, they maybe could be seen, like shadows in the dreamworld, but they might not be able to be interacted with and they won’t be able to see the Mage seeing them.

Characters

Today only: Hair! (and fylgias)  XoX

Spoiler: show

Main Cast

Q.: How does Reynir's power compare to other icelandic mages? Is he particularly powerful (or could he be with instruction/practice)?
A. (1h26min40s): He is not particularly powerful. He would really need a lot of practice to be super-useful.

Q.: Why did Reynir develop his magical powers so late or did he have them all the time and just didn't realize? Also, do Icelandic mages find their powers usually earlier or is it different for any individual?
A. (2h26min21s): Reynir always had his powers, but since Icelandic mages are usually female and signs are subtle he wouldn’t be thinking about any signs, like the fact that he didn’t really have any dreams, and other people wouldn’t be paying much attention to it as well. So that’s why he found his powers later. It kinda helped that he was in the presence of Lalli because it triggered him waking up in his dreamspace without having any training, so it was kinda Lalli’s fault.

Q.: Will Lalli ever start to warm up to Reynir?
A. (16min42s): Hm, we’ll see! They’ll have to interact more in the future, but I haven’t decided yet how exactly their relationships are going to develop over the next few years. I can’t promise they’re going to be best friends, hehe.

Q.: Is Onni now (more physically) part of the crew?
A. (1h29min00s): You’ll see. I can’t say anything specific at this point - it would be too spoilery.

Q.: How did you create your characters?
A. (1h31min30s): Just gradually over time. They started out kinda different from what I have now. And some of them didn’t actually exist in the beginning, now that I think about it. And then I just thought about the story and the story changed, so the characters changed, and new characters were introduced and y’know, I went back and forth like that. Eventually, they became who they are now.

Q.: Who was the first character you made? Who was the last?
A. (1h33min03s): I’m not super sure, I didn’t make any sketches in the beginning. I have the feeling that in the beginning I had a character that was kinda like Sigrun, one that was kinda like Emil and one that was kinda like Lalli. But then they got all scrapped and I had some different characters, and then they got reintroduced.
And I think Mikkel and Reynir came into the picture at the same time and might have been the last characters to join the crew. Or maybe Tuuri was.
I had in the beginning some kind of proto-Tuuri-character. She was not a she, he was a boy and really mean and was a Finno-Swede. And that’s why he was the translator but he was just mean and would translate everything wrong, because he was a jerk. So, he was scrapped and then I brought that kind of character back in as Tuuri but, y’know, not a mean jerk.

Q.: Do/did you consider Tuuri a main character?
A. (1h43min10s): Of course! Maybe not going forward, obviously, but she was a main character of the last part of the story.

Q.: Are we gonna know why Mikkel gets fired from jobs?
A. (4h16min34s): We might find out in bonus comics, in the main comic it’s going to be left a mystery, one that hints here and there.

Q.: What will happen to Kitty once the adventure is over? Will she be trained as a Grade Cat or will she retire from her adventure and live out her life as a farm cat on the Madsen Farm?
A. (4h28min38s): She is gonna be with the crew in the next adventure. She will get a little bit of training, she can’t be trained as a proper grade A cat, because she is already too old for it, but she can get a little bit of usefulness. Although she is already useful.

Q.: Did Sigrun have affectionate nicknames as a kid?
A. (4h50min16s): She had a lot of non-affectionate nicknames from various people.

Q.: Did Sigrun or any of the crew try to ride their cats as small babies?
A. (4h59min09s): No, I don’t think they would be so cruel. People usually try to ride their dogs and not their cats.

Q.: Will Reynir and Emil interact with each other more in the future? They've only really acknowledged each other like twice in the comic, and in both cases it was with a negative connotation
A. (09min45s): Yeah, I think so, definitely. I have some pretty [long pause on Minna’s part] nice scenes planned? Maybe they’re more funny than nice.

Q.: Will Reynir ever get the chance to see a palm tree after all?
A. (13min40s): Well, he would have to visit some sort of botanical garden for that. That could be a good idea for a future bonus comic!

Q.: Are Emil and Lalli still growing or will they always be short-arses?
A. (2h31min32s): They have finished growing and they will always be the shortest on the team. It would be fun if Emil grew super tall and Lalli, too, and Reynir would be the shortest, no, Onni would be the shortest! But no, they have done growing. Everyone’s heights are established... Oh yeah, I’m gonna use this drawing to make info boxes, and this time I will include their heights and birthdays and stuff.

Q.: Weekly question! Have you decided on the crew’s fylgjur yet?
A. (23min30s): Yes, actually, I did decide Sigrun’s and Mikkel’s. Sigrun’s is some sort of horse, whatever norwegian breed would be appropriate and Mikkel is a bull.
(cont.: 24min35s): Oh yeah, I’m not sure, but I think Emil might be a poodle. Like a big one? Because, he is obviously very fancy and stuff but he is also very loyal and will defend people who are dear to him, like any dog would.

Q.: Did Onni’s ear ever get better after his run-in with Emil’s cousins?
A. (28min56s): Well, I’m sure it’s gotten better and scarred over, but I don’t think parts of ears grow back when you lose them. Maybe I’m wrong. I know piercings close by themselves but I think if you get part of it cut off it won’t really grow back properly. Correct me if I’m wrong. (laughs)

Drinking habits

Q.: Who among the cast would be the most avid coffee drinkers? The least?
A. (26min15s): I think they would all drink coffee, since Nordic people are all known for being the most coffee-drinking people in the world, I think, and by those statistics Lalli and Onni would drink the most, since Finns are number one in drinking coffee, as far as I know. And the least, I don’t know. I think they would all just really like coffee.

Q.: What drink does Reynir like?
A. (4h06min04s): I guess he likes milk. A common drink in all the nordic countries. Other than that I don’t know, his family is not super-rich, so they don’t have a lot of other drinks.

Q.: Does Mikkel prefer wine or beer?
A. (4h12min54s): I think beer is what Danes prefer. I don’t know if wine is something that can easily be made so far north. Don’t you need some sort of fancy berries or foods for that? It’s kind of Mediterranean thing.

Q.: Who in the team holds their liquor the best and who is weak when it comes to alcohol?
A. (4h38min20s): Sigrun and Mikkel would be completely unaffected by it. Maybe Emil and Lalli wouldn’t be good at it - Lalli because he is so small and doesn’t have much body-weight. And Emil because he is just Emil.

Outfits

Q.: Do the orange shoulder pads on the uniforms have a purpose? Or are they just for aesthetics?
A. (3h37min50s): They are reflective, so team members would be able to spot each other more easily, like in Finland where you wear vests when hunting so that you cannot be confused with a moose. They are also an aesthetic thing, like an effect-colour. This time I’m gonna try to work in a little bit of red somewhere in everyone’s outfits for drawing purposes, because if I’m going to draw a lot of group pictures I can make nice color combinations.
 
Q.: Wasn't there an old artwork with Reynir with "tape" red stripes on his sweater? I think it was the old website header.
A. (3h40min30s): Yes. Now that you mentioned it, I remember. It was before he appeared in the comic and I thought that they would have this kind of tape on their shoulders the said reasons, but once he was introduced in the comic I left that idea by the wayside.

Q.: What kind of material would their clothes be made of?
A. (3h02min05s): I don’t know textile names, but the good part of Reynir’s overalls is made of wool, the kind sweaters are made of, but there is to be an overall material that the working overalls would have, thick and waterproof, and I guess Sigrun’s jacket would be a little bit leathery, like super-soft matt kind of leather, and then the woolen upper part and a bit of [can’t make out]

Q.: It looks like Reynir is wearing lighter layers than he does in the current story, does that mean the next storyline will take place in a warmer season? Or does he not get cold easily?
A. (4h20min44s): It will be in a warmer season. I have to design what their outfits look like under their jackets because they won’t need to wear them all the time.

Q.: Emil had a beautiful knife in a chapter with doggo beast. Do the patterns on it serve as decorations or have other purpose?
A. (4h26min01s): They’re just decorations.

Q.: Will you ever draw your main characters as cats wearing their uniforms?
A (35min50s): That is a good idea! I like drawing them as cats so adding their uniforms would be fun. Thank you for the idea.

Q.: Did Tuuri have a hoodie over the regular jacket with the big collar, or did she have something else?
A. (10min10s): Some parts of her outfit had a hoodie, yeah, but I can’t really remember.

Q.: Can you talk a bit more about their new outfits, what inspired them?
A. (08min50s): They will have a little bit more “casual” clothing this time. They won’t be in matching uniforms, for at least parts of the story, so they’ll have a little more cultural-specific clothing, I guess, rather than all have the same type. (Minna did say here that she cannot go into more specifics, because that would be spoilery as to what the crew-members are doing in the next adventure.) Reynir is going to have overalls.

Q.: Is that a gun on Reynir's belt, or just more belt?
A. (54min35s): It might have affixed a long knife and a pouch and I might give him a hand gun. Maybe.

Q.: You should draw the crew as Moomin characters!
A. (1h14min37s): I should, yeah! Lalli would definitely be Nuuskamuikkunen (ed: Snufkin), the one in the green thing and the hat.

Hair

Q.: Do professional soldiers like Sigrun have to cut each other's hair on long missions if it gets too long/in the eyes? Do they have 'that guy who does everyone's hair' at crew?
A. (1h51min26s): Yes, they do. That’s why everyone has their hair at shoulder length. Tuuri had to cut all her hair because she could not risk it getting stuck inside a breathing mask.
And the ‘guy who cuts everyone’s hair’ in this crew is of course Mikkel. And Reynir should have his hair cut but that is not going to happen. He will not let people cut his hair. He would rather die.

Q.: A bit of a repeat question, but does Mikkel also maintain facial hair of the crew?
A. (5h09min22s): Maybe he does, since nobody ever has any stubble.

Q.: If Reynir unbraided his hair, would it reach the floor?
A. (1h45min38s): No, I don’t think so. I obviously I draw it with different lengths all the time, but if it was unbraided it would reach about to his calves or knees - no, calves.

Q.: Would you consider drawing Reynir with his braid unbraided?
A. (1h46min01s): Yes, definitely some day. I’ve been meaning to all the time but then I never did. But some day, yes. Maybe in one live-drawing session, soon.

Q.: Will we ever see Emil in a ponytail or something like that?
A. (1h53min44s): I don’t know if his hair is quite long enough for a proper ponytail.

Secondary Characters

Q.: Will the current organizers appear in the new adventure?
A. (3h47min19s): Yes, they will appear. They haven’t been forgotten. By “organizers” I assume you mean the base crew?

Q.: Will we get to see more of Reynir's siblings?
A. (2h19min06s): Yes. We will get to see them pretty soon.

Q.: Which one of the original Madsens had the idea of naming their child after Magnus the cat?
A. (3h24min28s): I haven’t really decided. I will have to give it a little more thought in case it comes up in a back-story.

Q.: If Trond had a pokemon, who or what type would he prefer?
A. (1h06min00s): For some reason I think he would prefer a lazy Pokémon, er, Slakoth. Maybe because he is old and retired so he wouldn’t want anything fussy.

Q.: Will we ever see the Cat-tank again?
A. (1h07min18s): No, it was left behind.

Q.: Speaking of Emil’s cousins, has it been confirmed whether or not they’re immune?
A. (30min00s): No, I don’t think I ever decided on that. If I remember correctly, Torbjörn is supposed to be immune and Siv is not, so their children might no be? I think in canon they haven’t been tested yet and are just assumed to be not immune until proven otherwise.

Q.: Will we get to see what happened to Ensi (and the rest of the village)?
A. (15min35s): Yes, we will see that. We will learn more about everyone’s families and backstories, eventually.

Q.: Will we ever get more flashbacks to the characters from Year 0?
A. (1h03min10s): No, I have never thought about that for the main comic. If I ever do that it would be a side-story that would be specifically about them.


Worldbuilding

This weeks special: Magic! Rash! Bandits! Kitty-backpacks!
Spoiler: show

Q.: Would Mora or any of the other cities in the Known World still have zoos? If so, what would probably be the most exotic thing they have left after 90 years?
A. (37min28s): No, I don’t think any exotic animals that can’t survive in the nordic wild would be left. Because, obviously, people would be concerned with other stuff in their society at first to be concerned about having zoos (roughly paraphrased), so any exotic animals would have died by then. But they probably have petting-zoos for children, like cows and sheep. Maybe bears. There is a really cool zoo in Orsa, near Mora, that has a lot of bears in our time, so maybe they have rebuild that one.

Q.: Is the Ostrich farm near Mora still functional in year 90?
A (38min32s): I didn’t know there was an ostrich farm. But maybe. At least the birds could survive. They could provide meat and they can’t be infected so I’m sure someone would have kept the birds. Or just eat them when there was need for food.

Q.: How much knowledge of the old world is preserved in year 90? I know, the crew doesn’t even know what a CD is, but is that kinda lost knowledge common?
A. (44min48s): There is a lot preserved in libraries and stuff but common people wouldn’t care enough to learn about it. So researchers and learned people would know about old world stuff.

Q.: Has there been any interesting tech advances in these 90 years? Like that battery powered boat way back in chapter 1.
A (1h01min10s): Yes, there has been some but I wouldn’t be confident enough to say anything specific, because I’m not the most tech-informed person. So I would just draw something really cool-looking and then everyone would work out why it wouldn’t work in the real world.

Q.: Why did the Swedes decide to build a railway down to Öresund? Wasn't it a terrible waste of lives and ressources? They do have shipping routes they can use after all ...
A. (1h30min20s): I think they just like railroads. They’re faster than shipping. And I don’t think that many lives were lost building it.

Q.: I'm going through chapters in search of good refs, and now I wonder who drove the mini vehicle that broke down right in front of crew when they were introduced to cat tank.
A. (2h05min45s): Eeh, I don’t remember that scene at all! I remember a few panels that took a lot of time to draw, but it’s been several months since I last read the first book, and I have forgotten almost everything except, like, key panels and scenes.

Q.: Are there any bandits or pirates that the Known World has to watch for?
A. (3h31min47s): No, I don’t think so. It would be too hard and dangerous to live on their own as a bandit gang out in the wilderness. The settlements are too small also, so they would be caught as soon as they entered the village to buy food.

Q.: Is reclaiming the land of the Silent World the main objective of the civilizations? Are there clashing worldviews and politics regarding that?
A. (3h33min47s): No, it’s pretty much important. It’s not much like reclaiming it’s more like cleaning up around the settlements, so that accidents won’t happen and animals like horses or sheep won’t get infected. Ideally all the way to the shores, so that they can start doing it like Iceland - guarding only the shores. Except for the Danes, of course, who want to get more land back, but they’ve kinda given up on that, they have to do only with the island now.

Q.: Minna, does everyone in Known World use sheep wool or furs as well?
A. (3h54min49s): (I think she misunderstood the question, she zoomed out on her drawing and pointed out places on the characters like Onni and Lalli where there will be fur on their outfits).

Q.: Do they have tea in Y90?
A. (3h56min52s): Yeah, I don’t see why they wouldn’t have it. I think tea is pretty easy to make. If nothing else they would have pine-needle tea available. I heard it’s super-good for your health, but doesn’t taste super-great.

Q.: Does the military have special bags or backpacks for their cats?
A. (5h03min00s): Backpacks that the cats can carry? Maybe so? Yeah. That would be cute. So yeah. If it’s cute, then yes, it is canon. Ok, maybe scratch that - people will come up with all kinds of crazy-cute stuff. Or maybe you mean backpacks where they carry cats? Also, definitely yes.

Q.: What kind of weapons did you use as inspirations for the weapons used in the comic? Was it the real-world weapons used by the individual nordic armies?
A. (muted part): Lalli has regular hunting rifle, the rest has just some sort of assault rifle. I don’t know much about guns // common guns, easily found and reused

Rash, Magic and Ghosts

Q.: Could Icelandic mages sew runes into clothing?
A. (5h21min30s): They could, yeah. It’s not the most effective way of doing runes though. We’re going to expand a bit more on how magic works in the next adventure.

Q.: Did the appearance of magic and mages happen right after the outbreak or did the people gradually go back to the old gods and magic resources, and was magic discovered or "reintroduced"?
A. (1h47min35s): Magic kinda returned gradually. It appeared a few years after the world ended. Ensi would have started to see spirits when she was maybe 5 years old and would obviously have been super useful for her parents’ survival. And that way other mages would have been discovered as well as the years went by.

Q.: How is magic related to the Rash?
A. (1h50min10s): I don’t think I will ever go super-deep and reveal what caused the Rash, because it would ruin the mystery. But obviously there is some sort of supernatural element to it. So it would be linked to the re-appearance of magic in the sense that there is more supernatural stuff coming back to the world in some way. Let your imagination work out the rest in a way that pleases you.

Q.: Do you have a general idea as to how immunity plays out in regards to genetics? Would it be autosomal? X-Linked?
A. (20min35s): I don’t know enough about genetics to answer that, I don’t know what those words even mean. But I’m thinking that it’s somewhat genetic, at least, so parents who are already immune are likely to produce immune offspring.

Q.: Do you imagine the world will ever be free of the Rash again, in the far future, or will it always be a threat to people?
A. (3h36min56s): I’m thinking that unless something weird happens, the trolls and giants would eventually start dying on their own in part of “over-mutation”, kinda like old age, but not quite, so in a few thousand years things would start clearing up on their own.

Q.: Do mages choose or change their dreamspace? or is it reflective of their personality?
A (41min50s): They can’t affect it. It’s all about their kind of personalities.

Q.: Can people die in the Dream Sea? What happens to their souls if they do?
A. (42min55s): Something will come and fetch them to the afterlife. They won’t stay there.

Q.: How would someone know if they were a mage to begin with? Are there symptoms of some kind?
A. (47min40s): Yes, Finnish mages would know because they can see spirits and others really can’t. And Icelandic mages - there aren’t really that many signs, obviously, because Reynir didn’t figure it out on his own, but there are some tests you might do if you suspect you have some powers.

Q.: Can mages become spirits/ghosts?  If so, do they have any special characteristics leftover from being a mage?
A. (44min00s): Yeah, they can become ghosts. Some of them may be leaving their bodies and not be able to reach the afterlife, and I don’t think they would be super special spirits. They might be able to cause a bit of extra trouble if they become angry.

Q.: Are powerful spirits able to interact with physical objects (kind of like poltergeists) or maybe possess trolls/living beings?  Do they have abilities we haven’t seen yet?
A. (36min30s): No, I wouldn’t say so. Most spirits are bound to some creature in this world, so in order to do really do much most of them would have to be part of some creature. But obviously, some spirits, like the ghosts we’ve seen in the previous story can harm people on their own. But most spirits that are powerful enough to do something, also have some sort of form of their own that they can use.

Q.: How long can ghosts last without some sort of physical form? If it’s not long, does the spirit hunting Lalli and Onni have a physical form?
A. (40min10s): The spirit hunting Lalli and Onni might have a physical form, we haven’t seen it yet. Spirits can last a really long time, but they eventually kind of wither away and become useless, like some kind of whisps of some sort of consciousness. In a few hundred years they would become kind of nothing.


Misc. information, personal stuff & widely S4-related

Highlights this week: drawing advice! games and books!
Spoiler: show

Q.: How many books do you plan on breaking the comic up in?
A. (11min50s): I don’t know about the whole story, like all the adventures I have planned, but the one that’s being wrapped up now is going to be four books.

Q.: Will we ever see squirrel cookies in the comic?
A. (14min35s): Well, that won’t happen unless Mikkel is making cookies and Lalli throws something in it again, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.

Q.: Did the plotline around the “cure” end with the ghosts passing into the afterlife?
A. (17min25s): Yeah, that will not linger into the next part of the story.

Q.: Do you ever get burned out from creating art/comics? If so how do you continue to stay motivated?
A. (18min37s): I don’t really get burned out, but sometimes I do lose motivation and get like semi-depressed about having to draw. But at those times I just have to think of it as my job and just remind myself that it’s the best job I could ever have, so I have to kinda just force myself to do it. It also helps to think about that there’s tens of thousands of people reading the comic, so just the fear of letting everyone down by not making comics is worse than the burn-out feeling and it motivates me to draw. And I know the feeling of a small burn-out always goes away in a month or so, so I know I just have to pass through it and just keep working.

Q.: Do you have an ETA of when City of Hunger is coming out?
A. (19min50s): No. I’m planning on doing that for at least four years, so I guess that’s some kind of ETA, but I’m only working (on it) one day a week. So it will be the kind of project I could complete in a little over a year, if I spent all of my time on it. So, I’m multiplying that with four or five. That is how long it will take, judging from how long I have been working on it now.

Q.: Do you have sketchbooks? If so, will you do a sketchbook tour?
A. (21min15s): No, I don’t have sketchbooks. Almost always when I draw I sketch something that I intend to finish properly, so when I sketch I sketch like this (stream-related, sketched outlines for next-adventure-outfits): something I continue working on and you always see the end result. I don’t have any secret stashes of unshown art. I tend to sketch in my head, if that makes sense? More than on paper.

Q.: How is your kitty today?
A. (24min00s): She’s fine, she’s running around in the yard a lot and climbing in her climbing tree, an actual tree outside, so that means she is doing well. She is sleeping now.

Q.: Is there any sort of continuity between SSSS and City of Hunger, like the crew being future reincarnations of their old selves, or is it completely unrelated to the comic?
A (35min10s): It’s completely unrelated in a way but everyone’s backstories and personalities will be the same, of course. Their backstories will have parallels to the ones in the comic, like family situations and stuff like that.

Q.: I really hope the comics will sell well in french so Akileos (it's a really good publishing house) can publish A Redtail's Dream too!
A (39min12s): Oh, that would be cool. I know they already agreed to publish the second book with the same contract, so at least they have some faith that the first book will sell, at least a little bit.

Q.: Do you have any tips for creating or being creative with clothes designs on any characters?
A. (46min32s): Yes. Thinking up stuff you want to be personally inspired by. Obviously, I have a Nordic inspiration, and then just look up lots of reference images and look at them for a few hours and think about it and then start doodling different things and picking out the ones I like the most. I do have reference images for all the characters: Reynir’s outfit is a combination of Icelandic patterns and an overall and I have inspiration images for the others, too. So definitely look up images online to be inspired by - it helps a lot.

Q.: How did you learn how to draw?
A. (1h07min30s): I just liked drawing as a child so I drew a lot and that’s how I learned, like everyone else. You just have to draw every day and eventually over the years you become better at drawing. I didn’t really start improving until I was in my mid-teens, maybe 14 years old, because before that I did just doodle cats and really lazy drawings that took one hour tops. So it’s best to focus on drawings that take a lot of time because then you learn most. If you doodle quick things when you’re starting out you don’t really think that much about what you’re doing but even then you will slowly get better if you keep drawing a lot.

Q.: You said comics are your favourite medium. What are your favourite comics? and what are you personally looking for in a comic?
A. (1h10min50s): Well, my favourite comic, like from my whole life, would be the stuff I read as a child which was Donald Duck-comics in Finnish [...] I probably read thousands of Donald Duck-comics. And also, we had almost every Tin Tin-comic, so I read those all the time and Asterix. Those would be my favourites, but also original works and Marsupilami and y’know, traditional European stuff.
Also when I got older I read a fair amount of manga. My favourites, manga-wise, would be the one about that dog fighting a bear, Nagareboshi Gin I think it’s called, and the sequel to that was also good. I read some Fullmetal Alchemist and D Gray Man and other stuff that happened to be popular. I read some sports-manga once about american football (ed: most likely Eyeshield 21), which I don’t care about at all but the manga was really fun.
And about what I look for in comics: Mostly fun characters that I like. I don’t really like comics where I hate the characters, like super grim-dark stuff, where you’re supposed to wallow in some sort of depravity. I read some comic called Transmetropolitan, I think, an American indie comic, and there was just weird ugliness about it. I don’t also like super-artsy comics that I just don’t understand. I like popular stuff. For the same reasons that other people like it.

Q.: I love how you draw facial expressions. Relaxed faces look natural and appealing, like Reynir's here.
A. (1h13min40s): Thank you, I’m glad you like it. I used to be really bad at drawing human faces. A Redtail’s Dream was the first time I had to draw real human faces. I only did animal faces before, so it was a lot of learning. And I was able to draw facial expressions ok, but noses and stuff and not having eyes be super wonky and all over the place was definitely a challenge.

Q.: How much of the story do you write before you start drawing?
A. (1h16min05s): A lot. I always plan the current story, the beginning, the middle and the end, before I start drawing. And then I will work out the details of each chapter during chapter-breaks before I start drawing the chapter.

Q.: How did you learn how to use colors in your digital artwork?
A. (1h19min25s): Looking at how other people do it. That’s really it. Whenever I feel lost and don’t know what I’m doing, I tend to look at art from people who are better than I am and figure out what they’re doing what I’m not doing.

Q.: Do you also enjoy drawing traditionally?
A. (1h20min00s): I used to draw a lot traditionally, more than I did digitally, but I haven’t drawn anything traditionally since I started SSSS. I think the last things I did traditionally were things for A Redtail’s Dream. So yeah, I kind of moved away from traditional art, mostly because I have become so accustomed to working digitally that there is really no need to work traditionally any more. It used to be easier to work traditionally, so that’s why I did it.

Q.: Do you miss drawing traditionally?
A. (1h21min29s): Not really. If I really wanted to draw traditionally, I have all the materials in my closet, so I can do it anytime. It just feels like a waste of time to take everything out on the table and to have to clean up afterwards. It’s just easier to draw on the tablet.

Q.: How many layers do you usually have for a drawing?
A. (1h23min17s): I usually have lineart-layer, sketch-layer, colour-layer and background-layer. (In regard to current work) I have a couple of extra layers. Oh, and reference-layer. I try to keep the layer-amounts down, so they don’t get in the way.

Q.: Is there a reason you use so little green? other than "it's winter in the story"
A. (1h46min22s): Yes, the reason is that I don’t really like green. It’s either too bright or when it’s not bright it looks muddy and gross, so I don’t really use it, for that reason. I like yellows and I like reds and I like blues and purples. But greens … I use turquoise, a kinda bluish light green, but that’s it. The rest of the greens I don’t really care for.

Q.: How do you make some parts of lineart lighter/differently coloured?
A. (1h57min50s): (ed. Minna uses Manga-studio most of the times) Well, head into the layers-settings, there is one icon that is “lock transparency pixel” or “lock transparency” in Photoshop, I think, and click it and it locks the layer. Then go to the lineart-layer and you can just draw over it with the colour you want to use.
Another way to do this is using “colour-correction”, but it is limited. So when you have, for example, completely gray lineart you can’t just magically add colour to it. You can only use the colour that is already there. But in “colour-balance” you can add some colour, I think, red and blue?
So, if you want to change the colour of black lineart you have to lock the layer and paint on it. At least that’s the easiest way. There is always a million ways to do things in digital drawing programs.

Q.: You mentioned before that "Stand Still Stay Silent" wasn't your first title for the comic... what was the first one, if you can share it?
A. (2h04min58s): I don’t actually remember what the first one was. I thought at the time that it was a good a title but since I can’t remember now what it was, it was probably super-boring.

Q.: You've been to Copenhagen, do you have any travel tips or must-sees you'd could rec?
A. (2h06min26s): Yeah, obviously Kastellet, you know, the fort thing was super cool. Mama and me went to all of the art museums that we found; every time we go to a country we like to go look at the art museums with what you will call national paintings of the country, because you learn a lot about the culture and what people value in their nature and culture. So yeah, art museums, definitely. And there are lots of castles, go check out the castles!
Oh, and we went to.. the drug place? It’s like free state inside of Copenhagen where Danish laws don’t work, so it used to be inhabited by hippies, but now it’s full of.. drug people. It was gross. It’s kinda famous but it’s super dirty and people who are living there are gross. Yes, Christiania. Gross place, don’t go there.

Q.: When you draw nowadays, is it only SSSS-related or do you also just draw, like practicing in general?
A. (2h09min02s): Yes, sometimes I do anatomy practice, you know, super-boring stuff, like I just look at the anatomy reference and draw it; and live-drawing things online about a few hours. I don’t have a lot of time to draw other stuff and don’t feel like I should draw other things. And also I don’t have the hand capacity, I kinda have a limit where I start having hand problems when I draw more than I draw currently.

Q.: Do you use color palettes and if so where do you get your color palettes? or do you make up colors?
A. (2h10min04s): I don’t really have a specific place where I get colour palettes. Usually I can’t come up with anything myself, I just google, like, “color inspiration” and click on websites that come out. It’s usually interior designer websites and I just look at the photos and usually I will find something that inspires me. I also have a few folders on my computer where I collect different cool colors, from photos, mostly, and I also look to that when I’m out of inspiration.

Q.: What inspired you to do City of Hunger any particular scifi?
A. (2h28min31s): Just sci-fi in general. I was originally thinking of making it into a couple-hundred pages comic, because I just wanted to draw the crew in a different setting. That was really the only inspiration, and that’s why I still want to do it. It’s fun to draw more modern-looking stuff in-between. It helps me not to burn out on the comic because I have something different to draw now and then.

Q.: I have always appreciated how different all the characters are in their faces. Easy to tell who someone is by face shape, nose, eyes, etc.
A. (2h35min34s): Well, thank you. That has not always been the case: I used to have people tell me that they couldn’t tell who any of the characters were because everyone looked the same, which was because I had a lot of trouble drawing people differently. From beginning I knew what differences there had to be, but I couldn’t draw them properly. I knew I had a problem and I would do my best to draw them differently, but in the end it would always look the same. I wouldn’t see it myself, I saw how they looked in my head and thought that I had drawn them correctly, but no, it was always wrong. Or sometimes I got them correctly, but it was more like an accident. I had a lot of “same face” problems for a couple hundred pages, at least.

Q.: Do you read any comic/manga in your free time?
A. (2h40min01s): Sometimes I do. Right now I’m re-reading Tin Tin in Icelandic and also reading My Hero Academia - it seemed to be pretty popular so I bought some of the volumes. It’s really nice. I’m currently waiting for volumes 6 and 7 to come. Other than that, I glance at other people’s comics to keep up with what everyone’s doing, but I’m not really reading them.

Q.: How many languages do you read/speak?
A. (2h41min30s): I speak 3 languages: English, Swedish and Finnish. I also read in Estonian and Icelandic. I sometimes need context when reading in Icelandic, for example, when I read an article about economics, I need to know that it’s about economics to understand some of the words. And of course I can read Danish and Norwegian, because I know Swedish, but I haven’t studied those languages. They come kinda free.

Q.:  Do you watch anime/cartoons or just the manga/comics?
A. (2h42min32s): I used to also watch anime, like I would read a manga and then watch an anime of it, but I haven’t done that in a long time because I need subtitles (I don’t like dubbed versions). I don’t have time to watch anything, I need to listen to it while I’m drawing, so I can’t do that with mangas (?). As for cartoons, I watch American cartoons, the humoristic ones like American Dad, Family Guy, The Simpsons sometimes (not so much anymore) and I’ve started watching new DuckTales. And South Park. (that was her favourite cartoon)

Q.: Do you play any games?
A. (2h45min26s): I try not to play any games because I get addicted easily and obviously that would take away time to produce anything. I sometimes allow myself to play games, usually during the chapter breaks. This year the only games I’ve played are a little bit of Dawnstar   (= The Elder Scrolls Travels: Dawnstar) and Oblivion (= The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion). Nowadays I get my game-playing-fix by watching let’s plays while I draw.

Q.: Did you ever read Bamse comics? I loved them as a kid.
A. (2h46min33s): Yes! I have completely forgotten about them, but I read them all the time.

Q.: How about novels/literature?
A. (2h48min50s): Yeah, sometimes. If I can find something as an audiobook, I might listen to it, but I don’t read anything anymore. The last thing I tried to read was The Hunger Games in Icelandic.
 
Q.: Have you played metro 2033 or metro last light or read any of the novels?
A. (2h49min41s): No, I have not. I know that it’s kind of post-apocalyptic and in Russian setting. I think it’s the game that I’ll have to watch someone play someday. But I haven’t play and I’m not going to to save my productivity.

Q.: Is there any apocalyptic story that you like?
A. (3h20min): My favourite might be I Am Legend, the new one with Will Smith and the dog. But I also read a few books, one was called The Passage. I read one where the world slowly stopped spinning, which was very interesting. One Second After is my favourite apocalyptic book, highly recommend that to everyone who likes apocalyptic stuff. The Mad Max-kind of stories blend all together in some kind of Fallout-setting.

Q.: Does Ville try to 'dog sing along' as a human when he hears music or singing?
A. (4h43min55s): What a random question! I don’t know. I think a dog-person would know better, I didn’t know that dogs sing when they hear music.

Q.: Have you considered doing designs for RL clothes? I'd wear any of those outfits!
A. (5h59min50s): Thank you, but no, I have not considered that. I’m pretty sure that having something like this manufactured would be pretty difficult.
(update: In the comments of her after-stream twitter-pic Minna says that she is thinking about adding some t-shirt or hoodie-designs to the shop if it is doable without much fuss. So, this one is undecided.)

[22:31] <@amity> And they care about only two things: Emil/Lalli fanfic, and chewing bubblegum.
[22:31] <@amity> And the word is, they're all out of bubblegum.

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JoB

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Re: Archive - Key posts by Minna through the comments
« Reply #185 on: August 13, 2018, 01:55:44 PM »
Q.: Weekly question! Have you decided on the crew’s fylgjur yet?
A. (23min30s): Yes, actually, I did decide Sigrun’s and Mikkel’s. Sigrun’s is some sort of horse, whatever norwegian breed would be appropriate
"Appropriate". Well, seeing what choices there seem to be, that ought to be a draw between Fjord horse ("relatively small but very strong") and Nordlands-/Lyngshest ("drive and eagerness to work") ...

But they probably have petting-zoos for children, like cows and sheep. Maybe bears.
... whoa. O_o

Q.: You mentioned before that "Stand Still Stay Silent" wasn't your first title for the comic... what was the first one, if you can share it?
A. (2h04min58s): I don’t actually remember what the first one was. I thought at the time that it was a good a title but since I can’t remember now what it was, it was probably super-boring.
(A couple years ago, she (still remembered and) stated that she could not use it because it was super spoilery. Or maybe there are several "original" titles she went through ... ?)
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Re: Archive - Key posts by Minna through the comments
« Reply #186 on: August 13, 2018, 04:12:47 PM »
Every time Reynirs' siblings get mentioned I get more and more sure that they'll be on board of the rescue ship, and they're more than ready to hijack it in order to assure their baby brother's return to safety
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Re: Archive - Key posts by Minna through the comments
« Reply #187 on: August 13, 2018, 04:18:14 PM »
... whoa. O_o
What, romping with the cuddly bears isn’t one of of your favorite childhood petting-zoo memories?
(Kidding ofc. My impression when I was listening to the stream was that they might have bears in zoos, separately from petting-zoos. It’s just more confusing when written than when heard.)
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Re: Archive - Key posts by Minna through the comments
« Reply #188 on: August 13, 2018, 04:26:42 PM »
What, romping with the cuddly bears isn’t one of of your favorite childhood petting-zoo memories?
Back when I was a child, we were supposed to romp with/on polar bear pelts.
Spoiler: show
Well, OK, there were skinned by the time the photographer hit the button, at least. >:D
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Re: Archive - Key posts by Minna through the comments
« Reply #189 on: August 14, 2018, 12:42:57 AM »
Sigrun’s is some sort of horse, whatever norwegian breed would be appropriate and Mikkel is a bull.

We were all so sure that Mikkel was a bear. And to me, Sigrun will always be a Pine Marten!
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Mebediel

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Re: Archive - Key posts by Minna through the comments
« Reply #190 on: August 14, 2018, 12:59:08 AM »
Back when I was a child, we were supposed to romp with/on polar bear pelts.
Spoiler: show
Well, OK, there were skinned by the time the photographer hit the button, at least. >:D

Ah yes, the polar bears. The cuddliest of the bears. Very good with children! I'm glad you have photos to remember the pelts by. :D

We were all so sure that Mikkel was a bear. And to me, Sigrun will always be a Pine Marten!
Just had to Google Pine Marten. It's so cute!!!
Butter good.
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Re: Archive - Key posts by Minna through the comments
« Reply #191 on: August 14, 2018, 08:04:48 PM »
Just had to Google Pine Marten. It's so cute!!!

Cute, hyperactive and vicious! Just like Sigrun ;D
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Re: Archive - Key posts by Minna through the comments
« Reply #192 on: August 24, 2018, 07:49:59 AM »
Have the next installment of last saturday's stream chat questioning. =)
As always, see the google doc if you want an overall view of all the chatlogs so far and remember: Twitch only saves the stream videos for two weeks. If you want to check some facts do it before the end of next week.

I'll highlight one question here b/c it's becoming some sort of a FAQ:
(It's only once in the doc, but I remember that it was asked in the first stream as well, but we weren't so adamant in copy-pasting back then.)

Q.: How do you feel about characters being shipped etc? You seem to take a lot of care not to unintentionally disrupt peoples' visions if the story doesn't call for it but what does it feel like to know so much about other peoples' "headcanon" of your story?
A. (2:56:58): I don’t mind at all. It’s just a sign of people being into the comic. It’s kinda like cosplaying, you know you “made” it once there’s enough of a fan community to get those kinds of fan creations so yeah, I don’t mind it at all. I also kinda keep away from it, don’t visit fanfiction websites and the forum, so I don’t know that much about peoples’ headcanons, I only know if I happen to see something in the comments. I specifically try to stay away from it so that I don’t become too concerned about it; I don’t want to accidentally change the story to avoid breaking someone’s heart or something like that. So yeah, I don’t mind it at all. I’m sure eventually some people are going to be disappointed that their favorite thing didn’t happen but others will probably be more, I don’t know… validated in their favorite, whatever, pairing taste or how you would say.

chatlog_180818

Trolls

Spoiler: show
Q.: Would it be possible to sanitize and use parts of trolls for utility/decoration? I can easily see some Norwegian soldier toting around a bone sword taken from the corpse of a Giant or something.
A. (3:10:30): Yeah, I think bone would be clean enough to sanitize it.

Q.: What exactly is all of that biomass seen around infested buildings? Is it just troll tissue that sloughs off and coagulates, or were they once infected that merged into tumorous growths?
A. (4:02:05): Most of it would be biomass stuff. Having a lot of it around the building helps trolls survive as it provides insulation. Some of it is dead though and has fallen off the body of whatever grew it.

Q.: Does that mean that Nessie is a troll now?
A. (0:10:54): I don’t think Nessie is a mammal, it’s more of a dinosaur, no? So, if anything, Nessie would be a great defensive creature. [followup to the question about the British Isles]


Characters

Spoiler: show
Main Cast

Q.: When Lalli visited Onni's sanctuary back ages ago, did he wake up in his own head from there or did Onni carry him back to his own sanctuary before he woke up?
A. (0:04:34): He woke up in his own head by his own. Same as how Reynir woke up in his own head when he was in Onni’s dreamspace.

Q.:  How do you think the crew would react to learning that big cats like Lions and Tigers existed?
A. (0:05:50): They know about them. They would probably react to it the same way we react to the existence of dinosaurs.

Q.: Will any of the main characters have a romantic relationship by the end of the second SSSS adventure?
A. (0:15:57): I’m not sure. The character relationship developments are open to change because they don’t affect the plot. I’m free to adjust it depending on how I feel. It’s [the end of the story’s] going to be several years from now, so what I want to do with the story could change by then.

Q.: What did the omen that Lalli saw predict? Was it about Tuuri or something else?
A. (0:29:58): No, it was about Tuuri.

Q.: What exactly did Lalli interpret the Omen as? Did he know exactly what was about to transpire, or just that something bad was soon to happen?
A. (3:51:36): He only knew that something really bad was about to happen. He didn’t, like,  know who it was about or anything.

Q.: I'm guessing that orange silhouette Lalli saw in the mist while swimming in the Dream Sea was the Swan? Why would he be scared of it (her?)?
A. (0:30:18): It was not the Swan, it was the thing that Onni and Lalli are scared of.

Q.: Can you promise us that Lalli is never going to axe-murder anyone, please?
A. (0:43:50): I can’t promise that, it’s prophesied by his name! Can he escape the curse? <laughing> No, I don’t think he is going to axe-murder people.

Q.: Whose farm is that in the background? Reynir's or Mikkel's? [Refers to farm behind Mikkel in the new uniform design painting]
A. (0:44:17): Mikkel’s. Each background represent the characters’ countries. Reynir has got that Icelandic hill slopes, a Norwegian fjord [Sigrun], Swedish fjäll mountains [Emil] and Lalli and Onni share that Finnish forest.

Q.: But what about Lalli ax-murdering trolls?
A. (0:45:25): Well, he doesn’t have that much strength in his arms. I don’t see his axe-swinging being super-effective. <joking> It’s super effective! No, no, it’s not.

Q.: If winter is the safest season, how come the next adventure is set in the warmer part of the year, or does the crew have no choice except to go?
A. (1:00:10): They have no choice. Kinda. Well, you’ll see. It’s mostly because of circumstances.

Q.: If you don't mind me asking, I was kinda surprised to see that Lalli wasn't exactly struggling against that underwater Moose. Almost like he was ready to die. Is it because Lalli was exhausted or something?
A. (1:21:26): He was struggling. You know, he got wrapped up pretty quickly and he was pretty tired at that point. But no, he was not ready to die.

Q.: If you swapped the casts of aRTD and SSSS, who'd take which role?
A. (1:22:02): Reynir would be Ville because I designed Reynir to have a similar personality, kind of positive and silly and dog-like. Hannu is a mix of Emil and Lalli, both looks-wise and personality-wise, i guess. I don’t know who the rest would be since aRTD had so many secondary characters.

Q.: Have you ever thought about making Lalli a canon autistic character? As an autistic person, I really recognize a lot of Lalli's personality traits as autistic traits, and it would mean a lot to the autistic community to have more positive representation of autism in the media! thanks~~
A. (1:24:11): No, I don’t think I’m gonna make him like diagnosed for anything, because then I would kinda lock myself into how I could write him, so I’m just having him as, leaving kinda up to, what part of his strangeness is because he wasn’t properly socialized as a child and what part is, you know, just the way he is, so I’m letting people like just [] for themselves, if that makes sense. I personally like characters that kinda leave it up to the reader to, like decide what they want to see in the character because that way more people can see themselves in them. Like, some people might just be like “Oh, I’m not super-great with people, so I see myself in Lalli!” and stuff like that, [] them being super specific about it. I’m glad to hear that you find, a lot that you, what’s the word, empathize with Lalli.

Q.: Everyone seemed incredibly upset about Tuuri dying except for Emil. Any reason why, or is he just internalizing it?
A. (1:26:08): He’s internalized it. I mean he’s, he was sad too, he just didn’t show it that much. I mean he wasn’t super-close to Tuuri; like, Reynir was obviously more of a friend since they spent more time together. Emil’s sadness was more like just that he was on the same team and knew that [Tuuri] was an important person to Lalli, so he would have been more like, maybe been trying to be strong for his friend’s sake.

Q.: How come Reynir is the one in possession of Kitty in your drawing?
A. (1:30:52): For the same reason why there was extra space over here [points at the spot where Kitty is]. I mean, she could have been here [points at the spot near Emil], but she would have been, like, away from space where nothing exists. Here she can sit on the ground.

Q.: How does Onni feel about cats?
A. (1:32:27): He’s neutral. He doesn’t have as much of an aversion to them as Lalli has, since he’s not cat-like person himself.

Q.: Are there any holidays Lalli looks forward to or does he not care about that?
A. (1:36:04): He doesn’t really care. He finds these things kinda annoying because they break his routines.

Q.: Would you mind sharing the crew's birthdays with us, since it’s going to be part of their dossiers for the next comic? (Also, what would Tuuri's have been?)
A. (1:36:28): I will share them, but I haven’t decided yet. Also, I’ll have to recalculate their ages because it’s been about half a year since their last determined ages and someone might have had birthday during the field trip.

Q.: Speaking of birthdays, would the crew care enough to celebrate one of their birthdays in the mission?
A. (1:45:13): Not really, if they knew or remembered each others’ birthdays (they might not as they haven’t known each other for that long) they would probably just say “happy birthday” and pat each other on the shoulder and that’s it.

Q.: Will we also learn Tuuri's birthday?
A. (1:45:52): I guess I have to include it somewhere since people ask about that.

Q.: Elleth asked about how the crew would describe their relationships with each other, like "friends," "teammates," etc.
A. (1:53:45): Well, they would describe them differently, of course, depending on the person. Like Sigrun would probably describe Reynir as some sort of ‘civilian’ that she was just protecting up until now, while Mikkel would be a more important equal to herself. And Emil would describe Mikkel as more of a teammate than how he would describe Lalli. It depends on the character what they would describe each other as.

Q.: Do you think any of the crew would be any good at Karaoke?
A. (2:03:23):I have no idea. I haven’t thought about that if any of them are good at singing. Definitely not Sigrun, she would be enthusiastic about it, but she can’t sing. Mikkel would maybe be good at singing. With deep voice, calm ballads, that kind of thing. You know, with his eyes closed. I don’t know about the rest. Lalli would refuse, so you’ll never find out, Onni would also refuse. No idea about Emil or Reynir.

Q.: I thought Sigrun would be pretty good at singing actually.
A. (2:05:28): Maybe? You can keep it as a headcanon. I don’t think she will be seen singing in the comic. Even if she was bad at it she would be making up for that with her enthusiasm.

Q.:Will anyone be singing in the comic?
A. (2:09:28): I don’t think so. No, I’m starting to doubt myself. Maybe there would be situations where they would have a reason to sing. Not going to say anything about that.

Q.: Is Tuuri's response to Emil's younger cousins a holdout from when she was originally conceived as a rude Finno-Swede?
A. (2:11:54): Yes. She did retain that kind of rude part with her. But the original one was too rude to everybody to cooperate. Yeah, I needed a bit of rudeness with Tuuri, otherwise she would be just saccharine, too sweet and bubbly.

Q.: Do you ever find that people sort of misunderstood the personalities of your characters given distinctions between cultures? For example Germans and Scandinavians being read as very direct and Americans being read as very effusive. I hope this question makes sense.
A. (2:25:27):Yes, it makes sense, but mostly people seem to understand [them] fairly well. Sometimes people ask “Why don’t they react more emotionally to this or that? Do they not care?” and I say that is how people normally act around me. But I see other people in the comments say that it’s how people act normally in this kind of countries, where it’s not proper to cry openly about little things or be super-angry in public. I’m not writing the characters as weird Scandinavian stereotypes. Sometimes you watch movies, at least Finnish ones, and see characters as stonefaced and not caring, which I think is a Finnish stereotype. I’m writing more international characters, since I read a lot of non-Nordic literature, manga and stuff, so I adopted more international character portrayals.

Q.: Again, sorry for such abstract questions but do you have an idea what each of the character's favorite colors are/were?
A. (2:32:17): No, I haven’t thought about that at all. I don’t think about favourite colors as other people because I’m an artist. I think about my favourite colors in term of the things I draw, depending on how they fit in my drawings. I suspect other people think about them differently. I don’t know how I would determine what everyone’s favourite colors would be.

Q.: Will they have a new vehicle?
A. (2:33:40):No, they will not. They will be more on foot this time.

Q.: Will they ever have to journey by horseback?
A. (muted): I don’t know.

Q.: Does Emil have explosives left?
A. (muted): In the next adventure, I don’t think he’s going to have any. They won’t be very useful, so he won’t have any need to have them. But in the current adventure, he does have some explosives left. They might be needed before the story is over.

Q.: Which of the characters is the most "conventionally good looking" for Y90? Have you thought about how beauty standards have changed?
A. (muted): The most conventionally good-looking would be Emil in every situation. He has great hair, a straight nose, even eyebrows, wide but not too edgy jaw and everything, so yeah, he would still be conventionally good-looking. I don’t think the beauty standards would have changed that much, there wouldn’t be like artificial breasts but things like hourglass figures, muscles on men would still be considered attractive.

Q.: Would it hypothetically be possible for Reynir to visit the dreams of the other crew members, given that Lalli managed to do so with Emil (even if the context was much different)?
A. (2:48:32): Yeah, I think it would be possible. But it would be more difficult, since they’re on more of a different plane of consciousness.

Q.: If the crew is walking now, who will carry Kitty?
A. (2:52:36): It’s probably Mikkel since he would be less affected with carrying a few extra kilograms around.

Q.: Sigrun mentioned that she hated backtracking because it meant people would die, was that a specific incident and if so, are we going to find out more?
A. (2:53:40): I think it’s a trauma from her past. Yeah, I think we’ll find out more, when we’ll speak about her life at home.

Q.: Among the crew, who will be less thrilled with "no more cattank" news? Like which one of them hates walking the most?
A. (3:05:10): Emil. He’s the worst at walking. Others are used to that - Mikkel works a lot at different jobs, Sigrun is a proper warrior, Reynir walks a lot as a shepherd, so they are all in a pretty good shape. Emil’s the one who’s always out of the crew when it comes to being good at something.

Q.: Can you tell us a little bit about crew's favorite food? Especially Onni's. Now that he tried some dreamspace cake...
A. (3:14:08): Do you mean Lalli? Or do you mean the cake, I guess he tried some cake back with the pastor. Let’s see. Reynir, his favorite is probably some weird Icelandic food, like lamb stew or something. Sigrun’s favorite would be like, proper beefsteak or something like, rare and with potatoes. And Mikkel - pork chops and potatoes. Emil’s, wants some sort of fast food, I don’t know, I almost want to say meatballs just because he’s Swedish. You know what, it’s meatballs. Meatballs and potatoes, everyone loves potatoes.  Lalli’s favorite is, I don’t know, what’s some Finnish food, sausages and potatoes. And Onni’s would be, I don’t know, blood pudding and potatoes, no, lingonberries. Potatoes don’t go with blood pudding. Yeah, I put zero thought into that so, you know, take it with a grain of salt, I might give a different answer on a different day.

Q.: Would he [Onni] be blaming the base crew or himself?
A. (3:22:31): I’m sure he blames himself, mostly, since, you know, he feels like he should have prevented Tuuri from leaving home. And you know, he didn’t stand his ground.

Q.: Onni seems like he can calm himself down quite fast. Is Onni still angry/mad at Reynir if he blames himself for Tuuri?
A. (3:26:59): I think I’ll leave that for a little bit later. We’ll see it fairly early in the next adventure, so you won’t have to wonder too long.

Q.: When Tuuri died you said we'd see her again sometime, can you tell us anything about when that'll be?
A. (3:44:21): Nope, that would be spoilers. And I also can’t tell in what shape or form we’ll see her.

Q.: Will the roles in the crew be the same/similar in the new adventure as they are now, with Sigrun as leader, Lalli as scout, etc.?
A. (3:52:29): Yeah, they will be pretty similar, since they’re, have a, you know, working, I guess, rank system would be how you say it? But with Reynir kinda added to the official mix I guess. He’s not just the bird that’s hanging around and Sigrun won’t be the official leader for this adventure, she’ll maybe be kinda sharing that title more with Mikkel.

Q.: Is there an explanation why Lalli likes to sleep under things, on the floor?
A. (3:59:55): Yes, since he’s a scout he has to sleep out in the woods fairly often, so he will be sleeping somewhere covered up or in a tree, I guess. You know, sleeping on a bed he would feel kinda exposed.

Q.: Follow up question: was Lalli making a rookie mistake (I remember you've said he's less experienced than Onni), or was it a conscious decision to take the risk? I assume the housetroll spell was a desperation move, so I'm more curious about the cocoon thing.
A. (4:06:45): Yeah, I guess it worked out so it wasn’t really a mistake, but he definitely did take too much of a risk and it was kind of an emotional decision on his part. He had to find a way, and it would have been a dead end otherwise.

Q.: Onni was very concerned about Lalli making friends on the mission. Did Lalli ever have people you could call friends before Emil? Did Onni?
A. (4:08:52): No, Lalli never had any friends before and I don’t think Onni had either. Onni would have work colleagues since he wasn’t a scout working alone, but he wouldn’t voluntarily spend time with any of them outside of work.

Q.: Has Emil had friends before?
A. (muted): [Minna said something like: Emil was homeschooled. He would sometimes play with his neighbors(?) but he would have wanted to decide what they played and such, so the other kids thought he was conceited.]

Q.: I’m assuming that since he's in the main lineup, Onni will be spending more time with the rest of the crew, who do you think will have the most interesting/fun interactions with him?
A. (4:36:20): Yeah, he’s definitely going to be spending more time in the comic with the crew. I guess, uh, he and Reynir are going to have to work some things out. Other than that, he and Mikkel are gonna have some interesting interactions. I don’t think their personalities are going to match up too well, at least not from Onni’s point of view. Mikkel will mostly be amused and have a great time.

Q.: Even when they had just barely met, Emil seemed to go out of his way to look out for Lalli, noticing when he was uncomfortable in different situations and doing what he could to help. What was it about Lalli that made Emil feel like he should watch out for him like that?
A. (4:41:04): One part was that Lalli is the same age as Emil, and Emil had been working in the military for a while with mostly people who were older than him or people who were super-incompetent... We’ll find out more about Emil’s life in the military, he’s not exactly on the prime squad there, heh. Lalli was someone who was a little bit relatable for him.

Q.: If the characters got the chance to sample foods from other parts of the world, which culture's food would be their favorite?
A. (4:45:55): I have to be careful not to go the easy route and say what my favorite foods are. Sigrun would like something super-spicy, so maybe Mexican tex-mex type of stuff, like hot wings. Mikkel would like something more refined, some sort of vegetarian food, like, from India, mild curry I think he might like. Lalli would like, I don’t know, McDonald’s, hehe, maybe. Emil would like Italian food, lasagna and pizza and spaghetti.

Q.: Which character is most likely to buy a haunted doll off of ebay? Would they keep it for themselves or give it to another character as a present?
A. (muted): I feel like Emil would accidentally buy something haunted. But no, he wouldn’t buy a doll. Sigrun, maybe? Yeah, she would be like “Oh, this is so cool!” And then she would give it to Mikkel. So Mikkel would end up with it. [Minna mentioned that Mikkel wouldn’t have refused it if Sigrun was giving it to him]

Q.: What's Reynir's purpose going to be in the next comic, since he more or less joined the crew by accident?
A. (0:12:02): He’s gonna be useful with protective magic, it’s going to be pretty necessary.

Q.: Is Onni joining?
A. (0:13:11): Onni’s going to be... kinda joining in a way? Actually, I’m not going to specify more, you’ll find out more relatively soon. But yeah, he’s going to have an actual presence, not only in a magical realm. He’ll get to interact with the rest of the crew rather than Reynir this time.

Q.: Do the characters have any hobbies or interests outside of their jobs?
A. (0:19:07): I haven’t really thought about any of that. I feel like they are very much about their jobs and most people in the world would be, since everyone’s jobs are pretty important. I’m sure they have some interests, like, I really can’t think of Sigrun knitting anything but maybe she’s interested in something. Collecting stamps. Nah. What kind of hobbies do people have in times when there’s no video games or comic books?

Q.: Would Sigrun collect cool rocks?
A. (0:20:58): That’s a really good hobby. And one she could do since obviously there’s, she would be out in the mountains a lot. So yeah, collecting cool rocks definitely sounds like a hobby she could have.

Q.: Did flipping the bird make it to year 90? What contexts would prompt the characters to do it?
A. (0:32:46): Yeah, I’m sure it survived, it’s a pretty universal sign. I’m sure some of the characters would do it whenever they feel super-annoyed, I just don’t show it in the comic, keep it a little bit in case it’s a rating problem for the books. I don’t feel it’s necessary for showing annoyance. But Reynir wouldn’t do it. The rest? I’m sure they all have instances where they would do it when they’re annoyed. Even Mikkel, he would do a very calm one.

Q.: Will Mikkel ever win back Emil's trust/forgiveness, after the face cancer incident?
A. (0:39:46): Yes, of course, Emil isn’t a kind of person to hold grudges for too long. You’ll have to fool him several times before he learns not to trust someone.

Outfits

Q.: Will you be drawing the cast in video game attire in future streams like that one with them in Final Fantasy attire? It'd be really cool to see them in Dead Space RIGs or even Monster Hunter gear
A. (0:52:45): That’s a good idea. I’ll probably end up doing it in future streams. I have ideas for a couple of next streams only. It would have to be games I have actually played. I haven’t played Monster Hunter, but I love Dead Space. Dead Space was one of my main inspirations when I started SSSS, especially for monsters. The one that has been named “ceiling pug” is 90% inspired from Dead Space.

Q.: Will Kitty get a fancy grade-cat collar?
A. (2:59:00): She might, I’m still debating whether I want it or not. She’ll get a little bit of training but I don’t know if she will be officially graded. I’ll think about it before starting the next adventure.

Q.: Does Onni hold a staff in his hand? If yes, is it a weapon?
A. (3:37:15): No, he holds a spear. Just that, you know, a sharpened stick. And yes it’s a weapon. Gives him a little bit more reach than a knife would give him. He obviously can’t get too close to infected things.

Hair

Q.: Why does Reynir insist on keeping his braid and bushy hair, even though it can get in the way of his face mask and put him at serious risk of infection?
A. (1:10:56): Because he’s spent his whole life growing it and he would rather die than have it cut. And I just want to keep drawing it. At some point the plan was that he would have to have his hair cut off when he got into quarantine, but I figured people would have been too distraught about Reynir without his braid. So I’m gonna let him keep it.

Q.: I feel like everyone getting their hair did in a hairdresser salon session would be a good idea for a stream drawing. Thoughts?   // I meant more along the lines of the kids or Emil doing the styling.
A. (4:56:22): My first thought is “Oh that would be reeeeally difficult to draw”. The hair stuff would be fun, but oooh, the hair salon, that sounds horrible. I might draw the crew with different hairstyles, but hair salon? Not on the list of things I want to draw.   //Aaaah, I see, okay! Yeah, that would be more feasible, I guess.

Q.: That immediately makes me wonder what Lalli normally does about cutting his hair. Does he just, like, hack it off with a knife when it starts to get in the way?
A. (4:59:43): Yes, that is exactly what he does. Except when he’s working in Keuruu he would have to have his hair cut periodically by the person in charge of cutting everyone’s hair. If he’s on his own and it’s annoying, he just trims it with his knife. Crocodile Dundee style. Which is why it looks kinda stripy and uneven.

Q.: Probability of art involving Emil braiding/hairbrushing Reynir?
A. (0:22:45): Hmmm, could happen. Can’t give an exact probability percentage, but definitely possible. I’ve already promised I will draw Reynir with his hair down someday, so that’s definitely going to happen.

Names

Q.: How did you come up with the crew's names, are there deeper reasons why you chose them?
A. (0:35:35): I looked at lists of top 500 names in each country and picked the names that I liked, and then I checked what their meanings were and saw if they had anything interesting about them, or made sure they didn’t mean “the coward” or something like that! Mostly I just picked names that were not the most common ones (for example, Mikkel is a super common name in Denmark, but it’s not the most common), and I also didn’t want names that were super-duper rare (except Lalli, he got the super rare name).

Q.: Onii-chan actually means big brother in Japanese, Onni's name is quite fitting.
A. (0:38:17): Yeah, I know! That’s a coincidence though, I didn’t think about that at all. It was more that I needed matching names for Onni and Tuuri, so they ended up with those. At some point Lalli was gonna be called Lykke instead, since that’s obviously a loan word from Swedish that means “luck,” but it would have been too on-the-nose for them all to have matching names. [Noted in chat: Onni means both happiness and luck, Tuuri means "just" luck.]

Q.: How did you end up choosing names for SSSS characters? Were these names just personal preference or something else? I noticed Reynir means "rowan tree" in Icelandic and Old Norse, it fits his looks at least with him being ginger and rowan tree has symbolism in Norse mythology.
A. (3:21:08): Yeah, I guess I kinda answered this question once already but yeah, I just looked up lists of names for each country and picked out the ones that I liked. And then I looked into their meanings and stuff. And for some I knew the meanings of so I kinda gravitated towards them beforehand and then just picked out some that sounded nice and were like, you could immediately tell which country they’re from because they’re kinda specific to that country and such. I didn’t want to name someone, like, John or something because they’re common names in every country. So yeah, and Reynir I chose because, yeah, it fit him with the colors and stuff, but it also sounded really nice. I had other possibilities that I was thinking of. So that’s how I went about it.

Q.: When did it change from Söderström to Västerström?
A. (3:23:32): I assume you're referring to the fact that at some point in the prologue the Västerströms were referred to as the Söderströms before I corrected it? I guess that when it changed like, Söderströms is like a book printing company that's really big around here so I didn't want to mentally always think about book printing when I was writing their name so I changed it at that point. Before, like the first chapter started, I guess I changed it.

Q.: Did the characters have different names at some point?
A. (4:53:20): Yeah, most of them did, at least Lalli was not Lalli then, I think he was supposed to be Saku at some point, which [the name Saku] obviously ended up being the name of his ancestor from the prologue. Sigrun probably had a longer name like Sigildur or something like Sigrid or something. I was thinking about Reynir’s name for a fairly long time; he was going to be named Árni, which is obviously his father’s name, since he’s Árnason. Then I decided he would be Reynir instead, but I wanted to keep the name Árni somewhere, so it became his last name instead. Emil was always Emil, I think.

Q.: Emil just barely skirted being Emil Svensson, I loved that shout-out, but was it intentional?    // The family tree, Mia's partner's name was Fredrik Svensson, but she kept her last name. I thought it was a shoutout to Astrid Lindgren's Emil, maybe.
A. (4:57:30): I don’t remember that. Refresh my memory, from where and what time period that was from.   //  It might have been, I don’t remember if I did that deliberately, but that’s definitely where Emil’s actual name is from, it’s why I thought about the name “Emil” when I think about Swedish characters. But I don’t remember if I made that connection deliberately, since Svensson is a super common name anyway. But I might have. I mean, Emil’s cousins are named after the Sune characters, so I wouldn’t put it past myself to do that. []

Q.: What was the thought process that Lalli's parents must have had to name their lil baby after an axe murderer?
A. (5:03:20): Actually, I think Ensi, aka Lalli’s grandmother would have pressured them to give Lalli kind of a warrior’s name, other than something wimpy like Onni, she would have been kinda disappointed with that choice of a name. And since Lalli’s the youngest of Tuuri, Onni and him, their grandmother would have had something to say about it at that point. Made her demands.

Mikkel’s gun

Q.: Is there actually something wrong with Mikkel's eyes, or is there some other reason he just can't aim? Or is he pretending?
A. (0:21:40): He’s not pretending, he has trouble with balance and seeing distances and stuff. He can see well, but it’s like he can’t really parse three-dimensional space. Yes, no depth perception is part of it.

Q.: Does the team really trust Mikkel with a shotgun? Or is it not loaded?
A. (3:01:12): I haven’t really decided yet what the official stance about Mikkel’s shotgun is going to be in the crew. I’m sure some of them will have actions, but I think it’s necessary for everyone to be armed since they’re not gonna have a vehicle this time.

Q.: Is it a good idea for Mikkel to be wielding that gun?
A. (0:10:08): We’ll have to find out, don’t we? It might be a good idea. It might be a disaster.

Secondary Characters

Q.: Their "car" What we lovingly called the Cattank, does it have an official name and will we see drawings of it?
A. (2:29:10): It didn’t have an official name, Cattank will remain. No, I don’t think I will be drawing it again except for book covers and promotional material. It won’t be in the comic. Unless I do a minicomic, where some other group went out and retrieved this weird tank for some reason.

Q.: How do you think the crew would react to meeting their ancestors from the prologue?
A. (muted): They would probably be like “How did these people survive?” They wouldn’t be too impressed.

Q.: Has Onni told any of base crew what happened to Tuuri?
A. (3:18:50): Yes, he would have told that, you know. Obviously he doesn’t know what happened, but he now knows that it happened. So he would have told them and you know, obviously they lost communication after that, so they probably are super-worried. Now they know that maybe they’re alive since, you know, Onni has met Reynir and stuff, but, no, they do not know how many are going to show up for the boat.

Q.: Could you draw Ensi on stream sometime?
A. (muted): Maybe. I already did one picture of her, so if I’m doing it again I’d like to make more of a scenery piece. You’re going to see her and the Hotakainen family in the future.

Q.: Kaino's fate has always intrigued me in particular, but the time of Years 0-5 has always made my wheels spin. Will we get any insight into the fate of the Finns on the boat - and the boat itself?
A. (muted): We might get a little bit, but no super-specific insights. If I end up going into the prologue characters’ fates specifically, I would have to make it an extra-comic, like, on the side, 50 pages or something like that. It will be a pretty big workload, but it could be worth it at some point.


Worldbuilding

Spoiler: show
Q.: Do they have catnip in SSSS world?
A. (0:06:52): I think so. I don’t know how it grows, but I think it would grow fairly well in the North.

Q.: Do you think the Sami people are still around 90 years later?
A. (0:36:39): They would have probably assimilated into the surrounding Norwegian and Swedish communities, since there would be like ten [surviving] people and they would have to be pretty inbred if they had tried to keep apart. But there are probably a couple people who still know a little bit of the language and stuff, like canonically there are people who are Estonian in the Finnish community because there are so many Estonian people in the Saimaa area. They would only have to cross the Baltic Sea to get there, so I thought it would make sense for there to be maybe like a hundred people who speak Estonian. But Sami would be much more rare in comparison. Finnish wouldn’t be the only Finnic language left.

Q.: Did (or why didn't) the military try to use airplanes to scout other parts of Europe or parts that would be accessible in one flight for possible signs of civilisation? Cost/benefit analysis or pessimism?
A. (1:05:53): In the world that I’ve designed they don’t use airplanes for anything. They are too much of a risk, because people can use them to access safe areas, infected people, so you are not allowed to use airplanes. They have been allowed to rot away and there is no effort to salvage them. Mostly that was the decision I made for worldbuilding reasons, because I wanted the societies be a little more isolated than they would be if air travel was a thing. But that’s an in-world reason why they don’t have airplanes.
This is a thing I do a lot with worldbuilding. I decide on something to create a certain feeling and then have to come up with logical reasons why. Sometimes the best things I come up are like, “it’s mystery!” and stuff. Sometimes I come up with things that make sense and that’s the better way to do things. Like you can have some things that don’t necessarily make sense, but not all. If you start to complicate your world too much things can start falling apart.

Q.: Were there attempts at finding survivors outside the Nordic Countries in other ways?
A. (1:09:28): No, not really. In the beginning people would be looking for survivors but at some point it became more important to focus on stabilizing the societies that started to form … People who were immune were too important to be sent to search for survivors in such distant countries as America. They are more useful as hunters and stuff, they wouldn’t be sacrificed in such way.

Q.: What kind of holidays still exist 90 years later? I know nothing of Scandinavian holidays aside from Yule and was just wondering.
A. (1:47:36): Well, obviously Yule, since that’s midwinter celebration, and Midsummer celebration would probably be the most important ones. I’m sure there would be leftovers of other major holidays, like Easter would be some sort of spring holiday and there would be autumn holidays since people like excuses to celebrate and eat food together.

Q.: Will there be more info pages in the next story?
A. (2:20:30): Yes, because we’ll have new concepts to delve into. During this story we had, like, many of them in the beginning and not so many towards the end, because I ran out of concepts to explain.

Q.: What do you think would be the most "exotic" type of fruit you could find in the Iceland greenhouses?
A. (3:17:43): I want to say, like, bananas or something because I think what they would grow would be stuff that, you know, people will actually want. And you know, people want bananas! Somehow that’s the fruit that I’m thinking of. I feel like they actually grow bananas, like in actual greenhouses in Iceland. I feel like that’s something that the guides said about, that they actually sell domestic bananas in Iceland. So I’m sure they would have kept the farming going in the comic.

Q.: Has anyone tried keeping in touch with the British Isles, or is it just completely overrun?
A. (0:09:02): Well, they haven’t really been border-checking super-closely, I’m sure they’ve done, like, a quick sail past the shores and stuff and maybe picked some people if they found any, you know, along the years. But the British Isles are very heavily populated, there aren’t really a lot of mountains and isolated places where you could hide from the infection. Even the smaller islands that are not really populated can be accessed if you use a rowboat, and the infection can be spread. It wouldn’t be too easy to survive over there.

Q.: Did any tabletop RPGs survive? If so, is that a hobby and how are the books viewed?
A. (0:23:56): I guess that could have survived. I don’t really know much about tabletop RPGs, no, I don’t know if they’re super popular in Nordic countries. I’m sure that there exist enough that some would have been preserved and some people would have picked it up as a hobby. And I guess maybe be viewed as just a silly waste of time if someone did play them a lot.

Rash, Magic and Ghosts

Q.: Can fylgja and luonto (if those are the plurals?) be mythical or extinct creatures?
A. (0:14:48): Hm, I think so, at least the extinct creatures, like, I don’t know, maybe there aren’t any otters left, but surely someone’s fylgja or luonto could be an otter, but I don’t know about mythical creatures. I would say no maybe about that ‘cause they’re just things made up by humans.

Q.: Magic is often shown as a blue glow, sometimes it's red, especially recently. Could you explain whether there's a difference?
A. (0:16:47): There’s no difference, I just use the color that fits the visuals of that page.

Q.: Сan fylgjas look like something apart from animals, humans for example? And do they have to look like animals which are present in Y90 or exotic, forgotten animals as well?
A. (0:27:10): No, they can look like pretty much anything. Animals from the Nordic lore are most common, but they can look like people or shapeless spirit things. I just gonna go with animals in the comic because they are easier to.. cartoonify.

Q.: How do gods "work"? In comic we saw three sets of gods so far: nordic gods, Finnish gods and christian God. Are gods created by belief? Are there many gods and some are discovered and then worshiped? Something else entirely? Would christian God, if there were (or are, who knows  ) assume a more active role in granting miracles/magic/something along this lines?
A. (0:33:59): I’m not going to define super-specifically how gods and magic in the world work because that would kill a lot of the mysticism of the story, and also kinda limit what I want to do with things. You know, when you make super-hard rules for magic and stuff, sometimes it works, but sometimes it gets too boring when it’s like: “It’s because *this* and *this*, and only this works and this doesn’t work…”. And even for you guys, if you like doing your own fan stories; I know some of you like doing different cultures in the SSSS universe, I don’t want to limit your imagination for how magic and stuff works in those settings.

Q.: How does the language works in the dream world so that everyone understand each other? Is there a neutral "dream language" that everyone unconsciously understand and speak? Or everything the other people say is, like unconsciously translated to their own mother language?
A. (2:45:30): I think it’s like they’re speaking in their own language, but somehow you can understand any language. Sometimes when I’m dreaming I’m dreaming that I’m speaking in a different language that I don’t know. Of course, I’m not actually speaking that language, but I feel like I understand it. If that makes sense, it is in the way that you just understand any language and you don’t even notice that it’s a different language.

Q.: Does that mean puns wouldn’t work in the Dreamworld?
A. (2:48:00): Aaah, we’re getting too specific! If I say “no” then people who want to write fanfiction with puns won’t be able to do it, so I can’t answer that question.

Q.: Do the immune have some sort of antibodies against the Rash? Also, have they tried creating a vaccine for the Rash?
A. (3:26:15): Well I haven't, like, set in stone exactly how or what, like, causes immunity. Like, is it partly supernatural or is it all biological. And yeah, of course they've tried all kinds of things to create vaccines. Haven't really worked out yet.

Q.: I wanted to ask about how you made decisions on the level of magic use in different cultures in SSSS.
A. (1:52:24): Decisions came kinda gradually, like in the very beginning I didn’t have any magic in the world and then at some point---actually, it was during A Redtail’s Dream, which I obviously did about Finnish mythology. I didn’t want to let that go, so I decided to include it in SSSS and I did. I also didn’t want the Finns to be the only ones who had magic capabilities so I had to include the Norse counterpart to that, and it made sense to have an Icelandic slant to it. It was really just the decision that I wanted to keep drawing that kind of imagery.

Q.: Do Finnish mages hang out with their luontos the way Reynir does with his fylgia dog? We've seen Onni become an owl, what's Lalli's relationship with his lynx like?
A. (3:55:54): Well, no, they don’t really hang out that way since fylgjas are more like guardian spirits in that they’re not part of the person while luontos are kinda part of a person’s souls or one of the souls. So, you know, it’s like hanging out with yourself? Nah, no. So the relationship is that they are somewhere inside you and you can harness their power if you have that ability.

Q.: Do mages generally have a sense of how "big" of a spell they can cast safely at their current skill level? Like, did Lalli know that paffing the cocoons would knock him out for a couple of days, or that he was putting himself in serious danger with his spell against the housetroll?
A. (4:00:38): Yes, trained mages would know what their limits are. It would be a rookie mistake to overexert yourself when you don’t mean to.

Q.: I've been reading up on Väenusko a little bit recently, how much of that is included in Finnish magic, or conversely, how much of a religion is Finnish magic?
A. (4:37:16): Well it’s not really a religion in the comic. It’s mostly just the thing that exists, because it’s widely seen and accepted and it clearly works. People just rely on mages and their ability to do certain things for them. Specifically on their ability to see spirits of trolls and beasts is the main benefit of having mages around.

Q.: Can Finnish mages in the Dreamworld switch between their human form and their luonto form at will (like Onni?) or is something that just happens? Will we ever see Lalli in his luonto form?
A. (4:49:40): Mages that are powerful enough and have some sort of control over themselves properly can do it. Lalli can’t do it, he’s not experienced enough.

Q.: At what point in the aftermath of the outbreak did people experiment with magic and why are different peoples' affinities different? Could Reynir for example learn from Onni or some other Finnish mentor with enough study?
A. (0:05:30): They would have been noticing pretty early, mostly by some people being able to see the spirits of the trolls and thus be able to defect them. And as for experimenting with actual magic, it would have been a few years, at least. And magic is different because the power come from different gods. The Finns have their own pantheon with different types of abilities and Icelandic and other Nordic, or Norse, people have their own [coven], they are better suited for other things. I’m sure there are some things that Reynir could learn something from Onni, like concentration and self-discipline, but he wouldn’t be able to utilize the same sources of power than Onni can, and vice-versa.

« Last Edit: August 24, 2018, 07:51:52 AM by Talimee »
[22:31] <@amity> And they care about only two things: Emil/Lalli fanfic, and chewing bubblegum.
[22:31] <@amity> And the word is, they're all out of bubblegum.

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Re: Archive - Key posts by Minna through the comments
« Reply #193 on: August 24, 2018, 07:54:33 AM »
Second part of the chatlog. It appears the messages have a length-limit! XD

Misc. information, personal stuff & widely S4-related

Spoiler: show
Q.: What’s your kitty’s name?
A. (0:05:04): Her real name is Tiutu but I just call her Kisu. Because when we were deciding on her name, when we adopted her, it took like two months for us to come up with the name so we just, everyone started calling her different nicknames.

Q.: Do you ever scold your kitty and why?
A. (2:22:58): Very rarely. There are times when I shout at her to scare her away from doing what she’s doing, like, if she’s on the kitchen table and I see her starting to eat something or if she sneaks up and starts eating my food right next to me then I go like “HEEH” so she stops eating and I can get my food back. She ate a bit of my ketchup yesterday. It was so sad, I had to go clean it up… But my kitty is really good, she never does anything bad; she doesn’t scratch any furniture inside, she only scratches the tree outside. That’s good.

Q.: Have you read Scandinavia and the World? It's what got me interested in Scandinavian stuff like SSSS in the first place and I wondered what you thought of it
A. (0:08:43): I’ve read some of it. I haven’t read the new ones but I’ve read something which can be considered as “classic” from the beginning and really liked it. My mom also really likes them. I think she keeps up with the new ones.

Q.: Just out of curiosity, do you know how long SSSS is in terms of wordcount?
A. (0:54:20): No idea. I am not able to estimate.

Q.: About how much time a week do you dedicate to SSSS?
A. (0:55:40): Just comic pages - one is about 15 hours, so 60 hours is a pretty good average estimate. On top of that, a few hours here and there for random stuff I have to do like managing the website and social media and I guess we could call the streams time spent on SSSS too.

Q.: Do you have any favorite comic/manga characters?
A. (1:17:22): Not really any super-favorites, usually when I like a comic or manga I like the whole cast of characters and the story. But as favorites, maybe Scrooge McDuck and Tintin would be characters that I just like as characters. In manga...I dunno...I can’t really think of any specific character that would be, like, the greatest. For some reason, though, in anime (maybe also manga, I don’t know if there’s a manga)... I watched an anime called Black Cat years ago and I don’t remember anything about the story or what it was about but I remember that I really, really liked the main character. He had a really cool design. That’s the only thing I remember about the anime, so I guess that would also be one character I really liked.
But yeah, I usually don’t fixate on a single character, which I guess is why we don’t really have a main character in SSSS and also [why] other ideas that I have don’t really have main characters. Or I might have main characters, but not one lead; I have usually an equal cast of at least a couple. Like, even in A Redtail’s Dream Hannu and Ville are both the main characters rather than only one of them being.

Q.: Do you think you'd be the kind of person to enjoy MMORPG's?
A. (1:22:59): Yeah, I would, if I had time to get into them. When I was a kid, I was really into Room Escape, the only real MMORPG that I’ve played, but I haven’t played World of Warcraft, I didn’t have the money. I did play Guild Wars but I don’t know if that counts, because when you do quests and stuff you can only have, like, ten people in your party, so it wasn’t super multiplayer-ish. But yeah.

Q.: James is very happy about your music choices-- could you share some of your favorite bands and genres?
A. (1:27:10): Well, lots of my favourite bands are the ones in these playlists, and my favorite genres are obviously different Nordic folk things - I like both folk metal and folk rock and straight-up traditional folksy type of music. There’s not that many bands but there’s, like, a dozen in total that I like music from. From some I like one or two songs, but that’s enough. Other than that, I just listen to music from video games that I like, if I’m in the mood for it. And I guess I like typical popular music, I’m not super-picky about what I like. But when I want to be in the mood for drawing SSSS I listen to Nordic folk music of different genres.

Q.: Do you like Garmarna?
A. (1:58:40): I think I listen to them because the name is familiar but I don’t remember so I can’t say.

Q.: Last music question I promise: do you like Heilung or are they maybe too aggressive for your taste? You mentioned liking folk metal. Also Garmarna and RAN?
A. (1:59:10): I haven’t actually heard of Heilung, I have to check them out. I haven’t heard of RAN. I might like them. I don’t like super heavy metal. If they are that kind, I have a sort of love-hate relationship with heavy metal. I like some music, but other very similar becomes just screaming and I can’t hear the words and I can’t hear the tune. So with metal bands is like that: I listen to one song and I like it and then I listen to 40 others by them and I don’t like them. I’ll definitely check them out.

Q.: Any sci-fi settings you really like?
A. (1:37:16): Yes, I like sci-fi settings where there is some sort of AI speculation involved, like, what would happen once humans are not the smartest on planet Earth anymore, and another setting is horror and space, you know, space diseases and stuff like that. Alien and Dead Space. And Apollo-18. You know, “Why did we never return to the Moon?” And the reason is always “scary stuff on the Moon.”

Q.: Any update on the books going out?
A. (2:16:00): Yes, the first, one-book- only tier has already started going out, some of you have already got your notices. That’s like 800 people. They will all have been shipped out mid-to-late next week, and then they will move on to the next tiers. The first 800 people, your books will start going out within the week.

Q.: Which of the folklores/mythologies will be predominant in the next adventure, Finnish or Norse?
A. (muted): You’ll see. I mean, they’ll both be very prominent, but, yeah, one of them is gonna be predominant.

Q.: What are some of the other ideas for bonus comics you have so far for the other two books?
A. (2:47:00): I haven’t decided yet. There are too many ideas, I don’t have any good specific ones to share.

Q.: How much time inside of the story is going to pass between the end of the first adventure and the beginning of the second one? Or it starts just right after?
A. (4:08:01): It’s gonna start right after. I think it’s gonna be like one or two weeks between, there won’t be like a 10 year time skip.

Q.: Whose fashion sense is most like your own? What outfit have you drawn that you would  like to wear the most?
A. (4:10:07): Let’s see… One of these three [Sigrun’s, Mikkel’s or Emil’s]. I wouldn’t wear anything that’s too weird, I don’t want to be really noticed by people when I’m outside, so Emil’s is pretty nice, but Mikkel’s and Sigrun’s jackets are also fairly okay. One of those. [pauses] I’m one of those people who like to move around the world as a so-called “gray man”, one who people just don’t even notice that is there. [pauses] It can be a little bit tricky because if you wear too nice clothes people will be all “oh, your clothes are so nice!” but if you wear too ugly clothes, people will look at you with “ugh, who’s that hobo? homeless woman”. Heheheh.

Q.: I get the idea of being invisible - I’m now middle-aged, and am truly invisible, and I LOVE IT. It’s the best.
A. (4:14:35): Yes, I really do also enjoy kind of going outside and knowing that nobody’s gonna say hello, hahah. Well it doesn’t really work in my town, it’s a small place that, if you go past an old lady she might just go “Hello! How’s your day?” and then you have to stand and talk with her. She goes: “Oh, you’re that artist girl, oh, how’s it going?” No, they don’t actually know I’m an artist, the old people in this town think that I’m an author. They know that I make books and hahah, they don’t really understand that I make comics. Except one old couple, they’re almost my neighbors, and they, I obviously run across them now and then and they have, apparently looked up my website and checked out my comic and went: “Oh, yes, very interesting work.” [laughs.] Seen all the horrible mutants that are drawn and blood and guts spilling out. [pauses] They genuinely think it’s cool, they weren’t like “Ugh, mnn, interesting young people stuff.” [laughs]

Q.: I wish I was invisible, I get catcalled all the time… do you have any pointers?
A. (4:16:23): Well uhh, I did get catcalled sometimes when I was like actually wearing nice clothes I guess, so you know, nowadays I just wear like, how would you call it, a windbreaker jacket, like the kind you wear when you’re just, you know, it’s autumn and you might go for a walk in the woods and, you know. Worn out pants, kinda baggy, and you know, everything’s kinda grey, white, black. My hair is just in a ponytail, I don’t have it, like, done anything extra with it. Almost no makeup when I go out and, you know, stuff like that. People don’t really notice me. I guess it’s really, you know, if you live in a big city, I mean, people are gonna think, if  you’re a woman, someone’s gonna think you’re pretty. You can look like a hobo and some hobo is gonna be “hey, pretty lady!” [laughs.] So you know, I guess you just have to accept that you’re attractive. But yeah, just wearing really boring clothes helps a lot.

Q.: How do you deal with creepy guys?
A. (muted): When they walk up to me I scream “GO AWAY” in their faces and run away.

Q.: There have been a few panels that made me wonder if you ever tried to get NSFW things past the radar or write/draw them as a joke or pun. Is that something you do or was my mind in the gutter?
A. (4:26:06): I think your mind might have been in the gutter, heheh, I haven’t done that.

Q.: Did you plant anything in your garden this year?
A. (4:47:15): Yes, I planted a few carrots. I won’t eat them, I just like watching them grow and have a reason to go out and water something now and then. And I still have a long-term, I don’t know what they’re called, but they’re like mini spruce trees, that are supposed to be like strawberry, but they don’t have leaves, they are evergreen. I have one that almost died the first year,  a couple years ago, so I go outside every other day and water it really carefully and look if it’s getting better or if it’s still dying. But no, it has survived, so I go outside and look if it’s grown at all. I’m not much for planting anything, because I’m kinda lazy, but the old lady who lived here before me was great at planting and planted a lot of perennials, so they keep coming up, lots of flowers and stuff, and I don’t have to do anything, my garden is really pretty. All I do is cut the grass and prune the strawberry thing.

Q.: Have you seen those draw the squad prompts on the internet? Would you ever do one of those for the crew?
A. (0:24:44): No, I don’t know what that is. Sometimes I see on Twitter “draw your 10 favourite characters” or “draw a bunch of eyes” but I don’t know what the crew prompt is. And I don’t think I would do that kind of challenges. I find them a little boring since I have my own ideas. When you are limited by time, you have to choose what you draw and what you don’t.

Drawing: Inspirations, Techniques, Process

Q.: Do you use a pen or a mouse to do the line drawing?
A. (2:00:50): I have a tablet and a stylus, so pen, definitely not a mouse. It’s a twelve inch tablet. I have had it for about 5 years.

Q.: Have you ever worked with Corel Painter for the watercolor capabilities?
A. (4:42:06): No. I actually had Corel Painter, it came with some device that I bought, but my computer is not powerful enough for it, so it’s super-laggy. I tried it and it seemed cool, but I wasn’t able to do anything. I’ll definitely try it out in the future if I upgrade my computer.

Q.: Given you've had your tablet so long, would you ever consider one of the large on-screen style tablets? Or do you want to work with this one until it's done?
A. (2:07:00): Actually, I really want one of the large ones, like 27 inches, its really big, but they are so expensive, they are like, 5000. I’m waiting until I’m in situation where I can spend that kind of money. Of course I can spend it, it’s for my job, but I don’t want to buy it and then regret it. The current one was a big investment, 1000, when I was 20. It would be bad if I bought one of them and then wouldn’t like drawing on one of them. It would just sit on the table and every time I would look at it i would be like “Ugh, 5000”. Yeah, I want it and eventually I’ll be able to afford it because I make okay money from my comic but I’m not quite there yet, maybe next year. I have bought a used tablet for 600$, a 10 year old model. Yeah, it’s stupid but I like it and so I have a backup if this one breaks and I won’t find another model I like.

Q.: Is the red-grey-white colour scheme indicative of the new adventure, or just something you felt like drawing?
A. (0:09:50): No, it’s just what I like drawing. The comic’s “official” color theme has been purple, tan, and red, so it’s pretty similar to that. I just went with a little bit less purple this time.

Q.: Over the course of the comic, the way the characters are drawn has become slightly more simplified and consistent. Was this a conscious choice to make them easier to draw, or just the result of "getting to know them" by drawing them so many times?
A. (1:14:34): It’s the latter. I’ve become more consistent with them as I’ve become more used to drawing them. And the reason why things are more simplified is that it’s the way my style has developed. And also if you’re not secure in how things are supposed to look you overcompensate it by drawing a lot of extra lines to make a bit more ambiguous so it’s not that clear that you don’t really know what you’re doing.

Q.: Is there a character you particularly enjoy drawing?
A. (0:28:18): It varies. Sometimes I really like drawing Reynir, sometimes I really like drawing Emil, sometimes I really like drawing Lalli, that depends. Yeah, they are fun to draw. It’s just that usually I draw a particular setting and one of the characters fits the setting better than others.

Q.: Any advice for aspiring artists who are just starting out drawing?
A. (5:18:02): Well I would say find something that you really enjoy drawing because you have to draw like every day to get better for several hours. When I was starting out what I’d like to draw was just drawings of pokemon, that’s all I wanted to draw. Find something that you like to draw and an artist whose style you would like to learn to draw in and just, not really copy but try to draw like them and the subject matter that you like because really the only thing that matters is that you draw a lot and the hard thing is staying motivated. If you have really good discipline you can, the best thing is to draw anatomy practices and color studies and live drawings and stuff. But that can be really boring so if you start with that and don’t have the discipline, you might give up really easily, so that’s why it’s usually a good idea to draw something that you enjoy drawing. At least you get over like the first couple of years when you’re kinda really bad at drawing no matter what. And then once you  worked off a little bit of confidence, then kinda work in more of that proper studying stuff.

Q.: I love a lot of the folk-art touches in your work. Would you be willing to talk a little bit about the inspiration for your art?
A. (1:48:47): Well, the inspiration is just folk art in general, Scandinavian, of course, and Nordic. I have some books which I draw visual inspiration from, like the Kalevala, and books about Nordic creatures and stuff, and of course I collect stuff online. Like, I have folders with folksy-looking images. But I don’t really have specific titles I can give. When you grow up in a culture, you see the visuals [regularly] so you know what to look for.
Specifically for this [the crew’s second adventure outfits], I knew what to look for to get Norwegian patterns like the Norwegian Lusekofte, I know what Icelandic sweaters look like, and I kinda know what the Karelian/Eastern Finnish kind of Kalevala-type attire are, and then Emil has Dala-type patterns.

Q.: Hi! You do "Dala"-art VERY well!
A. (1:51:54): Well thank you! I do always make sure that I look at references before I design something so that I don’t misremember what the visual style is.

Q.: Do you have a favorite runestone carving you take inspiration from? Like Jelling or Ringerike?
A. (3:39:15): No, I just, if I like, design something that uses that imagery, I just take a bunch of different styles and, you know, pick out my favorite shapes and use those. I guess the main trace I used on the book covers so yeah, it’s not a specific one, it’s just an amalgamation of all of them.

Q.: Do you often draw across the canvas like this with different stages, or do you do lineart/inking/color in phases? Also, seeing the fine detailing on his [Lalli’s] sleeves and hood are wonderful!
A. (3:49:34): Thank you, and I do it with different ways depending on what type of drawing it is. Like the comic pages, I do all of the sketching in one go, like I have two pages next to each other. All of the sketching, then I do all of the inking, then I do all of the color sketching and then I do all of the finalizing of colors, like everything at once. If I do, like, more of a painterly thing, I might do a little bit of maybe someone’s face, all the way to the most detailed stage, then a little bit of something else, then a little bit of the background and go back and forth. In this kind of drawings, with it, like, very sectioned off, yeah I usually do it one character at a time, because it becomes very boring to do like everyone’s line art in one go, because then it feels like you’re not getting any closer to being finished, like right now I can be like “oh I have so much left to do”, but at least, like, these two [points at Reynir and Sigrun] are done and I can be happy about that. If all of them were in stage I guess that Emil is in, I would be feeling really tired right now. But now, doing it this way, I have at least one third of the drawing all finished. So I don’t feel as far away from the finish line, if that makes sense. So yeah, I do it a lot of different ways depending on how I feel about the drawing.

Q: Do our questions slow you down somehow?
A. (2:27:59): Yeah, I guess they slow me down in the way that I sometimes can’t think and draw at the same time. Or talk, or read. But it doesn’t really slow me down in the way that when I stream I draw a little bit faster, because when I’m not streaming I’m kinda going like *thiis* and *thiis* and then I’m thinking about something and listening to whatever, so it kinda evens out and my pace is about the same as when I draw by myself. I’m surprised by how much I’ve managed to produce during these streams. I was a little bit worried that I won’t be able to focus properly and draw anything, but the fact that I’ve been able to do one drawing every two weeks is really great.

Q.: Does talking out loud to the chat about your drawing help you figure out art decisions?
A. (0:34:18): Not really, talking out loud kinda just helps me keep focused, because otherwise I forget that I’m streaming while I’m drawing and start spacing out, especially when I start getting tired. But making art decisions? No, for me it’s easier to make crucial design decisions by myself, off-stream, which is why I did the initial sketches off-stream - because I had to do design decisions, and it’s harder to make such decisions kinda “under pressure”, I guess, because you might  settle for something that isn’t super-great when you should discard it and start over. At least that’s my experience.

Writing: Character-creation, Pacing

Q.: In the beginning you said the first adventure would be about 5 books, but it turned out to be about 4. how did that come about?
A. (0:56:25): It came about mostly by me not being able to estimate how much space page-wise the books would take. Like a lot of the chapters turned out to be much shorter.

Q.: At the beginning of the latest chapter, you said you had months' worth of updates before this first arc ends. How much is left at this point? Will it end before the end of this year?
A. (0:15:51): Yes, it will end before the end of this year. I don’t think [] should have that much left,  maybe like a couple of months left? I’m not sure of the exact page count and I wouldn’t reveal it anyway since then you would be able to feel when the end is near or stuff like that. But yeah, there’s not that much left and it’s less than I thought a couple of months ago, when I started the chapter because I’ve gone through like I usually do, like extra editing on the script and tightening and making sure it’s as good as possible and usually when I do that, I try to not really condense things but make things more efficient, like fit more panels on one page and stuff like that. And remove panels that don’t really add anything and drag on something for too long so I’ve been able to shorten the expected page count by maybe like a fourth. So yeah, maybe I thought this would be one month longer than it is going to actually be.

Q.: You mentioned that you sometimes change chapter outlines or change things around. What's your favourite scene that never made it into the comic?
A. (2:09:51): Um, I can’t remember if I actually given up any of my favourite scenes like that. Most scenes I cut out don’t add anything to the comic, like I notice I am just dragging on for too long on some bits so I just remove something, or I just notice that something is happening too soon in the story. Or if I remember I forgot to foreshadow something and I have to insert something. I haven’t removed any super cool awesome scenes.

Q.: You mentioned before that you thought about re-writing the story so that Tuuri would come out alright, but couldn't without changing future storylines. Could you give us an example of one, or are they going to be in the next SSSS comic?
A. (0:23:40): No, the future storylines would be completely different, like I would have to scrap one that comes next, for character developments which lead to some things in the next chapter which would otherwise not make sense. So yeah, I would have to come up with a completely different storyline and I was like “aghh, I can’t come up with anything interesting” and I would always wish I have done that from the beginning, because events are cascading and then I would have to scrap one after that too and so on and so on.

Q.: I hear that authors tend to write characters as projections of their own sort of internal monologue. I can easily see you doing so with Lalli and Onni in relation to their attitudes and social mannerisms.
A. (4:13:27): Yeah, I definitely use my own experiences when writing kinda socially withdrawn people, and then I have to really try to think outside my own head box when writing like Sigrun, Tuuri and Reynir, you know. It’s not too hard. Actually, it’s pretty easy to write characters that aren’t like yourself.

Q.: Do you have any advice on coming up with character traits or fitting names?
A. (4:50:50): The character traits. I, at least, come up with them by kinda imagining cool scenes, like, in the future of one of the story I’m thinking of, and the character traits can come from how I imagine the characters deal with each other and those cool scenes, and then I build from that. I might need some characters to fight with each other in a specific way, have arguments and stuff, and some characters I will need to be leaders and take control of situations, they’re characters that have to have some sort of inner strength to deal with this and that. It builds gradually, just by thinking about different scenes and building from that.
Eventually, when you have enough traits, you can decide which of them are the main traits of that character, unless you have person characters, it comes super-early, like, you think “oh, this is the trait of this character.” Some, you have to let them grow, and sometimes they change a lot, you can have a super nice character and then decide that they’re really boring and annoying and change almost everything suddenly, and you just have to let that happen when you make characters. The story is the important part. Some people come up with characters and build a story around them. No.

Shipping

Q.: How do you feel about characters being shipped etc? You seem to take a lot of care not to unintentionally disrupt peoples' visions if the story doesn't call for it but what does it feel like to know so much about other peoples' "headcanon" of your story?
A. (2:56:58): I don’t mind at all. It’s just a sign of people being into the comic. It’s kinda like cosplaying, you know you “made” it once there’s enough of a fan community to get those kinds of fan creations so yeah, I don’t mind it at all. I also kinda keep away from it, don’t visit fanfiction websites and the forum, so I don’t know that much about peoples’ headcanons, I only know if I happen to see something in the comments. I specifically try to stay away from it so that I don’t become too concerned about it; I don’t want to accidentally change the story to avoid breaking someone’s heart or something like that. So yeah, I don’t mind it at all. I’m sure eventually some people are going to be disappointed that their favorite thing didn’t happen but others will probably be more, I don’t know… validated in their favorite, whatever, pairing taste or how you would say.

City of Hunger

Q.: How's City of Hunger coming along?
A. (4:58:15): It’s coming along as great as one would expect. I’ve just finished Lalli’s and Onni’s running animations, so that means all of the animations are done, and I’ve been doing the super-boring part of cutting out every frame for every character, every run direction and standing still direction, and putting them into those, like, a “grid” file, because they all have to be in a grid for Unity to compound an animation, so I spent the whole day just doing that. Like, hundreds of frames of just people standing and looking in different directions. Argh! Almost done with that. I think I’m back to more interesting parts soon. There’s gonna be another update this Wednesday. At least, it’s time again, if I remember correctly. If not, then next week, if I remember incorrectly.

Q.: Are you still planning to work the whole thing [City of Hunger] through by yourself?
A. (2:35:54): Yes, I do plan to do it myself. Actually most of the work that’s left is drawing-related, like I need to draw the art for the story part of it. Most of the coding is almost done, all of the pieces are there, like 90%, some things I just need to add a little bit here and there, but the most time-consuming part is that I need to draw a lot of art. Once it’s done and I publish it, I’ll do something that requires minimal art and is mostly coding, so I have something completely different to work on on the side of drawing comics.

Q.: Could you give us a hint as to why Lalli and Onni have synthetic limbs in City of Hunger?
A. (0:14:14): No, that’s part of the story, and the story’s the most integral part of the game. Spoilers.

Profession

Q.: Speaking of earning your living as an artist, when did you make that transition and what has it been like for you?
A. (2:12:42): Well, that actually happened kind of right after I graduated university, which was when aRTD ended and SSSS started. I wasn’t actually making a living then but I was making like 700 bucks a month from prints and advertising money from the comic, that would have been right at the end of aRTD, and I was able to make a living from the kickstarter, or IndieGoGo from aRTD book ended. I kind of transitioned into doing the comic full-time after university, and I kind of had enough money saved up until the Indiegogo for the book was ready. I never had a real job, haha! (by the way, this song is my limit for screaminess in metal - Jökelväktaren by Vintersong) ...This is the real job, but I haven’t been employed by anyone, is what I mean. I haven’t gotten a paycheck.

Q.: Do you have any specific, long-term professional goals? Or are you just sort of focusing on the next couple of things in front of you?
A. (2:30:57):Yeah, I have long-term goals. I always feel bored if I don’t have long-term goals. One goal is I’ll be doing City of Hunger in next 5 years and then something else video game related. One goal is also to keep making SSSS. I try new ways to widen my audience, streaming is one way I would like to get more into in the future. I also have plans for when SSSS ends, I kinda know what my next comic is going to be, so I have plans for at least 10 years.

Q.: I recall you studied graphic design prior to comic-work; what is/are your favourite font(s)?
A. (2:34:47):Yes, that was what I was doing in university and I decided I hate doing that as a job, which is why I went into comics and the only font I know I’ve always liked is Garamond, the one I use in the comic for info-pages. It’s the only one I need: small caps for headings and stuff and normal font for everything else.

Q.: Do you feel like you earn enough from publishing your comics to live comfortably, in your opinion?
A. (5:11:27): Yes, especially since I live alone, I don’t have to pay any other persons anything. To me it’s a very good living, comfortable, at least, like I’m not worried about money. If I had a family to support, I would worry about my income. I kinda compare my salary to that of teachers’, because my mom’s a teacher, and I know how much she works every week; teachers don’t make that much in Finland, so I make more than she does. She has a real job that’s actually not hot and cold, that really matters. And I make more money than her, so yeah, I feel like I make a lot of money.
Finland is a really expensive place to live, almost as expensive as Norway, at least the cities, but people don’t make that much money, the medium income is 2500€ a month, which isn’t a lot if you compare it to US or something, where I see people freak out about making 3000€ a month and people go “wow, how can someone live on that, oh my god” and, you know, support family and everything, but people over here where it’s just as expensive to live on salaries of like 2000 or 3000 and I’m like “yeah, that’s a good salary.”
I’m kinda subjective since Finland used to be a really poor country in, like, the 70s. People would move to Sweden to work, because if you lived in Finland you might have starved, hehe. Swedish people said Finnish kids liked Christmas presents, because they you that Finnish people might not be able afford Christmas presents to their children or stuff like that.

[22:31] <@amity> And they care about only two things: Emil/Lalli fanfic, and chewing bubblegum.
[22:31] <@amity> And the word is, they're all out of bubblegum.

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Re: Archive - Key posts by Minna through the comments
« Reply #194 on: August 24, 2018, 08:53:31 AM »
Thank you, everyone who worked on compiling this :) and Talimee for organizing it into categories
:book2: aye: :france: :portugal: :uk:
:book3: meh: :italy: :germany: :spain: :sweden:
:book4: :betterhat: :hat:
:chap5: :A2chap01: :A2chap03: :A2chap04: