I have to admit, today’s comic is just an excuse to pay homage to When the Raven Flies (Hrafninn flýgur) and the other fine movies of Hrafn Gunnlaugsson’s Viking series. I’ve been wanting to make a cartoon about Icelandic Viking movies for a while, and well, this is the best I could come up with for today. You didn’t think Loki shopped for his movies at Blockbuster, did you?

I highly recommend anyone interested in Vikings, sagas, and the one eyed master of the universe hunt these movies down for your viewing pleasure. More info on http://www.vikingfilms.net/

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Post tags: baldur, breidablik, iceland, loki, movies

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I think Baldur made the right decision. Leaving one’s house in the care of Freyr and his naughty friends is a sure recipe for disaster.

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Post tags: baldur, fertility, freyr, loki, love, rituals

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Post tags: holiday, loki, mother's day, sleipnir

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Okay, so if you don’t get today’s cartoon, you need to read up! Loki is the mother of Sleipnir, of course - the result of cavorting with a stallion while taking the form of a mare. And if you think this holiday is difficult for him, just think how he feels on Father’s Day when Fenris, Hel, and the Jormungand Serpent show up on his doorstep to pay their respects. Perhaps a vasectomy is in order. Or a tubectomy? Don’t these gods believe in using birth control when fooling around with strange beasts and the large ladies of Jotunheim?

Loki’s Mother’s Day situation isn’t the only one complicated in Asgard. Heimdall has nine mothers and all of them expect flowers and cards.

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Post tags: animals, baldur, frigg, holidays, loki, mother's day, sleipnir

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Lest you think all that Odin does in this comic is blast unwitting humans with lightning bolts… voila! Natural earth processes at work, Odin style. What is natural anyway? What is the driver behind these things? And is the driver drunk or sober? For the record, Odin is not prone to drunken behavior, but nothing beats an exquisite glass of wine when blowing the top off a mountain.

I need to attribute a few of the photos in today’s cartoon. The first photo is of Kirishima volcano in Japan and was found on the National Geographic website. I looked for free volcano/lightning photos, but I couldn’t find anything that even came close to looking as cool as this photo. Hopefully the folks there will let me get away with its partial use in my larger composition. The second is my own photo of Dettifoss in Iceland. The last is by Varjisakka (Jerry Porsbjer) of Magnum Photo and was acquired from Wikimedia Commons.

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Post tags: baldur, nature, odin

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I don’t blame Thor for getting angry. Who is this Thur person anyway? Let’s keep the Thor in Thursday where he belongs. And the Freyr in Friday. Or is it Freya who gets Friday? And how about putting Mjolnir in Monday - it may not be historically accurate, but it makes sense. You start the work week on Monday, Mjolnir is a hammer, and a lot of people work with hammers starting on Monday morning (except for the guys who start hammering on Saturday around 8 a.m. - bastards!) And what about Tuesday… I thought Tuesday was named after Tyr? I don’t even know how to pronounce Tyr, but I’m sure it sounds nothing like Tuesday. It’s in worse shape than Thursday. Odin gets Wednesday, of course, because Wednesday sounds just like — argh.

Yeah, yeah, I know… all the names are from Old German or Middle Norse or Lower Swedish or something like that. Except Sunday. And Monday. Monday which now belongs to Mjolnir. Okay, you all get the joke. Hail Thur!

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Post tags: mjolnir, thor

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Wow. You know, I’m living in Florida now and there is a LOT of lightning in this state. I’m starting to think maybe I shouldn’t joke around about this kind of thing so much. One member of my family was knocked unconscious by a bolt that struck a nearby tree once and she said it wasn’t very much fun. She did get out of work for the rest of the day, however. Anyway, if I do get blown away by a heavenly bolt, please have a grim chuckle at my expense. But hopefully that won’t happen. I head for cover when the sky starts flashing and I don’t ask sky gods to prove their existence while walking across open fields, especially when the sky is brooding and the god is Odin.

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Post tags: god, lightning, loki, odin, religion

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Bishop Åfuk wants to play somewhere dark. The double black hole in Galaxy 0402+393 is an excellent suggestion, but you just can’t top the deadly crush of NGC 4889. Anything larger than 15 billion solar masses is not only dark, it’s heavy, so my vote is with Nillipede. Yes, Nillipede is the stage name of Vithram Blade’s magnificent drummer who’s two arms morph into many during his frantically opaque blast beats. That’s him in the comic wearing the mark of Cthulhu, the tentacled space god who’s extra appendages are envied by all percussionists.

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Post tags: black hole, black metal, death metal, heavy metal, nillipede, space, thrash metal, viking metal, vithram blade

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Vithram Blade is back and Bishop Åfuk is pissed! Not only is he the band leader, he’s the band martyr. He formed Vithram Blade to create evil art (as part of a state-mandated “artistic therapy” program, a topic to be discussed another day), not fight with booking agents, settle bar bills, and bail the other members of the gang band out of jail. He’s too busy to even brood!

Special educational bonus commentary with today’s comic! For those that aren’t familiar with the pronunciation of the letter “å” - well, it sounds something like the English “oa” sound in boat. Maybe Bishop Åfuk should be on Sesame Street?

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Post tags: Bishop Åfuk, black metal, death metal, heavy metal, music, viking metal, vithram blade

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Yikes! I struggled with today’s comic a bit. Not the production, which went smoothly enough, but the message I was sending. Do I really mean to imply that Odin will strike you down just for walking outside and enjoying spring? Hm. I’m sure we can all relate to those moments when things are going well and suddenly - KATHOOM! - it seems like the gods have us in their crosshairs for destruction. I also have a dark sense of humor that’s hard to restrain (some of you might have noticed from time to time, mwahahaha). But no, I don’t think Odin will strike you down just for smelling the flowers of his grand evolution. Then again, he might have eaten some bad sushi the night before, rumbling his stomach and leaving him in the foulest of moods. Or an asteroid might blow away the planet. Or that particle collider in Switzerland might finally start working and suck the solar system into a black hole. Live it up while you can, people!

Next week: Vithram Blade returns!

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Post tags: fate, flowers, lightning, odin, spring

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