The Gang

As soon as it was suggested that I drew the Scandinavian boys as Olsen Banden (The Olsen Gang) I had to do it. It was just too perfect.

Olsen Banden is a series of 14 Danish comedies (the first was made in 1968) about a gang of three small-time criminals (Egon, Benny and Kjeld) who were never successful in their plans. They got quite popular in Germany, and to a lesser degree in Russia and Poland, because they made fun of the police, government and everybody else with power. They were even remade in Norway (Where they were called "Olsenbanden") and Sweden ("Jönssonligan").

The gang got it’s name from their leader, Egon Olsen (In this case played by Sweden). He spends most of his time in jail, and always has a plan on how to get rich when he comes out. He likes things to be in order, and admires the Germans for the same reason (Germans, not Nazis). If his two gang members mess something up he explodes, calling them lazy, useless losers who isn’t worth his time. If he himself make a mistake he gets extremely depressed and loose all faith in himself as a leader, and stays that way until Benny and Kjeld tells him it’s okay to make mistakes and that they still believe in his plan.

Benny (Denmark here) is very happy-go-lucky, and rather hyper. He is always very enthusiastic about Egon’s plans, sometimes to a point where he will giggle uncontrollably until Egon tells him to shut up. His biggest dream is to never work again, and he can always find an excuse to open a beer and read porn. Lacks anything that resembles fashion sense.

Kjeld (Norway) is a family man who is always bossed around by Egon and Benny, and the only one who owns a house (Egon’s only house is the prison, and Benny seems to live in his car). He just wants what is best for his wife and son, which is the reason why he goes along with the plans. In reality he dreams of a normal life with a nice legal job. His wife is quite bossy, and her and Egon often fight.

Here is one of the most famous clips from the movies, where they break into a theatre while an orchestra plays, by following the music http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sLO8bWTfGs&feature Same scene in the Norwegian version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSPDJEtGgUU
And another scene just to show you what an American (in the yellow car) looks like in an old Danish movie. ;) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLMUtRclmZk&playnext_from=TL&videos=qyz_bpJcScA

I was listening to this remix of their theme while drawing to get in the right mood http://www.deviantart.com/users/outgoing?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewlLXTzWoN8&playnext_from=TL&videos=lZDMBZQID5w It's because of the tempo in the song they're running in the picture.

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Bully Fail

I had to laugh when I heard that Greece tried to bully Germany into giving them guilt-money for all the stuff that got stolen during WWII. Luckily Germany just told Greece that they had already paid them back through EU.

Poor Greece will just have find another way out of poverty.

And poor little Iceland has reached a point where he doesn’t mind where the money comes from.

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Not a Yahtzee

You might have to say “yahtzee” out loud to get the joke.

Pretty much how the German government reacts whenever Nazis are mentioned, if German soldiers does something violent somewhere, or if anything that could in anyway make people think of Nazis happens. They’re quite paranoid about the subject.

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Pretty Swastika

I just ran some text through the Babelfish translator, so I hope the German in the comic is complete nonsense.

Many people have asked me, “On what side was Denmark doing World War II?” and the anwser is that you will get different answers depending on who you ask, even within Denmark, because Denmark’s way of handling the situation was rather unconventional.

Nazi Germany saw Denmark as one of the most aryan countries in the world, and decided to do a “friendly invasion” so that Denmark wouldn’t fall into the hands of the enemy. Denmark was shit scared of Nazi Germany after what had happened to Poland and we were well aware that we couldn’t fight them. But we knew that the Nazis liked us, so what Denmark did was this: We quickly shipped 99% of the country’s Jews off to Sweden where they would be safe, then (sort of) fought the Germans for two hours to show the rest of the world that we weren’t completely on their side, before just giving up and letting them march in.
We then proceeded to treat the soldiers as nice as possible, hoping that Hitler would be kind to us if we behaved. Denmark even became known as the “whipped cream front” among the Germans because we were so nice, and it was every German soldier’s dream to be sent to Denmark were they didn’t have to fight or fear for their life.

So it’s no wonder Denmark was often called Nazi friendly.

And Sweden of course weren’t completely passive doing the way, and did help their surrounding countries a little thought the war (helping Jews anyone?). I just thought it would be funnier like this.

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America Has Spoken

Quite a few things in here that needs an explanation.

America loves to meddle in other countries affairs, despite knowing very little about the countries.

Doing World War 2 the Swedes let Germany walk through Sweden, which allowed them to invade Norway.
That pissed Norway off quite a bit, and for many years after that it was custom for Danes, if they were having a party where both a Swede and a Norwegian would show up, to never place them at the same table or anywhere near each other, because otherwise they were sure to start fighting.

Poland is wearing a burglar’s bask because if anything is stolen in Scandinavia, it will most likely turn up in Poland. Not necessarily because it was a Pole who stole the thing in the first place, but because that’s where a lot of people go to get rid of their stolen goods.

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No invitation

They’re finally here! Finland and Iceland (and Germany)!

The joke behind this is that everybody agrees that Sweden, Norway and Denmark make up Scandinavia, but some say that Finland and Iceland are part of it too. Most people in Sweden, Norway and Denmark doesn’t consider them to be part of Scandinavia though.
No invitation for you!

The Finnish stereotype is a masculine drunk mute with a knife. I had to read up on this because Denmark don’t have a lot to do with Finland, but when I read the description I knew I had to include him sooner or later.

Icelanders are considered to be more beautiful than other Nordic people. They also see themselves as risk-takers, who love extreme sports, so I gave him some sporty cloth and sunglasses, and little sparkles to emphasise his prettiness.

I've read that when Germans go to America they often get yelled at and called Nazis. Most people here are way beyond that because we live right next to them and see them quite often. Instead our German stereotype is a loud guy with really bad hair and cloth, who loves sausages.
My father’s sister married a German, so I did everything in my power not to make the character look like him.

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