Viivi & Wagner
| Viivi & Wagner | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Jussi "Juba" Tuomola |
| Current status/schedule | Running |
| Launch date | October 1997 |
Viivi & Wagner is a somewhat absurdist Finnish newspaper comic strip drawn by Jussi "Juba" Tuomola.
The main characters in Viivi & Wagner are Viivi, a Finnish woman in her early twenties, and Wagner, a mature male pig. Wagner is fully antropomorphic and sentient, yet still considers himself a pig instead of a human. Although often mistaken so, Viivi and Wagner are not married to each other.
The comic originally appeared in Kultapossu, a promotional children's magazine by a Finnish bank. In the original version of the comic, Viivi was a small girl and Wagner was her animate piggy bank. When the Kultapossu magazine was discontinued, Tuomola adapted the characters to fit a newspaper comic strip style, also changing the characters to adults in the process.
Viivi & Wagner is extremely popular in Finland, above all because of its quirky humour. Most of the strips concern either arguments between Viivi and Wagner, or Wagner getting into totally absurd situations, either in everyday life or in a fantasy world. Some of the strips break the classic comic strip format by not having a definite punchline at the end.
Some readers, who have been unaware of the strip's history in a bank's promotional magazine for children, have taken Wagner's porcine appearance as a statement of feminism, specifically implying that "men are pigs". Some have even thought Tuomola was a woman. It has been noticed that many medical inside jokes appear in the strips - many of them originate from an old friend of Juba, whose profession happens to be a doctor.
Albums
As of 2006, there have been nine Viivi & Wagner albums:
- Sikspäkki ja salmiakkia ("A six pack and salmiakki), 1998
Translated to Swedish as Sexpack och salmiak in 2005 - Apua, sängyssäni on sika! ("Help, there's a pig in my bed!"), 1999
Translated to Swedish as Hjälp, jag har en gris i sängen! in 2005 - Ei banaaninkuoria paperikoriin! ("No banana peels in the paper bin!"), 2000
- Oi, mikä karju! ("Oh, what a hog!"), 2001
- Kuumaa hiekkaa ("Hot sand"), 2002
- Viriili vesipeto ("The virile water beast"), 2003
- Sohvaperunoiden kuningas ("The king of the couch potatoes"), 2004
- Ranskalainen liukumäki ("The French slide"), 2005
- Kaasua sohvalla ("Gas on the couch"), 2006