Sunday, September 14, 2008

When Barbarians Were Intolerable Brats

Hagar the Horrible is already ostensibly set in the Middle Ages, though presumably the early or, well, middle Middle Ages rather than the later period from which I am deriving my translations. Since 1973, Hagar and his crew--generally nameless except for the hapless Lucky Eddie--have been looting and pillaging (but certainly not raping...oh no) in various vaguely medieval kingdoms while Hagar's large wife, Helga, and his rather pointless children wait for him at home. There is no continuity; the premise is the point.

In other words, Hagar and co. have managed to keep the same thin joke going every day for the past thirty-five years. Nobody seems to be particularly sure how.

Today's comic is so bizarre that it's got to be some sort of moral allegory. Back (or forward?) to the late Middle Ages with you, Hagar.



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