Odin and Friends

Odin and Friends turned 150 a month ago and I forgot to roll out the mead barrels to celebrate. That’s 150 episodes of floating head madness. It’s been a crazy few months so I’m pleased — almost surprised — that I manged to maintain my schedule while moving, traveling, building two websites, writing a novel, and preparing to move again (overseas, no less). Thanks to everyone who has been getting their Viking fix by following the modern day adventures of the Norse gods, including you chubby chasers and Amazon aficionados who only come here for the sexy giantess jokes.

Some highlights from the last 50 episodes:

- Technoviking becomes the Norse God of Dance thanks to apotheosis by YouTube.

- Thor and Mjolnir make sure the clouds of Migard stay in in good and working order. Important lesson in meteorology: don’t hook up clouds on a single circuit.

- Odin goes to outer space and encourages you to do the same. Glorious deaths await the brave.

- Freya weighs in on Christmas, Loki explains the Saturnalia, Thor gets hammered on New Years, Baldur upchucks on Halloween.

- And my personal favorite, the massive snowball fight between the Aesir and Giants.

Thanks for continuing to read Odin and Friends. Don’t miss an episode: subscribe by rss or email today!

I’ve never put much stock in numerology, but I couldn’t help but notice on the calendar that today is the ninth day of the ninth month of the year two thousand and nine.

That’s a lot of nines in a row. The number nine was considered quite significant in Norse mythology, so I’m thinking this day must be auspicious for one thing or another. If you’ve been considering climbing a dangerous mountain, sacking a village off coastal Britain, or sailing for new lands amongst the icebergs, today might be the day to give it a whirl.

NINE SIGNIFICANT EXAMPLES OF THE NUMBER NINE IN NORSE MYTHOLOGY

• Nine Worlds
  The Norse universe contains nine worlds supported by the tree of life:
• Ásgarðr (Asgard, home of Odin and the other Aesir gods)
• Álfheimr (Alfheim, home of the Elves)
• Múspellsheimr (Muspellsheim, southern realm of fire, chock full o’ demons)
• Vanaheimr (Vanaheim, original home of Freyja and the Vanir gods)
• Miðgarðr (Midgard, that’s where us humans live)
• Jötunheimr (Jotunheim, land of the giants, where Thor goes for nookie)
• Niflheimr (Niflheim, northern realm of fog and mist)
• Nidavellir (home of the dwarves)*
• Svartálfaheimr (Svartalfaheim, land of the dark elves)*

* Might be the same place, which leaves one realm missing. California?

• Nine Days
  When Odin sacrificed himself on Yggdrasil, he hung for nine days and nights. In return, he secured from the Well of Wyrd eighteen (twice nine) magical runes with powers straight out of Dungeons & Dragons.

• Nine Nights
  Freyr must wait nine nights to consummate his union with Gerd. Apparently worth the wait to sleep with the sexiest giant woman to walk the earth.

• Nine Steps
  During Ragnarök, Thor kills Jörmungandr but staggers back nine steps before falling dead himself.

• Nine Rings
  Odin’s ring Draupnir releases eight additional rings every ninth night, forming a total of nine rings of equal worth. How’s that for passive income?

• Nine Daughters
  Ægir has nine of them. Sounds like a lot of work.

• Nine Mothers
  Heimdall has nine of them. And I thought having three was tough.

• Nine Saddle Sores
  The god Hermod rode Sleipnir for nine nights on his quest to free Baldr from the underworld. Too bad Loki sabotaged his efforts.

• Nine Survivors
  There are nine surviving deities of Ragnarök, including Baldur, Hödr, Magni, Modi, Vidar, Váli, Hoenir, Sól’s daughter, and a ninth unnamed god who will rule over everything.

Odin and Friends is 100 comics old!

That’s right, this comic has reached the century mark. Started on April 1, 2009, Odin and Friends now has 100 glorious, floating-head Viking comics for you to enjoy. Visit the archive page to see the big list.

SOME HIGHLIGHTS

- Thor sacks Loki’s fun park

- Odin bowls over some giants with his eight legged horse

- Loki shuts down the power grid of the Northeastern United States by taking the form of a squirrel and biting through a power transformer

- Baldur explores the golden contours (and extradimensional storage space) of Sif’s hair.

- Thor confesses his love for giant women.

- Freyja pays the price for her beautiful necklace.

- Baldur visits a psychologist on Midgard to stop his pending insanity.

- Odin reveals his romantic side to his wife, Frigg.

- Mjolnir demands to have the gray matter removed his head.

NEW COMICS

There are plenty of new Odin and Friends comics in the works, with regular updates Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays.

Coming soon…

- Odin visits Valhalla.

- Loki visits the Holy Land.

- Baldur visits a strip club.

- Freyja goes to college.

- Thor gets in deep with giant women.

- Plus, appearances by new characters Freyr and Heimdall.

Subscribe by email or RSS so you don’t miss a single episode.

Hail Odin!

The numbers in this report might be exaggerated, but obviously we have some work to do friends…

Loki will be taking the pulpit soon to begin the repaganization of the people.

Hear ye, Friends of Odin and Friends, an important announcement:

Starting this week, Odin and Friends will begin updating three times weekly instead of the previous five day schedule. New comics will appear Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 5 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. For those of you who subscribe by email, comics will continue to arrive in your email box whenever the automated email server decides to send them (you may have noticed the Feedburner email service is quite whimsical about its delivery schedule… blast).

For the curious, here are a few reasons for the reduced schedule:

- It’s summer. The ice has melted. The sea beckons. The mountains call. Time to make war, not draw cartoons.

- Less is more? We shall see…

- I do more than make cartoons, friends. I make movies! I’m proud to say a script I cowrote is currently filming (Hail Odin). Although the writing phase is over (Hail Odin), I’m still doing work for the project. Lots of work.

- Toons and movies may be glorious, but the landlord doesn’t accept glory as payment. Hence, I must work for the kings and merchants of the world, helping them to secure treasure and territory.

So please continue to enjoy Odin and Friends three days a week, and if for some reason you feel like you need more, let me know and when the ice returns and I’m once again confined to my lair, I’ll work to resume a more rigorous schedule.

That’s right… Odin and Friends is 50 comics old today.

I’m also proud to say that in the two months since it’s inception, Odin and Friends has risen from complete obscurity to become the web’s premiere destination for comics featuring floating Viking god heads.

Thanks for reading!

Odin Bless,

- Vato

I spent a good part of the afternoon yesterday working on a couple of new “god heads” to help round out the pantheon, and I’m pretty excited by the results. Here’s a sneak peak at Sif, who will make her debut in the comic sometime in the next few weeks.

For those not up on their Norse mythology, Sif is Thor’s wife, and she’s known for her beauty and fantastic mane of golden hair. Working from mythological sources is great, because virtually every god or goddess is known for some well-defined attribute that can be cartoonized to the fullest.

I’m still working out how she is going to figure into the universe of Odin and Friends, but her hair is going to play an important role. Not a whole lot is known about her from the old myths, other than she has awesome hair and giants lust after her the same way they do Freyja. The proto-comics I’ve constructed so far involve Sif dealing with Thor and his strange attraction to giant women.

The glorious light of technology has shone through to the Dark Ages.

If you’re looking for an easy way to stay updated with Odin and Friends, you can now get comics by email. Check out the email widget on the left side of this page to sign up and get updates.

And don’t forget to be a true hero and click through once in a while to post a comment on the site!

Odin Bless.

What began as a simple “Odin head” floating in the clouds and making decidedly medieval comments on human affairs has grown into a pantheon of floating heads expressing their unique views. Baldur and Loki join Odin this week and Thor is not far behind. Tell your friends to check out Odin and Friends and see the adventure unfold. As the Viking gods let their lightning bolts rip on the modern world, there will surely be something to entertain and offend just about everyone.

Here it is, April 1, and I’ve finally launched Odin and Friends.

I’m launching one comic a day, five days a week, Moon Day through Freyr’s Day, until I run out of material or smash my computer with a battle axe and head off to the icy North to live for good. So come back tomorrow to see what the gods have in store for you.

Odin Bless