Genre(s) Surreal humour | ||
Launch date 2004; 13 years ago (2004) Similar Pondus, Rocky, Nemi, Beetle Bailey | ||
The ghost of a saber tooth tiger comic strip
M is a Norwegian comic strip, written by Mads Eriksen. it is published in daily newspapers such as Dagbladet, as well as in its own monthly magazine M. Previously published as a guest strip in Pondus magazine, it established its own dedicated magazine near the end of 2006. The strip has gained a large fan-base in Norway, much due to its quirky humour and numerous pop-cultural references.
Contents
Serge gainsbourg and brigitte bardot comic strip
Synopsis
A surreal, semi-auto-biographical, strip, its events revolve around Mads Eriksen himself, and The Madam, his live-in girlfriend. The Madam is always drawn with asterisks over her eyes, because, Eriksen claims, it is impossible to know what is on her mind. In one strip, Eriksen states that The Madam is drawn with asterisks for eyes because "she mixes pills and alcohol". One characteristic of the comic is the unique T-shirts the characters wear for every single strip, these also often containing pop-cultural references.
Allegations of blasphemy
In November 2006, a 94-year-old woman from Selbu brought blasphemy charges against Adresseavisen, a Trondheim-based newspaper that publishes M, over the content of two strips published in the newspaper. In both strips, Jesus Christ is seen advertising for different products, such as "Pilate's crucifixion cream for manly men". The woman who pressed charges stated that "this has nothing to do with freedom of speech. This is much worse than the Muhammad cartoons." Eriksen responded that M is a strip that pokes fun at all sorts of myths, both old and new. A few days later, Dagbladet published a strip in which Mads wins a boxing match against God on walkover.
No further action was taken, however, as there has been no censorship in Norway over charges of blasphemic content since Life of Brian was banned from cinemas in 1979.