Uti vår hage (English: Out in our pasture, named after a Swedish folk song) is a Swedish comic strip, created by Krister Petersson. It originally appeared in Svenska Serier in 1981. It then began a long run in 91:an (1983 - December 2001). On 5 December 2002 Uti vår hage became a bi-monthly comic, published by Egmont. It also ran briefly as a daily strip in Dagens Nyheter.
Contents
The comic strip
The main character is Faló, an immature and self-righteous man in his mid-30s who lives in the small, fictional Swedish town of Mjölhagen, loosely based on a town in Småland. Lacking any obvious source of income, he nevertheless lives in his own detached villa with large garden and drives an old Volvo Amazon. He has an extremely high opinion of himself and his own abilities, which fails to reflect the realities of his personality. For example, he considers himself to be a talented poet.
Petersson has stated that Faló is inspired by Einar Lindberg's character Sympatiska Filip, from the strip Filip och Kaspersson. Sympatiska Filip was in turn based upon Elov Persson's character Kronblom. Petersson derived the name Faló from the Argentinian singer and guitarist Eduardo Falú.
The comic strip contains black humor.
Other characters in the burlesque depiction of small-town Sweden include (but are not limited to) the following:
The comic book
The main strip, Uti vår hage, features in both newly-drawn stories and in republished material. In addition, the comic book includes several subsidiary strips, a crossword and a letters page ("Tyckt å tänkt Uti vår hage").