The Swedes have the reputation for being depressing and dour, but based on the evidence of the dark, dark cartoons of Hugleikur Dagsson, we should be keeping a close eye on Iceland as well.

Visually, Dagsson’s cartoons, populated by scarcely adorned stick figures, are a great deal like Randall Munroe’s creations at xkcd, but the sensibility couldn’t be more different, less science dork and much closer to, say, Simon Bond’s 101 Uses For a Dead Cat, which was a bit of a thing during the 1980s. Dagsson is unafraid to stray into taboo areas like cannibalism and incest. Many of his cartoons also make trenchant political points.

His style is a product of an incident at art school in 2002 when he created a slew of cartoons for an important project assignment at the last minute. Ditching his plans to present some wan watercolors, he cranked out some cartoons with stick figures, and—not that he could have known it—a career was born. He told the Telegraph, “I could philosophise about my lifelong love of minimalism, but my style really came from a last-minute panic at college.” His dark influences are not only Scandinavian; he noted that he has been influenced by “dark American comics, like Frank Miller’s.”

According to his bio, Dagsson has written three plays as well as created a TV series called Hulli that wouldn’t look out of place on Adult Swim, from all appearances. He also has 20 collections of his cartoons, with titles like Where’s God?, You Are Nothing, and My Pussy Is Hungry.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
via Bored Panda