This section is for comments for the Brat-halla webcomic (scroll to the bottom to get to the comment form). These will all be seen throughout all the archives, so if you’re commenting on a particular page, please include the episode number with your comments.
Ah heck… so did the brats in fact place or win a pantheon game? or was Loki acting on his own when he won the Mischief category?
what are the rules for the Pantheon Games anyways? you know… in case we want to run our own?
I finally got around to reading all the stories from the beginning, though I’ve been following the comic for about half a year. Thanks for some great laughs. I’ll even forgive you living in Austin instead of Dallas.
Tory - Loki won the mischief category that year, but the Norse didn’t place or win overall as a Pantheon. Kind of like the Olympics, you can have individual achievements giving your country (or Pantheon in this case) points, and the ones with the highest team total wins.
Stephen - We’re glad you’re enjoying it (and getting laughs… we like making people laugh). Will it help any that I’m working in Dallas this week (and next)? ^_^
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — July 3, 2007 @ 12:38 pm
I love the Pantheon Arc so far and have a feeling it’s only going to get funnier! I can’t wait to see Balder in a beauty contest! Hahaha!
Thank you so much for updating twice weekly now!
had a hunch mjollnir might be making an appearance at these games. let’s face it, our guys n’ gals need all the help they can get! can’t wait to see what happens next :)
Amy - I’m gonna work on a Hod t-shirt this weekend (maybe two… or three). I might even play around with some Valkyrie designs if I get time. ^_^
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — July 5, 2007 @ 11:51 pm
Is it just me, or when Thor’s shouting in the last panel of #201, does anyone else remember a scene in the first Highlander movie, when Connor McLeod’s being avoided by everyone in a battle to let the Kurgan at him?
That was one of the things he shouted… “Why won’t anybody fight me?”
Comment by John Rasmussen — July 5, 2007 @ 11:58 pm
John Rasmussen - very perceptive… guess that means you know what’s coming next. ^_^
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — July 6, 2007 @ 7:42 am
Endymion - Ogoun is a Vodun loa/orisha who commands many aspects (such as war, blood, politics, fire, iron/metalworking, and thunderbolts). As for The Dagda, he’s the god that’s good at everything (all-powerful), so I treat him as someone who can fill in at any position the Celtic pantheon really wants to win (many of the Celtic gods are good at lots of different things). I was originally gonna use Taranis here, but I like Dagda’s giant club for thunderous attacks that smoosh people. And yes, I gave The Dagda pants… couldn’t have him dragging his penis all over the place in the comic now, could I? ^_^
Vidurr - I got into mythology at my local library. Seriously. My mom worked evening and night shifts, so I would go to the library after school until she got a chance to take a break and pick me up. I went through every mythology, science, and paranormal book in that place a few times each (plus the complete collection of Encyclopedia Brown). As for where I find my information, there’s the Internet. ^_^ I also have a pretty decent collection of books on mythology, legends, monsters, and archeology (real books and a number of books I’ve picked up in ebook format for quicker searches).
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — July 6, 2007 @ 8:58 pm
Finally! Thor has Mjölnir the Grinder! Please, let’s see him kick some Greek and Egyptian ass! (I really hate those guys!)
Hod’s T-shirt is of course printed black on black…. the glossy ink on the shirt fabric will only show if you look closely…. only those who know will understand….
Okay… I changed the incentive image for the voting buttons above. It’s the image being used for the Hod t-shirt design if anyone wants a sneak peek (working on it right now… just gotta put some finishing touches on it).
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — July 7, 2007 @ 11:38 am
Tom - the cost of the t-shirts depend on the style you get over at the Zazzle website. The plain white t-shirts with the designs run about $14.95 while the dark color shirts go for about $19.95 (2XL, 3XL, the long sleeve shirts, sweatshirts and other clothing items with more fabric run a little more).
And for anyone interested… there’s a Hod t-shirt out there now. ^_^
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — July 8, 2007 @ 10:24 am
Hello there. I’d love to get on the forum but after signing up two months ago, I still haven’t been approved. I wonder why? :D Apart from that, awesome comic. Being a heathen myself, I find this particular take on the Gods and Goddesses very refreshing. I still miss Freja though.
Aslaug - if your email account is a Yahoo, Hotmail, or Gmail account (or a similar web-based email system), they sometimes have a tendency to dump the registration confirmation email from forums into the Junk Mail or Spam folder. You might want to try logging in and if it gives you a message about needing approval, you might be able to have it resend the approval email (and just keep an eye in your Junk Mail folder in case it gets pulled into there).
As for Freja… no Vanir. Yet. Guess that means there’s a war coming somewhere down the road of this comic. ^_^
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — July 9, 2007 @ 2:39 pm
I absolutely adore this comic! I’m half-tempted to tell you that I want to have your children, but that wouldn’t be proper, now would it? ^_^
Loki is my favorite character because of lines like “Story time is my favorite time of the day. Now what to do to them while they’re asleep…”
Jessika, you can have Thomas and Eschele. After a few hours, you’ll be ready to give them back… Oh wait, you meant give birth. Just to let you know Jeff has an abnormally large head. Thomas was 35 hours of inducement.
Comment by Rayna Stevenson — July 10, 2007 @ 11:10 am
Looking forward to the God of War contest. Would be nice if some war godesses like Ishtar or Pallas Athene could show up.
Ipilya. Faugh. It’s just a big bog ghecko. Thor, Frigg needs some lizardskin luggage!
Incidentally, I saw someone mention the Vanir. The only problem I see with bringin’ them in is you’ve kind of got thier ‘tude’s towards the Aesir covered by the Greeks already. Ah well, if Njord and the kiddies do show up, just remember Njord’s motto, “Incest is best.” It might be fun to give Freyr and Freyja real names that they don’t like, such as, i dunno, Bert and Bertha. (Never met a Bertha who didn’t try to hide it under a nickname) Maybe Loki could spill the beans.
To think we are going to get lots and lots of god contests, though it is only fair to keep Athena out of it, she probably wins every contest she enters. (Yes, she was my uncle’s favorite goddess, and mine too).
As for the Vanir, they did kind of marry into the Aesr, not to mention I’m not sure you can do their seid magic in a PG-13 rated comic. Shapeshifting gender benders, ick … I’m sure they’ve got a permanent ban on them attending the games.
Ishtar is a fertility goddess. Sure she could have her own page on psychob*.com, but don’t let the violence fool you, she’s all about the love.
Athena: The Chess/Risk Tournament just isn’t a crowd pleaser. Besides she fights like a girl.
Other war goddesses: Check out Episode #198 (send in the Celts)
Comment by Rayna Stevenson — July 12, 2007 @ 6:04 am
Catching up on responding to some comments.
Jessika - Wouldn’t be proper, but it’s flattering. And flattery will get you a new Loki t-shirt design (coming soon).
Rayna - Shhh. You’re not helping any by telling everyone about my abnormally large… wait, you meant my brain-case, didn’t you? Well, there goes my dream of a Playgirl modeling career. ^_^
Hans - Glad you like the comic. Looks like my research assistant (and lovely wife) mentioned Ishtar, but I have more on the subject you can read below. Don’t worry, there will be some female gods of war competing.
Rob - We’ll be using creative license when we eventually introduce the Vanir to keep it PG(ish). Or maybe Seth and I will just spin that off into an adult webcomic. Hmmm, could be profitable. (P.S. Glad you mentioned you liked the comic… we never get tired of hearing it because it makes working on it that much more fun.)
Arctures - Lots of people remember that movie. And considering I know one of the people that worked on the screenplay for it…
Stephen M - Godchecker’s a fun reference site. I’ll be putting together a mythology reference site soon and that’ll be on the list. I wonder if they’d consider letting me help out with descriptions. And Athena does well in contests, but maybe that could also be her undoing…
Rayna - you again? Slight correction (a little rusty on my Babylonian/Sumerian myths, but here goes): Ishtar was a goddess of war at one point. She started out as a simple fertility goddess and was known primarily for her status as a sex symbol (and cruelty to lovers). And since sex is a powerful thing, the cult of Ishtar grew very popular and other responsibilities and aspects (like war) were thrust upon Ishtar until she strong enough (and had such a large following of believers), she rivaled the Sumerian mother goddess Ninhursag.
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — July 12, 2007 @ 9:56 am
Hey again.
I tried doing what you said, but it tells me I can’t get my password sent to me, because the administrator has not approved my signing up. I hope one of you can help me get this fixed? The problem seems to be that while I signed up, I never got approved as signed up. Yes, my email is a hotmail.com one, I admit that…but I don’t -have- any other email account. Please…could one of you either contact me on the email included with instructions for what to do, or approve me outright? I really would like to be able to take part in the forum talks…
As for the war coming down the line…I am certainly looking forward to that. *ponders pointing you towards Peter Madsen’s ‘Valhalla’ comics*
Ishtar had it locked up until they persuaded her to follow fashion and take off her clothes in the netherworld, resulting in her being hung on a hook … tough, crippled all of her lovers.
Some neat stuff going on here. Forgive my favoritism with Athena, the first minimaxing powergamer in mythology.
Do you? (Know one of the people that wrote the screenplay, that is…) That’s awesome. I’d kill for a copy of that movie on DVD, I haven’t seen it since my old betamax copy died years ago…
Yes! Loving this! Your comic is incredible, and I am greatly enjoying this story arc. You could not possibly update enough times in a week to keep me happy now, there must be MORE!
Aslaug - Your forum account should be working now (I sent you an email about it). As for Madsen’s ‘Valhalla’, don’t worry about influencing me ’cause I don’t think anyone could predict what I have planned for the war. ^_^
VictimDub - Thanks!
Magus - I can see the taunts from the brats now as they played. “Thor and a mortal sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G.” ^_^
Stephen M - Athena is great, but we have to hold back on our favoritism with specific gods for the good of the comic. [go HOd!]
Kelly and Lokster - Yeah, using Balder as a weapon is better. But Thor didn’t come up with that plan in episode #75 (Hod did). But using Ipilya to get all the other gods muddy and wet before bouncing them up off the ground to make the most of his attack… that was all Thor this time.
Tory - Yeah, go Thor! Wait until you see his final battle in the games.
Arctures - Yep, a friend introduced me to writer Shane Black (the guy who also created movies like Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout) at the Austin Film Festival a few years back, and he’s there every year (and always great to chat with). He’s a damn funny guy and has lots of great stories.
Lord Nuke - I’m in the design stages of a time compression chamber that will allow us to get more hours out of a single day. It might take me a few decades, but when I get it finished, Seth and I will start updating more often. Or ya know, if Hollywood comes down before then with a TV or film offer that allows us to quit our day jobs and make comics full-time. ^_^
Ed Murphy - Thanks for the heads up on episode #165. It’s fixed now. It was something leftover from when Joey moved Graphic Smash over to a new hosting company. And thanks for the props!
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — July 15, 2007 @ 10:05 am
I can imagine; I’ve always liked his movies, must have a helluva sense of humor in real life too. :)
Great comic, btw, been following it for quite awhile!
I really like this comic. The world always needs more mythology comics! I hope we see Sigyn eventually, I’m sure giving Loki a girlfriend would have interesting results.
This…comic…ROCKS!!! Every other comic I’ve ever read that involved gods (or god-like entities) almost always went downhill fast, but this one just keeps getting better and better.
By the way, why don’t more of the characters have profiles? I’d read some Norse mythology before, but for the longest time now I haven’t been able to figure out just who “Sif” is, or why she’s so interested in Thor.
Taking a break from working on my screenplay for the 2007 Screenwriter’s Challenge, so I thought I’d catch up on some comments.
Arctures - Thanks, glad you’ve stuck with us for so long… and we’ll be working on this comic for a looooong time. ^_^
Haley - We’re glad you like the comic and yes, the world definitely needs more mythology comics out there. As for Sigyn… well, we know he’s already been with Angrboda, so there’s always a chance she’ll turn up.
Tatsurou - I’ve actually been working on the code for the new character profiles page in my spare, spare (spare) time. Once it’s complete, it’ll have information on ALL the characters that have ever appeared in the comic (plus it’ll have some other great features I think everyone will enjoy). But real quick… Sif is the future wife of Thor. She actually doesn’t show up very often in the original Norse myths, so we like giving her a little attention now-and-then.
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — July 18, 2007 @ 9:33 pm
I love the evaluation of Hel’s performance. D’you think she’d be interested in proctering my exam? I believe my students deserve her.
Just wanted to say that I love Brat-Halla. I’ve always loved mythology, and have wanted to learn more about the Norse stuff. Occasionally, I accomplish that while reading this hilarious comic. Can’t wait to see more!
(205) Oh man, poor Balder Hahahahaha! On the bright side if over half the judges are female or gay males he’s got a total advantage!
Horrah Naked Swimwear!
Oh geeze…that is wonderful. I’ve been reading for a while, but this is my first comment. I had to though. I mean, I could be mistaken, but did Aphrodite just cause him to be come so aroused that ‘Lil Balder ripped right through his swimsuit? Because that is hysterical. X3
Episode 205: Ohh my. Baldur’s 16 or over right (or the godly equivalent?) And… wait, does that mean Sif parade around in the altogether? No wonder she kept losing, is she even in adolescence yet?
I suspect Balder and Whosname are being had…remember, Balder already broke several goddesses’ nails. A girl who has bothered to grow them will go to any length to avenge a broken fingernail—even when it is *clearly* her fault, not mine, er, Balder’s.
But who cares? The important thing is… Thor won! That made my week, guys. Thanks! So go ahead and dump on pretty boy. You deserve it!
You guys must be regretting placing this comment sheet. Nothing but “i love this comic!” from a 100 fanboys/girls. Ah the sweet pain of popularity.
Best of luck guys and i would love to see this in a printed collected works!
Sorry for the delay in responding. I was on vacation. Anyway, I’m quite happy to hear that there will be a Loki shirt coming out soon. I can’t wait to wear my favorite god around for all of the world to see!
Just looked up through the comments and realized that your wife was the first to respond after me…. It’s a good thing that I was joking, I suppose.
@ Rayna: If I lived closer, I’d totally babysit your kids for a while so that you two could have fun. I’d even accept Brat-halla gear as payment rather than money!
I am quite frankly amazed. Not only do you produce a fine work of comic genius but you also respond prefectly to viewer request. I will wear Hod upon my chest with great pride and admiration. You gentelmen are what the comic world needs more of.
I have always been a fan of mythology, of all types. Needless to say u guys are the best for the way u have incorporated them into these pantheon games. Gotta say, one of the best online comics out there. Keep up the stupendous work
I love it, I was wondering when the Hel as half corpse/half alive thing would come up, wasn’t she suppose to be split left/right? I think I read that in one of the myths involving her.
You forget, Hod HAS seen Hel once…just not the ‘dead’ half of her. Go back to episode 148. Personally, I think he’s more than a little envious of Balder, Hel being half corpse or not. The ‘probably be the last’ part probably didn’t make it better either.
Incidentally, -very- cool take on Hel. I -had- been wondering…since she’s normally depicted as half and half down the middle -vertically-. This is a new and interesting take.
Actually, Hod can still get his hopes up.
Hel said that it is most likely that a guy won’t “see” her with her pants off.
Hod wouldnt have seen anything anyway!
Go Hod!!
I love this webcomic, and cannot get enough of it.
Keep up the good work guys
Grimmy
wonders if “Crom” of conan the barbarian fame will ever make an appearance.
Heh i don’t think even if Hod Was in a place to be in the beauty competition that any of the girls would do their standard “hod Hug” unless it was before hurling him off the stage.
On a side note… Does balder have the vulnerability to mistletoe that he does in the Myths? maybe you should make it into an allergy or something.
Another side note… I never knew the Vanir were so dirty… Ill have to read up on them now.
I just read the entire run to date…I am a big fan or the Norse Gods…In many forms and you have produced my FAVORITE Loki and Thor. Oh and Odin…Best Odin ever. Any way just stopped by to gush.
You being in San Diego is kinda depressing as I’m at Con and have probably passed by you a dozen times and not been able to figure it out so I could shake your hand for the excellent work you do here.
Wishsinger - If you’re at the con and you see a guy wearing dark cargo shorts and a black “Austin Film Festival” hat, that’s probably me (I also have Brat-halla written on my badge).
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — July 28, 2007 @ 11:59 am
Ishtar was a single god of both love and war. The Sumerians/Mesopotamians viewed both aspects in the same god.
Hell being half corpse/half alive is something I believe to be in dispute. I’ve read sources that say she her skin tone for half of her was blue and flesh for the other half. I also think that the half corpse/alive belief was one that took hold in the 20th century as works of art and descriptions prior to 1900 didn’t have Hel as being half corpse. Either a new source for information of Hel has been found and accepted by people who do popular renditions of the Norse pantheon or there has been a retranslation of Hel’s descriptions to turn blue/flesh to corpse/alive (or alive corpse?). Being suspicious of how popular culture views Norse mythology (mainly people who look to LOTR, D+D, and Wicca for information on a pagan religion without understanding anything about those things), I am suspicions about the vitality of Hel’s body.
I apologize if my nitpicking bothers anybody but It end to be anal. Mr Stevenson is entitled to creative license in his comic, especially since so little about Norse paganism is known for certain, and the variety of the beliefs that the Norse themselves believed in. My interpretation regularly differs of that from Mr. Stevenson’s but when it does it is usually funnier the way Mr. Stevenson takes it.
I do enjoy the comic and why would someone want Freja when Sif is so prominent int he comic? Sure Freja was more important but Sif (at-least an adult Sif) is better to took at then (an adult) Freja!
Ishtar: Fertility Goddess.
Babylon, the center of Ancient Mesopotamia had two primary gods. Baal the God of War and Ishtar the Goddess of Fertility. Hammurabi’s Code written about 1790 BC protects the rights of prostitutes. Prostitutes where found in the Temple District of Ishtar. Prostitutes served as the goddess on earth and were worshipped accordingly. The use of Ishtar as a War Goddess developed to make her stronger in the eyes of new converts. Metaphorically, it also explains the violence associated with sex.
In comparison, the God of Abraham wants everyone to know that Jehovah, God, and Allah are all the same entity. Futhermore the God of Abraham takes no credit for the Cursades, the Spanish Inquisition, the current state of affairs, or anything else men have accused Him of.
Just because people have accused Ishtar of being a War Goddess, it doesn’t make her one.
Hel has been describes as:
half bluish-black, half livid white
half flesh tone, half greenish-black
half alive, half corpse
having been born with her bones exposed
Metaphorically it describes her dual nature:
The ability to give life or cause death.
The ability to cause or cure disease.
The ability to punish or reward the dead in her realm.
Rayna
Comment by Rayna Stevenson — July 31, 2007 @ 8:00 am
Heh…you just know that after the games Fionn MacCumhal and Thor will be exchanging tactical tips. “Wow…you owned the Dagda like that? Now THAT is skill, my norse friend.” As far as the evening wear trials…why do I see a Kagome (Inu-Yasha) ensemble?
Ha! I love the Trigun and InuYasha looks. I’m not so sold on that last number though.
I’d love to see him in a tux, looking all debonaire and Bondy. What? That is so a word (or should be). And there are worse sorts of men to try and look like… there’s got to be some reason women sleep with that sociopath.
I’m pretty sure that dark outfit is from Vampire Hunter D, and I don’t get the “2007 movie round-up” reference of Nevrak’s; The last outfit beats me - I have to agree that’s an original there, though I’m sure he’d fit in at the ladies tennis court. ;2)
Ep 208: Yeah, the outifts are largely simple to place. One is definitely Vash, then Harry Potter, Doctor Strange, the next eludes me … it doesn’t look quite like D’s ensemble (missing the pointy epaulettes and the sword is all wrong), then Inu-Yasha … the last looks like a plug to all the school girl anime/manga outfits. Reminiscent of something Sailor Whatever would be wearing.
Wonderful strip today…a pop culture cornucopia! Dante, Harry Potter, Doctor Strange, Vampire Hunter D, Inuyasha…and an awfully cute mini skirt? Gotta love it!
Grimmy Answers= some of my best dates involved the neccessity of a defibulator.
Quote= As far as the evening wear trials…
Grimmy Answer= Nothing looks better on a well dressed man than a beautiful woman on his arm. Look for Sif to make the assist on this one with Balder in his tux
Quote= …I bet you are regretting putting this comment board up because it is 100 responses of I love your comic…
Grimmy Answer= this comment section has fufilled a couple of benefits for its users.
-Yes, we get to say how we love the comic. Comic guys need love too!!!
-I had no clue as to some of those outfits, and some other members here clarified it for me (thanks kids)
-INSTANT GRATIFICATION!!! we can comment on the day’s comic while it is right above us*
*[quote “Chicken Little”] “right above us???right now???run for your ****ing lives!!!the sky is falling and its filled with children who can shoot lightning bolts from their dad’s secret stash!!!! [/quote]
Whole lotta comments to catch up on, so here goes…
@Rob (comment #52) - Hel likes the challenge of dealing with students with god-like powers. Mortals might be a bit boring for her. :) And Thor’s not done yet.
@Sirlin (#53) - Maybe, maybe not… depends on what’s painted on the front of the mead helmet, so you’ll just have to wait and see. ^_^
@Avestriël (#55) - It’s the rules of the Pantheon Games. ALL competitors must compete in a battle elimination round for their domain to determine the quarterfinalists. It’s just quicker that way (and sells a lot more tickets).
@Wahad (#56 and #59) - You’re welcome!
@Tempest_Lavalle (#57) - Hmmm… Loki plushie. The shapeshifting might be a little tricky though. :) (btw, cute little comic you have there)
@Niki Lemonade (#58) - Thanks! It’s not true Norse mythology since we do twist some things to squeeze a little more comedy out of the Norse, but we try to keep things close. Hmmm… might be fun to add a “learn more about the myths” section.
@Kelly (#60) - You get to meet the judges next episode. :)
@Martin (#61) - They might. They still get to watch the swimwear competition from the audience though (Odin has a front row seat reserved for him since the first Pantheon Games).
@S (#62) - You’re not mistaken. :)
@Tempest Lavalle (#63) - Cradle robbing wasn’t part of the ancient vocabulary (considering some marriages occurred in the early to mid-teens in ancient days). But honestly, she’s just using her godly abilities to her advantage.
@Katlas (#64) - The work is totally worth it when we get great comments like that. Thanks.
@Tom.S (#65) - We’ve considered print volumes (and even had a publisher lined up at one time), but it’s gonna be a lot of extra work to get the earlier episodes ready for print (for various reasons). But Seth and I decided to put the decision in the readers’ hands… next Wednesday, keep an eye out for a poll related to creating a print collection.
@Sirlin (#66) - In mere mortal time-keeping schemes, he’s around his mid-teens (although really much older than that… I always treat the longevity as a factor that slows their maturing process). Sif never paraded around in her swimwear… she never made it past the battle elimination round. :)
@Rob (#67) - Yep, Thor won! But he hasn’t won it all yet. He still has a bit more fighting to do later in this story arc.
@Tory (#68) - I’m regretting it now that I’m trying to catch up on nearly 50 comments. :| I’m just kinda glad only a few of our 5000+ readers comment here. But even if they did, I wouldn’t mind. I went through a bit of trouble to get this custom comment form up for the comic because we really enjoyed hearing from the readers.
@Jessika (#69 and #70) - There’s already one Loki t-shirt design out there (the older one) and Seth’s putting together a new one (similar to the Hod one we just put up) in his spare time. And yep, my wife commented up there. She reads the comic too (and helps out with some of the research). She also likes to remind me of her 35 hour ordeal going through labor due to the boy inheriting my big ol’ noggin.
@Gakki (#71) - Thanks. We try our best. Glad you’ll wear Hod with pride (I know I will).
@Stephen M (#72) - If you remember the Winter Break storyline, Hod’s a lot tougher than he looks… I think he could survive the date.
@Alo (#73) - Thanks! There are a lot of us mythology fans out there.
@Wahad (#74) - What about Hel? She pretty much admitted she’s still a virgin… that might be a little frustrating for her. :)
@Martin (#76) - Maybe Hod’s into that kind of thing. :) He does have a dark streak to him and is fascinated with death (and Hel).
@Incidence (#77) - Depending on the translation, the myths never clarify one way or another how her visage is divided (although I think it’s mentioned somewhere it did affect her appearance, so the split might have been visible on her face). Some of the classic illustrations/paintings depicting her never really showed the division of her being (but they also never showed her legs). I just went with upper/lower half as a character decision so we could make her look cute (but have a good reason for her being so ornery at times).
@Tory (#78) - He’s heartbroken cause he’ll never get to see her legs due to his blindness (and it’s not looking good for getting a look-see if he ends up in Hel’s realm where his blindness wouldn’t be a factor). Plus… if she doesn’t take the pants off for any man, it limits a lot of other “options”. :p
@Aslaugh (#80) - Thanks. This take on Hel was originally a character decision for the comic, but it was partially inspired by the old artwork of Hel (as I mentioned above… they didn’t show the division but also didn’t show her legs, so that got the imagination churning). And yeah, it does explain some of her demeanor.
@Grimmy (#81) - Thanks and… go Hod! Crom might make an appearance in the comic some day, but it won’t be in the Pantheon Games storyline (we do have this thing mostly plotted out leaving room for a few ad lib bits here-and-there).
@Mackenzie (#82) - Balder is still vulnerable to mistletoe. There will be a future story with that aspect covered later on.
@Bradley Null (#84) - Best Odin ever? Now that’s a compliment. Our thoughts on Odin have always centered around him being the “All Father”, so we wanted him to make him fatherly… covering the good, the bad, and the “wanna pull my hair out” aspects of being a dad. It’s nice to hear it worked.
@blade (#87) - Thanks! Oddly enough, the entire “beauty contest” part of the story originally developed because I wanted to deliver that one joke. :)
@NN (#88) - Depending on your translation, the section of the Poetic Edda that mentions Hel describes her as half blue or half blue/black. Considering the culture of the time (those wily Vikings) with all their sailing and cold weather antics, they dealt with two conditions on a regular basis… drowning and frostbite. Drowning (especially with cold water) will leave a bluish tint to the skin and frostbite will turn the skin a bluish black color. With frostbite, the part of the body stricken with it can pretty much be considered dead if the affliction is bad enough (and in modern times, requires amputation). In those days, I could see a blue or bluish black skin discoloration easily conjuring up images of a dead body to the Vikings, so I took it to that step as Hel being half corpse.
And don’t worry about nitpicking… doesn’t bother me in the least. As you can tell, I sometimes have these things thought out a lot more than some people think… and sometimes I don’t (and I don’t mind being called out on them because it reminds me how smart and knowledgeable the readers of this comic are).
@Rayna (#89) - Stop that, you’re getting me all hot for your grey matter.
@Silverwolf (#90) - It’s not quite Kagome, it’s supposed to be a fairly generic panty shot showing mini-skirted uniform (of the anime/manga variety). I think Anthony threw the pink in there to make it look a bit more girly. :) Yes, Jeff and Seth watch anime and read manga.
@Amy (#91) - Well, if they had tuxedos back in those days… (not that anachronisms like that haven’t stopped us from throwing them in for a good joke anyways).
@Jessika (#92) - It’s Vampire Hunter D.
@Nevrak (#93) - He’s a god of beauty… he can make that last costume work. :)
@DanekJovax (#94) - Yep, Vampire Hunter D. And as I mentioned before, the last one’s a generic girl’s uniform (good for school, sailing, or tennis). :)
@Mutant for Hire (#95) - Good little Viking boys don’t wear tuxedos. :)
@Karistra (#96) - We like to be fair. We’ve done a number of Valkyrie bits (it keeps our colorist Anthony happy), so we wanted to make sure the ladies got a share of the fan service.
@Wishsinger (#97) - The dark costume is Vampire Hunter D… the outfit and sword skew more towards the manga version (and to an extent, the original movie). I think the pointy epaulets showed up in Bloodlust. Seth’s computer was in for repairs when he started working on this page, so I’m pretty sure most of those were drawn from memory (without any reference to work from). In fact, he switched the second one to a Harry Potter one because he couldn’t quite remember Spike’s outfit from Cowboy Bebop. And good eye on the last one.
@Syreene (#98) - We like our pop culture. :)
@Grimmy (#99 and #100) - lol
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — August 2, 2007 @ 11:19 am
# 208: I’m not sure which out fit I like more: Vash or Inu Yasha, the ears are just too CUTE! X3
“And in his move from quarter- to semi-final round, Balder is sporting the ‘Pimp My Norseman’ ensemble, available through fine retailers throughout the North Lands.”
Balder’s Happy Jump made me giggle.
I mention this because giggling is not an everyday occurrence for me.
Although it’s been happening more frequently on Wednesdays and Fridays….
Bwahaha! Episode 209 had an excellent ending…Kind of twisted the way you worked in the classic idea of Greek homosexuality into the judges. I suppose that’ll teach Aphrodite to try and cheat…hehe
Yeah, I noticed the disappearing armor too. This strip also makes me think of the end of the Ladies Man movie. Something about which I’m none too proud.
has anyone heard of the myth where Loki cuts all of Sif’s hair off? that would make a brilliant storyline. also, i would just like to say that i absolutely WORSHIP this comic and have been known to physically drag my brothers away from the computer when i get home from school on Wednesdays and Fridays (their school is closer than mine, so they get home first). all hail brat-halla!
I’m just now catching up so forgive my lateness. I was just discussing the whole half corpse thing with a friend of mine who also reads this comic and we were both wondering what was up, then Hel took off her pants. Poor Hel. However, being a fan of Tim burton makes me a bit sick in the head so I’m like it’s not much of a problem unless she can’t emjoy it as well. She isn’t talking to me at the moment. I tried to explain that if you do infact believe in a crazy little thing called love, you should be able to believe that it can overcome all boundaries otherwise it’s just lust. (Like I said I’m a bit sick.)
By the Void, that is so wrong on so many levels that’s it’s almost a beautiful and transcendent thing. While choking on my coffee and nearly passing out from oxygen deprivation, I experienced something almost like an epiphany of all things so reverently twisted. I honestly pray that the Goddess of Mischief and the beloved mother of Sleipner continue to guide your thoughts and dreams in the right direction.
CT: I think it’s Balder smoothing his hair back, acting all nonchalant after he helped to beat up the host for pulling a Seacrest (the results… after this commercial!)
*Sigh* This was allmost too good a pun to be used on a quaterfinal!!!
:-)
I REALLY enjoy coming back for more - As a scandinavian with these fellows as a part of national history, it is quite funny to watch the gods shown and exposed like this…
Re Hel: My Norse Myth Encyclopedia states that Hel was dead from the waist down not bisected.
Re Crom Cruaich: I doubt he’d be at the Panthion Games anyway as he wasn’t part of the Celtic Pantheon per say, well no more than the Titans were part of the Greek Pantheon or the Frost Giants were part of the Norse Pantheon or Rava was Part of the Hindu Pantheon…
And Yay for a Hod T-SHirt. he is quickly becoming my favourite Norse God!
- wasnt that table a little bit lower last year? what is making the table rise this time?…oh…wait….never mind…
- Im glad to see balder get some time in the spotlight. I cant wait for the Loki part though…hell…if you guys need advice on mischeif and madness…feel free to email me…i got TONS of ideas in my head…(helps that all the voices have distinct personalites (we do not!)[do too!!!] (I want ice cream!))…
sorry about that
seriously though…Loki’s part will be “Piss on your Toga” funny!!!
-How could you NOT love that little jumping thing? heheheh
-where IS that third judges hand? and htat last judge seems to be staring a little TOO hard at the stage…and he reminds me of that news guy who runs those “To Catch a Predator” series on dateline…Coincidence?..probably…Funny?…Hela yeah!! (no typo there..honest!)
-Fodder for a future storlyine.
Hod already has a ninja backround…Santa Claus ALSO has a “Fat Ninja” backround*, so for a holiday episode, you can have Hod interact with the elves, reinderr, etc.
*its true. Santa is a fat ninja. It fits all the requirements
-Rumored to exist, yet noone has confrimed a sighting, yet beleif is always there.
-able to get in and out of peoples homes, regardless of points of entry
-cmon…you KNOW there has to be FAT ninjas…gotta be!!!
-Im in the fat ninja clan and we know!
-Milk and Cookies end up disappearing.
-the peice of coal in the stocking is a warning to anyone who tries to unveil the secrets of the fat ninjas. its one of those “this could be you. we will eat you as BBQ” type of warnings.
Hee! I love how Balder won (yes, that innocent act LOL). Minor nitpick: he’s not wearing the same outfit in the jumping scene … looks like he’s wearing a chainmail shirt or collar at first, but then it’s not visible when he’s jumping like a lil girl :snork:
No wonder the Greeks constantly do better then the Norse at these games: They’re Cheating!!! It makes sense now. I bet Athena is involved with allot of it. It fits in quite nicely actually.
210: Is anyone else thinking of the following exchange or is it just me?
LANCELOT: We were in the nick of time, you were in great peril.
GALAHAD: I don’t think I was.
LANCELOT: Yes you were, you were in terrible peril.
GALAHAD: Look, let me go back in there and face the peril.
LANCELOT: No, it’s too perilous.
GALAHAD: Look, I’m a knight, I’m supposed to get as much peril as I can.
On your comment! Nooooo! You have to post info on WizardWorld NOW! I will be at the con Friday, and won’t be on the net again until Monday. I so want to meet you guys, I love Brathalla!
More replies coming soon (just need to wrap up some stuff for the con first).
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — August 8, 2007 @ 10:17 am
I WAS going to reply to Gakki’s comment, and I still will, but it also ties into this comic. (114-Gakki ..the love thing…)
I notice that there have been a few “in” jokes in some of these comics…
Marriage Jokes people might not have caught
-Hela being dead from the wasit down - representing married women
-Replacing Balder with a lump of wood that sits there and does nothing - representing married men
Grimmy
when the love fades, you look at your spouse and realize you are in bed with an “in law”
I’ll think i’ll abstain from reading brathalla in my swimwear.
I like the last panel the best. Where the announcer says “oh my someone’s Really excited about going to the Finals”
I Definatly agree with bjorns comment (134)
Brat-halla just seems to get funnier and funnier everytime i read it. Have been following it from its beginning on quick stop entertainment and now on graphic smash. Keep up the great work guys :)
Comment by KnightShadow22 — August 10, 2007 @ 6:48 am
211: Wait a second! What is Odin’s Eye doing in the first row????? Dun dun dun!
Hey guys. I’ve had friends who are fans of the comic for a little while, but I RESISTED. For reasons UNKOWN. And then this weekend I went on a days-long Brat-halla binge and now I’m HOOKED. In the immortal words of the cat macro: MOAR!
Seth, you just made me load 207, and search for him. I missed him because of Sif stealing the giant hammer…I must have been laughing too hard. Any way, I will definitely be watching in the future, now that I know that you’re hiding things in the comics. :)
Snowpea, you must tell people which comic strip you’re discussing. This comment box is at the bottom of all of the comics, so for all we know, you’re reading through the archives and commenting on number 65 or something.
*Note- I don’t even remember which strip 65 is. It was a randomly selected number, but I bet that someone will go look it up anyway. :)
would be really nice if there was a section of the site or resource so we can look up who all the gods are (in the norse mythos and beyond.) i feel i’m missing a lot of the jokes because of that.
guy (#153): Working on it. I have much bigger plans for the new character section than what you’re probably looking for, so please have a little patience… if I get the coding completed the way I want, everyone’s gonna love it.
…need to catch up on comments (gonna try to do that this weekend).
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — August 16, 2007 @ 6:05 am
Wikipedia is not a good site for research. There is no validation process. People can post whatever, regardless of how inaccurate it may be.
Pantheon.org and GodChecker.com at least try to provide the best mythology information they can.
Your best bet to learn about mythology is the library. Some of the jokes in the series relate to how the gods were portrayed in various myths. Balder being invincible for example, makes the time Thor used him as a weapon funny.
Rayna
Comment by Rayna Stevenson — August 16, 2007 @ 7:15 am
I was so happy to run into you guys at Wizard World on Sunday! I can’t wait to see the rest of the Games and what you hinted about is really having me thinking.
As people probably noticed, we’ve been having some server problems over at mine and Seth’s Dark-n-Dam’d website (where this comment form is hosted as well as the source for the Brat-halla news feed). I’ve been busy working on that for the past few days, so it ate up a bunch of my spare time (and probably annoyed those of you wanting to make comments). Most of the issues were caused by problems with my hosting service (and the rest came about after they got all that “fixed”), and it should all be good to go now.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled commenting frivolity. ^_^
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — August 17, 2007 @ 12:51 pm
Oh, I also have a quick P.S. - Thanks to all our great readers for helping us break the 4 million pageviews mark (since moving to Graphic Smash) yesterday.
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — August 17, 2007 @ 12:55 pm
Mead and Rum, two completely different approaches to getting wasted and, if you’re lucky, reflective Haha.
I suggest reading some mythology, I had some interest in Greek and Norse mythology before so some things connect faster than others, and to be fair, the way Frigg went about getting Balder invincibility in mythology really seems like a plan you could only attempt when wasted.
Must have looked like it too.
Comment by KaiTenSatsuma — August 17, 2007 @ 1:12 pm
Let Balder win though………im so pulling for him to win…..
Looks like Loki is pretending to be Balder for some fun.
Comment by ULtimatecalibur — August 17, 2007 @ 4:04 pm
To: Mr. Stevenson @ 159
I for one feel lucky to have the writer respond to reader comments. It’s over the top in my book. I don’t mind waiting to receive feedback; I feel lucky to receive any feedback.
Anyway, I was at work yesterday, and an idea for a t-shirt crossed my mind.
I was always interested in Norse mythology anyway, especially since comics ans anime are saturated with it. So I have been making good use of Wikipedia. So, you probably know what happens with Hod in the end, right?
I was thinking of a shirt that says “Hod did it!” I haven’t worked out what art the shirt should have, but when you come up with something cool for it, I’m there!
have a big mess on the front with all the other kids pointing towards the other side (back of the shirt) with them all yelling HOD DID IT
and on the back you have him looking innocent saying :Yeah I did, but who is gonna beleive it?: (paraphrased from that particular comic)
I was waiting patiently for Loki to make a move, and he did not disappoint me…
Im gonna talk t him about temporarily changing me into Friggas bottle of Rum ;)
Id be the worm in her tequila…
the shot glass to her scotch…
(the rest of this just got progressively worse, in both a vulgar and a “its just not right to stalk a fictional character….again” way
Grimmy
wonders when The Little Mermaids restrainging order expires….
Three cheers for Loki! Granted, he might mess with his own on a regular basis, but he’s the t!ts for being a team player and acting in his own self-interest.
Two cheers for Balder for ending the sexist tradition of women being objectified for their appearance. It’s OUR turn, dammit! You women have had a stranglehold on being subjected to cheesy lines and endless hours of auto-erotic satisfaction, and now our time has come! (no pun intended)
Hey, could we have Huitzilopotchtli (Aztec god of war) show up sometime? Granted Ares was fairly cool, but how many other war gods do you know of who required a sacrifice of heart of a man who still needed it?
So very glad i found this comic! I own a kennel called Valhalla Siberians, my dogs are Sif, Thor, Sol, Beyla and Angus (ok angus isn’t a deity, it just fit him). You have no idea how many times I had to explain a name like Sif! (i’d love to see an appearance of Sol and Beyla btw). My Thor reminds me so much more of your version then he does the MIGHTY GOD OF THUNDER!
214: Loki has my attention back. I knew that it was him when he showed up, because it was really out of character for Balder, but I still like the way that it was handled.
On a different note: playing Ping Pong against someone with four arms would be really hard. I’m glad that’s not me. :)
I’m surprised Loki didn’t try to take it all the way to the bedroom. Though it’s actually nice to bring the humor back to a lighter vein.
Guess we know where he’s been putting all the disappeared gods now. I wouldn’t be very grateful for their help with the mead helmet production though. I imagine a bunch of mischief gods are worse than a roomful of preschoolers. Wonder if they’ll escape in time to give Loki a little competition.
I support the use of panel 6 from 214 for the Loki shirt with a line like “Never trust a trickster.” Unless you have something more amazing planned for me… ;)
Oh man, the only thing this comic was missing was a Zombie Army.
Mission Accomplished!
Well done, you’ve managed to make (officially) the coolest webcomic ever.
Er, srgonzo, as I understand it, Odin required the sacrifice of a man’s entire body while said man was still needing it. Jeffery has lightened Odin up a great deal for his appearance here. (Well, I guess that could go for all the Norse Gods, who were an interesting but frightfully depressing lot.)
Hel is keeping busy—but I’ll bet the zombie army was Hod’s idea. Can’t wait to see how Hel cheats (without getting caught) Baron Samedi. It will serve him right for taking such a cheesy role in the Bond film.
Even if all the captive gods get loose, looks like Loki’s got the Mischief title sewn up—unless he out-clevers himself again.
Love the depiction of the Dagda’s club. After the Beauty contests I suppose Sif whacked Thor with both ends of it, one after another.
Speaking of Sif, I wonder how she’s taking Balder’s success? Badly enough to help Loki trick Hod into…dun dun DAAHHH!?
I’m having great fun with your re-imagining of all these old stories, guys. Keep it coming!
Yeah, I keep thinking of the version of Tyr from Forgotten Realms…
Ya know, the One-eyed, One-handed, god that so many Paladins love.
Anyways, I stand behind Hod as the most freaking cool Brat there is; and am I mistaken or is his green-eyed female friend THAT particular eastern kami?
Sure, Odin may have required a whole body, but how much skill does that take? Build a big fire, and you’re good. Priests of Huitzilopochtli (wow, that’s rough to type) were encouraged to refine their skills to the point that they could extract a heart that would still beat after it had been removed from the body (granted, it was a few feeble contractions, unlike the Spielberg magic of Mola Ram).
#215, Ares intelligently tries to control the tactical advantage of the high ground, then cedes it to investigate the after-effects of his ‘exploiting’ of a known foe’s use of what appears to be a familiar and failed tactic. WHAT A MAROON! He didn’t expect another WAR-GOD to LEARN from a defeat? Whatever sort of beating his troops take from that, his loss, (should it occur) to Tyr is justified just from THAT! At most he should have sent down a couple of skirmishers to check, and if they didn’t notice the advanced case of ZOMBIEISM that Tyr’s forces had, THEN he could move down to gloat.
On the other side of the field, Tyr exploits a known character flaw of the opposing force’s commander to force the ceding of the high ground tactical advantage by looking unoriginal, but having learned a vital lesson about the tactic that he’s to poor effect in the past. In doing so, he places the entire opposing force within easy striking distance of his own troops, on terrain of his choosing, while starting the decisive portion of the engagement with the factor of surprise!
Looks to me like somebody’s been teaching Tyr that the first principle of warfare is information! Deny accurate or timely info to your enemy, while your information is checked as to its accuracy and timeliness (the Ares / Tyr bout WAS Ares final round fight, which allowed observers to see if Ares had shifted his command techniques or field tactics) and his probability of strolling into a trap rises DRAMATICALLY.
DEVIOUS!
Comment by John Rasmussen — August 28, 2007 @ 3:55 am
I don’t think Ares knows what it meas to learn form a defeat. They seam to be pretty common when he is concerned and he doesn’t seam to care. *sigh* so dreamy….
well its no surprise that Ares uses the same tactics and does not learn from defeat. Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t the Greek army use the same troop types and tactics for hundreds of years?
Hel is right. Who CAN say no to a plan ending in Greek wedgies… Now please excuse me while I make a phone call or two to make a certain friend of mine uncomfortable. Mwa ha ah!
216: It’s nice seeing the whole Norse family working together during this year’s Pantheon Games. Battle with Hel’s minions, Finale with Loki’s trick. Hod, Hel, and Loki helping Balder win…
It’s great. :) I’m ready to see wisdom now, I think.
Oh my gods this is brilliant! The pantheon games sequence has been the best by far. I cant wait to see how Hel deals with Hades. This is gonna be sweet!
Grabs popcorn and a soda, flops in the comfy chair.
NN- Well, if you were to take the back of the underwear, hook it over the top of the flagpole, and leave the person hanging there, suspended by their underwear, that would pretty much do it.
Jessika — but their legs would fall through the leg holes and they would be free! Even of not the pressure would be on the legs and not on the groin and butt. Unless I’m misunderstanding you. I think that they would have to be upright for a wedgie to work, not downright or… upwrong or… with their feet above their head! yeah… that works
Awesome comic man, Love how you have the Norse Pantheon as the underdog’s! Hope that Mjolnir gets some more time in and I hope that Fenrir get’s in there to kick some Greek god a$$ !
Awesome comic so far, I love how you’ve been handling the various gods, and I can’t help but wonder if thor is going to go head-to-head with Perkunas, or perhaps become Perkunas, after all, if the greeks do it, the norse can too! =P
OK, so my wedgie plan wasn’t exactly well thought out… sorry Grimmy and NN. I apologize for not actually having wedgied someone over a pole before. I shall rectify that this weekend.
Well, Mr. Stevenson, if they aren’t attached to the pole by their underwear, HOW are they staying up there? Just how cruel are you being to the Spartans? Every way that I’ve come up with for attaching them to the pole is much, much worse than the situation that I suggested. (Saying “don’t overanalyze the comic” will not suffice.) :P
So what category was this one for? I’m a huge fan of Hel (and Hod btw), so I’m a little confused by todays comic…. what was Hel going to do? Great comic all the same. Good work guys!
Mimi - I think that Hel won her category as God of Death as part of Tyr’s battle, since she provided the zombies. I want more Hod too! I’m looking forward to his competition - and the date Hel promised him! But first let’s see Frig kick some (wise)ass!
And jeez, you guys, this is a comic where Thunderbirds win by pooping on their oponents. I somehow doubt that the physics of wedgies are serious business around here!
Those Norse Barbarians; forcing brave Spartan Warriors to wear underwear. It’s so, so… barbaric.
The real question here is now that the zombies have “fallen” in battle, can they now move on to Valhalla. I know Hel wants them to go. She’s so sick of hearing: “No one could best me in battle, that’s why I died of old age.” “My warrior’s death was denied me when I froze to death urinating in winter.” Etc…
Comment by Rayna Stevenson — August 31, 2007 @ 2:12 pm
Snapple: Hey, Thunderbirds pooping on people is no lighthearted matter. Have you ever been around Thunderbird poop? It’s not pleasant.
bah its reinforced underwear, they’re not going into battle without sufficiently protecting their bait an tackle no matter how fearless they are, though can you imagine now much a reinforced iron wedgie feels like?
I’d rather not know.
Comment by KaiTenSatsuma — August 31, 2007 @ 2:54 pm
NN - Yes but if you start deconstructing the physics of it, you have to ask yourself what a Thunderbird has to eat to drop a bomb like that? …Man, if Thor’s hammer hit the bird square on right when it was about to take aim, I don’t know if I’d want it back!
I wonder what Tyr would have done fighting the Morrigan and an army of Picts? You can’t hang someone up by their…wode. Grimmy would probably warn us away from such thoughts.
Hey, now that you guys have a kafillion readers, what about a forum?
Episode 217: Now how did Hel arrange for those zombies to fall apart? You know she did, somehow. Probably won’t get caught though, after all Loki WAS tutoring her in cheating ^_^
Story aside, you might want to look at a new idea for a comment board. :)
Comment by Endymion — September 1, 2007 @ 12:17 am
@Grimmy - No bikinis, but I think you’ll still be happy with the Wisdom competition. ^_^
@Jessika - I’m very cruel. How cruel? One of the characters dies in this story arc.
@Mimi - Hel and Baron Samedi were competing in the finals for God of the Underworld. She used Tyr’s competition to help show off her underworldly skills (while Tyr showed off his war tactics and strategy). Sorry for the confusion… I should have put up the caption box stating “Finals. God of the Underworld. Baron Samedi’s turn.” for this one, but I forgot.
@Snapple - Tyr would have tricked the Picts into putting on clothes. It would have taken away their savage edge. Plus figuring out buttoning buttons and lacing laces would keep them thoroughly distracted for hours. ;)
And we do have a forum. We put it up when we dropped the old comment system (because of the problems it caused). If you look on the sidebar on the right, it’s the link labeled “Brat-halla forum”. I keep forgetting it’s there (I just recently replied to some questions/comments that had been there for a while). There’s also lots of other cool stuff on that sidebar. :)
@Endymion - I could always revert back to the old comment system built-in to Graphic Smash as long as nobody minds scrolling past all the comments on each page to get to the navigation buttons (which was a major complaint… and though we like comments, we prefer the comic be easier to read). :) I like this one though mostly because I don’t have to manually approve each comment and it has spam filters (which block about 25+ spam comments a day). I’ve looked at a few others, but with the restrictions on where I can put it here (and my limitations for making it dynamic for each page), this is the best option so far. Unless I code a custom site to host the comic, but that’d require making the readers move (for the fourth time), which we don’t want to do.
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — September 1, 2007 @ 9:49 am
Bawon Sanmdi, or whatever everyone else calls him, you guys think of every thind and thats why i love this comic.
Comment by lord boxy — September 2, 2007 @ 10:07 pm
so wait…..Hades didn’t make it to the FINALS?……….
Comment by lord boxy — September 2, 2007 @ 10:10 pm
Hel is the daughter of Loki and the giantess Angrboda, not a zombie. The other children of Loki and Angrboda are Fenrir (the wolf) and Jormunand (a giant serpent). Weird genes.
As for ’shudder effect’, Sleipnir (Odin’s eight-legged horse) is Loki’s colt who was fathered by Svadilfari the Stallion.
Well, Loki is a shape-shifter, and if you could, wouldn’t you?…
Comment by Rayna Stevenson — September 3, 2007 @ 7:53 pm
Snapple - Oh, come now! The wedgie conversation is all in good fun. I’m just causing trouble for the sake of it. It’s fun! ^_^
Jeffery - Don’t kill Loki, Hod, or Balder, and I’m still OK. (Not that you’re going to listen to me regardless, but hey, I’m allowed to make requests.)
Rayna - Ewww… (Sleipnir) If I could shape-shift, I really don’t think that I’d ever cross the gender line… though I’ve never thought about it for very long.
Wisdom goddesses go head to head? Yeah, I can see that. The other goddess head butts Frigg, and the mead helmet cracks ever so slightly. Pause. Pause. “Oh, it’s on now.” *Norse carnage is censored for the sake of graphic violence and lazy artists.* Just kidding.
*grins at Jassika* Well, Loki became a mare in heat to lure the stallion away from helping his master finish a project for the Norse in time, otherwise he would have gotten Idun, if I recall. Since Loki got at least part of the blame, he got to make sure it didn’t happen. *cough* I’m guessing Slepnir was decidedly unplanned, and things got a little out of hand…
Okay, Hel cheated. Not that I don’t approve. There have been, IMHO, far too many send-ups of “All that Jazz” already, and anything that brings another to an untimely end is very welcome. I do wonder what Samedi thought would be new or interesting about a Dance of the Dead. The Dead are always dancing. Dancing for Bergman, for Saint-Saëns, for Briten, for Jacko, cutting eclectic alt-rock tracks (Dead can Dance)—dancin’, dancin’, dancin’. *Sigh* I suppose he’s a traditionalist.
Still, Hel cheated. Somehow. WIll she be caught? Or will all the officials be too busy with their new mead helmets to notice?
How much *are* those helmets going for, btw? Since the labor is free, they should be pretty cheap, but Loki has always been a greedy little twerp.
I do wonder if the end of this series will be the end of Brathalla. It’s going to be really hard to top this. The price of greatness, I suppose.
Jessika, you seem young. Any grown woman would totally want to be a man for just one day, because we have questions.
“Why can’t you pee IN the toilet? Can’t you AIM that?”
“Why do men use such dumb pick-up lines? Do they really work? If so, who are the women falling for them?”
“How is it possible to publicly scratch yourself, fart, burp, pee in an alley, etc., with no social conscious?”
Men however, would be thoroughly entertained with accessible breasts, and the quest for that elusive “spot” few have found on their own. Interrupted only by the thought “Man, I have to pee AGAIN. How do women live with a bladder the size of a thimble?”
Comment by Rayna Stevenson — September 5, 2007 @ 6:40 am
Just got back from voting. I love the Hod t-shirt, never get tired of looking at it, I’m a huge Hod fan, but you know what I bet would garner a few extra votes? New naked goddess sketches every Wednesday and Friday.
Comment by OwenDangertooth — September 5, 2007 @ 8:16 am
@Rob - Could this be the end of Brat-halla? Not by a longshot.
@OwenDangertooth - I’ll be putting up some new extras for the voting soon. Hadn’t planned on naked goddesses, but I’m sure I could work something in. :)
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — September 5, 2007 @ 8:45 am
Mrs. Stevenson.
It can be aimed but it is inexact, especially when you start. The more one masturbates the more one looses control over it though… It is very natural to pee standing up for us and when peeing on a tree (or in an alley), aim matters less.
Also I would throughly enjoy having assessable breasts. If there was a safe, cheep, and effective way to have breasts (women boobs, not man boobs) without loosing any other part of my maleness I would do so in a heart beat. One can fantasize…
that last panel killed me…and not in a good way!!!!
one side was frigga…who im sure by now everyone knows my degree of lust for this fictional woman (especially tech support replacing twenty seven drooled on keyboards…((edit: thirty four, as I went back to see the comic again before I finished typing and I stop right before the last panel)), and on the other side this other beautiful goddess of wisdom…and they were SO CLOSE…..
thirty six keyboards and I got another memo from tech support so Ill end this now…
Grimmy
SO close….(im up to forty shorted out keyboards now and this comment took three hours)
Sirlin - I went back and looked up the myth afterwards, and it makes more sense. I thought that he was pulling a Zeus and turning into random animals to seduce people… or animals.
Rayna - I’m in my early 20s, so I guess that I’m young. I really should have been a guy so that things like my video game obsession and my firm belief that chick flicks are the next bubonic plague would seem more normal. … Moving on. Would I be male for a day, possibly? WOULD I TURN MALE AND SLEEP WITH A WOMAN? No. I thought that’s where the question was going.
(Oh. And, I’ve totally peed in an alley before. ^_^ )
NN - Having breasts is not as much fun as you think, particularly when they’re large. I have a set of Ds myself, and they’re terribly annoying. Always in the way, and if I run, they bounce, and it feels like they’re going to rip off of my body. It’s quite painful. Seriously, they’re not worth it.
Grimmy - You need to put a roof with gutters over you keyboard so the slobber runs into the gutters, down the drainpipes, and into buckets that you can empty periodically. It’s cheaper than keyboards. Just a thought.
Hey yall, I’m a big fan of this comic now, I just got done reading the series up to today and it’s one that I will continue to read. I found the link to this site from another web comic Ripped Ticket and you guys were in thier link section. I like the art and story line quite a bit and will definitly have to pick up a Thor t-shirt from you folks. Much love and chicken fat
-Martinez con Queso
Comment by Martinez Con Queso — September 6, 2007 @ 11:40 am
I want to be what Frigga sees in the future!!!!
Ill risk the lightning bolts!!!
( and will have distracted Odin with a gaggle of strippers )
and if I canna have Frigga, I want to be erzulie’s consolation prize!!!
Grimmy - Oi. I think that it’s safe to say that I look more like Wonder Woman than the manager…though, if I’d work out a bit more to get the muscles needed, I’d make a very good Xena. (Yay for being 5′1″! Amazons rule!)
I luff how the goddeshes of wishdom are shtill drunk from lasht nide. Dey musht haff been drinking all nide long wiff da Shpartans. Shounds like fun, methinksh.
about todays comic… wasn’t Odin the god of wisdom?
Comment by Mackenzie — September 7, 2007 @ 2:16 pm
Odin was the all-father of the gods, but the Norse gods have a bunch of interchangeable roles, might attribute to their overall ability not to be, well, petty.
In the case of wisdom Odin drank from the well of wisdom but Frigg has the ability to prophesies.
Comment by KaiTenSatsuma — September 7, 2007 @ 7:31 pm
This section is for comments for the Brat-halla webcomic (scroll to the bottom to get to the comment form). These will all be seen throughout all the archives, so if you’re commenting on a particular page, please include the episode number with your comments.
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — June 29, 2007 @ 10:32 am
Ah heck… so did the brats in fact place or win a pantheon game? or was Loki acting on his own when he won the Mischief category?
what are the rules for the Pantheon Games anyways? you know… in case we want to run our own?
Comment by Tory — June 30, 2007 @ 4:34 am
Blast, I forgot to include the episode number.
I was referring to 199.
Sorry guys
Comment by Tory — June 30, 2007 @ 4:36 am
I finally got around to reading all the stories from the beginning, though I’ve been following the comic for about half a year. Thanks for some great laughs. I’ll even forgive you living in Austin instead of Dallas.
Comment by Stephen M (Ethesis) — July 2, 2007 @ 6:51 am
Tory - Loki won the mischief category that year, but the Norse didn’t place or win overall as a Pantheon. Kind of like the Olympics, you can have individual achievements giving your country (or Pantheon in this case) points, and the ones with the highest team total wins.
Stephen - We’re glad you’re enjoying it (and getting laughs… we like making people laugh). Will it help any that I’m working in Dallas this week (and next)? ^_^
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — July 3, 2007 @ 12:38 pm
I love the Pantheon Arc so far and have a feeling it’s only going to get funnier! I can’t wait to see Balder in a beauty contest! Hahaha!
Thank you so much for updating twice weekly now!
Comment by Kelly — July 4, 2007 @ 5:46 am
I want to see the image of Thor posing with Mjollner as a t-shirt!
Comment by Anakin — July 4, 2007 @ 7:37 am
Kelly - There’s definitely some funny stuff coming. There’s also a moment toward the end of the arc that might make ya cry.
Anakin - Done! Check out our Zazzle gallery for the new Thor posing with Mjollnir t-shirt.
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — July 4, 2007 @ 9:54 am
Dear Jeff and the general populace - Why is Thor so adorable and tiny? ;_; *whuggles Thor*
Comment by Livia — July 4, 2007 @ 5:11 pm
had a hunch mjollnir might be making an appearance at these games. let’s face it, our guys n’ gals need all the help they can get! can’t wait to see what happens next :)
Comment by jen — July 4, 2007 @ 7:14 pm
Wait, so Thor gets 2 shirts, and Hod doesn’t get *any* love? This is so unfair.
Comment by Amy — July 5, 2007 @ 11:45 pm
Amy - I’m gonna work on a Hod t-shirt this weekend (maybe two… or three). I might even play around with some Valkyrie designs if I get time. ^_^
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — July 5, 2007 @ 11:51 pm
Is it just me, or when Thor’s shouting in the last panel of #201, does anyone else remember a scene in the first Highlander movie, when Connor McLeod’s being avoided by everyone in a battle to let the Kurgan at him?
That was one of the things he shouted… “Why won’t anybody fight me?”
Comment by John Rasmussen — July 5, 2007 @ 11:58 pm
John Rasmussen - very perceptive… guess that means you know what’s coming next. ^_^
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — July 6, 2007 @ 7:42 am
Oh Man, Highlander for the Win!
Comment by Kelly — July 6, 2007 @ 8:15 am
Hurrah! I now know what my sweetie’s getting for his birthday. :)
Comment by Amy — July 6, 2007 @ 10:42 am
“Thunder-twin powers, activate!” is truly a line worthy of the Gods.
Comment by RAB — July 6, 2007 @ 2:30 pm
Um…isn’t Ogoun a war god? And the Dadga is a bit of a reach well. At least you gave him pants.
Comment by Endymion — July 6, 2007 @ 2:46 pm
^__^! I have never enjoyed a web comic as much as this one! It’s so nice to Finaly find some people who enjoy all things Norse as much as me!
If you have time please write me back and tell me what got you into it and where you found your information.
~~Vidurr
Comment by Vidurr — July 6, 2007 @ 6:55 pm
Endymion - Ogoun is a Vodun loa/orisha who commands many aspects (such as war, blood, politics, fire, iron/metalworking, and thunderbolts). As for The Dagda, he’s the god that’s good at everything (all-powerful), so I treat him as someone who can fill in at any position the Celtic pantheon really wants to win (many of the Celtic gods are good at lots of different things). I was originally gonna use Taranis here, but I like Dagda’s giant club for thunderous attacks that smoosh people. And yes, I gave The Dagda pants… couldn’t have him dragging his penis all over the place in the comic now, could I? ^_^
Vidurr - I got into mythology at my local library. Seriously. My mom worked evening and night shifts, so I would go to the library after school until she got a chance to take a break and pick me up. I went through every mythology, science, and paranormal book in that place a few times each (plus the complete collection of Encyclopedia Brown). As for where I find my information, there’s the Internet. ^_^ I also have a pretty decent collection of books on mythology, legends, monsters, and archeology (real books and a number of books I’ve picked up in ebook format for quicker searches).
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — July 6, 2007 @ 8:58 pm
Finally! Thor has Mjölnir the Grinder! Please, let’s see him kick some Greek and Egyptian ass! (I really hate those guys!)
PULP them Thor!
Comment by Rob — July 7, 2007 @ 12:12 am
Hod’s T-shirt is of course printed black on black…. the glossy ink on the shirt fabric will only show if you look closely…. only those who know will understand….
Comment by Paul — July 7, 2007 @ 10:34 am
Okay… I changed the incentive image for the voting buttons above. It’s the image being used for the Hod t-shirt design if anyone wants a sneak peek (working on it right now… just gotta put some finishing touches on it).
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — July 7, 2007 @ 11:38 am
how much would the t-shirt cost?
Can’t wait to see what loki gets up to!
Comment by Tom — July 8, 2007 @ 3:30 am
Tom - the cost of the t-shirts depend on the style you get over at the Zazzle website. The plain white t-shirts with the designs run about $14.95 while the dark color shirts go for about $19.95 (2XL, 3XL, the long sleeve shirts, sweatshirts and other clothing items with more fabric run a little more).
And for anyone interested… there’s a Hod t-shirt out there now. ^_^
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — July 8, 2007 @ 10:24 am
Hello there. I’d love to get on the forum but after signing up two months ago, I still haven’t been approved. I wonder why? :D Apart from that, awesome comic. Being a heathen myself, I find this particular take on the Gods and Goddesses very refreshing. I still miss Freja though.
Comment by Aslaug — July 9, 2007 @ 2:19 pm
Aslaug - if your email account is a Yahoo, Hotmail, or Gmail account (or a similar web-based email system), they sometimes have a tendency to dump the registration confirmation email from forums into the Junk Mail or Spam folder. You might want to try logging in and if it gives you a message about needing approval, you might be able to have it resend the approval email (and just keep an eye in your Junk Mail folder in case it gets pulled into there).
As for Freja… no Vanir. Yet. Guess that means there’s a war coming somewhere down the road of this comic. ^_^
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — July 9, 2007 @ 2:39 pm
I absolutely adore this comic! I’m half-tempted to tell you that I want to have your children, but that wouldn’t be proper, now would it? ^_^
Loki is my favorite character because of lines like “Story time is my favorite time of the day. Now what to do to them while they’re asleep…”
Comment by Jessika — July 10, 2007 @ 6:48 am
Jessika, you can have Thomas and Eschele. After a few hours, you’ll be ready to give them back… Oh wait, you meant give birth. Just to let you know Jeff has an abnormally large head. Thomas was 35 hours of inducement.
Comment by Rayna Stevenson — July 10, 2007 @ 11:10 am
Looking forward to the God of War contest. Would be nice if some war godesses like Ishtar or Pallas Athene could show up.
I like your comic very much. Thank you.
Comment by Hans — July 10, 2007 @ 3:36 pm
Ipilya. Faugh. It’s just a big bog ghecko. Thor, Frigg needs some lizardskin luggage!
Incidentally, I saw someone mention the Vanir. The only problem I see with bringin’ them in is you’ve kind of got thier ‘tude’s towards the Aesir covered by the Greeks already. Ah well, if Njord and the kiddies do show up, just remember Njord’s motto, “Incest is best.” It might be fun to give Freyr and Freyja real names that they don’t like, such as, i dunno, Bert and Bertha. (Never met a Bertha who didn’t try to hide it under a nickname) Maybe Loki could spill the beans.
Did I mention I really like this comic?
Comment by Rob — July 11, 2007 @ 12:06 am
‘Wolfman’s got Nards…’
Man. I didn’t think anyone else remembered that movie…
Comment by Arctures — July 11, 2007 @ 1:03 am
This just keeps getting better and better.
http://www.godchecker.com/pantheon/australian-mythology.php?deity=IPILYA
To think we are going to get lots and lots of god contests, though it is only fair to keep Athena out of it, she probably wins every contest she enters. (Yes, she was my uncle’s favorite goddess, and mine too).
As for the Vanir, they did kind of marry into the Aesr, not to mention I’m not sure you can do their seid magic in a PG-13 rated comic. Shapeshifting gender benders, ick … I’m sure they’ve got a permanent ban on them attending the games.
Comment by Stephen M (Ethesis) — July 11, 2007 @ 9:05 pm
Girl Fights
Ishtar is a fertility goddess. Sure she could have her own page on psychob*.com, but don’t let the violence fool you, she’s all about the love.
Athena: The Chess/Risk Tournament just isn’t a crowd pleaser. Besides she fights like a girl.
Other war goddesses: Check out Episode #198 (send in the Celts)
Comment by Rayna Stevenson — July 12, 2007 @ 6:04 am
Catching up on responding to some comments.
Jessika - Wouldn’t be proper, but it’s flattering. And flattery will get you a new Loki t-shirt design (coming soon).
Rayna - Shhh. You’re not helping any by telling everyone about my abnormally large… wait, you meant my brain-case, didn’t you? Well, there goes my dream of a Playgirl modeling career. ^_^
Hans - Glad you like the comic. Looks like my research assistant (and lovely wife) mentioned Ishtar, but I have more on the subject you can read below. Don’t worry, there will be some female gods of war competing.
Rob - We’ll be using creative license when we eventually introduce the Vanir to keep it PG(ish). Or maybe Seth and I will just spin that off into an adult webcomic. Hmmm, could be profitable. (P.S. Glad you mentioned you liked the comic… we never get tired of hearing it because it makes working on it that much more fun.)
Arctures - Lots of people remember that movie. And considering I know one of the people that worked on the screenplay for it…
Stephen M - Godchecker’s a fun reference site. I’ll be putting together a mythology reference site soon and that’ll be on the list. I wonder if they’d consider letting me help out with descriptions. And Athena does well in contests, but maybe that could also be her undoing…
Rayna - you again? Slight correction (a little rusty on my Babylonian/Sumerian myths, but here goes): Ishtar was a goddess of war at one point. She started out as a simple fertility goddess and was known primarily for her status as a sex symbol (and cruelty to lovers). And since sex is a powerful thing, the cult of Ishtar grew very popular and other responsibilities and aspects (like war) were thrust upon Ishtar until she strong enough (and had such a large following of believers), she rivaled the Sumerian mother goddess Ninhursag.
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — July 12, 2007 @ 9:56 am
Hey again.
I tried doing what you said, but it tells me I can’t get my password sent to me, because the administrator has not approved my signing up. I hope one of you can help me get this fixed? The problem seems to be that while I signed up, I never got approved as signed up. Yes, my email is a hotmail.com one, I admit that…but I don’t -have- any other email account. Please…could one of you either contact me on the email included with instructions for what to do, or approve me outright? I really would like to be able to take part in the forum talks…
As for the war coming down the line…I am certainly looking forward to that. *ponders pointing you towards Peter Madsen’s ‘Valhalla’ comics*
Comment by Aslaug — July 12, 2007 @ 1:37 pm
Hey guys, I just wanted to say I love the comic and I cant wait for the next part. GO THOR!
Comment by VictimDub — July 12, 2007 @ 5:03 pm
Hmmm, ya know a good game of Scion could totally do these Pantheon games ^_^
Comment by Magus — July 12, 2007 @ 6:17 pm
>
Comment by TheSadist — July 12, 2007 @ 6:28 pm
Ishtar had it locked up until they persuaded her to follow fashion and take off her clothes in the netherworld, resulting in her being hung on a hook … tough, crippled all of her lovers.
Some neat stuff going on here. Forgive my favoritism with Athena, the first minimaxing powergamer in mythology.
Comment by Stephen M (Ethesis) — July 12, 2007 @ 7:24 pm
Using a Giant God Lizard as a weapon is *almost* as cool as using your half brother. Almost.
Comment by Kelly — July 13, 2007 @ 5:37 am
Y…eah, emphasis on ‘almost’. The whole throwing lizard bit’s been around since Godzilla and N64 Mario. Using Baldur is better by far.
Comment by Lokster — July 13, 2007 @ 4:09 pm
Oh Heck yeah!
Go Go Thor!
Comment by Tory — July 14, 2007 @ 3:44 am
Do you? (Know one of the people that wrote the screenplay, that is…) That’s awesome. I’d kill for a copy of that movie on DVD, I haven’t seen it since my old betamax copy died years ago…
Comment by Arctures — July 14, 2007 @ 7:05 pm
Yes! Loving this! Your comic is incredible, and I am greatly enjoying this story arc. You could not possibly update enough times in a week to keep me happy now, there must be MORE!
Comment by Lord Nuke — July 14, 2007 @ 7:28 pm
Comic #165 has a spurious .websitetestlink.com in the main image URL. Also, you guys are made of win. HTH.
Comment by Ed Murphy — July 15, 2007 @ 3:29 am
Aslaug - Your forum account should be working now (I sent you an email about it). As for Madsen’s ‘Valhalla’, don’t worry about influencing me ’cause I don’t think anyone could predict what I have planned for the war. ^_^
VictimDub - Thanks!
Magus - I can see the taunts from the brats now as they played. “Thor and a mortal sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G.” ^_^
Stephen M - Athena is great, but we have to hold back on our favoritism with specific gods for the good of the comic. [go HOd!]
Kelly and Lokster - Yeah, using Balder as a weapon is better. But Thor didn’t come up with that plan in episode #75 (Hod did). But using Ipilya to get all the other gods muddy and wet before bouncing them up off the ground to make the most of his attack… that was all Thor this time.
Tory - Yeah, go Thor! Wait until you see his final battle in the games.
Arctures - Yep, a friend introduced me to writer Shane Black (the guy who also created movies like Lethal Weapon and The Last Boy Scout) at the Austin Film Festival a few years back, and he’s there every year (and always great to chat with). He’s a damn funny guy and has lots of great stories.
Lord Nuke - I’m in the design stages of a time compression chamber that will allow us to get more hours out of a single day. It might take me a few decades, but when I get it finished, Seth and I will start updating more often. Or ya know, if Hollywood comes down before then with a TV or film offer that allows us to quit our day jobs and make comics full-time. ^_^
Ed Murphy - Thanks for the heads up on episode #165. It’s fixed now. It was something leftover from when Joey moved Graphic Smash over to a new hosting company. And thanks for the props!
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — July 15, 2007 @ 10:05 am
I can imagine; I’ve always liked his movies, must have a helluva sense of humor in real life too. :)
Great comic, btw, been following it for quite awhile!
Comment by Arctures — July 15, 2007 @ 11:27 pm
I really like this comic. The world always needs more mythology comics! I hope we see Sigyn eventually, I’m sure giving Loki a girlfriend would have interesting results.
Comment by Haley — July 18, 2007 @ 8:44 am
This…comic…ROCKS!!! Every other comic I’ve ever read that involved gods (or god-like entities) almost always went downhill fast, but this one just keeps getting better and better.
By the way, why don’t more of the characters have profiles? I’d read some Norse mythology before, but for the longest time now I haven’t been able to figure out just who “Sif” is, or why she’s so interested in Thor.
Comment by Tatsurou — July 18, 2007 @ 8:38 pm
Taking a break from working on my screenplay for the 2007 Screenwriter’s Challenge, so I thought I’d catch up on some comments.
Arctures - Thanks, glad you’ve stuck with us for so long… and we’ll be working on this comic for a looooong time. ^_^
Haley - We’re glad you like the comic and yes, the world definitely needs more mythology comics out there. As for Sigyn… well, we know he’s already been with Angrboda, so there’s always a chance she’ll turn up.
Tatsurou - I’ve actually been working on the code for the new character profiles page in my spare, spare (spare) time. Once it’s complete, it’ll have information on ALL the characters that have ever appeared in the comic (plus it’ll have some other great features I think everyone will enjoy). But real quick… Sif is the future wife of Thor. She actually doesn’t show up very often in the original Norse myths, so we like giving her a little attention now-and-then.
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — July 18, 2007 @ 9:33 pm
I love the evaluation of Hel’s performance. D’you think she’d be interested in proctering my exam? I believe my students deserve her.
Thanks for letting Thor tromp ‘n stomp!
Comment by Rob — July 18, 2007 @ 10:50 pm
Hmm, but will a mead helmet really help Frigg win the FINAL for wisdom? *looks doubtful*
Comment by Siriln — July 18, 2007 @ 11:03 pm
Sorry, was referring to Episode 204 >
Comment by Siriln — July 18, 2007 @ 11:05 pm
Shouldn’t Frigg fight with wisdom and not with the sword?
Oh nevermind, this is the Nordic way :P
Comment by Avestriël — July 19, 2007 @ 8:39 am
Oh, hot damn. I suppose a wallpaper of that shot of Hel is out of the question? ^.^
Comment by Wahad — July 19, 2007 @ 10:07 am
Episode #196: I love Loki’s face! He looks so pitiful and CUTE!! I just wanna hug him! *grabs little Loki and SQUEEZES*
Comment by Tempest_Lavalle — July 19, 2007 @ 10:46 am
Just wanted to say that I love Brat-Halla. I’ve always loved mythology, and have wanted to learn more about the Norse stuff. Occasionally, I accomplish that while reading this hilarious comic. Can’t wait to see more!
Comment by Niki Lemonade — July 19, 2007 @ 5:27 pm
Woot! Thanks a bunch for the wallpaper!
Comment by Wahad — July 20, 2007 @ 6:11 am
(205) Oh man, poor Balder Hahahahaha! On the bright side if over half the judges are female or gay males he’s got a total advantage!
Horrah Naked Swimwear!
Comment by Kelly — July 20, 2007 @ 6:12 am
Bet Thor, Loki, Odin, Hod, and the rest of the pantheon would kill
to be in Balder’s shoes (bare feet?) now. . . .
Comment by Martin — July 20, 2007 @ 9:35 am
Oh geeze…that is wonderful. I’ve been reading for a while, but this is my first comment. I had to though. I mean, I could be mistaken, but did Aphrodite just cause him to be come so aroused that ‘Lil Balder ripped right through his swimsuit? Because that is hysterical. X3
~S~
Comment by S — July 20, 2007 @ 3:29 pm
Ep. # 205: HOT CHA CHA! Balder is one lucky lil’ SOB! Haha, Aphrodite is a cradle robber X3
Comment by Tempest Lavalle — July 21, 2007 @ 12:51 am
This comic is made of win. God, I love you guys. Thank you for all the work you put into this.
Comment by Katlas — July 21, 2007 @ 2:17 pm
Just a though but is there any chance that Brat-halla would be availiable to buy as print?, like some other webcomics have done.
P.s Love The comic. Wonderful artwork and a great story line!!
Comment by Tom.S — July 21, 2007 @ 5:01 pm
Episode 205: Ohh my. Baldur’s 16 or over right (or the godly equivalent?) And… wait, does that mean Sif parade around in the altogether? No wonder she kept losing, is she even in adolescence yet?
Comment by Siriln — July 21, 2007 @ 9:00 pm
I suspect Balder and Whosname are being had…remember, Balder already broke several goddesses’ nails. A girl who has bothered to grow them will go to any length to avenge a broken fingernail—even when it is *clearly* her fault, not mine, er, Balder’s.
But who cares? The important thing is… Thor won! That made my week, guys. Thanks! So go ahead and dump on pretty boy. You deserve it!
Comment by Rob — July 23, 2007 @ 12:34 am
You guys must be regretting placing this comment sheet. Nothing but “i love this comic!” from a 100 fanboys/girls. Ah the sweet pain of popularity.
Best of luck guys and i would love to see this in a printed collected works!
Comment by Tory — July 23, 2007 @ 3:28 am
Sorry for the delay in responding. I was on vacation. Anyway, I’m quite happy to hear that there will be a Loki shirt coming out soon. I can’t wait to wear my favorite god around for all of the world to see!
Comment by Jessika — July 23, 2007 @ 8:53 am
Just looked up through the comments and realized that your wife was the first to respond after me…. It’s a good thing that I was joking, I suppose.
@ Rayna: If I lived closer, I’d totally babysit your kids for a while so that you two could have fun. I’d even accept Brat-halla gear as payment rather than money!
Comment by Jessika — July 23, 2007 @ 9:08 am
I am quite frankly amazed. Not only do you produce a fine work of comic genius but you also respond prefectly to viewer request. I will wear Hod upon my chest with great pride and admiration. You gentelmen are what the comic world needs more of.
Comment by Gakki — July 23, 2007 @ 11:31 pm
I’m a Hod fan, made me glad to know he regularly makes it into the finals. But, can he survive that date if they win the games this year?
I really like how this comic moves along, the pacing is sharp and the humor sharper.
Comment by Stephen M (Ethesis) — July 24, 2007 @ 6:17 am
I have always been a fan of mythology, of all types. Needless to say u guys are the best for the way u have incorporated them into these pantheon games. Gotta say, one of the best online comics out there. Keep up the stupendous work
Comment by Alo — July 25, 2007 @ 12:47 am
I’m not sure who I pity more here, Hod or Balder.
Comment by Wahad — July 25, 2007 @ 6:11 am
Aww poor Hod. And also, poor scarred Balder.
Actually, scratch that, Poor Hel.
Hahaha.
Comment by Kelly — July 25, 2007 @ 7:23 am
Hel only says probably, and since Hod is blind he couldn’t “see” her
without her pants anyways. Hod, time to thank your blindness.
Comment by Martin — July 25, 2007 @ 9:41 am
I love it, I was wondering when the Hel as half corpse/half alive thing would come up, wasn’t she suppose to be split left/right? I think I read that in one of the myths involving her.
Comment by Incidence — July 25, 2007 @ 4:26 pm
Well blast… Can you clear something up for me? Was Hod heartbroken because he would never “see” Hel naked or because she was half corpse?
Comment by Tory — July 26, 2007 @ 4:22 am
@Tory - why not both? ^.^
Comment by Wahad — July 26, 2007 @ 5:29 am
You forget, Hod HAS seen Hel once…just not the ‘dead’ half of her. Go back to episode 148. Personally, I think he’s more than a little envious of Balder, Hel being half corpse or not. The ‘probably be the last’ part probably didn’t make it better either.
Incidentally, -very- cool take on Hel. I -had- been wondering…since she’s normally depicted as half and half down the middle -vertically-. This is a new and interesting take.
It also LARGELY explains her demeanor…
Comment by Aslaug — July 26, 2007 @ 6:20 am
Actually, Hod can still get his hopes up.
Hel said that it is most likely that a guy won’t “see” her with her pants off.
Hod wouldnt have seen anything anyway!
Go Hod!!
I love this webcomic, and cannot get enough of it.
Keep up the good work guys
Grimmy
wonders if “Crom” of conan the barbarian fame will ever make an appearance.
Comment by Grimmy — July 26, 2007 @ 7:59 am
Heh i don’t think even if Hod Was in a place to be in the beauty competition that any of the girls would do their standard “hod Hug” unless it was before hurling him off the stage.
On a side note… Does balder have the vulnerability to mistletoe that he does in the Myths? maybe you should make it into an allergy or something.
Another side note… I never knew the Vanir were so dirty… Ill have to read up on them now.
Comment by Mackenzie — July 26, 2007 @ 6:08 pm
http://www.graphicsmash.com//comics/brathalla.php?view=single&ID=12238
Direct link to Hod’s time to see things …
Comment by Stephen M (Ethesis) — July 27, 2007 @ 6:30 am
I just read the entire run to date…I am a big fan or the Norse Gods…In many forms and you have produced my FAVORITE Loki and Thor. Oh and Odin…Best Odin ever. Any way just stopped by to gush.
Comment by Bradley Null — July 27, 2007 @ 6:46 pm
You being in San Diego is kinda depressing as I’m at Con and have probably passed by you a dozen times and not been able to figure it out so I could shake your hand for the excellent work you do here.
Comment by Wishsinger — July 27, 2007 @ 9:18 pm
Wishsinger - If you’re at the con and you see a guy wearing dark cargo shorts and a black “Austin Film Festival” hat, that’s probably me (I also have Brat-halla written on my badge).
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — July 28, 2007 @ 11:59 am
#207 is just too amusing and quite brilliant.
Comment by blade — July 30, 2007 @ 2:15 pm
2 notes:
Ishtar was a single god of both love and war. The Sumerians/Mesopotamians viewed both aspects in the same god.
Hell being half corpse/half alive is something I believe to be in dispute. I’ve read sources that say she her skin tone for half of her was blue and flesh for the other half. I also think that the half corpse/alive belief was one that took hold in the 20th century as works of art and descriptions prior to 1900 didn’t have Hel as being half corpse. Either a new source for information of Hel has been found and accepted by people who do popular renditions of the Norse pantheon or there has been a retranslation of Hel’s descriptions to turn blue/flesh to corpse/alive (or alive corpse?). Being suspicious of how popular culture views Norse mythology (mainly people who look to LOTR, D+D, and Wicca for information on a pagan religion without understanding anything about those things), I am suspicions about the vitality of Hel’s body.
I apologize if my nitpicking bothers anybody but It end to be anal. Mr Stevenson is entitled to creative license in his comic, especially since so little about Norse paganism is known for certain, and the variety of the beliefs that the Norse themselves believed in. My interpretation regularly differs of that from Mr. Stevenson’s but when it does it is usually funnier the way Mr. Stevenson takes it.
I do enjoy the comic and why would someone want Freja when Sif is so prominent int he comic? Sure Freja was more important but Sif (at-least an adult Sif) is better to took at then (an adult) Freja!
Comment by NN — July 30, 2007 @ 8:03 pm
Let’s be nitpicky. All myths are metaphors.
Ishtar: Fertility Goddess.
Babylon, the center of Ancient Mesopotamia had two primary gods. Baal the God of War and Ishtar the Goddess of Fertility. Hammurabi’s Code written about 1790 BC protects the rights of prostitutes. Prostitutes where found in the Temple District of Ishtar. Prostitutes served as the goddess on earth and were worshipped accordingly. The use of Ishtar as a War Goddess developed to make her stronger in the eyes of new converts. Metaphorically, it also explains the violence associated with sex.
In comparison, the God of Abraham wants everyone to know that Jehovah, God, and Allah are all the same entity. Futhermore the God of Abraham takes no credit for the Cursades, the Spanish Inquisition, the current state of affairs, or anything else men have accused Him of.
Just because people have accused Ishtar of being a War Goddess, it doesn’t make her one.
Hel has been describes as:
half bluish-black, half livid white
half flesh tone, half greenish-black
half alive, half corpse
having been born with her bones exposed
Metaphorically it describes her dual nature:
The ability to give life or cause death.
The ability to cause or cure disease.
The ability to punish or reward the dead in her realm.
Rayna
Comment by Rayna Stevenson — July 31, 2007 @ 8:00 am
Heh…you just know that after the games Fionn MacCumhal and Thor will be exchanging tactical tips. “Wow…you owned the Dagda like that? Now THAT is skill, my norse friend.” As far as the evening wear trials…why do I see a Kagome (Inu-Yasha) ensemble?
Comment by Silverwolf — August 1, 2007 @ 2:39 am
Ha! I love the Trigun and InuYasha looks. I’m not so sold on that last number though.
I’d love to see him in a tux, looking all debonaire and Bondy. What? That is so a word (or should be). And there are worse sorts of men to try and look like… there’s got to be some reason women sleep with that sociopath.
Comment by Amy — August 1, 2007 @ 3:18 am
Pg 208: I know that four of Balder’s outfits are from Trigun, Harry Potter, Dr. Strange, and Inuyasha, but where is the dark outfit from?
Comment by Jessika — August 1, 2007 @ 6:40 am
Nice sum up of most of the 2007 summer movies. The last costume was completely his thing.
Comment by Nevrak — August 1, 2007 @ 8:14 am
I’m pretty sure that dark outfit is from Vampire Hunter D, and I don’t get the “2007 movie round-up” reference of Nevrak’s; The last outfit beats me - I have to agree that’s an original there, though I’m sure he’d fit in at the ladies tennis court. ;2)
Comment by DanekJovax — August 1, 2007 @ 9:21 am
Evening wear for guys = tuxedo. It’s as simple as that.
Comment by Mutant for Hire — August 1, 2007 @ 6:32 pm
Thank you for some much-loved anime/manga fan service! :) Let the glomphing begin! *buries Balder under a pile of rabid fangirls*
Comment by Karistra — August 1, 2007 @ 8:00 pm
Ep 208: Yeah, the outifts are largely simple to place. One is definitely Vash, then Harry Potter, Doctor Strange, the next eludes me … it doesn’t look quite like D’s ensemble (missing the pointy epaulettes and the sword is all wrong), then Inu-Yasha … the last looks like a plug to all the school girl anime/manga outfits. Reminiscent of something Sailor Whatever would be wearing.
Comment by Wishsinger — August 2, 2007 @ 3:31 am
Wonderful strip today…a pop culture cornucopia! Dante, Harry Potter, Doctor Strange, Vampire Hunter D, Inuyasha…and an awfully cute mini skirt? Gotta love it!
Comment by Syreene — August 2, 2007 @ 6:09 am
Quote= Would Hod even survive a date with Hel?
Grimmy Answers= some of my best dates involved the neccessity of a defibulator.
Quote= As far as the evening wear trials…
Grimmy Answer= Nothing looks better on a well dressed man than a beautiful woman on his arm. Look for Sif to make the assist on this one with Balder in his tux
Quote= …I bet you are regretting putting this comment board up because it is 100 responses of I love your comic…
Grimmy Answer= this comment section has fufilled a couple of benefits for its users.
-Yes, we get to say how we love the comic. Comic guys need love too!!!
-I had no clue as to some of those outfits, and some other members here clarified it for me (thanks kids)
-INSTANT GRATIFICATION!!! we can comment on the day’s comic while it is right above us*
*[quote “Chicken Little”] “right above us???right now???run for your ****ing lives!!!the sky is falling and its filled with children who can shoot lightning bolts from their dad’s secret stash!!!! [/quote]
Grimmy
gonna check out the fourms now
Comment by Grimmy — August 2, 2007 @ 10:55 am
DOUBLE POST FU!!!
POST NUMBA 100!!!!!!
WOO HOO!!!!
p.s.
I would risk the lightning bolts just to try to have a shot as Frigga…
not a wise move on my part…but wisdom is HER shtick…random nonsense is mine.
Grimmy
Clown Prince of Brathalla
Comment by Grimmy — August 2, 2007 @ 10:57 am
Whole lotta comments to catch up on, so here goes…
@Rob (comment #52) - Hel likes the challenge of dealing with students with god-like powers. Mortals might be a bit boring for her. :) And Thor’s not done yet.
@Sirlin (#53) - Maybe, maybe not… depends on what’s painted on the front of the mead helmet, so you’ll just have to wait and see. ^_^
@Avestriël (#55) - It’s the rules of the Pantheon Games. ALL competitors must compete in a battle elimination round for their domain to determine the quarterfinalists. It’s just quicker that way (and sells a lot more tickets).
@Wahad (#56 and #59) - You’re welcome!
@Tempest_Lavalle (#57) - Hmmm… Loki plushie. The shapeshifting might be a little tricky though. :) (btw, cute little comic you have there)
@Niki Lemonade (#58) - Thanks! It’s not true Norse mythology since we do twist some things to squeeze a little more comedy out of the Norse, but we try to keep things close. Hmmm… might be fun to add a “learn more about the myths” section.
@Kelly (#60) - You get to meet the judges next episode. :)
@Martin (#61) - They might. They still get to watch the swimwear competition from the audience though (Odin has a front row seat reserved for him since the first Pantheon Games).
@S (#62) - You’re not mistaken. :)
@Tempest Lavalle (#63) - Cradle robbing wasn’t part of the ancient vocabulary (considering some marriages occurred in the early to mid-teens in ancient days). But honestly, she’s just using her godly abilities to her advantage.
@Katlas (#64) - The work is totally worth it when we get great comments like that. Thanks.
@Tom.S (#65) - We’ve considered print volumes (and even had a publisher lined up at one time), but it’s gonna be a lot of extra work to get the earlier episodes ready for print (for various reasons). But Seth and I decided to put the decision in the readers’ hands… next Wednesday, keep an eye out for a poll related to creating a print collection.
@Sirlin (#66) - In mere mortal time-keeping schemes, he’s around his mid-teens (although really much older than that… I always treat the longevity as a factor that slows their maturing process). Sif never paraded around in her swimwear… she never made it past the battle elimination round. :)
@Rob (#67) - Yep, Thor won! But he hasn’t won it all yet. He still has a bit more fighting to do later in this story arc.
@Tory (#68) - I’m regretting it now that I’m trying to catch up on nearly 50 comments. :| I’m just kinda glad only a few of our 5000+ readers comment here. But even if they did, I wouldn’t mind. I went through a bit of trouble to get this custom comment form up for the comic because we really enjoyed hearing from the readers.
@Jessika (#69 and #70) - There’s already one Loki t-shirt design out there (the older one) and Seth’s putting together a new one (similar to the Hod one we just put up) in his spare time. And yep, my wife commented up there. She reads the comic too (and helps out with some of the research). She also likes to remind me of her 35 hour ordeal going through labor due to the boy inheriting my big ol’ noggin.
@Gakki (#71) - Thanks. We try our best. Glad you’ll wear Hod with pride (I know I will).
@Stephen M (#72) - If you remember the Winter Break storyline, Hod’s a lot tougher than he looks… I think he could survive the date.
@Alo (#73) - Thanks! There are a lot of us mythology fans out there.
@Wahad (#74) - What about Hel? She pretty much admitted she’s still a virgin… that might be a little frustrating for her. :)
@Kelly (#75) - Yep, poor Hel. I’m glad you caught that.
@Martin (#76) - Maybe Hod’s into that kind of thing. :) He does have a dark streak to him and is fascinated with death (and Hel).
@Incidence (#77) - Depending on the translation, the myths never clarify one way or another how her visage is divided (although I think it’s mentioned somewhere it did affect her appearance, so the split might have been visible on her face). Some of the classic illustrations/paintings depicting her never really showed the division of her being (but they also never showed her legs). I just went with upper/lower half as a character decision so we could make her look cute (but have a good reason for her being so ornery at times).
@Tory (#78) - He’s heartbroken cause he’ll never get to see her legs due to his blindness (and it’s not looking good for getting a look-see if he ends up in Hel’s realm where his blindness wouldn’t be a factor). Plus… if she doesn’t take the pants off for any man, it limits a lot of other “options”. :p
@Aslaugh (#80) - Thanks. This take on Hel was originally a character decision for the comic, but it was partially inspired by the old artwork of Hel (as I mentioned above… they didn’t show the division but also didn’t show her legs, so that got the imagination churning). And yeah, it does explain some of her demeanor.
@Grimmy (#81) - Thanks and… go Hod! Crom might make an appearance in the comic some day, but it won’t be in the Pantheon Games storyline (we do have this thing mostly plotted out leaving room for a few ad lib bits here-and-there).
@Mackenzie (#82) - Balder is still vulnerable to mistletoe. There will be a future story with that aspect covered later on.
@Bradley Null (#84) - Best Odin ever? Now that’s a compliment. Our thoughts on Odin have always centered around him being the “All Father”, so we wanted him to make him fatherly… covering the good, the bad, and the “wanna pull my hair out” aspects of being a dad. It’s nice to hear it worked.
@blade (#87) - Thanks! Oddly enough, the entire “beauty contest” part of the story originally developed because I wanted to deliver that one joke. :)
@NN (#88) - Depending on your translation, the section of the Poetic Edda that mentions Hel describes her as half blue or half blue/black. Considering the culture of the time (those wily Vikings) with all their sailing and cold weather antics, they dealt with two conditions on a regular basis… drowning and frostbite. Drowning (especially with cold water) will leave a bluish tint to the skin and frostbite will turn the skin a bluish black color. With frostbite, the part of the body stricken with it can pretty much be considered dead if the affliction is bad enough (and in modern times, requires amputation). In those days, I could see a blue or bluish black skin discoloration easily conjuring up images of a dead body to the Vikings, so I took it to that step as Hel being half corpse.
And don’t worry about nitpicking… doesn’t bother me in the least. As you can tell, I sometimes have these things thought out a lot more than some people think… and sometimes I don’t (and I don’t mind being called out on them because it reminds me how smart and knowledgeable the readers of this comic are).
@Rayna (#89) - Stop that, you’re getting me all hot for your grey matter.
@Silverwolf (#90) - It’s not quite Kagome, it’s supposed to be a fairly generic panty shot showing mini-skirted uniform (of the anime/manga variety). I think Anthony threw the pink in there to make it look a bit more girly. :) Yes, Jeff and Seth watch anime and read manga.
@Amy (#91) - Well, if they had tuxedos back in those days… (not that anachronisms like that haven’t stopped us from throwing them in for a good joke anyways).
@Jessika (#92) - It’s Vampire Hunter D.
@Nevrak (#93) - He’s a god of beauty… he can make that last costume work. :)
@DanekJovax (#94) - Yep, Vampire Hunter D. And as I mentioned before, the last one’s a generic girl’s uniform (good for school, sailing, or tennis). :)
@Mutant for Hire (#95) - Good little Viking boys don’t wear tuxedos. :)
@Karistra (#96) - We like to be fair. We’ve done a number of Valkyrie bits (it keeps our colorist Anthony happy), so we wanted to make sure the ladies got a share of the fan service.
@Wishsinger (#97) - The dark costume is Vampire Hunter D… the outfit and sword skew more towards the manga version (and to an extent, the original movie). I think the pointy epaulets showed up in Bloodlust. Seth’s computer was in for repairs when he started working on this page, so I’m pretty sure most of those were drawn from memory (without any reference to work from). In fact, he switched the second one to a Harry Potter one because he couldn’t quite remember Spike’s outfit from Cowboy Bebop. And good eye on the last one.
@Syreene (#98) - We like our pop culture. :)
@Grimmy (#99 and #100) - lol
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — August 2, 2007 @ 11:19 am
# 208: I’m not sure which out fit I like more: Vash or Inu Yasha, the ears are just too CUTE! X3
Comment by Tempest Lavalle — August 2, 2007 @ 5:57 pm
Oh, I like the fur! Nice touch!
Comment by Amy — August 3, 2007 @ 12:24 am
“And in his move from quarter- to semi-final round, Balder is sporting the ‘Pimp My Norseman’ ensemble, available through fine retailers throughout the North Lands.”
Fur, had to be fur lining. Heh.
Comment by Wishsinger — August 3, 2007 @ 4:05 am
The Jump! Oh God, the Jump! *headdesk* I have to admit I didn’t see that coming.
Comment by Wahad — August 3, 2007 @ 4:08 am
Balder’s Happy Jump made me giggle.
I mention this because giggling is not an everyday occurrence for me.
Although it’s been happening more frequently on Wednesdays and Fridays….
Comment by Kelly — August 3, 2007 @ 6:03 am
#209: I. Love. Balder. :) Poor Loki will have to get my attention back, because the jump just made my day.
I admire you for going through ALL of the comments, Jeff. That takes dedication.
I’m starting to wonder about the next strip. It has an ‘interesting’ lead in , and I’m trying to figure out which characters I’ll be seeing. Hmmm…
Comment by Jessika — August 3, 2007 @ 6:41 am
Lol its like american idle all the judges are gay.
Comment by Nevrak — August 3, 2007 @ 8:25 am
Bwahaha! Episode 209 had an excellent ending…Kind of twisted the way you worked in the classic idea of Greek homosexuality into the judges. I suppose that’ll teach Aphrodite to try and cheat…hehe
Comment by Nicky — August 3, 2007 @ 8:48 am
I like the look on the face of the third judge. it’s all “I’ve got something under my tunic that needs some… uhhh… attention. I’ll be right back.”
Comment by Bob — August 3, 2007 @ 9:01 am
Hm…where did Balder’s chainmail go in the next to last panel?
Comment by J. — August 3, 2007 @ 9:39 am
Yeah, I noticed the disappearing armor too. This strip also makes me think of the end of the Ladies Man movie. Something about which I’m none too proud.
Comment by Will — August 3, 2007 @ 1:03 pm
has anyone heard of the myth where Loki cuts all of Sif’s hair off? that would make a brilliant storyline. also, i would just like to say that i absolutely WORSHIP this comic and have been known to physically drag my brothers away from the computer when i get home from school on Wednesdays and Fridays (their school is closer than mine, so they get home first). all hail brat-halla!
Comment by Alpha-Beta — August 3, 2007 @ 8:56 pm
I’m just now catching up so forgive my lateness. I was just discussing the whole half corpse thing with a friend of mine who also reads this comic and we were both wondering what was up, then Hel took off her pants. Poor Hel. However, being a fan of Tim burton makes me a bit sick in the head so I’m like it’s not much of a problem unless she can’t emjoy it as well. She isn’t talking to me at the moment. I tried to explain that if you do infact believe in a crazy little thing called love, you should be able to believe that it can overcome all boundaries otherwise it’s just lust. (Like I said I’m a bit sick.)
Comment by Gakki — August 4, 2007 @ 1:41 am
Uh… maybe it’s just me that’s confused, but why is Loki in the third panel where Balder was?
Comment by CT — August 4, 2007 @ 1:08 pm
By the Void, that is so wrong on so many levels that’s it’s almost a beautiful and transcendent thing. While choking on my coffee and nearly passing out from oxygen deprivation, I experienced something almost like an epiphany of all things so reverently twisted. I honestly pray that the Goddess of Mischief and the beloved mother of Sleipner continue to guide your thoughts and dreams in the right direction.
Comment by trebane — August 5, 2007 @ 5:10 am
CT: I think it’s Balder smoothing his hair back, acting all nonchalant after he helped to beat up the host for pulling a Seacrest (the results… after this commercial!)
Comment by Aric — August 5, 2007 @ 5:16 am
I ADORE THIS WEBCOMIC SO MUCH!!!! I love the characters, and pretty much every page cracks me up: WELL DONE, GUYS!!
Comment by Aelynia — August 5, 2007 @ 5:30 am
*Sigh* This was allmost too good a pun to be used on a quaterfinal!!!
:-)
I REALLY enjoy coming back for more - As a scandinavian with these fellows as a part of national history, it is quite funny to watch the gods shown and exposed like this…
Well done!
Comment by Rasmus — August 5, 2007 @ 8:49 am
Re Hel: My Norse Myth Encyclopedia states that Hel was dead from the waist down not bisected.
Re Crom Cruaich: I doubt he’d be at the Panthion Games anyway as he wasn’t part of the Celtic Pantheon per say, well no more than the Titans were part of the Greek Pantheon or the Frost Giants were part of the Norse Pantheon or Rava was Part of the Hindu Pantheon…
And Yay for a Hod T-SHirt. he is quickly becoming my favourite Norse God!
Comment by Lord Boofhead — August 5, 2007 @ 9:23 pm
- wasnt that table a little bit lower last year? what is making the table rise this time?…oh…wait….never mind…
- Im glad to see balder get some time in the spotlight. I cant wait for the Loki part though…hell…if you guys need advice on mischeif and madness…feel free to email me…i got TONS of ideas in my head…(helps that all the voices have distinct personalites (we do not!)[do too!!!] (I want ice cream!))…
sorry about that
seriously though…Loki’s part will be “Piss on your Toga” funny!!!
-How could you NOT love that little jumping thing? heheheh
-where IS that third judges hand? and htat last judge seems to be staring a little TOO hard at the stage…and he reminds me of that news guy who runs those “To Catch a Predator” series on dateline…Coincidence?..probably…Funny?…Hela yeah!! (no typo there..honest!)
-Fodder for a future storlyine.
Hod already has a ninja backround…Santa Claus ALSO has a “Fat Ninja” backround*, so for a holiday episode, you can have Hod interact with the elves, reinderr, etc.
*its true. Santa is a fat ninja. It fits all the requirements
-Rumored to exist, yet noone has confrimed a sighting, yet beleif is always there.
-able to get in and out of peoples homes, regardless of points of entry
-cmon…you KNOW there has to be FAT ninjas…gotta be!!!
-Im in the fat ninja clan and we know!
-Milk and Cookies end up disappearing.
-the peice of coal in the stocking is a warning to anyone who tries to unveil the secrets of the fat ninjas. its one of those “this could be you. we will eat you as BBQ” type of warnings.
Grimmy
the fat ninja none of you have seen
Comment by Grimmy — August 6, 2007 @ 8:35 am
I have to agree, the jump is perfect :)
Comment by Echo — August 6, 2007 @ 12:38 pm
Hee! I love how Balder won (yes, that innocent act LOL). Minor nitpick: he’s not wearing the same outfit in the jumping scene … looks like he’s wearing a chainmail shirt or collar at first, but then it’s not visible when he’s jumping like a lil girl :snork:
Fine work, keep going! Snowpea
Comment by Snowpea — August 6, 2007 @ 5:20 pm
Oh, ancient Greeks and Romans liked pretty boys, didn’t they? Aphrodite and Zeus don’t have their best in planning… *grin*
I love Your comic.
Comment by Sirith — August 7, 2007 @ 4:29 am
The more I read, the more I love this comix
Comment by Sherlock — August 7, 2007 @ 8:18 am
No wonder the Greeks constantly do better then the Norse at these games: They’re Cheating!!! It makes sense now. I bet Athena is involved with allot of it. It fits in quite nicely actually.
Comment by NN — August 7, 2007 @ 11:46 am
Re:Episode 209 Love. That. Jump!
Comment by Siriln — August 7, 2007 @ 10:10 pm
210: Is anyone else thinking of the following exchange or is it just me?
LANCELOT: We were in the nick of time, you were in great peril.
GALAHAD: I don’t think I was.
LANCELOT: Yes you were, you were in terrible peril.
GALAHAD: Look, let me go back in there and face the peril.
LANCELOT: No, it’s too perilous.
GALAHAD: Look, I’m a knight, I’m supposed to get as much peril as I can.
Comment by Jessika — August 8, 2007 @ 6:39 am
210: “It’s counts if I’m dreaming about them and I…”
Hahahaha I couldn’t stop laughing, even if I do feel a bit sorry for him!
Comment by Kelly — August 8, 2007 @ 6:53 am
Poor, poor Balder. And I agree, Jessika. Definitely the same sentiments.
Comment by Amy — August 8, 2007 @ 8:23 am
On your comment! Nooooo! You have to post info on WizardWorld NOW! I will be at the con Friday, and won’t be on the net again until Monday. I so want to meet you guys, I love Brathalla!
Comment by Carrie — August 8, 2007 @ 8:44 am
Carrie (#131): Wizard World info updated.
More replies coming soon (just need to wrap up some stuff for the con first).
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — August 8, 2007 @ 10:17 am
I WAS going to reply to Gakki’s comment, and I still will, but it also ties into this comic. (114-Gakki ..the love thing…)
I notice that there have been a few “in” jokes in some of these comics…
Marriage Jokes people might not have caught
-Hela being dead from the wasit down - representing married women
-Replacing Balder with a lump of wood that sits there and does nothing - representing married men
Grimmy
when the love fades, you look at your spouse and realize you are in bed with an “in law”
Comment by Grimmy — August 8, 2007 @ 3:31 pm
Goddesses Gone Wild! See what Happens when Frigg chugs down a distillery!
Hmmmm… Probably not hahah.
I wonder how Hod is doing in his contest.
Comment by KaiTenSatsuma — August 8, 2007 @ 5:42 pm
Woohoo! Thanks for the update.
Comment by Carrie — August 8, 2007 @ 5:52 pm
is that a Naruto joke i see before me?!?
Comment by Sherlock — August 8, 2007 @ 9:19 pm
Brat-halla is awesome. I just wanted to say that. You guys are doing an amazing job.
Comment by Bjorn — August 9, 2007 @ 7:59 am
I’ll think i’ll abstain from reading brathalla in my swimwear.
I like the last panel the best. Where the announcer says “oh my someone’s Really excited about going to the Finals”
I Definatly agree with bjorns comment (134)
Comment by Tom — August 10, 2007 @ 3:01 am
Brat-halla just seems to get funnier and funnier everytime i read it. Have been following it from its beginning on quick stop entertainment and now on graphic smash. Keep up the great work guys :)
Comment by KnightShadow22 — August 10, 2007 @ 6:48 am
211: Wait a second! What is Odin’s Eye doing in the first row????? Dun dun dun!
(I should get points for spotting him first! ^_^)
Comment by Jessika — August 10, 2007 @ 2:07 pm
no points awarded because he was also in 207….
good eyes tho’
i’m always “hiding things in the background”…
so keep those eyes peeled for all kinds of special things :)
Comment by seth damoose — August 10, 2007 @ 2:30 pm
Is it wrong for me to be terribly attracted to a two-dimensional representation of the feminine form? Damn, Dam!
Comment by Dave — August 10, 2007 @ 4:24 pm
Its a natural thing Dave, you sick bastard haha just kidding man.
I can only imagine if it was a gymnastics competition she’d win the tumble portion with the male judges.
Comment by KaiTenSatsuma — August 10, 2007 @ 4:59 pm
211: Love that little smirk Baldur has in the first panel. Very I-know-something-you-don’t-know.
Comment by Siriln — August 10, 2007 @ 8:53 pm
Could this be the BEST STORY LINE EVER?!?!
*cue dramatic music*
could be, could be….
Excellent work guys, top notch
Comment by Tory — August 11, 2007 @ 3:32 am
Mmm’kay… it’s funny, but this one lands just a smidge over into the tasteless zone.
Comment by Snowpea — August 11, 2007 @ 8:45 am
hilarious!!!;)keep going
Comment by mo — August 13, 2007 @ 2:55 am
Hey guys. I’ve had friends who are fans of the comic for a little while, but I RESISTED. For reasons UNKOWN. And then this weekend I went on a days-long Brat-halla binge and now I’m HOOKED. In the immortal words of the cat macro: MOAR!
Comment by Abby — August 14, 2007 @ 7:33 am
Wow… I’ve just run through all the comic… it’s just great work! Congratulations to the creative team, I wish my comic was so great as this :)
Comment by Fabio Ciccone — August 14, 2007 @ 12:37 pm
Man… every image of Frigg is just better than the last. I love the way you draw her. ^^
Comment by coil — August 15, 2007 @ 7:10 am
Oh man, I love the whole thing but that last panel is so full of win.
Comment by Kelly — August 15, 2007 @ 7:19 am
Seth, you just made me load 207, and search for him. I missed him because of Sif stealing the giant hammer…I must have been laughing too hard. Any way, I will definitely be watching in the future, now that I know that you’re hiding things in the comics. :)
Snowpea, you must tell people which comic strip you’re discussing. This comment box is at the bottom of all of the comics, so for all we know, you’re reading through the archives and commenting on number 65 or something.
*Note- I don’t even remember which strip 65 is. It was a randomly selected number, but I bet that someone will go look it up anyway. :)
Comment by Jessika — August 15, 2007 @ 7:21 am
would be really nice if there was a section of the site or resource so we can look up who all the gods are (in the norse mythos and beyond.) i feel i’m missing a lot of the jokes because of that.
Comment by guy — August 15, 2007 @ 8:57 pm
there is a section that tells you about the cast. Wikipedia is always a good place as any to look up norse mythology
Comment by Tom — August 15, 2007 @ 9:51 pm
So would you mind telling me what the RU is in the last panel of 212?
Comment by Tory — August 16, 2007 @ 5:08 am
Tory (#155): It’s the first two letters of “RUM”.
guy (#153): Working on it. I have much bigger plans for the new character section than what you’re probably looking for, so please have a little patience… if I get the coding completed the way I want, everyone’s gonna love it.
…need to catch up on comments (gonna try to do that this weekend).
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — August 16, 2007 @ 6:05 am
Wikipedia is not a good site for research. There is no validation process. People can post whatever, regardless of how inaccurate it may be.
Pantheon.org and GodChecker.com at least try to provide the best mythology information they can.
Your best bet to learn about mythology is the library. Some of the jokes in the series relate to how the gods were portrayed in various myths. Balder being invincible for example, makes the time Thor used him as a weapon funny.
Rayna
Comment by Rayna Stevenson — August 16, 2007 @ 7:15 am
I was so happy to run into you guys at Wizard World on Sunday! I can’t wait to see the rest of the Games and what you hinted about is really having me thinking.
Comment by Carrie — August 16, 2007 @ 11:01 am
As people probably noticed, we’ve been having some server problems over at mine and Seth’s Dark-n-Dam’d website (where this comment form is hosted as well as the source for the Brat-halla news feed). I’ve been busy working on that for the past few days, so it ate up a bunch of my spare time (and probably annoyed those of you wanting to make comments). Most of the issues were caused by problems with my hosting service (and the rest came about after they got all that “fixed”), and it should all be good to go now.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled commenting frivolity. ^_^
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — August 17, 2007 @ 12:51 pm
Oh, I also have a quick P.S. - Thanks to all our great readers for helping us break the 4 million pageviews mark (since moving to Graphic Smash) yesterday.
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — August 17, 2007 @ 12:55 pm
Mead and Rum, two completely different approaches to getting wasted and, if you’re lucky, reflective Haha.
I suggest reading some mythology, I had some interest in Greek and Norse mythology before so some things connect faster than others, and to be fair, the way Frigg went about getting Balder invincibility in mythology really seems like a plan you could only attempt when wasted.
Must have looked like it too.
Comment by KaiTenSatsuma — August 17, 2007 @ 1:12 pm
Let Balder win though………im so pulling for him to win…..
Comment by Nick — August 17, 2007 @ 1:40 pm
Looks like Loki is pretending to be Balder for some fun.
Comment by ULtimatecalibur — August 17, 2007 @ 4:04 pm
To: Mr. Stevenson @ 159
I for one feel lucky to have the writer respond to reader comments. It’s over the top in my book. I don’t mind waiting to receive feedback; I feel lucky to receive any feedback.
Comment by NN — August 17, 2007 @ 5:31 pm
Lunch. Dozed off…
Loki’s special chef. *Not commenting on anything else now, I have to stop procrastinating.*
Ja.
Comment by Kitty-Hel — August 17, 2007 @ 7:18 pm
thanks for the fish; keeps me from biting off the heads of smallish gods.
Comment by two meter troll — August 18, 2007 @ 10:41 pm
Episode 213: Hahaha, yet another example of why I love Loki! Then again, I’m not the one being tormented/tricked.
Comment by Siriln — August 18, 2007 @ 10:52 pm
Go Loki, Go Loki, he’s the Man!
Comment by Sherlock — August 19, 2007 @ 12:22 pm
Man, I love this comic.
Anyway, I was at work yesterday, and an idea for a t-shirt crossed my mind.
I was always interested in Norse mythology anyway, especially since comics ans anime are saturated with it. So I have been making good use of Wikipedia. So, you probably know what happens with Hod in the end, right?
I was thinking of a shirt that says “Hod did it!” I haven’t worked out what art the shirt should have, but when you come up with something cool for it, I’m there!
Anyway, loving the Pantheon Games arc. Rock on!
Comment by Klarth — August 21, 2007 @ 8:00 am
re:169 t shirt idea
have a big mess on the front with all the other kids pointing towards the other side (back of the shirt) with them all yelling HOD DID IT
and on the back you have him looking innocent saying :Yeah I did, but who is gonna beleive it?: (paraphrased from that particular comic)
I was waiting patiently for Loki to make a move, and he did not disappoint me…
Im gonna talk t him about temporarily changing me into Friggas bottle of Rum ;)
Id be the worm in her tequila…
the shot glass to her scotch…
(the rest of this just got progressively worse, in both a vulgar and a “its just not right to stalk a fictional character….again” way
Grimmy
wonders when The Little Mermaids restrainging order expires….
Comment by Grimmy — August 21, 2007 @ 10:37 am
Three cheers for Loki! Granted, he might mess with his own on a regular basis, but he’s the t!ts for being a team player and acting in his own self-interest.
Two cheers for Balder for ending the sexist tradition of women being objectified for their appearance. It’s OUR turn, dammit! You women have had a stranglehold on being subjected to cheesy lines and endless hours of auto-erotic satisfaction, and now our time has come! (no pun intended)
Hey, could we have Huitzilopotchtli (Aztec god of war) show up sometime? Granted Ares was fairly cool, but how many other war gods do you know of who required a sacrifice of heart of a man who still needed it?
Comment by srgonzo — August 21, 2007 @ 11:39 pm
So very glad i found this comic! I own a kennel called Valhalla Siberians, my dogs are Sif, Thor, Sol, Beyla and Angus (ok angus isn’t a deity, it just fit him). You have no idea how many times I had to explain a name like Sif! (i’d love to see an appearance of Sol and Beyla btw). My Thor reminds me so much more of your version then he does the MIGHTY GOD OF THUNDER!
Comment by Durragh — August 22, 2007 @ 6:11 am
214: Loki has my attention back. I knew that it was him when he showed up, because it was really out of character for Balder, but I still like the way that it was handled.
On a different note: playing Ping Pong against someone with four arms would be really hard. I’m glad that’s not me. :)
Comment by Jessika — August 22, 2007 @ 6:24 am
Loki is officially the man.
Even if he plays with dolls.
^.^
Comment by Kelly — August 22, 2007 @ 7:31 am
Episode 214: LOL, the Norse are at least using part of Frig’s CTW strategy I see!
Comment by Siriln — August 22, 2007 @ 7:50 am
I’m surprised Loki didn’t try to take it all the way to the bedroom. Though it’s actually nice to bring the humor back to a lighter vein.
Guess we know where he’s been putting all the disappeared gods now. I wouldn’t be very grateful for their help with the mead helmet production though. I imagine a bunch of mischief gods are worse than a roomful of preschoolers. Wonder if they’ll escape in time to give Loki a little competition.
Comment by hematite — August 22, 2007 @ 8:21 am
I absolutely adore this comic, from the art to the writing. I definitely look forward to Wed and Fri now.
Thank you
Alicia
Comment by ciaryn — August 22, 2007 @ 8:24 am
THEY PUT A ZOLTAR BOOTH IN !!!!
AHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH
how BIG of you to do so.
grimmy
wonders who the tiger is a representitive of.
Comment by Grimmy — August 22, 2007 @ 8:45 am
I love this strip. Keep them coming guys!
Comment by KnightShadow22 — August 22, 2007 @ 10:01 am
Ep. 214: It could just be me, but those helms make me think Samus O’Ryan(Metroid)
Comment by Spys J. — August 22, 2007 @ 10:50 am
In response to issue 214: That ping-pong ball to the face? TOTALLY worth it for that look on Lakshmi’s face! Keep up the laughs, guys!
Comment by Pietro — August 22, 2007 @ 10:01 pm
Fan fricking tastic! 214 was genius!
Comment by Tory — August 23, 2007 @ 4:17 am
…Hel and Tyr are a really scary combo. (’Cause you know she totally served up the zombies. On rye.)
And awww, the Hod pic went away. Knowing the myth, that was SO delightfully wrong, you guys. I want the t-shirt…
Man, reading this comic makes the stretch between Friday and Wednesday feel so long!
Comment by Abby — August 23, 2007 @ 11:53 pm
Episode 215, the most awesome of them all! Fantastic! Seriously! Thanks for doing this comic, you just made my day.
Comment by empty_other — August 24, 2007 @ 4:43 am
Owned, fully and surely. Ares always was a drunken lout. Of the various war gods, Tyr really had nobility and class down, even if he was left handed.
Sharp!
Comment by Stephen M (Ethesis) — August 24, 2007 @ 6:23 am
215: Zombie soldiers for the win! ^_^
I support the use of panel 6 from 214 for the Loki shirt with a line like “Never trust a trickster.” Unless you have something more amazing planned for me… ;)
Comment by Jessika — August 24, 2007 @ 6:48 am
Neat >:D
Tyr rules!
Comment by Fabio Ciccone — August 24, 2007 @ 6:53 am
Oh man, the only thing this comic was missing was a Zombie Army.
Mission Accomplished!
Well done, you’ve managed to make (officially) the coolest webcomic ever.
Comment by Kelly — August 24, 2007 @ 7:22 am
“oh, they were already dead before we started” Fantastic!
Comment by Carrie — August 24, 2007 @ 8:14 am
Love the comic.
So…how much would the graphic novel cost if you were to say…start selling BH as graphic novels next month?
-z
Comment by zombiebitz — August 24, 2007 @ 10:41 am
Those guys must have been piiiiiisssed.
Bet Tyr had to pull some supreme diplomacy to keep them from eating him.
Comment by KaiTenSatsuma — August 24, 2007 @ 3:07 pm
Episode 215: Sneaky! And gross. Hel’s been busy, what with getting called in on all those events!
Comment by Siriln — August 25, 2007 @ 8:29 pm
Er, srgonzo, as I understand it, Odin required the sacrifice of a man’s entire body while said man was still needing it. Jeffery has lightened Odin up a great deal for his appearance here. (Well, I guess that could go for all the Norse Gods, who were an interesting but frightfully depressing lot.)
Hel is keeping busy—but I’ll bet the zombie army was Hod’s idea. Can’t wait to see how Hel cheats (without getting caught) Baron Samedi. It will serve him right for taking such a cheesy role in the Bond film.
Even if all the captive gods get loose, looks like Loki’s got the Mischief title sewn up—unless he out-clevers himself again.
Love the depiction of the Dagda’s club. After the Beauty contests I suppose Sif whacked Thor with both ends of it, one after another.
Speaking of Sif, I wonder how she’s taking Balder’s success? Badly enough to help Loki trick Hod into…dun dun DAAHHH!?
I’m having great fun with your re-imagining of all these old stories, guys. Keep it coming!
Comment by Rob — August 26, 2007 @ 12:55 pm
Yeah, I keep thinking of the version of Tyr from Forgotten Realms…
Ya know, the One-eyed, One-handed, god that so many Paladins love.
Anyways, I stand behind Hod as the most freaking cool Brat there is; and am I mistaken or is his green-eyed female friend THAT particular eastern kami?
Comment by ShadrachVS — August 27, 2007 @ 2:52 am
Annnd Tyr owns Ares completely. “Oh, they were already dead before we started”. Now *that* is a good line :P. Go Tyr!
Comment by Drascin — August 27, 2007 @ 6:40 am
Sure, Odin may have required a whole body, but how much skill does that take? Build a big fire, and you’re good. Priests of Huitzilopochtli (wow, that’s rough to type) were encouraged to refine their skills to the point that they could extract a heart that would still beat after it had been removed from the body (granted, it was a few feeble contractions, unlike the Spielberg magic of Mola Ram).
Comment by srgonzo — August 28, 2007 @ 2:57 am
#215, Ares intelligently tries to control the tactical advantage of the high ground, then cedes it to investigate the after-effects of his ‘exploiting’ of a known foe’s use of what appears to be a familiar and failed tactic. WHAT A MAROON! He didn’t expect another WAR-GOD to LEARN from a defeat? Whatever sort of beating his troops take from that, his loss, (should it occur) to Tyr is justified just from THAT! At most he should have sent down a couple of skirmishers to check, and if they didn’t notice the advanced case of ZOMBIEISM that Tyr’s forces had, THEN he could move down to gloat.
On the other side of the field, Tyr exploits a known character flaw of the opposing force’s commander to force the ceding of the high ground tactical advantage by looking unoriginal, but having learned a vital lesson about the tactic that he’s to poor effect in the past. In doing so, he places the entire opposing force within easy striking distance of his own troops, on terrain of his choosing, while starting the decisive portion of the engagement with the factor of surprise!
Looks to me like somebody’s been teaching Tyr that the first principle of warfare is information! Deny accurate or timely info to your enemy, while your information is checked as to its accuracy and timeliness (the Ares / Tyr bout WAS Ares final round fight, which allowed observers to see if Ares had shifted his command techniques or field tactics) and his probability of strolling into a trap rises DRAMATICALLY.
DEVIOUS!
Comment by John Rasmussen — August 28, 2007 @ 3:55 am
I don’t think Ares knows what it meas to learn form a defeat. They seam to be pretty common when he is concerned and he doesn’t seam to care. *sigh* so dreamy….
Comment by NN — August 28, 2007 @ 7:58 am
well its no surprise that Ares uses the same tactics and does not learn from defeat. Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t the Greek army use the same troop types and tactics for hundreds of years?
Comment by Mackenzie — August 28, 2007 @ 11:58 am
Yet another victim of the Kansas City Shuffle.
Comment by srgonzo — August 28, 2007 @ 11:18 pm
Hel is right. Who CAN say no to a plan ending in Greek wedgies… Now please excuse me while I make a phone call or two to make a certain friend of mine uncomfortable. Mwa ha ah!
Comment by PJ — August 29, 2007 @ 9:09 am
216: It’s nice seeing the whole Norse family working together during this year’s Pantheon Games. Battle with Hel’s minions, Finale with Loki’s trick. Hod, Hel, and Loki helping Balder win…
It’s great. :) I’m ready to see wisdom now, I think.
Comment by Jessika — August 29, 2007 @ 9:59 am
Aww Tyr’s giving Hel a message. That’s so sweet.
Comment by NN — August 29, 2007 @ 1:27 pm
(Sorry for the double post)
Wait…. how does one get a wedgie while hanging upside down? and wearing armor? (maybe not Ares but the soldiers)
Comment by NN — August 29, 2007 @ 1:30 pm
Oh my gods this is brilliant! The pantheon games sequence has been the best by far. I cant wait to see how Hel deals with Hades. This is gonna be sweet!
Grabs popcorn and a soda, flops in the comfy chair.
Comment by Ari — August 29, 2007 @ 6:41 pm
NN- Well, if you were to take the back of the underwear, hook it over the top of the flagpole, and leave the person hanging there, suspended by their underwear, that would pretty much do it.
Very painful, methinks.
Comment by Jessika — August 30, 2007 @ 9:24 am
It was even worse for those soldiers who WEREN’T wearing any underwear…
Grimmy
will now start wearing underwear…just in case.
Comment by Grimmy — August 30, 2007 @ 9:36 am
Jessika — but their legs would fall through the leg holes and they would be free! Even of not the pressure would be on the legs and not on the groin and butt. Unless I’m misunderstanding you. I think that they would have to be upright for a wedgie to work, not downright or… upwrong or… with their feet above their head! yeah… that works
Comment by NN — August 30, 2007 @ 11:08 am
Spartans don’t wear underwear. :p
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — August 30, 2007 @ 11:54 am
Whether or not it’s a technical “wedgie”, it’s still gotta be uncomfortable… and funny.
Comment by Hematite — August 30, 2007 @ 5:54 pm
Awesome comic man, Love how you have the Norse Pantheon as the underdog’s! Hope that Mjolnir gets some more time in and I hope that Fenrir get’s in there to kick some Greek god a$$ !
Comment by Wulff — August 30, 2007 @ 10:33 pm
Mr. Stevenson: That makes it even more confusing!!!! Ahhhh……..
Comment by NN — August 31, 2007 @ 6:52 am
Break a leg.
sorry
couldnt resist the obvious pun.
next week…my babe gets the spotlight…
Im gonna poke an eye out. I just KNOW it.
If you guys have ANY love for us…
make sure there is a swimsuit part to the wisdom competition!!!!
Fan service DEMANDS It…
or maybe only Grimmy does…
but then again…
Grimmy can be volstaggian in his proportions, so it may not be “wise” to deny him this request…
Grimmy
one of the Comedians Three
Comment by Grimmy — August 31, 2007 @ 8:54 am
Awesome comic so far, I love how you’ve been handling the various gods, and I can’t help but wonder if thor is going to go head-to-head with Perkunas, or perhaps become Perkunas, after all, if the greeks do it, the norse can too! =P
Comment by Quantumf8 — August 31, 2007 @ 9:34 am
OK, so my wedgie plan wasn’t exactly well thought out… sorry Grimmy and NN. I apologize for not actually having wedgied someone over a pole before. I shall rectify that this weekend.
Well, Mr. Stevenson, if they aren’t attached to the pole by their underwear, HOW are they staying up there? Just how cruel are you being to the Spartans? Every way that I’ve come up with for attaching them to the pole is much, much worse than the situation that I suggested. (Saying “don’t overanalyze the comic” will not suffice.) :P
Comment by Jessika — August 31, 2007 @ 10:37 am
So what category was this one for? I’m a huge fan of Hel (and Hod btw), so I’m a little confused by todays comic…. what was Hel going to do? Great comic all the same. Good work guys!
Comment by Mimi — August 31, 2007 @ 11:57 am
Mimi - I think that Hel won her category as God of Death as part of Tyr’s battle, since she provided the zombies. I want more Hod too! I’m looking forward to his competition - and the date Hel promised him! But first let’s see Frig kick some (wise)ass!
And jeez, you guys, this is a comic where Thunderbirds win by pooping on their oponents. I somehow doubt that the physics of wedgies are serious business around here!
Comment by Snapple — August 31, 2007 @ 12:18 pm
Those Norse Barbarians; forcing brave Spartan Warriors to wear underwear. It’s so, so… barbaric.
The real question here is now that the zombies have “fallen” in battle, can they now move on to Valhalla. I know Hel wants them to go. She’s so sick of hearing: “No one could best me in battle, that’s why I died of old age.” “My warrior’s death was denied me when I froze to death urinating in winter.” Etc…
Comment by Rayna Stevenson — August 31, 2007 @ 2:12 pm
Snapple: Hey, Thunderbirds pooping on people is no lighthearted matter. Have you ever been around Thunderbird poop? It’s not pleasant.
Comment by NN — August 31, 2007 @ 2:47 pm
bah its reinforced underwear, they’re not going into battle without sufficiently protecting their bait an tackle no matter how fearless they are, though can you imagine now much a reinforced iron wedgie feels like?
I’d rather not know.
Comment by KaiTenSatsuma — August 31, 2007 @ 2:54 pm
NN - Yes but if you start deconstructing the physics of it, you have to ask yourself what a Thunderbird has to eat to drop a bomb like that? …Man, if Thor’s hammer hit the bird square on right when it was about to take aim, I don’t know if I’d want it back!
I wonder what Tyr would have done fighting the Morrigan and an army of Picts? You can’t hang someone up by their…wode. Grimmy would probably warn us away from such thoughts.
Hey, now that you guys have a kafillion readers, what about a forum?
Comment by Snapple — August 31, 2007 @ 3:24 pm
Episode 217: Now how did Hel arrange for those zombies to fall apart? You know she did, somehow. Probably won’t get caught though, after all Loki WAS tutoring her in cheating ^_^
Comment by Siriln — August 31, 2007 @ 9:46 pm
Story aside, you might want to look at a new idea for a comment board. :)
Comment by Endymion — September 1, 2007 @ 12:17 am
@Grimmy - No bikinis, but I think you’ll still be happy with the Wisdom competition. ^_^
@Jessika - I’m very cruel. How cruel? One of the characters dies in this story arc.
@Mimi - Hel and Baron Samedi were competing in the finals for God of the Underworld. She used Tyr’s competition to help show off her underworldly skills (while Tyr showed off his war tactics and strategy). Sorry for the confusion… I should have put up the caption box stating “Finals. God of the Underworld. Baron Samedi’s turn.” for this one, but I forgot.
@Snapple - Tyr would have tricked the Picts into putting on clothes. It would have taken away their savage edge. Plus figuring out buttoning buttons and lacing laces would keep them thoroughly distracted for hours. ;)
And we do have a forum. We put it up when we dropped the old comment system (because of the problems it caused). If you look on the sidebar on the right, it’s the link labeled “Brat-halla forum”. I keep forgetting it’s there (I just recently replied to some questions/comments that had been there for a while). There’s also lots of other cool stuff on that sidebar. :)
@Endymion - I could always revert back to the old comment system built-in to Graphic Smash as long as nobody minds scrolling past all the comments on each page to get to the navigation buttons (which was a major complaint… and though we like comments, we prefer the comic be easier to read). :) I like this one though mostly because I don’t have to manually approve each comment and it has spam filters (which block about 25+ spam comments a day). I’ve looked at a few others, but with the restrictions on where I can put it here (and my limitations for making it dynamic for each page), this is the best option so far. Unless I code a custom site to host the comic, but that’d require making the readers move (for the fourth time), which we don’t want to do.
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — September 1, 2007 @ 9:49 am
Bawon Sanmdi, or whatever everyone else calls him, you guys think of every thind and thats why i love this comic.
Comment by lord boxy — September 2, 2007 @ 10:07 pm
so wait…..Hades didn’t make it to the FINALS?……….
Comment by lord boxy — September 2, 2007 @ 10:10 pm
He’s a Greek. Of course he didn’t.
Comment by Wahad — September 3, 2007 @ 1:49 am
I know this is a little late but I only just finished reading all the archives and I had a thought.
If Hel is half corpse (see page 206) and her dad is Loki, a God, her mom must be a corpse. So does that make Loki a necrophiliac?
I’m not sure if any one commented on this already or not but I couldn’t find it so if this conversation has been had I apologize.
but uh yeah…Loki and a Zombie…*Shudders*
Comment by Afton — September 3, 2007 @ 2:35 pm
Hel is the daughter of Loki and the giantess Angrboda, not a zombie. The other children of Loki and Angrboda are Fenrir (the wolf) and Jormunand (a giant serpent). Weird genes.
As for ’shudder effect’, Sleipnir (Odin’s eight-legged horse) is Loki’s colt who was fathered by Svadilfari the Stallion.
Well, Loki is a shape-shifter, and if you could, wouldn’t you?…
Comment by Rayna Stevenson — September 3, 2007 @ 7:53 pm
Snapple - Oh, come now! The wedgie conversation is all in good fun. I’m just causing trouble for the sake of it. It’s fun! ^_^
Jeffery - Don’t kill Loki, Hod, or Balder, and I’m still OK. (Not that you’re going to listen to me regardless, but hey, I’m allowed to make requests.)
Rayna - Ewww… (Sleipnir) If I could shape-shift, I really don’t think that I’d ever cross the gender line… though I’ve never thought about it for very long.
Wisdom goddesses go head to head? Yeah, I can see that. The other goddess head butts Frigg, and the mead helmet cracks ever so slightly. Pause. Pause. “Oh, it’s on now.” *Norse carnage is censored for the sake of graphic violence and lazy artists.* Just kidding.
Comment by Jessika — September 4, 2007 @ 11:05 am
*grins at Jassika* Well, Loki became a mare in heat to lure the stallion away from helping his master finish a project for the Norse in time, otherwise he would have gotten Idun, if I recall. Since Loki got at least part of the blame, he got to make sure it didn’t happen. *cough* I’m guessing Slepnir was decidedly unplanned, and things got a little out of hand…
Comment by Siriln — September 4, 2007 @ 12:12 pm
Okay, Hel cheated. Not that I don’t approve. There have been, IMHO, far too many send-ups of “All that Jazz” already, and anything that brings another to an untimely end is very welcome. I do wonder what Samedi thought would be new or interesting about a Dance of the Dead. The Dead are always dancing. Dancing for Bergman, for Saint-Saëns, for Briten, for Jacko, cutting eclectic alt-rock tracks (Dead can Dance)—dancin’, dancin’, dancin’. *Sigh* I suppose he’s a traditionalist.
Still, Hel cheated. Somehow. WIll she be caught? Or will all the officials be too busy with their new mead helmets to notice?
How much *are* those helmets going for, btw? Since the labor is free, they should be pretty cheap, but Loki has always been a greedy little twerp.
I do wonder if the end of this series will be the end of Brathalla. It’s going to be really hard to top this. The price of greatness, I suppose.
Comment by Rob — September 4, 2007 @ 6:32 pm
Nooooooooooo not the end! Say it ain’t so! D:
Comment by Snapple — September 5, 2007 @ 12:49 am
Naked Spartan Wrestling for the Win!
Comment by Kelly — September 5, 2007 @ 4:35 am
Jessika, you seem young. Any grown woman would totally want to be a man for just one day, because we have questions.
“Why can’t you pee IN the toilet? Can’t you AIM that?”
“Why do men use such dumb pick-up lines? Do they really work? If so, who are the women falling for them?”
“How is it possible to publicly scratch yourself, fart, burp, pee in an alley, etc., with no social conscious?”
Men however, would be thoroughly entertained with accessible breasts, and the quest for that elusive “spot” few have found on their own. Interrupted only by the thought “Man, I have to pee AGAIN. How do women live with a bladder the size of a thimble?”
Comment by Rayna Stevenson — September 5, 2007 @ 6:40 am
Just got back from voting. I love the Hod t-shirt, never get tired of looking at it, I’m a huge Hod fan, but you know what I bet would garner a few extra votes? New naked goddess sketches every Wednesday and Friday.
Comment by OwenDangertooth — September 5, 2007 @ 8:16 am
@Rob - Could this be the end of Brat-halla? Not by a longshot.
@OwenDangertooth - I’ll be putting up some new extras for the voting soon. Hadn’t planned on naked goddesses, but I’m sure I could work something in. :)
Comment by Jeffery Stevenson — September 5, 2007 @ 8:45 am
Mrs. Stevenson.
It can be aimed but it is inexact, especially when you start. The more one masturbates the more one looses control over it though… It is very natural to pee standing up for us and when peeing on a tree (or in an alley), aim matters less.
Also I would throughly enjoy having assessable breasts. If there was a safe, cheep, and effective way to have breasts (women boobs, not man boobs) without loosing any other part of my maleness I would do so in a heart beat. One can fantasize…
Comment by NN — September 5, 2007 @ 9:23 am
SO CLOSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SO SO CLOSE…..
that last panel killed me…and not in a good way!!!!
one side was frigga…who im sure by now everyone knows my degree of lust for this fictional woman (especially tech support replacing twenty seven drooled on keyboards…((edit: thirty four, as I went back to see the comic again before I finished typing and I stop right before the last panel)), and on the other side this other beautiful goddess of wisdom…and they were SO CLOSE…..
thirty six keyboards and I got another memo from tech support so Ill end this now…
Grimmy
SO close….(im up to forty shorted out keyboards now and this comment took three hours)
Comment by Grimmy — September 5, 2007 @ 9:45 am
Sirlin - I went back and looked up the myth afterwards, and it makes more sense. I thought that he was pulling a Zeus and turning into random animals to seduce people… or animals.
Rayna - I’m in my early 20s, so I guess that I’m young. I really should have been a guy so that things like my video game obsession and my firm belief that chick flicks are the next bubonic plague would seem more normal. … Moving on. Would I be male for a day, possibly? WOULD I TURN MALE AND SLEEP WITH A WOMAN? No. I thought that’s where the question was going.
(Oh. And, I’ve totally peed in an alley before. ^_^ )
NN - Having breasts is not as much fun as you think, particularly when they’re large. I have a set of Ds myself, and they’re terribly annoying. Always in the way, and if I run, they bounce, and it feels like they’re going to rip off of my body. It’s quite painful. Seriously, they’re not worth it.
Grimmy - You need to put a roof with gutters over you keyboard so the slobber runs into the gutters, down the drainpipes, and into buckets that you can empty periodically. It’s cheaper than keyboards. Just a thought.
Comment by Jessika — September 5, 2007 @ 10:57 am
First part.. :starts trying to claw eyes out : GAH! GAGGGGH! GAAH!
Afterthought :Thinks twice:
Comment by KaiTenSatsuma — September 5, 2007 @ 12:33 pm
Bwahahaa! lovely…just lovely….
Comment by lord boxy — September 5, 2007 @ 7:02 pm
I just read jessicas comments, and im having two conflicting images fighting it out in my head.
the GOOD image is one of her running like Linda Carter in the old Wonder Woman series…
:)
the BAD image is her running like the manager guy in Borat.
dude…he was in a THONG!!!!….
SHUDDERS….
ok
im gonna stare at my frigga comic above to get that nasty image from my mind and to prevent my “Grimmness” from becoming an “innie”
Grimmy
“its a THONG” - Gingie from Shrek 2
Comment by Grimmy — September 6, 2007 @ 9:17 am
Hey yall, I’m a big fan of this comic now, I just got done reading the series up to today and it’s one that I will continue to read. I found the link to this site from another web comic Ripped Ticket and you guys were in thier link section. I like the art and story line quite a bit and will definitly have to pick up a Thor t-shirt from you folks. Much love and chicken fat
-Martinez con Queso
Comment by Martinez Con Queso — September 6, 2007 @ 11:40 am
I want to be what Frigga sees in the future!!!!
Ill risk the lightning bolts!!!
( and will have distracted Odin with a gaggle of strippers )
and if I canna have Frigga, I want to be erzulie’s consolation prize!!!
p.s.
I knew theanswers to those questions too!!!
Im wise.
Grimmy
not just an @$$…but a WISE one!!
Comment by Grimmy — September 7, 2007 @ 9:52 am
Grimmy - Oi. I think that it’s safe to say that I look more like Wonder Woman than the manager…though, if I’d work out a bit more to get the muscles needed, I’d make a very good Xena. (Yay for being 5′1″! Amazons rule!)
I luff how the goddeshes of wishdom are shtill drunk from lasht nide. Dey musht haff been drinking all nide long wiff da Shpartans. Shounds like fun, methinksh.
Comment by Jessika — September 7, 2007 @ 10:32 am
Dang it! I typed too fast. I’m 5′11″. Doh! *palmface*
Comment by Jessika — September 7, 2007 @ 10:33 am
about todays comic… wasn’t Odin the god of wisdom?
Comment by Mackenzie — September 7, 2007 @ 2:16 pm
Odin was the all-father of the gods, but the Norse gods have a bunch of interchangeable roles, might attribute to their overall ability not to be, well, petty.
In the case of wisdom Odin drank from the well of wisdom but Frigg has the ability to prophesies.
Comment by KaiTenSatsuma — September 7, 2007 @ 7:31 pm
Frigg Rules!!!
Comment by Mimi — September 8, 2007 @ 2:51 am
BTW… somebody do a Had wallpaper…
Comment by Mimi — September 8, 2007 @ 2:56 am
BTW… somebody outta do a Hod Wallpaper! :D
Comment by Mimi — September 8, 2007 @ 2:58 am
MMmmmmm Amazons….
and since Im reading from down to up…
MMmmmmm Short Amazons….
MMMM…something….
GrimmmmmmY
Comment by Grimmy — Se