Olafo the Viking

Hägar the Horrible—renamed in Spanish as Olaf the Viking or Olafo the Bitter— is a comic strip created by Dik Browne. It debuted in 136 newspapers in the United States on February 4, 1973. Two years later, the number of newspapers in which it appeared had increased to 600. Its circulation continued to increase and in 2010 the strip appeared in 1,900 newspapers in 58 countries. and in 13 languages.

Olafo the Viking has been the winner of several awards, such as the Elzie Segar Award from the National Cartoonists' Society (1973) for being a unique and outstanding contribution to the field of comic strips. He also received the award for best comic strip of the year in 1977, 1984 and 1986.

Chris Browne, Dik's son, collaborated with his father on Olaf the Viking since its creation; In 1985, they both published the book Hägar the Horrible's Viking Handbook: "Olafo the Terrible's Practical Guide to the Viking. After Dik Browne's retirement in 1988, and his death the following year, Chris has continued the strip.

Characters

Olafo

The protagonist. It has two main occupations: to attack the castles of Europe, especially England, and to leave parranda. Occasionally, he receives the visit of his mother-in-law and the tax collector.

Chiripa (Mala Suerte or Edu Mufa in Argentina)

Your faithful helper. It is an inocenton that is the opposite of a formidable Viking. A recurring joke in the strip is that Chiripa is in charge of carrying the stairs to climb the walls of the castles and, for one reason or another, is forgotten or confused and carries something else.

Helga

Your wife. Although she always imposes her will on Olafo, she never manages to help her with domestic chores, especially when she dumps the trash.

Hamlet

Your child under 10 years of age. It is a library mouse that somehow has got a (undesired) admirer: HerniaThe marijuana girl from the town who wants to marry him.

Astrid (Honi)

Your older daughter. Officially, he's 16 years old, but in some comics he's said to be 17. She's lost in love with LuteA futureless troubadour who is always gathering money for anything but marrying her. His parents usually arrange blind dates for him to forget Lute.

Snert

Your dog. It is the faithful reflection of its owner: lazy and torn, and shares his love for beer and sleeping all day. Snert is the only animal in the strip that "talks" through his thoughts. In Latin America, the first editions indicated the name of Siripo. Over the years, the name was changed by Esnerto.

Kvack

Helga's duck. Sometimes, Olafo appears followed by a row of ducks identical to Kvack, but smaller. You don't know if those ducks are Kvack's babies and, if they are, whether it's the father or the mother.

Dr. Zook (or Dr. Zocotroco in Latin America)

Olafo's doctor and counselor. Usually, he is described as "psychiatrist, half witch doctor." In Latin America it is also known as Dr. Zocotrocus.

Discrepancies between editions

Over the years, the strip has been published in Spanish by different publishers and each one has given it a different title: Olaf the Viking (without the "o" at the end), Olafo the terrible or Olafo the bitter. In newspapers, it is common for the strip to be titled simply Olafo. Likewise, the names of some characters have changed depending on the edition. In some versions, Lucky Eddie is "Chiripa", Honi is "Astrid", Snert is "Esnerto" or "Siripo", Kvack is "Cuak", Dr. Zook is "doctor Zocotroco", etc. In addition, other characters appear such as Dirty "Dirk" (also known as "Bola de Churre") to whom in a comic strip Helga asks: "What color new suit did you choose?", to which he replies: " An earthy color would be nice" (Comic Strips from the Old Section B, La Nación newspaper, San José, Costa Rica.)