Stress and Stomachaches

This is probably the funniest panel in any comic I’ve drawn. (Though I think it ties with the ‘Mihails quotes ‘Bring Me To Life’ one, tbh.) 

(If it wasn’t clear, read it right to left, like a manga. I tend to draw most of my comics in manga reading order, oops, X’D)

Taken from this comic

Maren:

...I could not get this idea out of my head, so I ended up drawing it out, XDD

I love how Maren gets progressively less happy with each panel (she is looking for one specific answer, but these three just aren’t giving it to her, XD)

Timothy and Paulette restore her faith in humanity, XD.

...And it gets crushed once again when Björk and Thorsen answer, XD.

(She refers to them as ‘whale-weirdos’ because, in the Chapter Five outline, Risto makes an offhand comment about the two of them using their down time to watch whale documentaries, XD.)

Maren is technically a side character, but I keep making comics with her because she’s just so fun to draw and write. 

More Maren Andersen shenanigans XD (I love her so much ksajdfhkjsd)

I had so much fun writing all of her little notes on her five proteges and the other five she ‘adopted’ into her group after the rigid team structure was disbanded later on in the competition. 

‘Nadia, Felicjan, and Emerich DO NOT interact >:( ‘ is my absolute favorite part of this X’DD (Yeah, she hates how those three treat Triinu, Mihails, and Niele like shit, and she vocalizes that multiple times. For that alone, she’s the best of the mentors, since the rest of them just let those three be bullied for the sake of ‘better TV ratings’.) 

So of course she takes the Unlucky Three under her wing when she’s able to.

As for Timothy and Paulette? After Leticia Hernandes and Mogens Van Dijk--Paulette’s allies--were eliminated from the Competition, she looks for a group, and finds Maren’s. After the Alliance of Five (Timothy, Sophronia Wickland, Yvonne Lafayette, Nadia Hendrikova, and Huan-Yue Fen) falls apart due to infighting, Timothy joins his former teammate Paulette in Maren’s new team. (Especially since he’s already great friends with Niele, Triinu, and Mihails, and is on good terms with Nordic Group as well.)

Fun fact: These ten are basically the focus characters of this story. (Cecile Nacht and her team, as well as Nadia and Felicjan, Sophronia, and Noel, are also important, and have some focus characters, but I’d call them secondary characters, though Nadia and Felicjan become more important as the story progresses.) 

...This comic reads right to left for the dialogue because I apparently read too much manga, and therefore instinctively put Maren to the right of the panels instead of the left, as done in Western comics. Whoops, XD. 

After re-reading the (sadly incomplete) first draft of 2072--as well as the extensive character notes, excerpts, and outline, I noticed that Maren Andersen gives her proteges (as well as other characters not on her team, like  Noël and Triinu) nicknames. The earliest mention of this is in Chapter Three, when she refers to Risto as ‘Salmiakki’. It keeps going from there, XD. 

Most of these are given in jest, and to be lighthearted, but Maren does not like  Noël very much. Not after Noël treated Vivica like crap. So her nickname is meant to be kind of an insult (even though it’s still hilarious, XD)

...It is currently Freya Svensson loving hours. I think this is the best I’ve ever drawn her, XD. (Fun fact: She is the tallest contestant at 6′3. Noël is the second tallest at 6′2, and Nadia Hendrikova is the third tallest at 6′0.) 

Yes, Risto’s sweater vest is supposed to reference a box of salmiakki. (Except that, if this was colored, it would be shades of brown, or blue, or something. The black and white wouldn’t look great on Risto, I don’t think, XD).

Vivica giving Maren a nickname back showcases their dynamic very well, XD.

Another fun fact: Maren’s dynamic with Vivica was directly inspired by M.ight Gai and R.ock Lee from N.aruto. (Hell, Nordic Group was basically inspired by Team Gai in general, with Freya and Thorsen taking the ‘N.eji’ role, Risto and Björk taking the ‘T.enten’ role, and Vivica taking the ‘R.ock Lee’ role, as well as Maren as the ‘G.ai’ role.)

‘Butter Crisis’ is slaying me. Maren NO XD

‘Erik the Red’s False Advertising’ made me cackle when I read that in Noël’s   character notes. I actually had to look up what that was referring to, since I wrote it so long ago, and HA, it was hilarious. (Basically, Maren is poking fun at the whole Greenland-Iceland opposites thing.)

Triinu bby skdjfgkjdg (She and her teammates are unlucky; their mentor is a total witch-with-a-B, so she and the others latch onto Maren, since she’s nice to them. She gives Niele and Mihails nicknames, too, eventually, with Niele getting ‘Amber Tea’ [since she saw Niele drinking it a few times] and Mihails getting ‘Lizzie Bennett’ [since Mihails’ favorite book is ‘Pride and Prejudice’].)