September 1st, 2017
Cartoonist’s Commentary:
This strip contains the first appearance of Ash’s father, Einar Magnusson. He’s a hard-drinking, skirt-chasing fisherman who emigrated from Iceland. He also, for better or worse, happens to be Cam’s idol. When I was trying to picture him as a character, that just seemed to be a fun contrast to the quiet, introverted brainiac that is his son, Ash.
Fun fact… Iceland still uses the patronymic naming system that used to be common in the rest of Scandinavia. Thus someone with a father named Einar would be assigned a last name of Einarson or Einarsdottir, depending on whether they’re male or female. So if any noticed the detail that Ash and his father have different last names, well that’s why!
Another fun fact… on the other side of the world from Iceland, here in Mongolia where I’m currently at they also use a patronymic naming system (or occasionally matronymic such as when there’s no legal marriage). This appears to have started in the communist period back in the early 20th century when they were under the influence of the Soviet Union… before then usually just one name was used. However, these patronymic surnames don’t seem to be used much outside of official documents and record-keeping. I suspect that was the whole reason it was introduced… so the Soviet-influenced bureaucracy could more easily distinguish between Mongolians who had the same name. I can only imagine that a name reference like ‘Bayarsaikhan who lives on the north side of the Tuul river’ doesn’t work so well when cataloguing your subjects, huh?
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