My first Polandball Comic!

Today is a proud day for me, for litzippo can into /r/polandball! Okay I know that made zero sense whatsoever. Let me explain. Polandball Comics are a form of online comics, and a sizeable community of artists and fans have grown around the internet sharing and making these cool little comic strips, artworks and niche, nerdy in-jokes for a few years now. “The comic represent countries and are drawn as balls. The balls interact in broken English and poke fun at national stereotypes and international relations.” (via the Simple English Wikia). The Polandball Subreddit, one of the largest communities and creators of Polandball Comics describes them as:

“Wiggly mouse-drawn comics where balls represent different countries. They poke fun at national stereotypes and the “international drama” of their diplomatic relations. Polandball combines history, geography, Engrish, and an inferiority complex. The comic series first became popular on a well known German image board int ze internetz.”

There are very strict rules and in-jokes built around the comics that the community enforces, as well as a lot of dos and don’t. As such, making and posting comics in the polandball subreddit requires a knowledge of how they work and an understanding of the humour & drawing rules. Only then can you submit your comic to the moderators, who will decide if it’s worthy of posting and letting you post other comics in the future. Here’s some of my favourite examples, such as a comic strip depicting a meeting of all the world’s “unhated nations“, a funny personification of some British-Australian history, poking fun at the sensitive national tensions of Germany or this American-North Korean comic. There’s also more complex and historical ones such as this comic about the Boxer Rebellion.

Anyway. after being a fan for many years, my first /r/Polandball comic “One Upmanship” last week was submitted, and what’s more- approved! I’m pretty proud of it, and I spent a whole day coming up with the idea and drawing it. It was well received on the subreddit too, ranking at number 53 of the top comics of the entire month, which made my day!

The comic is below, but here’s some historical back story that might clear up what the comic’s about-

“This comic depicts the Scottish Navy’s Michael, the largest ship of her time when she was launched in 1512. In direct response to her construction, The English King Henry VIII ordered the construction of the Henry Grace à Dieu, which surpassed the Michael in size and armament.

Meanwhile, across the seas the great and fabled Treasure Fleets of Ming Dynasty China sat and rotted in their harbours and moorings, the new emperor uninterested in the massive fleet built decades before for exploration and trade. They were eventually destroyed or burnt.”




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