CRASH COURSE IN NEMI, PART ONE

 

 

Hi, everyone!

I’m spending my summer holiday in sunny southern Spain, and while trying to socialize, I don’t have much time to make updates, but I wanted to tell you, eventually, about one of the most significant phenomena in modern Norwegian comic history - Nemi

It’s a fairly big subject in itself, and after giving it some thought, I decided to turn this into a series of two articles. In this first installment, I’ll tell you about the origins and development of the strip. In tomorrow’s installment, I’ll be talking about the comic itself and my opinion on it.

I’m trying to find material that are of interest to the international audience while still connected to Norway, and this is a perfect subject matter in that regard. Nemi is one of Norway’s greatest international comic successes ever. It’s currently printed in 150 regular publications around the world, has been translated into twelve languages. Internationally, its most significant publishing forum is probably Metro UK. I have tried to find an archive pages for Metro’s Nemi strips, but am sorry to say that I came up short. If you want to read Nemi in English, Metro is still the best place to start anyway, as their archive of strips dates back as far as January 2013. Just go to the Metro front page and search for "Nemi"

 

Created by Lise Myhre (named Lise Myhre-Hestnæss after she got married, though none of her fans call her that), Nemi first appeared in 1997, in the comic strip “Den Svarte Siden” (“The Black Side”), where she appeared as an archetypical Goth chick. You’d be advised never to call her that, though, as Nemi has always hated those kinds of labels, and to be fair, she turned out to be a more well-balanced character as the strip progressed.

But more on that in the next chapter. Anyway, the name of the strip was eventually changed to Nemi in 1999. At the time, Nemi was still a backup strip in other comic books, but her popularity was growing steadily. In 200, she got her own Christmas special, and in 2003, her own comic magazine. Being promoted the star of her own magazine, Lise Myhre could have her pick of other backup feature, and there are many quality comics that would probably never have been translated into Norwegian if they hadn’t been featured in the Nemi magazine – Including Roman Dirge’s Lenore, Fables, Beasts of Burden and Anya’s Ghost just to mention a few.

It’s worth mentioning, by the way, that Nemi’s monthly comic magazine really is a magazine. While most Norwegian comic books are published in a small format, Nemi has consistently been published in a big format. It also tends to have a theme and at least one in-depth article every month. And it remains diverse in its selection of comics, although it’s focusing more on humorous strips these days.