Hugleikur Dagsson's Popular Hits
“I think the book Should You be Laughing at This? is the only one that's been published in German,” says writer/cartoonist Hugleikur Dagsson. “And it's much funnier in German than in Icelandic.”
“I think the book Forðist okkur/Should You be Laughing at This?/ Finden Sie DAS etwa komisch is the only one that's been published in German,” says writer/cartoonist Hugleikur Dagsson. “And it's much funnier in German than in Icelandic.”
Hugleikur Dagsson may not be particularly well known in Germany, after the publication of that one translation of his work. But that could be about to change with his latest book, in which he plunges into the world of pop: songs that everybody knows, from Frankfurt to Fáskrúðsfjörður and New York. Popular Hits is published on 16 April, in Iceland and Finland simultaneously; it is a sequel of a kind, in English, to his book Íslensk dægurlög/Icelandic Pop Songs. Briefly, Hugleikur illustrates and puts his own interpretation on familiar songs, such as the Rolling Stones' Sympathy for the Devil: here the simple yet complex Hugleikur figure hands the Devil a hanky. And Hugleikur's work displays a close affinity with the Finnish national character: “It's true that Icelanders are a nation of alcoholic depressives,” commented Hugleikur in a recent interview with daily Fréttablaðið, when asked why the book is being published at the same time in Iceland and Finland. “That's what I've always said, and always felt. I've been to Finland at least four times to promote my books, and I have a bigger following there than anywhere else. I think it's because the Finns are extraordinarily like us Icelanders. Maybe it's something to do with the cold and the dark.”
Hugleikur published his first cartoon book himself in 2001. Since then books have followed at regular intervals, each juicier than the last. His titles have scandalised some, as has the frankness of his texts and drawings. The tone is sincere and also scary. The narrative technique could be called straight to the groin or, more poetically, straight to the heart.
When Penguin began to publish his books, starting with Should You be Laughing at This in 2006, Hugleikur's books reached out to a wider, global readership, with this brief introduction from the publisher:
Synopsis
Hugleikur Dagsson is from Iceland.
During the winter in Iceland there are only three hours of daylight.
During the summer in Iceland there is no darkness.
Iceland's national drink is called ‘Black Death'.
In Iceland this book is a cult-bestseller.
What did the Penguin deal do for you, Hugleikur?
“What changed was that my books got distributed in English all over the world. That was a factor in enabling me to live by my writing, but really it didn't make much difference to me as a writer. What I have done since is exactly the same as I would have done if there had been no book deal.”
There is a certain lucidity in all your books: you speak plainly, and the drawings are remarkably like those in the first books.
“Yes, perhaps. If you compare the first book in the Okkur/Us series with what I'm doing now, they are certainly similar. But the first drawings were done in a hurry, without much thought. But when you've drawn and written a thousand jokes, the process changes in many ways. In the most recent books I've started out doing a light pencil drawing, then going over the lines in pen. But the basic idea is the same. It's very simple, and the messages are crude.”
Some people have found the content of the books offensive, to put it mildly. The titles alone scandalised many people: Drepið okkur/Kill Us, Ríðið okkur/Fuck Us...?
“But it's very odd, some things are more taboo than others. Racist epithets offend more people than paedophilia. I recently did a cartoon strip for the Grapevine English-language paper in Reykjavík, in which I used the word nigga. The joke was that American gangsters were supposed to be raising hell at the Iceland Airwaves music festival, which is a totally absurd idea. In a comic strip like that the gangsters have to talk like real gangsters in the gangster stories, and call black people nigga. I received hate mail about that one word, but I've never had hate mail for writing about child-rapists.”
And congratulations on the new book, of course. Popular Hits is published by your own company, Ókeibæ(!)kur. What's next?
“I'm putting together material I did for the Icelandic telephone directory in 2008 and 2009. It's probably the work I've done that comes closest to being a children's book. And I've been awarded a writer's bursary to do an epic series of books about the end of the world. I end the world in a different way in each book. I'm reading the Book of Revelation now, to get in the mood. It's quite astonishing how the world ends in the Bible.”
How's that?
“It's just so surreal and weird. Anyway, I'm planning at least three books, three different ways to end the world. It's the least I can do.”