''Punaniska'' ( Finnish for " redneck") was a Finnish western comics

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

drawn by Harri "Wallu" Vaalio and written by Rauli "Rallu" Nordberg between 1990 and 1993.

Concept

''Punaniska'' was set in the

Wild West The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...

, much like Belgian comic '' Lucky Luke'', but even less serious. While ''Lucky Luke'' revisited factual events in Wild West history, ''Punaniska'' mostly had completely

fictional Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places Place may refer to: Geography * Place (United States Census Bureau), defined as any concentration of population ** Census-designated place, ...

stories, most of which were absurdly

humorous Humour (Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which taught that the balance of fluids in t ...

. Despite depicting a unilingually

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

culture, the comic was unilingually Finnish. A great deal of its humour depended on Finnish puns that were difficult, if not impossible, to translate into foreign languages. Still, one album was published in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in 1993. The comic began in the Finnish

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

Helsingin Sanomat ''Helsingin Sanomat'', abbreviated ''HS'' and colloquially known as , is the largest subscription newspaper in Finland and the Nordic countries, owned by Sanoma. Except after certain holidays, it is published daily. Its name derives from that of ...

'', replacing an earlier Finnish comic strip called ''Taneli'', a comic about a

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...

-aged boy. It quickly rose in popularity and spawned fifteen comic book albums, which featured ''Punaniska'' comics drawn also by other Finnish artists (and some others, too, like

Hunt Emerson Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...

from

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

), and articles about the American Wild West. In 2003 it started again, now in a small Finnish

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

magazine called "Gaddie-magazine". This new comic strip is called ''Viheriöiden Punaniska'' "Redneck on the Green" and here Punaniska plays the old Western style golf.

Characters

* Punaniska : The main character. Modelled after Rauli Nordberg, writer of this comic strip, Punaniska was a stereotypical "rough and tough"

cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the '' vaquer ...

. He had a taste for

whiskey Whisky or whiskey is a type of distilled alcoholic beverage made from fermented grain mash. Various grains (which may be malted) are used for different varieties, including barley, corn, rye, and wheat. Whisky is typically aged in wooden cask ...

and women, and an itchy trigger finger. His most notable characteristic was his poor personal hygiene. * Dolly : A beautiful woman whom Punaniska lusted after. The relation was mostly (but not entirely) one-directional, as Dolly didn't care much for Punaniska. Dolly's profession was apparently a singer at a saloon. * Calamity Jane : In the comic, Calamity Jane was an ugly old woman who lusted after Punaniska. Because of her appearance, Punaniska despised her, and did everything he could to get away from her. However, like the real Calamity Jane, the character was good with a

shotgun A shotgun (also known as a scattergun, or historically as a fowling piece) is a long gun, long-barreled firearm designed to shoot a straight-walled cartridge (firearms), cartridge known as a shotshell, which usually discharges numerous small p ...

and had ways of getting her man. * Billy the Kid : Like ''Lucky Luke'', the comic emphasised "the Kid" aspect, carrying it even further. Where the Billy the Kid in ''Lucky Luke'' was a pre-teenaged brat, the Billy the Kid in ''Punaniska'' was an infant, who hadn't even learned to walk yet. He talked in baby-talk, pronouncing "R" as "L" (which led to some untranslatable Finnish puns), and was sometimes overruled by his mother. * Törttö-Bill : A wannabe cowboy, with good intentions, but had a serious lack of intelligence. He wore a raccoon hat. * Psycos-Bill : An outlaw, famous for the duels he had fought. At one time he showed his

revolver A revolver (also called a wheel gun) is a repeating handgun that has at least one barrel and uses a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold up to six roun ...

gun, whose handle had dwindled to almost nothing due to all the notches he had carved.

Sources

{{Reflist 1990 comics debuts 1993 comics endings Comics characters introduced in 1990 Cultural depictions of Billy the Kid Cultural depictions of Calamity Jane Western (genre) comics characters Finnish comic strips Humor comics Sports comics Western (genre) comics Fictional cowboys and cowgirls