Line #54 ComicStrip/NorthernOverexposure


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/northern_overexposure.jpg]]
2
3	->"We live somewhere in between youth and adulthood, but my back can't take any more of this limboing. Something has to change."
4
5	''Northern Overexposure'' (original title ''Villimpi Pohjola'', Finnish for "''Wilder North''") is a Finnish SliceOfLife SundayStrip comic written and drawn by JP Ahonen, started in 2005. The comic follows the lives of a group of University students [[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield somewhere in Nothern Finland]]. The cast tries its best to [[ComingOfAgeStory balance between their carefree youth and the responsibilities of adulthood]],each in their own way.
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7	* '''Ukko''' would rather just [[ManChild play his childhood Nintendo games]] instead of actually studying.
8	* His girlfriend '''Muusa''' is nervous about the future, and at the same time she both despises and envies her cohabitant's carefree attitude.
9	* '''Rontti''' is the [[BigManOnCampus Campus]] [[TheCasanova Casanova]] who [[GottaCatchThemAll deals with women like with Pokemon]].
10	* '''Anna''' is a [[SpearCounterpart female counterpart]] of Rontti when it comes to aggressively hitting on people. Her results, however, are less than satisfactory.
11	* '''Verneri''' is Ukko's best friend since their childhood days. Secretly jealous of Rontti's way with the ladies.
12	* '''Otto''' is the resident bohemian and Jesus lookalike of the group. Constantly balancing on the line between getting kicked out of school and [[TheSlacker working towards his studies]].
13	* '''Minna''' is best described as a 16-year old nerd boy trapped in a body of a twentysomething woman.
14	* '''Juhani''' feels like he's getting too old for College life and is ready to move away to his [[LongDistanceRelationship long distance sweetheart Kata]]. Others doubt such character even exists.
15	* '''Topi''' is Juhani's best friend. Eager to share his wisdom, whether you wanted it or not.
16	* '''Jaana''' seems to be the only one around the campus who actually contributes towards her studies.
17	* '''Jouni''' [[TheSixthRanger joins the cast late]] as Minna's boyfriend. Tends to a bar named [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Pub-Niggurath]].
18	* Another late addition is '''Anni''', [[spoiler:Anna and Rontti]]'s daughter. She's a headstrong little girl who seems to have inherited the best and worst traits of both of her parents.
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20
21	The comic is notable not only for its clever and creative writing, but also for its well-developed cast and the heavy doses of PostModernism.
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23	The albums released so far:
24	* ''"Villimpi Pohjola"'' (Self-published, 2007)
25	* ''"Villimpi Pohjola 2"'' (Self-published, 2009)
26	* ''"Kypsyyskoe"'' ("Exam of Maturity", Arktinen Banaani, 2011)
27	* ''"Pelinavaus"'' ("Opening Move", Arktinen Banaani, 2013) (An UpdatedRerelease consisting of material featured in the two originally self-published albums.)
28	* ''"Lapsus"'' ("Little Mistake", Arktinen Banaani, 2014) (See DoubleMeaningTitle below.)
29	* ''"Valomerkki"'' ("Last Call", WSOY, 2015)
30	* ''"Irtiotto"'' ("Breakaway", WSOY, 2018)
31
32	----
33	!! This comic strip provides examples of:
34	* TheAce: Jouni coasted through school with apparently very little effort before opening a successful bar with his friends, all of this while still younger than the rest of the cast - something the other men are silently envious of upon hearing of it. He's cheerful and kind, has a sense of humor, no character flaws to speak of, and compared to the constant ordeals and hurdles the other couples in the strip have to go through, his own relationship with Minna has so far had no cracks whatsoever. Even the narration describes him as "perfect in every way".
35	* AllJustADream: One strip does this ''thrice'' with Rontti. [[spoiler: The last one is a subversion.]]
36	* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: Interesting variation: When the summer vacation starts, the actual cast is replaced by "summer stand-ins". Rontti is played by [[GrannyClassic Mrs. Virtanen]], Ukko by [[ComicBook/MickeyMouseComicUniverse Phantom Blot]], Otto by Jesus Christ and Muusa by a pigeon.
37	* BabiesMakeEverythingBetter: [[spoiler: When Rontti learns that he's the father of Anna's child, he slowly grows out of his casanova tendencies and eventually they become a couple.]]
38	* BedroomAdulteryScene: These become something of a running joke with Rontti; many of his liaisons end with him being forced to flee from an angry husband or boyfriend. Their frequency decreases greatly after [[spoiler:he and Anna become a couple]], but they still show up in an occasional flashback.
39	* BiteOfAffection: One of Anna's go-to moves is sinking her teeth on the flanks of her bedmates, leaving a semi-permanent bite mark. (Although, she sometimes also employs this on people who simply irritate her.) One strip cleverly uses this to hint at the identity of [[spoiler:the father of her child]].
40	* BrickJoke: Halfway the second self-published album there's a moment when Minna confuses Wrestling/{{WWE}} with Wrestling/{{WWF}}. The final page of the album depicts [[spoiler: the host and a panda beating each other ProfessionalWrestling style]] in a [[ShowWithinAShow broadcast by WWF]].
41	* CasanovaWannabe: Verneri tries to learn from Rontti.
42	* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Topi disappeared mysteriously in the original storyline between ''Villimpi Pohjola 2'' and ''Kypsyyskoe''. The new strips in ''[[UpdatedRerelease Pelinavaus]]'' {{Retcon}} his fate and show how he eventually gets fed up with the cold North and leaves to study in Santiago de Compostela.
43	* ColdTurkeysAreEverywhere: Rontti takes up on celibacy to try and set his mind straight about [[spoiler:soon becoming a father]]. This only leads to women everywhere wanting him all the more, even besieging his apartment.
44	* ComicBookTime: Largely averted. While the in-universe time doesn't run on a perfect synergy with the real world, what began as a slice-of-life comic strip about twentysomething university students has evolved into a story about a group of thirtysomethings who have graduated (or dropped out) and are trying to find jobs and starting families.
45	* ComicSutra: As Rontti tries to rehabilitate himself of his Casanova tendencies, a woman hits on him by drawing a sex position into frosted glass. His friends can't recognize it but he does: Polynesian 57.
46	* CreatorProvincialism: The author JP Ahonen studied in the University of Lapland himself, [[WriteWhatYouKnow which shows.]]
47	* DeathbringerTheAdorable: Kuolema (Finnish for "Death"), Minna's kitten.
48	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Jouni's regular tattooist throws a highly suspect tantrum upon finding an unfamiliar tattoo taken on vacation.
49	* DoggedNiceGuy: Otto [[spoiler: towards Minna.]]
50	* DoubleMeaningTitle: "Lapsus" is a play on both the word's actual meaning, "mistake" or "lapse", as well as the word's similarity to Finnish word for a child ("lapsi"). [[spoiler: [[NewBabyEpisode Most of the book deals with Anna's unplanned baby.]]]]
51	* DumbBlonde: Rontti. Apparently he got in the University by sleeping with someone on the staff.
52	* ExperimentedInCollege: Verneri's father and godfather, as admitted by the former.
53	* HandsomeLech: Rontti takes this to its logical extreme.
54	* {{Homage}}: Several strips.
55	** Ukko's childhood escapades are drawn in the style of ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}''.
56	** A short story of Otto looking for his student card is drawn in the style of Finnish comic ''RiekuJaRaiku'', complete with [[RhymesOnADime rhymes]].
57	** Rontti is takes the role of Goldilocks in an interesting retelling of the fairy tale.
58	* HouseAmnesia: Rontti once got so worried over his infidelity, and over the notion that his current partner's boyfriend or husband is about to come home, he ejects himself out of the house... which, as she then mentions, is his own.
59	* InsecureLoveInterest: Curiously, this goes both ways with Ukko and Muusa. She is constantly afraid that he will eventually find someone taller and prettier, while he's actually planning on proposing, but can't bring himself to pop the question for months out of morbid fear of being rejected.
60	* InterruptedIntimacy: Happens a lot, especially to Rontti (who else), but other characters get their share as well. Whenever the first panel shows two characters in an intimate position, you just know somebody, be it a relative, roomie or [[{{Cuckold}} bedmate's SO]], is going to walk in on them, so it's in fact far easier to point out the subversions and aversions. In one strip, Rontti hears something, thinks someone's going to walk in on them and hides in a closet — before he realizes he's in his own apartment. In another one, it finally doesn't happen despite the setup, causing him to admit that there are advantages to [[spoiler:having a spouse to do it with]].
61	* JawDrop: Ukko and Verneri do a double one in one strip. First Otto declines a drink, announcing he's gone sober, and then Rontti turns down a pretty girl trying to hit on him.
62	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Minna is usually the SnarkKnight, but she [[PetTheDog decides to take Otto to live with her]] when he loses his apartment.
63	* KeepingSecretsSucks: When Ukko tells Verneri about his plans to propose to Muusa, he goes nearly insane from trying not to spill the beans.
64	* LadykillerInLove: Rontti, eventually, with [[spoiler:Anna, after he accidentally knocks her up]].
65	* LawOfInverseFertility: Ukko and Muusa have many failed attempts at having a child, while Anna ends up with one entirely by accident. When it looks like [[spoiler:Minna might be pregnant as well]], Muusa's sanity begins to erode.
66	* MacGyvering: Ukko uses his pocket knife to carve a corkscrew out of a chair leg.
67	* ManChild: Both Ukko and Minna are described as these.
68	* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: How the comic seems to approach its more surreal elements. (See PostModernism below.) Whenever something truly outlandish happens, one can't quite tell if it's the result of a character's ImagineSpot, an exaggerated representation of what really went down, or a completely accurate portrayal of events.
69	* MoodWhiplash: One particularly dark strip goes from a laugh out hilarious anecdote about a drunken Santa who made his face explode with vomit to Anna's troubled childhood with [[AbusiveParents a drunk dad]] between panels.
70	* MrExposition: Certain strips have Topi [[BreakingTheFourthWall to explain certain plot points and oddities to the audience]], usually complete with [[LampshadeHanging white lab coat and flowcharts.]]
71	* MrsRobinson: Rontti's mother has a 22-year-old lover, and she's not hiding it either, liberally willing to discuss the topic even in front of [[spoiler:her own grandchild]]. When Rontti chews her out for this, she starts wondering when was the last time he got laid.
72	* MyBiologicalClockIsTicking: Muusa literally hears hers start ringing shortly after [[spoiler:Rontti and Anna have their own child]].
73	* MyHovercraftIsFullOfEels: Rontti is a repeat offender.
74	** In one strip, he tries to hit on a Swedish girl in her native language, and the result is a mixture of this and PoirotSpeak. Needless to say, she's not impressed.
75	** In another occasion, he starts speaking English to Anna because he doesn't want a third person who only understands Finnish to listen in, and the attempt turns out the same. To add insult to injury, Anna, between fits of giggles, keeps correcting him in Finnish.
76	* NotAllowedToGrowUp: Anni is a curious case.
77	** The strip's original newspaper run downplays this. She does age, but very slowly. Each of the strips is set to take place on or close to the date of its original publication. (See ComicBookTime above.) She was conceived in the autumn of 2009, and she was finally born in the spring of 2011, after having spent nearly two years in her mother's womb. She was still a one-year-old baby in strips originally published in 2014, and in the most recent ones she's now roughly a preschooler.
78	** The album collections, however, seek to completely avert this. It is done by gathering together strips from multiple years and rearranging them so that they give the impression of much more natural, linear progression of time. For example, strips from the winters of 2011, 2012 and 2013 are gathered into one book and arranged so that they form a coherent storyline that appears to take place over a single winter, and Anni ages accordingly. It mostly works, but sometimes panels that show mismatching dates in the forms of calendars, cell phone screens and such give it away, as does the zigzagging ArtEvolution.
79	* OfficialCouple: Ukko and Muusa at the beginning, then later Minna and Jouni, as well as [[spoiler:Rontti and Anna.]]
80	* OneDegreeOfSeparation: Becomes a problem for Rontti when he starts to look for work. More than once he meets someone that he used to be involved with, one way or the other. Needless to say, he does not have easy time finding a job.
81	* OneNightStandPregnancy: How Anni came to be. Luckily, both her parents love her and even agree to take care of her together.
82	* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Rontti. (It means "Rascal" in Finnish.) His real name is Markku. Early in the comic's run, even his friends didn't know it and were genuinely confused when somebody referred to him using his given name.
83	* OnlySixFaces: [[PlayingWithTropes Played with.]] There's a subplot where Verneri uses this to disguise as Rontti. What he does is simply pierce his eyebrow and bleach his hair, and the result is two identical people, whom even Rontti's own sister can't tell apart.
84	* PostModernism: A lot. There's often some sort of nonsensical element or FramingDevice that doesn't really make sense within the universe of comic. For example, there's a strip where Muusa and Otto host a cooking show, where they ''cook'' their Master's Thesis using other books as ingredients. Many of these comics actually are part of the canonical storyline despite the weirdness. See {{Homage}} above and ShoutOut below.
85	* PutOnABus: Jaana actually finishes her studies at the University and moves away, while Topi leaves to study abroad.
86	* ShoutOut:
87	** The cover art of each album is a direct ShoutOut towards a certain piece of art. For example, the first album cover is a reference to Edwards Hopper's ''[[http://routakoto.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/villimpi_pohjola.jpg "Nighthawks"]]''
88	** The name itself is a reference to Series/NorthernExposure
89	** One strip puts the characters competing in ''TheApprentice''. The show stops once Creator/DonaldTrump [[BreakingTheFourthWall fires the cartoonist.]]
90	** One of Ukko's [[ImagineSpot Imagine Spots]] has him depicted as [[Franchise/MastersOfTheUniverse He-Man]].
91	** Because of an accident on the way to a costume party Verneri turns into Comicbook/GhostRider.
92	** Rontti literally teleports into Verneri's house party, [[Franchise/{{Terminator}} losing his clothes in the process]].
93	** In one strip, Muusa [[Film/TheRing crawls through a TV screen showing noise.]]
94	** When thinking a name for her cat, Minna raises the kitten with his straight arms declaring: "[[WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994 SIMBAAA!]]"
95	** Ukko comes across [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings The One Ring]] while looking for a fitting engagement ring.
96	** There's a rather [[ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes Calvinesque]] running gag where a character - Otto is the most common offender, but far from the only one - literally lets his mind wander off during a lecture, or while trying to work with his or her studies. It once caused a FreakyFridayFlip.
97	** JP Ahonen is evidently very fond of Franchise/SuperMarioBros, as the shout-outs to the franchise could fill its own page. In one strip, Ukko starts jumping up and down in the middle of the bar — because he's looking for a hidden coin block so he can pay his tab. In another, Rontti uses the star power-up to [[ItMakesSenseInContext cleave through a throng of overenthusiastic women]]. In yet another, Muusa and Verneri end up inside the game itself — and Mario then tries to hit on Muusa. And these are really just some of the examples.
98	* SliceOfLife: With heavy doses of ComingOfAgeStory.
99	* StatusQuoIsGod: Averted, despite what the initial impression might be.
100	* TheStraightMan: Jaana. After she completed her studies her place has somewhat been taken over by Juhani.
101	* SurrealHumour
102	* UpdatedRerelease: ''Pelinavaus'' combines the strips from the two self-published albums together, adding also some new material. The old strips have been rearranged from order by release date to the in-universe chronological order, and the new strips provide more depth to certain storylines such as [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome Topi's disappearance]] [[spoiler: and Foreshadowing for the eventual relationship of Anna and Rontti.]]
103	* WhosYourDaddy: When Anna finds out that she is pregnant, she has no idea who the father is. [[spoiler: It's Rontti, [[TheCasanova as if there ever was any other option]].]]
104	* YouRemindMeOfMyself: In one arc, Rontti ends up in hospital and is put in a room with a middle-aged, overweight DirtyOldMan who aggressively hits on and gropes young nurses and who's never bothered to settle down, thinking steady relationships are for suckers. [[spoiler:He's also got terminal cancer, meaning he will die soon with no one there to mourn him.]] He then suggests that Rontti is his JuniorCounterpart, citing the trope. Rontti is not exactly pleased, as he thinks the old guy is a total embarrassment. But then it [[WakeUpCall dawns on him]] that he really could be looking at himself a few decades down the road. [[spoiler:Cue him deciding that he wants to take part in raising the child he's accidentally fathered.]]

Context ComicStrip / NorthernOverexposure