Krüger & Krogh is a Norwegian comic books series created by animators Ronald Kabicek, Endre Skandfer and Bjarte Agdestein.
It's a Spy Fiction series heavily influenced by Franco-Belgian Comics, following the exploits of secret agents and Old Cop, Young Cop partners Jacob Krüger (young) and Otto Krogh (old) of AFMA: Avdelingen for Mellemliggende Anliggender — Which translates as: The Department of Intermediate Affairs. «Intermediate» in this case is a discreet word for «anything we need to keep secret from the public because it’s too dangerous and in some cases inexplicable”. Oh, and it’s set in The '60s.
Three albums have been released so far:
- Brennpunkt: Oslo ("Ignition Point: Oslo") in August 2014.
- Spøkelseståken ("The Ghostly Fog") in October 2018.
- Nord og Ned ("North and Down") in August 2022.
Tropes:
- Aliens in Cardiff. No actual aliens yet, but a secret agency dealing with threats of a potentially supernatural nature in Norway probably qualifies as an example of this trope.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Despite working for the intelligence's "oddities" department, Høvdingen is very skeptical to any non-mundane explanations. Though he attributes this to experience:"Even 49 out of 50 U.F.O. observations are fake!"
- Author Appeal: Bjarte Agdestein has a strong fascination for The '60s culture, which is one of the main reasons why the comic is set to this period.
- Bald of Evil: Chief Engineer Gundersen
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: A mild example: Prime minister Gerhardsen was not a secret agent himself, but he was heavily involved in AFMA’s affairs.
- Big Good: Høvdingen
- By-the-Book Cop: Krogh and Didriksen.
- Da Chief: Høvdingen again. It’s even his name!
- Bilingual Bonus: “Høvding” usually means “tribal chief” in Norwegian, rather than “chief of police/intelligence”
- Classy Cane: Høvdingen sports one
- Comically Missing the Point: When Krüger points out how strange it is that the ice cream truck he photographed is completely monochrome, Krogh’s only concern is that he wasted expensive color film on photographing a colorless vehicle.
- Creepy Cemetery: Old Aker Churchyard in "Spøkelseståken".
- Deliberately Monochrome: Anything caught in Chief Engineer Gundersen’s teleportation ray will come out monochrome at the other end because it goes through a transmitter antenna, like a television signal. And all the television signals were monochrome at the time, at least in Norway.
- Grandfather Clause: Lots of it, since the comic is set fifty years ago:
- Krüger smokes, and he makes it look cool
- In "Brennpunkt: Oslo", there are no noteworthy female characters, except for Sexy Secretary Miss Lygre. Averted in "Spøkelseståken", which features two important female characters (in addition to Miss Lygre, who is more prolific this time around).
- Martin Luther King Jr. is described as "the negro leader" by Norwegian television. That one actually prompted a "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer, although it's possible that this disclaimer was meant to be a sarcastic comment on the modern-day debate about politically correct terminology in Norway.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Krüger and Krogh
- Historical Domain Character: Einar Gerhardsen (Prime minister of Norway from 1945-1951, 1955-1965) Nils Langhelle (parliamentary President from 1958-1965) and Martin Luther King Jr. all make appearances and have lines in "Brennpunkt: Oslo".
- Lantern Jaw of Justice: Krogh
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Krogh has a pack of "lozenges" that causes you to forget everything from the last few hours if you swallow one. He's giving one to Krüger's girlfriend at the end of "Spøkelseståken", to Krüger's dismay.
- Locked Room Mystery: The initial premise of ““Brennpunkt: Oslo”.
- The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: Krüger suffers from this during the entirety of "Spøkelseståken". It doesn't help that his girlfriend Julie is a very curious and inquisitive archeologist. Krogh implies that he is a repeat victim this trope himself:Believe me, I've also had my "intermediate affairs" over the years...and it never ends well.
- The Napoleon: Chief Engineer Gundersen. Krüger even taunts him about this:Did you know that the average height of men with Take Over the World-complexes is one and a half meter?
- Odd Couple: Guess who.
- Satellite Love Interest: Averted with Julie, whose knowledge of history and curiosity about Krüger's "secret job" helps driving the plot forward in "Spøkelseståken".
- Shown Their Work. And how! Long before this comic was finished, it became famous for “wanting to precisely recreate Oslo of the 1960’s”. The creators did extensive research to make sure that every building and every street depicted in the comic were recreated as accurately as possible, and that all historically verifiable details were correct.
- Sinister Minister: Svante Andersson, the clerk of Old Aker Church, who turns out to be the Big Bad in "Spøkelseståken". The actual minister of the church, Miss Lind, is this to a slightly lesser degree; she goes along with some of Andersson's shady plans at least for a while.
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Spiritual Successor: To Spirou & Fantasio and, according to Word of God, The Avengers (1960s) - Uncle Pennybags: A Real Life example: Millionaire financier and comic book fan Johan H. Andresen bought a thousand copies of "Brennpunkt: Oslo" in advance, based solely on having seen the sketches!
