Iceland, the inspiration behind "Skol Warriors"
Hey guys,
As you can see, Wacky Toons has several collections featuring different kinds of characters. I'd like to share with you how I came up with the concept for the Skol Warriors collection.
In Scandinavian countries Skol or Skal means cheers or "to your health". But it also means bowl. Vikings used to celebrate victories by drinking wine or ale out of a bowl or skull. Vikings is truly a fascinating culture with an obscure and violent history. No wonder why it has become so popular in recent times. TV Shows live Vikings and movies with norsemen superheroes like Thor have definitely catapulted Viking popularity to new heights.
Our Skol Warriors collection features crazy viking characters celebrating and cheering victories while cracking witty phrases. I created this line of cartoons not only because I'm obviously a huge fan of the vikings, but also 2 years ago I had the chance to visit Iceland and felt transported to that time and place. Seeing replicas of viking ships, drinking local viking beer and witnessing Iceland's majestic natural sites and towns really inspired me to create a collection devoted to that culture.
For the Wacky Toons launch, I decided to include two Skol Warriors. One red armored viking and one with a hammer (Not Thor). The red viking has an awesome horned helmet and an iron mug. It has a viking decorated background and says "This Beard needs a beer." I think we all agree on that!
The second one has a short ill-tempered viking holding a big hammer as his weapon of choice. It says "It's Hammer Time." Not sure if it's a threat or a line from a famous 90's hip hop song, the point is he's about to smash somebody. The character has a stylized version of rune patterns.
Iceland is a mind-blowing place. It's like a trip back in time. The island has volcanic rock everywhere, huge glaciers, hot springs, hundreds of waterfalls, sheep on every hill, and prehistoric geysers! I went with a group of friends and spent 10 days driving all over the island. You should definitely include it in your bucket list. You never know, it might even inspire you to create wacky cartoons!
Please check out the products available in the "Skol Warriors" collection!
Thanks for reading.