What Is Balderduck?

Balderduck is a comic strip by Antonis Vavagiannis. It’s based on his strip “Kourafelkythra” which is the most popular greek web-comic. It features different characters with separate storylines as well as one-panel strips.

What does Balderduck mean? It’s not even a word!

What does anything mean? Why are we here? Who does your hair? These are questions you have to look into your heart and answer them yourself. No one can answer them for you…

How often are the comics updated?

Every Monday and Thursday.

Who is that guy with the unpronounceable name you mentioned earlier?

Antonis Vavagiannis is the creator of Balderduck. He’s also the pianist/guitarist/singer/songwriter of the fantastic alternative rock band THE EMPTY FRAME. He studied music and education and teaches in a primary school in Athens. He has won three comicdom awards for writing.

Is he as tall as they say?

Yes, he is of average height.

Is having a written conversation with yourself pretending to be two different people who talk about yourself in the third person a sign of schizophrenia?

Shht! When you say things like that you’re scaring the voices in my head! Now how about I ask you a question or two?

Hey! You can’t do that! I’m the one who asks questions around here!

Why? Just because your letters are bold you think you can push everybody around? No sir! I will not have it!

But we haven’t discussed the history of Balderduck yet!

Well…As I’ve mentioned earlier Balderduck is based upon the comic Kourafelkyhtra (Κουραφέλκυθρα) which started in 2007 and was written in Greek.

So is Balderduck just a translation of the Greek version?

Parts of it yes. Some of the strips translate well into English, some are made exclusively in English for Balderduck and some are completely untranslatable…Here take a look at some translated untranslatables and see for yourself:

Don’t assume they make much more sense in Greek, but there you have it!

What are the main influences of Balderduck?

Monty Python, The Marx Brothers, Stephen Wright, Gary Larson, xkcd, Arkas, Perry Bible Fellowship, Dilbert, the Simpsons, the Mighty Boosh, Douglas Adams, the voices in my head, the guys who write the phone book and many more