Wiggly mouse-drawn comics where balls represent different countries. They poke fun at national stereotypes and the "international drama" of their diplomatic relations, combining history, geography, Engrish, and an inferiority complex.
collaboration
Archived post. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast.
Sort by:
Best
Open comment sort options
Best
Top
New
Controversial
Old
Q&A
This comic was drawn by a Polish user (who wants to remain anonymous) based on a script I posted over half and a year ago in r/Polandballarena. It took two and a half months from the first sketch to the final version, so you better appreciate it!
Edit: Credit also goes to this strangest of all Polandball comics which provided a bit of inspiration.
Edit 2: The artist is reading this and appreciates all your kind comments!
Edit 3: As of 28 October, there is a new and slightly improved version online.
Edit 4: The artist has decided to reveal herself, it's u/Hinadira! She has made a making-of post here.
Also, we now have a list of all the references and details:
Panel 1
Germans love model trains and model making in general.
Related details are the German station clock, Germany's Deutsche Bahn (German Railway) cap and the figures of striking railway workers.
Panel 3
On the coatrack, there are a very oktoberfesty Bavarian Trachtenjanker jacket and a typical Anglea Merkel pantsuit.
Germany has a Mercedes-Benz key.
Panel 8
There's a traditional Black Forest cuckoo clock.
The erotic photo of France refers to the "Draw me like one of your French girls" scene from Titanic. (NSFW)
The fridge magnets are a reference to this comic. They are: a "Maß of beer" bottle opener, a 1 Deutsche Mark coin, Reichtangle, the Iron Cross and the EU flag.
The beer recipe refers to the Reinheitsgebot (German Beer Purity Law).
The postcards are from places of German colonialism: New Swabia, Antarctica (penguins, the proximity of the Reichtangle hints to the conspiracy theories surrounding this place); Lüderitz, Namibia (diamond mine); Bismarck Archipelago, Papua New Guinea (cannibalistic PNG, with Pickelhaube) and of course Mallorca, Spain (a hole dug into the beach).
On the counter, there are Sauerkraut cans.
Panel 10
The paintings show the Cologne Cathedral and Heidelberg Castle.
Panel 11
The weapons used are:
UK – Webley Revolver
USA – M1919
Soviet Union – PPSh-41
Nazi Germany – Luger P08
Panel 13
The lower half shows the Bombing of London, with the Heinkel He 111 as bombers.
Panel 18
There are unexploded weapons in the rubble (four bombs, one Soviet F1 and one American Mk 2 grenade). In the background, there are the Brandenburg Gate and the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.
Schleswig-Holstein is a Trümmerfrau (after this photo).
Hamburg is traumatized because of the extreme bombing during the war.
Lower Saxony has a turnip because of the Hunger Winter 1946/47 which was also called Turnip Winter. He is bartering with Bavaria who has cigarettes, a black market currency.
Hesse was gifted a piece of chocolate by America.
France is keeping the Saar protectorate captive.
Württemberg-Baden is stealing coal (a practice that, for personal needs, was officially sanctioned by the Cardinal of Cologne).
Rhineland-Palatinate is sending parts of a dismantled factory to the victorious power. The dismantling of German industry ("Demontagen") as reparation was a common practice after the war.
Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern are warily eyeing each other since they (together with Württemberg-Baden) were later fused to the modern German state of Baden-Württemberg.
Poland, having lost her eastern territories, is being fed with parts of dead Prussia.
Panel 19
The painting is a Polandball rendition of Anton von Werner's Proclamation of the German Empire.
(See panel 25 for the contents of the cupboard)
Panel 20
On the Western side, there are an F-15 (plane), an M26 Pershing (tank) and a VW Beetle (car).
On the Eastern side, there are a MiG-15 (plane), a T-62 (tank) and a Trabant (car).
Panel 22
The car is a BMW F30 from the 3 series.
Panel 23
The photos on the ground that also exist in real life are are the Berlaymont building of the European Commission and of course this iconic image of the bombing of Dresden. The rest is fictional.
Panel 25
The pictures on the cupboard show the Holy Roman Empire and the 1951 founding ceremony of the European Coal and Steel Community, the earliest predecessor of the EU.
On the bookshelf, there are: Goethe's Faust, the Luther Bible, the Basic Law (English for "Grundgesetz", the German constitution), Marx's Das Kapital, Grimm Uncensored, von Clausewitz's Vom Kriege (On War), Grass's The Tin Drum and Kein Mampf (a wordplay that roughly translates to "No munch").
Panel 27
There is Meißen porcelain in the cupboard.
Panel 28
On the shelf, there are Germany's four football World Cups (1954, 1974, 1990, 2014) in front of a FC Bayern Munich flag.
Panel 33
Germany being the most popular country in the world refers to this famous BBC poll.
Panel 40
The line "I know who I am!" is also a reference to my comic "Who am I?".
Panel 47
The house number 49 is a reference to +49, Germany's international calling code (and coincidentally also to 1949, the founding year of the Federal Republic). Poland has +48, so she is Germany's neighbor.
Poland has a EU-funded telescope. She was out stargazing because she cannot into space.
Comment deleted by user
It was intense and incredibly well drawn. The scene where Germany sees all that he's done and it consumes him is amazing.
All the details, too. So well done.
Totally agree. The part when he floats back down German again after seeing everything was really beautiful. Best Polandball in a long time. Loved it.
I know this is coming a month after posted, but as a uh... cube who had most of his family wiped out, that scene really got to me.
This really should be comic of the year.
Same here. Amazing comic.
Quite simply, a masterpiece.
The details, simply wonderful.
This seems like the storyboard for a movie.
One of the highest quality comics I've seen of late; and it didn't even have to use humour. Amazing work.
P.S. Loved that scene with Germany cuddling up to Poland.
Polan's little EU flashlight warmed my heart. :)
The thing with the EU symbol was actually a telescope. Polan was wanting into space :)
Awww. It's good to have dreams.
It's also why Polan is up in the middle of the night to hear Germany's commotion. Airtight plot.
About halfway through the comic I had a moment where I thought to myself, "Something this good had better not end with a fucking pun." I am not disappointed.
Too many "John Cena" jokes lately??
natethesnake.com
Yeah that's where I teared up.
This is probably a touching comic for most readers, but extra so for german ones - it's pretty hard for "outsiders" to understand germany's internal struggle about its (lack of a) national identity. Perfect timing, too, with October 3rd just a few days past, where one side of the demonstrants shout "Abolish Germany" while the others would rather sing "Deutschland über alles",with the majority crushed inbetween.
Props to you for writing that script, and doubly props to the anonymous painter that has captured it so perfectly. Insane attention to detail
For Poles too man. We understand it perfectly fine
EDIT: Thanks for upvotes. :) I just want to express that not everyone look at Germans from perspective of pseudopatriotism. We will never forget about German atrocities and never forgive them. We just cannot do that, only real victims can. For now we can only work together to never repeat it. Nazis where Germans, that doesn't mean every German is Nazi. Love and work together. That is our only way. Only if Russians will see that too
I think this one of the best if not the best polandball comics I have seen. So touching. The plot is so well written and the drawing is so detailed.
As a Swede with German heritage, I feel you. This comic gave me chills down my spine, thinking about what my German relatives have had to endure, and still endure, due to something that happened long before they were born.
Murika here, what is national identity?
That thing we had back in the 1700-1960s
Born in 1980, can't confirm
No, our national identity is just so ubiquitous that it's hard to realize that it's there sometimes.
I guess today we learned that there is evil monster in us all we can and must overcome to be the best country we can be.
This is probably the most important lesson that should be learnt from WWII. Sadly the atrocities committed by countries that weren't part of the axis are often overlooked, from what I've seen so far in Lithuania the role of Lithuanians in the holocaust is covered more extensively even in literature classes than it is in history classes.
Comment deleted by user
Why would that great Pole stay anonymous? You and that gal are now my favorite polandballers. This has to reach the No. 1 spot on this sub.
Maybe I'm just weird but I cried when reading this. Holy crap this is powerful!
There's even a little Trabant in the East German panel!
Comment deleted by user
It's obviously u/jPaolo trying out new drawing techniques.
This is an excellent comic. One of the best I've ever seen. :)
Whoever they are, their art is first rate, just let them know please; especially enjoyed the creepy part with Germany in the afterlife surrounded by all their victims, something right out of a supernatural thriller.
Also your script was top notch, don't want to discount your excellent writing.
10/10 would Anschluss.
Good lord, that comic is strange.
OP's posted comic is great though. Wonderful!
That other comic is weird as fuck and haram but I really want to know what the ending is!
Words cannot describe how disappointed I was to see it just stop. I wonder how long it would have gone on for.
Okay that "strangest of all Polandball comics" was absolutely brilliant! Holy moly it was captivating and surreal and just so cool in every way. I really hope Part 8 comes out I want to see why Latvia sent Nazi Germany into reality in the first place.
I know! It's amazing how it has this sort of trajectory where it starts out like a regular shit-tier comic but just gets more and more surreal while operating with a very compelling sort of dream logic.
I never thought the phrase "die a death" used in a polandball context could have such pathos.
1.- This gave me actual chills, not fucking kidding.
2.- I want to draw like this.
I'm mind-blown, stunned, there is no way to top this.
– u/yaddar
Whoa. This might be the biggest of all the compliments in this thread.
I really mean it.
feels like when I read "The name of the wind" for the 1st time and it was so amazing I was so stunned I couldn't continue writing my book for like a week or so because I felt so noob >___<
the story and the art for this one are just that perfect.
Upboat for being a fellow Name of the Wind fanboy.
Comment deleted by user
I second this!
This is beautiful comic.
The strange comic is amazing as well. "Please nullify your existence and cease to exist."
He wanted to be even more anonimous than a reddit account?
Why are the 4chan people and the imgur comments calling this 'autistic'? This is actually pretty rad you know
Because it's different and doesn't have a cheap punchline.
It was quite refreshing and new, I like how they depicted countryball characters with legs and arms yet didn't make them look ugly as hell. Also, I suspect various parts of this comic were made by different authors. You can tell by the tone going from less serious in the beginning (cheap joke playing on migrants here or sudden photorealistic Merkel face here) to more serious and occult (this). Also the font suddenly changes from serif to sans-serif. Overall I seriously loved it, it's a shame I probably won't see part 8.
I think 4chan uses it as a compliment
This was the most intense and indeed my favorite.
Amazing. Good job to both of you
Why would you want to remain anonymous if you create such an epic masterpiece?
Too bad.This comic is the best of the month.
what the fuck did i just read
jpaolo?
or is there a shy user I don't know?
I can say that much that (s)he definitely is not u/jPaolo.
Yes, I'd shoehorn in some antiburger joke.
And thick outlines.
And grey PolanWhy is the strange one considered autistic? Is this an inside joke?
4Chan calls literally everyone autistic, especially their own users.
Comic of the Year?
I'd vote "yes"
That was one hell of a show.
Haha I was thinking of the limbs comic the whole time reading this
This.... gives me hope in balls of all kinds.
Not only is the art awesome, but so was your story!
Kudos!
That was some Fate/Stay Night type shit, really intense!
German details from this strip, top to bottom (I am sure I'll miss half):
Germany builds model trains
DB train service clock
Model train workers are on strike
BMW keychain
Traditional bavarian robe
Coo-coo's clock with a Bavarian drinking, North Rhine Westphalia sawing (?), Saxony being the coo-coo ( doesn't really make sense to me... coo-coo's clock should be a Baden-Wurttemberg ball )
WMF knife set
Post cards on the fridge from Bismarck Archipelago (New Guinea), French beach, Mallorca, New Swabia/Antartica, Lüderitz/Namibia (maybe)
Reich / Iron cross magnets to pin them down
Beer recipe
Cologne cathedral
Heidelberg castle
Britain riding out WW2 on the back of US
USSR barely making it
German partition, each state going to an allied sector
Saarland bound by France (not part of Western Germany until 1956)
Bavaria and Hesse getting chocolate bars from America, others starving can't make out a lot of the references in the ruins picture. What's Bremen doing? What's with the book in Palatinate?
Painting showing the 1871 Proclamation of the German Empire in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles
Bookshelf: Faust, Luther Bible, Basic Law (German Constitution), Marx' Das Kapital, Grimm Uncensored (gory cautionary tales for kids), Clausewitz' Vom Kriege, Grass' The Tin Drum, Kein Mampf ("no food", wordplay on Mein Kampf) Unsure about the 1952 picture
Germany's address 49 Central Europe, +49 is Germany's international phone code
Edit just came home and noticed a few more things (in addition to the replies below, props!):
The 3 bottom postcards are glorious colonial clay from Imperial Germany (New Guinea, Antartica, Namibia/German South West Africa)
The 3 magnet pins are Imperial German flag, the Iron Cross, and Von Bülow's Sun (can't get over how incredible those details are, really)
In the ruins, Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg are probably "Trümmerfrauen", rebuilding
Hamburg might be especially sad for being completely destroyed in the firestorm
There might even be specific buildings in the ruins, like the one behind USSR looks like the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin (although that should be in the West)
Of course France is itself beaten up badly from the war
And wow, the 4 world cups and the Bayern Munich logo (with the German Meisterschaft bowl?) in the back during the fight
I am pretty sure you can identify every one of those black and white photographs on the ground. u/Ustislinkelgien found one definite
Seriously this just keeps giving on every reread. What a masterpiece.
Impressive! You even caught a few details that at least I didn't put in consciously.
On the coatrack, there are also an Oktoberfest jacket and a classic Merkel pantsuit.
People sawing/chopping wood is actually a classic part of cuckoo clock decorations. Probably because they come from the Black Forest, where forestry is the main business. And I didn't think about that before, but isn't Saxony "being cuckoo" a pretty good depiction or reality?
The erotic photo of France is actually refering to the "Draw me like one of your French girls" scene. (NSFW) And yes, Lüderitz (Namibia) is correct.
Actually, Bavaria has a package of cigarettes (black market currency) and Hesse has a turnip because the hunger winter of 1946/47 was also called "turnip winter". Bremen is just warming himself at the fire and I guess Rhineland-Palatinate needs to increase his agricultural output because trade was disrupted between the occupation zones.
Btw, there's Meißen porcellain inside the cupboard.
The 1952 picture shows the foundation of the European Coal and Steel Community.
the photos on the floor are also real ones. I can't tell them all but the one on top seems to be this one https://i.imgur.com/Ft9kP.jpg (Dresden, 1945)
It's a group picture from the founding of the European Coal and Steel Community, I believe. The great-great-grandfather of the EU.
edit: reddit's been lagging and I didn't see the other comment. Oh well.
Wow polish phone code is +48 so we are truly neighbours in this mansion. It means Poland could rly hear those noises thats explains why Poland and nobody else came to check what have happend.
Wonderful details!!!
Also, Poland wants into space thus stargaazes with the telescope we see and thus is awake to here Germany in the first place!
Also, the Knife!! We see the kitchen for the first time, it's laying there openly. Nazi notices and takes it when Germany turns its back to it. Hides it behind its back, possibly visible in shadow unregularity.
Also, the clocks are neatly exact.
The beer glas magnet on the fridge is most likely a bottle opener too.
Reichtangle beeing seen at new Swabia is most likely an allusion to tinfoilhat theories of the Nazis hiding there etc. Wait Reichtangle is the magnet, so forget this. What's on the picture to the left of it? Who's visible in Antarctica? The hearts for France :3
The suicide gun at the corpse.
Poland having to eat the dead Prussia mash to regrow a half.
He who seems to steal coal from France (people did to survive the cold winter) seams to be Saarland, but there's also the nordic cross french Saargebietthing, not sure how that went, artitist probably did it acurate. Baden and Würtemberg having to get along with eacht other. What's up with each of Britain's Bundesländer?
When Nazi is slashing the 2nd time, there could be this famous picture on the ground http://cdn2.spiegel.de/images/image-600361-breitwandaufmacher-nebp.jpg (searching for it I found like three tinfoilassholes pages first before a serious one :/ )
Wow. Just wow.
I only heard German screaming in my head now. Good job.
[Screams in German]
I know. This is the exactly how I felt too.
Those dead countryballs are some nightmare fuel. This comic is an instant favorite.
They remind me in style of a comic from depression month last year about Finnish children's TV shows. I shall endeavour to find it!
[Depression Quest] (http://i.imgur.com/hVRdREv.jpg)
Oh yeah. I remember this. I thought the eyes looked familiar.
And, of course, Germoney is making model trains.
And Polan has a model spaceship.
Actually I believe that's a telescope, to gaze upon the stars. Looking is all poor Polan can do, for Polan can not into space.
He made a good video game that everyone liked though. Good for him.
I am in love! That "polish user" is the greatest. Why would he want to be anonymous?
Edit: Also note the picture on the wall and compare to this https://i.imgur.com/3VStC1h.jpg. Very neat!