Christopher Nielsen

Christopher Nielsen was born on 20 April 1963 in Oslo, Norway, and is best known as a comics artist whose work captures the gritty, subcultural underbelly of Norwegian life. His first published strip appeared in 1980 after he won a competition in the anarchist magazine *Gateavisa*; just three years later, his first album was released. Nielsen works in a rough, direct style rooted in the American underground comix tradition, often using thick lines and unpolished figures to match his raw subject matter.

His most famous creation is *To Trøtte Typer* (Two Wasted Wankers), following the petty criminals and drug users Odd and Geir through their aimless days in Oslo. The strip was adapted into a 13-episode television series plus a Christmas special, and the characters also appear in the animated film *Free Jimmy* (Slipp Jimmy Fri). Another signature character is the hulking, redneck-like Hold Brillan (Hold My Glasses), a brawler who can’t fight without first handing off his spectacles. Nielsen also drew nearly all the album covers for his late brother Joachim Nielsen’s band, Jokke & Valentinerne.

Active from 1981 to 2022, Nielsen has been credited as artist, writer, colorist, inker, and letterer on 45 issues, with his work most frequently collected in titles like *Weltschmerz*, *Gateavisa*, and *Hold Brillan*. His legacy lies in bringing a distinctly Norwegian, deadpan take on outsider life to comics.