The idea for this strip came about when I was reading about European folklore. I was looking at a piece about fairies and changelings. It was believed that fairies often stole human babies and replaced them with changelings. These changelings looked exactly the same, but they acted strange and almost demonic.
Some historians believe that the whole changeling myth was derived from medieval couples having babies with autism or down syndrome. They had no explanation for their child's erratic behavior, so they devised one based on their belief structure.
If this is true, and it sounds plausible enough, then the prescribed methods of dealing with a changeling sound pretty awful.
This strip marks the one year anniversary of The Capital of Helsinki. I'm not sure why, but a gag surrounding the misunderstood execution of a medieval baby afflicted with autism seems like an appropriate way to commemorate this title's first year.
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