...making Linux just a little more fun! | Ecol By Javier Malonda

These cartoons were made for es.comp.os.linux (ECOL), the Spanish USENET newsgroup for Linux. The strips are drawn in Spanish and then translated to English by the author. Text commentary on this page is by LG Editor Iron. Your browser has shrunk the images to conform to the horizontal size limit for LG articles. For better picture quality, click on each cartoon to see it full size.

One creative translation here. "Ecol brand" is really whiskey and Fanta. The Spanish phrase "con naranjita" means "with a little orange", but in practice it means "mixed with Fanta". Fanta is a carbonated orange drink. "A favorite in Europe since the 1940s, Fanta was acquired by the Coca-Cola Company in 1960," says the Coca-Cola web site. (I would link to it but it's a brower-crashing site.) Whiskey and Fanta is popular in Spain, so I'm told. Since neither the words nor the concept translate to English very well, the author changed it to "Ecol brand", haha.

That last browser is Opera. He's being a Valkyrie from Wagner's The Ring. Webster's defines valkyrie as "any of the maidens of Odin who choose the heroes to be slain in battle and conduct them to Valhalla".

All Ecol cartoons are at tira.escomposlinux.org (Spanish) and comic.escomposlinux.org (English).

Regarding the two main characters, Bilo and Nano, Javier writes, "Bilo and Nano are two students who share a flat. Although their personalities are completely different, they get along good enough. Bilo tries to keep a calm perspective on life, but Nano is pure concentrated bad milk. I don't know much more about them." (Spanish version: http://bilo.homeip.net/ceferino/bilo-nano/bn_index.html).

Javier says the Ecol (the comic strip) started as a joke, "but people liked it and now we have 1000 visits daily and 10 mirrors". Ecol (the organization) -- or escomposlinux.org as it is officially known -- is an all-volunteer organization run on Linux boxen. The staff pay its DSL fee out of their own pocket. Javier is preparing an article for next month about Ecol the organization.

These cartoons are copyright Javier Malonda. They may be copied, linked or distributed by any means. However, you may not distribute modifications. If you link to a cartoon, please notify Javier.

Copyright © 2002, Javier Malonda. Copying license http://www.linuxgazette.com/copying.html
Published in Issue 85 of Linux Gazette, December 2002