ABOUT
The webcomic:
Year In Hereafter (also YIH) is a fantasy adventure comic.
YIH’s plot is written around elements borrowed from Kalevala, the Finnish national epic.
The webcomic starts in our mundane reality in 2015, then it transitions to a parallel realm which we spend the majority of the time in. Within this realm resides the massive continent of Kalevala, named after the epic.
Kalevala consists of two halves, the northern Pohjola; the mountains buried under eternal ice, and southern Väinölä; the land of eternal summer.
The Kalmahinen feature in the comic as the story’s main antagonistic force. They originate from Pohjola, from where they tried to take Väinölä to themselves. Their attempts were thwarted by four heroes of old and they were banished to the death realm.
In the the endless running streams of decay, dead things would remain undetected.
The mother of all Kalmahinen, Loviatar, would regrow her forces.Through the death realm, she’d have access to countless worlds. In multirealms she grew her diminished forces, opening gateways to dozens of worlds, building new nests for her sickly spirits to breed within. Eventually she opened a gateway to Lapland. However, she had invaded marshy lands of human mystics who weren't welcoming her presence.
From this moment the familyline of Harmonsuo have sworn a secret duty to keep the Kalmahinen at bay, unknown by the rest of the world.
The story of Year In Hereafter follows a journey of four heroes. Two of them are children of the aforementioned Harmonsuo. One of them is an innocent bystander who in twist of fate becomes a crucial part of the plan. The fourth hero is an unexpected ally native to Kalevala, descendant of the ancient heroes.
The story is expected to be around 1000 pages long.
Publication:
Year In Hereafter started in July 14th of 2015 on Tapastic until I transferred to independent domain.
I had help from a friend of mine who knew how to create a website suited for browsing a webcomic and they helped with the website's first build. I used that same code from ’17 all the way until ’21. This current website is built by me from scratch.
Author:
At the time of writing I’m a 30 yo male born in Finland.
I have a passing fancy for gaming and I love animals. I spend a lot of time hanging out in Final Fantasy XIV or World of Warcraft.
My proper artist alias is Mikael Hankonen, but I'm known to use Miikka as an online handle.
Before transitioning to using a regular human name my artist alias was Cerberyusu.
I’ve always drawn, but I got really serious about it when I was around 19 years old in game dev school.
Year In Hereafter is where my drawing has matured the most, in fact YIH gives a very good idea of my personal development.
I worked as freelancer from 2018 until 2021, working with Samuel Geroge London (The Milford Green Saga, Access Denied), Aaron Sullivan (ODIE series, NIL) and Miles Greb (After the Gold Rush) to name a few.
In 2021 I decided to become a nurse, graduating in 2023.
I own a golden retriever mix called Genki and I live at the countryside. Currently I use a beastly laptop for all my online endeavors and a Wacom Cintiq 13HD for drawing. Sometimes I pick up a pad and markers.
The Finnish words and mythological names used in the story:
Please send me recommendations for adding words you’ve seen in the comic that haven’t been added here yet!
The Kalmahinen
a collective plural for spirits of the dead, particularly spirits who died in anguishIlmaris-blade
a blade of Ilmaris-make, something made by a member of the family IlmarinenIlmarinen
a godlike smith of Kalevala loreVäinämöinen
a godlike sage of Kalevala loreVäinölä
the home of heroes in Kalevala lorePohjola
a northern land ruled by the witch Louhi in Kalevala loreTuonen Tytti
the ferrywoman in Manala, realm of the dead. Her job is to make sure no living go beyond to the death realmTuonela
the realm of the dead in Kalevala lore. Interchangeable with Vainajala and ManalaLoviatar
the mother of nine diseases and a mysterious tenth child. Sometimes confused with Louhi although they’re two completely different beingsThe Nine Diseases
children of Loviatar in Kalevala lore, they’re embodiments of Cancer, Ulcer, Rickets, Plague, Gout, Colic, Consumption, Scab and an unnamed baby girl. Sometimes there are 9 diseases named and the baby girl is added on top as the 10th child.Lempo
the god of deceit and passion in Finnish folklore