Google translate says “They’re finally heating up at Jucika’s”, but I edited it to sound more natural.
(edit: additional context in this comment below - https://sopuli.xyz/comment/23669088 - the Google translation is likely more accurate)
As always, stay tuned here on !comicstrips@lemmy.world for a slow trickle out of Jucika comics, but if you want to find more, here’s a good post with a large collection that /u/JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.social posted last year: https://piefed.social/post/1258520
Maybe it’s just because I’ve seen so much of obvious USSR propaganda in contrast, but I wonder if making strips like this could get you in some trouble in a Soviet state.
Nah, the joke here isn’t that there’s no heating, it’s that she thinks it’s warm because the heating was finally turned on.
Old commie blocks commonly have central heating, powered and managed at city level. Works fine, except you don’t get to pick when it comes on, the city as a whole does, so every winter you get a city-wide argument over the thermostat.
I’m reading up on it now, and this comic ran during Hungary’s communist era in “Lúdas Matyi”, the only state-approved satirical magazine. It was likely only allowed to exist so long as it wasn’t subversive and avoided politics.
However, it does sometimes depict hardships of the time, so people now seem to be split on whether this was subtle criticism or an attempt to make light of it.
I see what you did there.
There’s no question that such was a huge issue for any creative-type working within that kind of framework. If you’re familiar with Hergé’s story, we also have examples of that backfiring heavily.