Here's another wonderful Finland creation that's new to me: the Moomin comic strips (collected and published some fifty-years later by Drawn & Quarterly--I got them from the library).
They are the work of Finnish artist-author Tove Jansson (right, 1956). Neil Gaiman calls the comic, which ran in a London newspaper starting in the mid-1950s: "A lost treasure now rediscovered--one of the sweetest, strangest comics strips ever drawn or written. A surrealist masterpiece. Honest."
Jansson wrote books about the Moomin as well as these cartoons. She based some of the residents of Moominvalley on her friends and family. Too-ticki, below, was based on her life-partner, graphic artist Tuulikki Pietilä (I can't tell from Finnish names, but Tuulikki was a woman).
I'm feeling a little low today, like a wobbly hippo-thingie whose wind-up has wound-down--probably because I finished (!) the Montana movie The Disinherited yesterday---I always go into an emotional slump when I finish a project.
I may go downtown later today to the newly discovered FinnStyle store and buy myself a Moomin mug ( saw them there, and little toy Moomin figurines too!)--to dose myself with hot chocolate against this November-like weather.
"behind which the sun does not warm"
7 comments:
Sounds like a great prescription! congratulations on finishing another project. I hope to see it soon, perhaps in person....? will there be a film fest?
The books are wonderful, and either still in print or reissued - your library may have them. I hadn't seen the 3D versions before - thank you.
MOMO: (Your name could be Moomin!) Thanks--It's only 5 minutes so maybe we can watch it at the premiere, if people aren't fatigued after 18 minutes of Fly films... Also I'll post it on youTUbe.
ART SPARKER: Oh! You've heard of them! I wonder if any other American I know has.
I checked just now and the library does indeed have the books. They're shelved in the children's section, while the comic books I have were in Adult Nonfiction with the other graphic novels--which just goes to show how confused "graphic novels" make people. What are they?!? : )
What a delightful find, the Moomin! Finland is a treasure trove, it seems.
I love the Moomin mugs! Does your FinnStyle store stock all the varieties, with the different characters?
I haven't got one myself, since they were too expensive for me while I was a student. I used to like studying them in the shop and try to decide on a particular one to put on my wish list, but I never succeeded. My favourite character is Snusmumriken (whatever his name is in English) - the pipe-smoking guy with the pointy, green hat - but I seem to remember that there was something about that mug I didn't really like, maybe the background colour or something.
Now I'm inspired to give it another try! There's no better way to serve hot chocolate.
Hi, ANNIKA:
It was your nudge that led me to the Moomin: thanks!
The pipe-smoking guy is "Snufkin" in English. If you click on the FinnStyle link in the text, it takes you right to the page of mug designs.
I want several of them, but I just bought the Too-tikki mug at the store yesterday--though it was expensive ($28 here).
I find myself buying little artsy things lately... I think I want to reward myself for my own work somehow.
But now, back to austerity measures.
http://en.moominvalleyshop.com has a bit wider variety of moomin tableware.
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