Moomin - Book Two
by Tove Jansson
The first volume of Moomin was a big hit
here
at
Copacetic.
This series of fab Finnish comics is that true rarity:
something
which really can be
enjoyed
by all ages. It will be especially enjoyed by
parents and
children, both together and apart. Book
Two is in
every way a worthy successor. This time around the
Moomins
experience
"Winter Follies," meet "Mamma's Maid," "Build a House," and
"Begin a
New Life" in four uniquely original adventures collected
in one
sturdy yet elegant volume.
Here's
the official D & Q hype:
Jansson is revered around the world as one of the foremost children's authors of the twentieth century for her illustrated Moomin chapter books. The D+Q reprint series collects, for the first time in North America, Jansson's internationally syndicated Moomin comic strip that debuted in the London Evening News in 1954.
"A
lost treasure now rediscovered--one of the sweetest, strangest
comics
strips ever drawn or written. A surrealist masterpiece. Honest."
--Neil
Gaiman
"[Jansson's] work soars with lightness and speed, and
her drawings only echo her writing: delicate but precise,
observant yet
suggestive... Jansson was exceptional, an exuberant explorer of
emotional independence and interdependence, a liberating force."
--Los
Angeles Times Book Review
In the second volume of Tove Jansson's humorous yet melancholic Moomin
comic strip, we get four new stories about jealousy, competition,
childrearing, and self-reinvention. The Moomins try to hibernate
in the
fashion of their ancestors but insomnia places them smack dab into
a
winter carnival with the winter-sports loving Mr. Brisk. The
fickle and
eternally lovestruck Mymble and Snorkmaiden find themselves in
competition over a thrilling new man. Moomin Mamma meets her new
neighbor, the Fillyjonk, causing her to hire the depressed and
secretive Misabel as her new maid. Mymble's mother arrives on the
Moomin family’s doorstep with her 17 new children. Finally, A
prophet
arrives on the scene declaring that the happy Moomins are in fact
not
happy at all and need to get back to nature and be free. Moomin,
of
course, becomes more and more miserable the freer he gets.
ISBN: 9781897299197
retail price - $19.95
copacetic
price
- $17.77
Moomin - Book One
by Tove Jansson
Well, if they ever decide to turn this into a
prime-time animated
cartoon (which would be great -- but don't hold your
breath) we've got
the theme song already picked out: "What's So Funny
About Peace, Love
and Understanding." Performed by, hmmm, let's
say -- Shonen
Knife. This Finnish strip has more in common
with George
Herriman's Krazy Kat
that one might think just looking at it, or even upon
first read; but
once you let it sink in, the strip has at its core the
same dedication
to carefree existence, along with a simliarly oddball
cast of
characters. Of course, it is indelibly stamped
with the character
of its country of origin and Europe in general, but
it's half the fun
to see this spirit animated in these foreign climes. The
four tales that start this series off, "Moomin and the
Brigands",
"Moomin and Family Life", "Moomin on the Riviera" and
"Moomin's Desert
Island" show the Moomins freely going their own way,
unperterbed by the incomprehension and disapproval of others,
knowing
that they know themselves best of all. These
idiosyncratic
adventures
are singular pleasures and secreted within each are valuable
lessons
that we may especially treasure today.
Publisher
Drawn and Quarterly has this to say:
"The Moomins saw life
in many forms but debuted to its biggest audience ever
on the pages of
world’s largest newspaper The London
Evening News, in 1954. The strip was
syndicated in newspapers
around the world with millions of readers in 40
countries. Moomin,
Book One is D & Q's
first volume in their projected plan to reprint the
strip's run through
to 1960. This is the first time the strip will be
published in any form
in North America and will deservedly place Jansson
among the
international cartooning greats of the last
century. The Moomins
are a tight-knit family – hippo-shaped creatures with
easygoing and
adventurous outlooks. Jansson's art is pared down and
precise, yet able
to compose beautiful portraits of ambling creatures in
fields of
flowers or rock-strewn beaches that recall Jansson’s
Nordic roots. The
comic strip reached out to adults with its gentle and
droll sense of
humor. Whimsical but with biting undertones, Jansson’s
observations of
everyday life, including guests who overstay their
welcome, modern art,
movie stars, and high society, easily caught the
attention of an
international audience and still resonate
today." This is a one
of a kind classic that you owe it to yourself to at
least take a look
at.
retail
price - $19.95
copacetic price
- $17.77
prices and
availability
current as of 20 September 2008