Moomin - The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip - Book Two

Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip - Book Two / ISBN 9781897299197 / 88-page hardcover from Drawn and Quarterly

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In the second volume of Tove Jansson's humorous yet melancholic Moomin comic strip, we get four new stories about jealousy, competition, child rearing, 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. Moominmamma 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 seventeen 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.

“A lost treasure now rediscovered--one of the sweetest, strangest comic 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

“Moomin is gorgeous, and is flat out the best Moomin book I've ever seen. Tove Jansson was a natural cartoonist. These strips are clever, gentle, witty, and completely engrossing.” ―Jeff Smith, cartoonist of Bone

Tove Jansson (1914–2001) was born in Helsinki and spent much of her life in Finland. She is the author of the Moomin books, including Comet in Moominland and Finn Family Moomintroll. Born into an artistic family―her father was a sculptor and her mother was a graphic designer and illustrator―Jansson studied at the University College of Arts, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, the Finnish Academy of Fine Arts, and L'École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In addition to her Moomin books, she also wrote several novels, drew comic strips and worked as a painter and illustrator. In 1966, she was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Medal for her body of work. Jansson had a studio in Helsinki but spent most of her time at her home on a small island called Klovharu.