Finland in comics

This is an article i wrote for Freemagazine but i have changed it here and there. Basically it's a scene report of finnish comics. Since Finnish people stubbornly persist in the use of their godawfully difficult language (which i now master after four years of studies at the same level of a toddler) it is quite unlikely that most of the finnish comicbooks will be read by a wide audience. However, some stuff is out there as well in other languages. So that's the focus of this article.

Two years ago I was queuing at the cashier in the S-market; before me stood your typical Finnish metal dude; jeans jacket, tattoos, black nail polish, studded belt, the works, In his shopping cart were only a deep-frozen pizza and a cola bottle. To my surprise he glanced at the comics rack and after careful consideration tossed the latest Donald Duck pocketbook on the shopping goods. In Belgium, where I come from, a guy like that wouldn’t want to be caught dead with a comic let alone Donald Duck. But hey, I had forgotten that Finland is the country of Donald Duck.

This will come as no surprise to anybody as the Akku Ankka weekly magazine is still the biggest-selling magazine in Finland. Approximately about 1 million people read this magazine per week. On a population of 5,5 million that's almost anybody who can read and who is not yet immobilized with a mental illness like Alzheimer. Also in the 2006 top 20 most sold comicbooks (taken from the 2006 top selling books in finland) 18 were Donald Duck pocketbooks. The two other titles were a new Viivi and Wagner book and "Jumbo". In few other countries does Donald Duck gain such great popularity as in Finland. In the US, for example, sales of a Donald Duck magazine are practically non-existent, Alas, if you hold any illusions that this all due to Finnish craftsmanship and quality work, I must disappoint you. As these things go in this globalised world, the actual work for Donald Duck is done in small animation studios around the world and then assembled and translated by separate companies. Finnish artists are hardly involved in this process. As a matter of fact, the fact that Finland now has one extra official Donal Duck artist (3 and counting...) was big news in 2005. Since this article deals with Finnish comics, we should therefore focus on other works.

To get an understanding of the Finnish comic market one must first realize that the reading market is not so large. With a total population of around 5.5 million, the potential readership of comics is going to be rather small, of course. Even more so, since the popularity of this medium has been in a steady decline since the fifties. In actual numbers this means for example that the book Persepolis was considered a surprising bestseller even though sales did not peak over 5,000. Last year in October Egmont decided to publish The Watchmen in Finnish(better late then never, i guess) and mentioned to the press that the printrun will be "less then 2000". And check this out, they even had the nerve to come to the small press stand at the Helsinki Book Fair and asked the people there to promote their book. Yeah.

So what we're dealing with here is a mini comics scene, all genres and artists jammed together in a small market. Marko Turunen confided in me that his books have a printrun of 500 copies and take on average 6 years to sell out completely, if at all. His translations in French by the Belgian Fremok seem on the other hand that publishers best selling titles, strangely enough...

But even though the whole comics scene is small in size, the production is surprisingly high and of good quality. Proof of that can be found in the growing interest abroad in what’s happening around here. Finnish artists were asked this year to show their works in several exhibitions during important comic festivals in France (Angouleme, last year), Holland (De stripdagen in Haarlem 2006 and Belgium (Kunstcentrum Recyclart). On top of that Glömp and Asema won together the price for best alternative publication in Angoulême in 2004. Also, many works by Finnish artists are being translated and published in English and French.

Comic books that sell well here are not particularly popular elsewhere. Every country has their own equivalent of newspaper humour strips like “Viivi ja Wagner” or “Virtanen” so who in France or Germany would be interested in reading these comics? On the other hand, the young and sometimes rather unknown artists that make their own brand of alternative comics are appealing to foreign readers. Names like Tommi Musturi, Ville Ranta, Matti Hagelberg, Jenni Roope, Marko Turunen, Kati Kovacs may not ring a bell to many readers but they are widely known amongst comic connoisseurs abroad.

Ville Ranta, for example, is a comic artist living in Oulu who started his own publishing company, Asema, in 2000, through which he has published several books. Lewis Trondheim specifically asked Ville to put together a comic album. The result is Célébritz (Dargaud), a witty satire on our celebrity-obsessed society. The main character invents a pill which turns people into instant idols but the fame lasts only from 3 seconds to two weeks. Ville’s own work is mostly autobiographical in nature and he draws in a loose, sketchy way. Earlier this year, however, Ville Ranta was the focus of plenty of media attention after being banned from the Kaltio culture magazine and being censored by too-careful Finnish politicians of the Oulu city administration due to the whole Mohammed cartoon craze. In his banned comic strip, Ville and the prophet Mohammed have an animated discussion about Islamic and western differences and later Tarja Halonen and Matti Vanhanen (the president and the prime minister of finland, btw) are shown burning the Danish flag “as a sign of friendship towards the Muslim world”. As a hilarious comment on the always-overcautious Finnish foreign policy this worked quite well, but three major sponsors of Kaltio left and the chief editor was fired. When the whole media attention had died out, however, Oulu city rehired Ranta as an illustrator for the Snellman book they had been planning.

Matti Hagelberg has also been published by l’Association and several magazines all over the world (most notably Blab in the States) thanks to his well-known scratchy drawing technique and absurd storytelling. His 200-page masterpiece about Urho Kekkonen (the Finnish hardline president throughout the seventies) has also been translated into Swedish. He is usually considered to be the grand old man of finnish alternative comics. He is not that old though, it's just that he has been in almost every alternative comic publication around the world. He is teaching a now in interesting course in "non-linear graphic storytelling" at the University of Arts and Design in Helsinki. Rumour has it that he wanted to do a story for Pala ( a free comic magazine spread all over Helsinki, now defunct) but he would only do it on the condition that the editors ask him nicely first.

A third name to keep an eye open for is Tommi Musturi, who is not only the editor of Glömp magazine (more about that later) but he most recently gained fame with The First Book of Hope, which has already been published in French. This comic (in English) captures very nicely the mental state of a typical middle-aged Finnish man who contemplates his lost childhood. While stuffing himself with greasy food and complaining about his missing longjohns he mumbles to himself and engages in countryside activities such as building a bird’s nest, going to the sauna and walking in the forest. The Second Book of Hope is scheduled in January 2007 and will be simultaneously published in English and French. Otava will at the same time publish The First Book of Hope in Finnish.

Lastly something still about Jenni Rope, who is a female comic artist who also runs the Napa books publishing house. Her style is very popular among female readers and consists mainly of illustration style abstract drawings combined with an almost poetic like underscript. It works best in more strip like length. She is the authority in what i call the European art school drawing style (thin linework, big heads and small hands). Still, good stuff.

One event is marked in red in the calendars of every Finnish comic lover and artist; the yearly comic festival in Helsinki. During this occasion, which usually takes place on the third weekend of September, the whole comics industry comes together and presents their newest publications side by side. The 2006 comic festival gathered more than 6,500 visitors over its two-day period and his been growing in popularity quite rapidly these last few years. It is no wonder, because the main guest of this year, Garth Ellis, said it was “the best small-sized comic festival I have ever attended”. Lectures, exhibitions and sometimes hilarious stage acts entertain a mixed crowd of comics collectors, artists, urban hipsters and families with children. I personally like this festival because since there's not so much happening, you can easily see all exhibitions, check out the stands, follow the discussion panels and still keep that buzz going from the beers you have to time drink.

There are two other comic festivals taking place in Finland but I haven't been to either of those. The Kemi festival is actually the oldest and used to be the biggest comics happening in Finland. But Kemi is quite a small city somewhere close to the polar circle in Lapland so the novelty of traveling 1000+ km to freeze your balls off and see some comic artists wore off in the end for most people. Last year there were even talks of canceling the whole event but local pride prevented that and the festival continues, albeit now greatly reduced to a small incrowd happening with the occasional duped international comic artist who was impressed with the guestlists of previous editions and thought, "what the hey, why not experience an polar summernight?". The organisers realised it's no fun for the visitors to roam a city that's virtually deserted after 8pm in the winter and moved the event to late May as an almost desperate attempt to lure visitors and comic artists. I think i will go there this year.
The other comic festival takes place in Tampere and is organised this year for the first time. I have a sneaking suspicion it will be a manga overload with lots of teenage girls but i hope i am wrong. We'll see.

The comic world is in general very male oriented. In the States, 90% of the comic readers are male, and female comic artists are just a handful (gross overgeneralization). The comic stores are considered safe havens for young nerds and sweaty, unwashed comic collectors. This is nicely illustrated in The Simpsons with the Comic Book Guy character, a sarcastic 45-year-old overweight virgin who still lives with his mother. Girls hardly ever enter a comic book store, and why would they? There are no books that they would be interested in and they would be scared away by the clientele and staff alike. In Finland, however, the situation is a bit healthier. From the top of my head I can list at least 10 female comic artists: Jenni Rope, Kati Kovacs, : Katja Tukiainen, Roju, Kaisa Leka (here's what Forbidden PLanet said about her latest work, scroll to the bottom somewhere , and Tiitu being among the most important. In Tampere the Irtoparta magazine (False Beard, comes with English translation sheets) publishes female cartoonists only and has already 7 issues out. I honestly don’t think there’s any other country where the female presence is so strong in the comics scene. The readership also is almost equally divided.
And hey why do you think this is part of Alison Bechdels FAQ?
"Has your work been translated into Finnish?"
Why yes, it has. “Lepakkoelämää,” which supposedly means “Spawn of Dykes To Watch Out For,” but could mean “suck my llama” for all I know, was published in 2000 by the Helsinki publisher Kääntöpiiri. Finland, in fact, seems to be just one big sauna full of Dykes To Watch Out For fans, one of whom wrote a very professional-looking hard-bound college thesis about my work in 1998. Go figure.
Does “lepakkoelämää” really mean “suck my llama?”
A concerned Finnish reader recently informed me that the literal translation of “lepakkoelämää” is “bat life,” which is slang for “promiscuous lesbian.” Glad I could clear that up.

A good start for getting to know the artists listed here would to buy comic anthologies such as Laikku or Glömp. They feature a healthy array of all the up and coming Finnish comic artists and come with complete English translations on the bottom of each page. The 8th issue of Glömp especially was critically well-received and managed to sell out completely in a matter of months. It should still be available in several stores, though. The book is a colourful 225-page collection of experimental graphics and painful youth trauma stories shown with every possible drawing technique. To illustrate the international appeal of this book (and Finnish comics in general) even more, a quarter of all copies were sold in the States.

The cheapest way to get acquainted with finnish artists (or at least, some of them) would be to get your hands on the Kuti Kuti tabloid which is the local equivalent of the Paper Rodeo but then in colour. It is for free when ordering from my store and is always a cmyk burst of drawings and weird stories. And always nice to look at some artwork by Aapo Rapi, who i haven't mentioned here yet but whose minicomic Kelomökien mies (not in english available alas) was funny, tragic, cynical and beautiful at the same time. Word around the campfire goes that Aapo will be in the next Kramer's Ergot. Who knows.

The main problem with all these fine books is finding them in the stores. Print runs often don’t exceed 1,000 copies, and when they are sold out, there’s very little chance of reprinting. Nationwide distribution as well has proven to be very difficult. It might take some digging and snooping around in several bookstores to actually get your hands on these books. Fortunately, the libraries usually have a good collection of homegrown comics in the adult comics department.

But yeah, maybe you live abroad. Then what? Well, a small number of comic retailers have some these stocked. I start with myself ofcourse, so just go check my webstore and start clicking on all weird looking names (those will be then finnish artists). Since my website is in English that will provide some information. Then there's for example Kreegah who still has a few copies of the last Glömp last i checked so hurry there. His site is in Finnish but email the guy and find out he speaks perfect English. Zum Teufel is then a nice database of all the smallpress finnish comics. I dont know half the stuff myself. Then outside finland, well, i suggest you check out retailer lists of Boingbeing and Napabooks and hope you are living closeby to at least one possible salesoint.

If you would be willing to sample these Finnish comics, they are out there - just go and track them down. The lucky finders will be rewarded with some good reading material.