“I was drawn into the world. The characters, the stories, and Moominvalley itself.” Chihiro Harada was one of many children enthralled by the Moomin anime series that aired on Fuji TV in Japan between 1969 and 1970. Others were less enthralled[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Archive for Uncategorized
49 results.
There’s been a bit of a buzz about AI-generated content of late, the most notable being the awesome Harry Potter fan fiction created by Botnik. They fed the entire works of J.K. Rowling into an AI and let it write a story.[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Wartime Finland was not exactly a hotbed of freehanded creativity. Despite Garm‘s boldness, it nevertheless had to stay within certain parameters of acceptability, or run the risk of closing down. So it’s hardly surprising that censorship itself became a topic worthy[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
It’s perhaps not surprising that, given her success as a writer and an artist, Tove Jansson’s modelling career is somewhat overlooked. Although she wasn’t cavorting on the covers of Vogue, Ny Tid, or even Garm, she spent long hours modelling for her father,[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Given Moomin’s global popularity, it’s not surprising that there’s been a lot of merchandise produced over the years, some of which is now quite valuable. Top of the list is the 2004 Fazer mug – only 400 were made and one[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
With the advent of the the Tove Jansson exhibition at Helsinki’s Ateneum and its subsequent tour of other cities, Jansson’s non-Moomin work was finally given the front and centre stage position it deserved. It’s been well documented that the success[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
There’s been a good degree of interest recently on Tove Jansson’s non-Moomin artwork, particularly with the recent reissues of her illustrated editions of The Hobbit, Alice in Wonderland and The Hunting of the Snark. Less well-known are the many commissions that she undertook[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
London now boasts two Moomin shops; the original in Covent Garden, and a brand new store in Camden Market’s Stables. The latter had an important visitor this week – Tove Jansson’s niece Sophia, Creative Director of Moomin Characters. After being treated[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
Years before the likes of Led Zeppelin were jetting all over the world to perform for their public, Moomin was already quite au fait with the jet-set lifestyle.The SAS flight attendants seem to be trying to reassure a nervous-looking Moomin whilst[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…
I gave a talk the other week at the Anglo-Finnish Society in London, based on my recent paper. It covered a lot of the same ground, exploring the origins of Tove’s cartoon work and how her own creations developed. But it was[…]↓ Read the rest of this entry…