Муми-Тролли. Полное собрание комиксов в 5 томах. Том 4

Moomin Comic Strip #14-18

by Tove Jansson, Туве Янссон

More delightful tales from the legendary Finnish artist

Drawn & Quarterly’s bestselling Moomin series, created by the legendary children’s author Tove Jansson, is now in its fourth installment. The series is the winner of the Harvey Award and has been nominated for multiple Eisner Awards.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fantasy, Fiction, Childrens, Graphic Novels Comics, Finnish Literature

112 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Tove Jansson was born and died in Helsinki, Finland. As a Finnish citizen whose mother tongue was Swedish, she was part of the Swedish-speaking Finns minority. Thus, all her books were originally written in Swedish.

Although known first and foremost as an author, Tove Jansson considered her careers as author and painter to be of equal importance.

Tove Jansson wrote and illustrated her first Moomin book, The Moomins and the Great Flood (1945), during World War II. She said later that the war had depressed her, and she had wanted to write something naive and innocent. Besides the Moomin novels and short stories, Tove Jansson also wrote and illustrated four original and highly popular picture books.

Jansson's Moomin books have been translated into 33 languages.

Reviews

[Jon Von · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great collection. Moomin and the Comet and The Golden Tail are very good especially. The Wild West segment though is extremely embarrassing, just going to pretend that didn’t happen…

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remain completely and utterly biased. The Moomins are adorable. I do have to say, though, that reading all the strips in a row does show up the repetitiveness of the stories, and the way everything returns to its idyllic status quo at the beginning of each story. Not a bad thing, necessarily, in this context, but less fun when you're reading all the strips together.

[Eva B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

My least favorite one so far :(
The Wild West story had some super racist tropes/art related to Native American characters and was all-around not very good, and the third story was also pretty forgettable.
I loved the Snorkmaiden-centric story though!

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Lie on the bridge and watch the water flowing past. Or run, or wade through the swamp in your red boots. Or roll yourself up and listen to the rain falling on the roof. It’s very easy to enjoy yourself”

Min yndlings var “Moomin and the Comet”

[Elizabeth A · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collects comic strips #14-18

14 - Moomins Go Wild West (4 stars)
Many of reviews of this strip complain about its racism not aging well. It landed really differently for me. I was also a kid who grew up outside the US with these tales, and I was amused at the juxtaposition of expectations versus commercialization of the West. Plus what's not to love about time travel and gunslinging Moomins in cowboy boots?

15 - Snorkmaiden Goes Rococo (2 stars)
In which the Moomins realize that one must pay close attention to time travel settings, and Snorkmaiden seeks out romance.

16 - The Conscientious Moomins (4 stars)
In which the Moomins are made to feel guilty about their non capitalist ways, and learn some important lessons about what makes life worth living.

17 Moomin and the Comet (3 stars)
In which the end of the world might be nigh.

18 Moomin and the Golden Tail (3 stars)
In which Moomin realizes the joys and pitfall of celebrity culture.

[Mateen Mahboubi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointed in this volume. The first story where the Moomin family goes back in time to the "Wild West" has some super problematic encounters with native populations. The rest of the stories just don't feel cohesive. Too frantic and disjointed to really be enjoyable. The last story, Moomin and the Golden Tail is probably the best of the bunch and is clever with the way it tackles fleeting fame but the rest let me down.

[Aneta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super conflicting volume. This has both my absolute favourite Moomin story - Moomin and the Golden Tail - and my least favourite story - Moomin Goes Wild West.

Moomin Goes Wild West ★
Snorkmaiden Goes Rococo ★★★
The Conscientious Moomins ★★★★★
Moomin and the Comet ★★★
Moomin and the Golden Tail ★★★★★

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sadly, this one seemed to me to show a falling off of quality.

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moomin Comic Strip #14-18

Overall a weaker volume, but I'm unsure if it's Tove running out of steam or me.

14 Moomins Go Wild West
The Moomins create a time machine and go back to the Wild West. It's not Jansson's finest moment with lots of embarrassing depictions of Native Americans. The story also doesn't really go anywhere too interesting. The Moomins get chased off the people's land, accused on stealing cattle, then steal some horses. The Wild West they imagined is more civilized than they thought! Even the "red man" are hamming up the stereotypes and charging for photos.

15 Snorkmaiden Goes Rococo

One of the weaker volumes. Snorkmaiden uses the time machine to go back to 1800s France... but is still in the Moominvalley. She gets involved with a couple men and some shenanigans then realizes she really does like Moomin and goes back to him.

16 The Conscientious Moomins
The Moomins try to be more conscientious - waking up on time, getting jobs, etc. and building their personalities.

17 Moomin and the Comet
Bad weather forces everyone out of the Valley. Only the Moomin's stick around up until a comet starts to head directly to their house. Great artwork as usual but the story didn't really excite me.

18 Moomin and the Golden Tail
Moomin fearing his tail is going bald tries a few remedies but ends up with a golden tail! This creates a lot of buzz and he ends up becoming a minor celebrity which drives him baty. At one point he hides his tail and no one recognizes him.

[amelia · Rating 3 out of 5]

there is racism

[Aleksandra Kowalska · Rating 2 out of 5]

2/5 ⭐️
Ugh, najsłabszy zbiór jak do tej pory.
1. Moomin Goes Wild West - nawet nie skomentuję. Rasizm not cool.

2. Snorkmaiden Goes Rococo - Dolina Muminków 200 lat temu, Migotka ratuje swojego wybawcę, jest Król i rewolucja. Tak średnio.

3. The Conscientious Moomins - Włóczykij i Muminek ship, koniec idylli, Muminki idą do pracy, a Muminek chce zmienić osobowość. Tak średnio.

4. Moomin and the Comet - panika, bo koniec świata, ale można iść na balety, przecież kometa spadnie dopiero w niedzielę. Najciekawszy zeszyt z tego tomu.

5. Moomin and the Golden Tail - złoty ogon Muminka staje się popularny, co staje się w pewnym momencie męką. Zarówno dla Muminków, jak i dla czytelnika. Tak średnio.

[Nnedi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just LOVE these books. The stories are bizarre, border-line nonsensical, thoughtful, magical, hilarious, sometimes political, culturally/racially diverse (yes, even in Moomin Valley culture and race exists) and vastly creative. And her drawing style is very satisfying, there's always so much going on. As long as they come out with Moomin books, I will buy them. I cannot wait to share these with my daughter when she's a bit older.

[Angelique · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highlights include a time machine where snorkmaiden meets Snorkmaiden and insults her. Snorkmaiden has a problem with a man who like pork dumplings over pancakes. Again, it appears that Snorkmaiden and Moomin troll are in some sort of bizarre open relationship. Little My isn't as cheeky as she normally is, which is upsetting. All the moomins hate working and give no f's about a comet. Moomin gets famous by having a golden tail and has a love/hate relationship with fame.

[jzthompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of a funny one, slightly sold under false pretenses. This is sold as part of the 'complete tove jannson comic strip' - as is volume five - but at this point she'd already handed writing duties over to her brother Lars. It's a good imitation but it's still a noticeable dip in quality. Tove Jansson comes back for writing duties on the final story, which is about Moomin finding fame and not enjoying it very much, which is a bit of a melancholy conclusion but very fitting.

[Ville-Markus Nevalainen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read few of the Moomin books, and seen all of the original cartoons, and quite enjoyed all of them. While the original cartoons entertained me and my family members throughout my childhood, I've explored the novels only at a later life and enjoyed them tremendously - certainly for sentimental / nostalgic reasons but also simply because they are well written, thoughtprovoking novels full of joy, longing and wonder. On the other hand, I had only ever seen glimpses of the strip comics and had never truly realized how many of them there were. My biggest takeaway had always been the fact how much more mature they (or the ones that I had seen) were in comparison to everything else I saw of Moomin (actually one of them was here when Moomintroll wonders out loud "How can one be so thirsty after drinking all night?")

Unfortunately, this collection was a rather disappointing experience. After having read all of Calvin and Hobbes, possibly the best strip-comics ever made where each strip itself is a full story to itself and there are longer narratives, reading Moomin felt really underwhelming. Very few strips worked on their own and to be honest, after having read the full stories, I am not sure if even they work. I was mostly reminded of the old cartoons which had fleshed out these stories to longer episodes and that's about it. The artstyle is too simplistic and does not evoke the joy of these characters - Jansson's has made much better ones elsewhere - and the stories themselves felt like nothing. I read elsewhere that Jansson did not necessarily enjoy making them as much as other work, as she had to keep making new ones in a great rush and I think its visible here.

Glancing at other reviews, there are quite a few that suggest that the earlier collections were better so perhaps the entire Moomin-strip comic thing is not a failure but I would not recommend this one.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars mainly for the third story, because I love quality Moomin and Snufkin content. I also really enjoy the creative use of the panel borders - whether tree trunks or or text banners or wilting flowers that bloom when precisely the right thing is said, they add richness to the storytelling.

I'm not a huge fan of the time travel chapters - it's a plot that's typical to the comics world but doesn't feel particularly Moomin - but this is still a pretty solid installment. In complete honesty, I'm not sure I would've realized on my own that the transition from Tove Only to Tove & Lars happened in this volume; Lars seems to have a pretty decent handle on his sister's sense of humor and the Moomins' cheerful absurdity.

[Mer Mendoza (Merlyn’s Book Hoard) · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one collection that aged very very very badly. The Wild West chapter was so painfully full of racial stereotypes I could barely get through it. Sometimes you encounter a piece of older fiction that just slaps you in the face with bad representation.

The other stories in this collection had the same off-kilter silly antics seen in previous volumes. They were fun and in keeping with the tone of other Moomin comics. There are some truly delightful panels. They didn’t offset the deeply uncomfortable first story.

[LunaSanguine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aus dem Cover war null ersichtlich, dass es sich hier um den vierten Band von irgendwas handelt. Ich dachte, da wären alle Mumin-Comics drin, da ich auch nichts über die Comics wusste und das ein Spontankauf im Laden war.
Ohne das erste Issue würde ich sicher deutlich besser bewerten, das war aber so krass rassistisch (hat ganz stark negative Vorurteile gegenüber Indigenen in den sogenannten USA reproduziert), dass es das Buch leider nach unten zieht.
Alle anderen Issues hatten viel Nachdenkliches, Witziges und Schönes zu bieten, so dass ich Lust hab, mir die anderen Bände auch anzusehen.

[Nestor B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is still a high quality to Tove Jansson's Moomin comics as we reach volume 4 and story 14-18. The highlights here are "The responsible Moommin family" and not least "The Moomintroll's golden tail". The latter is Jansson's meta-commentary on the Moomintroll's fame and her own frustration at the amount of work it entailed and the fact that she felt the joy disappear. That is what made her eventually hand over responsibility for the comic strip to her brother Lars.

[9 · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was a warehouse sales find and i opened it up with so much excitement only to be deeply embarrassed by the very first story… as much as i liked “the conscientious moomin” and “moomin and the goldtail”, i can’t overlook the racist “moomin goes west”. i’d like to think it’s a product of jansson’s time + ignorance + exposure to the western genre instead of active malice. but i can’t defend it and it should have been edited (like my copy is printed in 2009 cmon…).

[library fairy]

The Moomins are very cute and soft looking, but the first volume of this had some weirdly racist portrayals of Native American people?? And for what? I realize that this is several decades old and by a European person who didn’t not have the same cultural awareness of today, but it was still rough to see. Read as a part of my graphic novels and comics mls course

[Miia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muumi ja velvollisuudentunto, ihan parasta yhteiskuntakritiikkiä! ja kuinka ajankohtaiselta se tuntuukaan vielä 60 vuotta julkaisun jälkeenkin. Rakastan näitä boheemeja ja anarkistisia muumeja, jotka toimivat vastoin ympäröivän maailman odotuksia.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first story in this, Moomin and the Wild West, is full of racist caricatures of American Indians. It was the first time I had read a Moomin story that was offensive. Thankfully, the rest of the book was back to the usual “a simple life of innocent pleasures is best” type stories.

[Muchomorek ☾ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5☆ Tove love, was that one story about the Wild West REALLY necessary?? I absolutely adored everything else, but that one story with its more than dubious depiction of Native Americans was quite uncomfortable to read

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still whimsical good times, wryly commenting on the mores of modern culture's obsession with fame, fortune and what the neighbor's have.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Delightful, as always.

[Suzanne Fournier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Particularly enjoyed Snorkmaiden goes Rococo.

[linn · Rating 4 out of 5]

mumin för evigt.

[lara phillips · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Wild West/ Native American story has not aged well.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of fun! My first introduction to Moomin, I wanted to see what all the hype was about. It was a fun comic, quite dated with that first time travel story, but I enjoyed it!