FRANKFURT: Beyond the Moomins, the bulky hippo-like creatures that are one of Finland’s best-loved cultural exports, its bumper comic book market remains largely unexplored abroad, but publishers are trying to remedy that at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
The cartoon book market has steadily grown in the Scandinavian country in recent decades and producers now have their eyes firmly set on the much larger German market, said Maria Antas, head of the Finnish Literature Exchange program.
The literary culture of Finland, which gave the world the hit video game “Angry Birds,” has been under the spotlight as guest of honor at this year’s fair in Germany, the industry’s biggest annual get-together for publishers, editors and writers from around the globe.
“Finnish artists of comics have been globally very active, first in France, and now we are focusing on Germany because it’s a different culture” with a market for cartoons and graphic novels that is less established than that in France, Antas said.
“We want to bring out the great amount and the great quality of Finnish comics.”
Finland’s comic book tradition goes back to 1911 when the “Expedition of Professor Itikaisen” by Ilmari Vainio first appeared, recounting the tale of a scientist who sets off to explore the world by steam ship.
Thirty years later the Moomins were born — Moominpappa, Moominmamma and Moomintroll, with their coterie of other eccentric characters living close to nature.
The charming, quirky books and cartoons were the brainchild of the late Tove Jansson in 1945 — the nine books have been translated into nearly 50 languages from Chinese to Esperanto.
One reason behind the success of comics in Finland is that “they are published in every newspaper,” said Kalle Hakkola, director of the Finnish Comics Society. “Newspapers are very widely read in Finland, it is our tradition.”
Outside of Finland however, the Moomins’ success has proven the exception and many of the cartoons popular in the country of around five million people are not known abroad, he added.
Sales of comic books came to 9.7 million euros (more than $12 million) in 2013, or just under four percent of Finland’s book market — compared to comics accounting for 400 million euros in France, with its established comic book tradition and far bigger market.
“The market in Finland is very small,” Hakkola said, but he highlighted that this also had an upside for the artists.
“There is no big industry so it gives a lot of freedom to artists who don’t feel obliged to write the stories that the publishers want to hear,” he said.
“Many authors are more oriented toward an artistic perspective, their work is very experimental.”
Without preconceived ideas about what a cartoon should or shouldn’t be, Finnish artists have been able to develop their own particular comic book world.
They’ve taken their inspiration from traditional popular culture, or by taking a whacky view of daily life, such as Juba Tuomola’s series “Viivi and Wagner” — the unlikely comic tale of an emancipated woman and macho pig.
Also at the fair in Frankfurt were comic book artists Maria Bjorklund, who is behind “Madonreikia,” tales about the strange goings-on on colorful Planet Z, and Ville Rantas, whose work delves into religion and original sin.
Two main trends have emerged in Finland for comic book stories, Antas said.
Finnish cartoons eye fans abroad
Finnish cartoons eye fans abroad
Egypt reveals restored colossal statues of pharaoh in Luxor
- Amenhotep III, one of the most prominent pharaohs, ruled during the 500 years of the New Kingdom, which was the most prosperous time for ancient Egypt
LUXOR: Egypt on Sunday revealed the revamp of two colossal statues of a prominent pharaoh in the southern city of Luxor, the latest in the government’s archeological events that aim at drawing more tourists to the country.
The giant alabaster statues, known as the Colossi of Memnon, were reassembled in a renovation project that lasted about two decades. They represent Amenhotep III, who ruled ancient Egypt about 3,400 years ago.
“Today we are celebrating, actually, the finishing and the erecting of these two colossal statues,” Mohamed Ismail, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said ahead of the ceremony.
Ismail said the colossi are of great significance to Luxor, a city known for its ancient temples and other antiquities. They’re also an attempt to “revive how this funerary temple of King Amenhotep III looked like a long time ago,” Ismail said.
Amenhotep III, one of the most prominent pharaohs, ruled during the 500 years of the New Kingdom, which was the most prosperous time for ancient Egypt. The pharaoh, whose mummy is showcased at a Cairo museum, ruled between 1390–1353 BC, a peaceful period known for its prosperity and great construction, including his mortuary temple, where the Colossi of Memnon are located, and another temple, Soleb, in Nubia.
The colossi were toppled by a strong earthquake in about 1200 BC that also destroyed Amenhotep III’s funerary temple, said Ismail.
They were fragmented and partly quarried away, with their pedestals dispersed. Some of their blocks were reused in the Karnak temple, but archeologists brought them back to rebuild the colossi, according to the Antiquities Ministry.
In late 1990s, an Egyptian German mission, chaired by German Egyptologist Hourig Sourouzian, began working in the temple area, including the assembly and renovation of the colossi.
“This project has in mind … to save the last remains of a once-prestigious temple,” she said.
The statues show Amenhotep III seated with hands resting on his thighs, with their faces looking eastward toward the Nile and the rising sun. They wear the nemes headdress surmounted by the double crowns and the pleated royal kilt, which symbolizes the pharaoh’s rule.
Two other small statues on the pharaoh’s feet depict his wife, Tiye.
The colossi — 14.5 meters and 13.6 meters respectively — preside over the entrance of the king’s temple on the western bank of the Nile. The 35-hectare complex is believed to be the largest and richest temple in Egypt and is usually compared to the temple of Karnak, also in Luxor.
The colossi were hewn in Egyptian alabaster from the quarries of Hatnub, in Middle Egypt. They were fixed on large pedestals with inscriptions showing the name of the temple, as well as the quarry.
Unlike other monumental sculptures of ancient Egypt, the colossi were partly compiled with pieces sculpted separately, which were fixed into each statue’s main monolithic alabaster core, the ministry said.
Sunday’s unveiling in Luxor came just six weeks after the inauguration of the long-delayed Grand Egyptian Museum, the centerpiece of the government’s bid to boost the country’s tourism industry. The mega project is located near the famed Giza Pyramids and the Sphinx.
In recent years, the sector has started to recover after the coronavirus pandemic and amid Russia’s war on Ukraine — both countries are major sources of tourists visiting Egypt.
“This site is going to be a point of interest for years to come,” said Tourism and Antiquities Minister Sherif Fathy, who attended the unveiling ceremony. “There are always new things happening in Luxor.”
A record number of about 15.7 million tourists visited Egypt in 2024, contributing about 8 percent of the country’s GDP, according to official figures.
Fathy, the minister, has said about 18 million tourists are expected to visit the country this year, with authorities hoping for 30 million visitors annually by 2032.
