Finnish art - Moomin

Tove Jansson (1914-2001) is by far the most internationally successful Finnish cartoonist. She was a painter, novelist, cartoonist and illustrator, most known for her Moomin characters, of which she did both picture books and illustrated chapter books for children, and also a daily newspaper comic strip syndicated internationally from England 1954-1959. The Moomin character first appeared as a recurring little doodle in the backgrounds of Jansson's magazine cartoons in the 40s and became a sort of visual signature for her work. In a situation comparable to Carl Barks, just about all Moomin comic strip originals were destroyed by the publisher. Most of her book illustration work survived and was donated to a museum in Tampere, Finland. In the early 90s, the Moomins were adapted into a European–Japanese co-produced tv animation. This created a huge "Moomin boom", that resulted in a new comic book and a newspaper strip, plus tons and tons of licenced products.