Paul Gravett

An appreciation of the life and art of Tove Jansson, creator of the Moomin books, which are adored by children and adults across the globe. This book provides fresh insights and a deeper appreciation of the life and art of Tove Jansson (1914-2001), one of the most original, influential and perennially enjoyed illustrators of the 20th century. Jansson’s flourishing Moomin books are examined in detail, as are her interpretations of such classics as Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Hunting of the Snark, and J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Born in Helsinki among the Swedish-speaking Finnish minority, Jansson was brought up with a love for making art and stories in a supportive artistic family. Her first illustrated tales were published when she was fourteen years old. From a year later until 1953, she drew humorous and political cartoons as well as striking front covers for the satirical magazine Garm, responding to the Second World War and its aftermath as she developed from art student to painter and muralist, bohemian and lesbian. This book also explores the emergence of her Moomin world, appearing in her first children’s book in 1945 and then in newspaper strips. These would lead to her being headhunted by the London Evening News, the world’s biggest-selling evening paper, to write and draw a daily Moomin newspaper cartoon. This body of work is one of her great achievements, expanding her stories, settings and cast and invigorating her drawing and writing. Jansson also wrote many novels, documented here along with personal commentaries from her own writings.

Tove Jansson (1914-2001) was bold in her life and work: an inquisitive and open-minded adventuress, ever questioning authority. Though best known as the creator of the world-famous Moomintrolls, she was also a prolific painter, illustrator, caricaturist and cartoonist. She is also famous for her short stories and novels for adults. Above all, Tove Jansson was a great humanist and storyteller, regardless of medium. This lavishly illustrated exhibition catalogue is published to accompany a European touring exhibition of Tove Jansson's art. It opens up new and fascinating perspectives on Jansson's life and work. The insightful essays have been written by renowned Tove Jansson experts Tuula Karjalainen, Boel Westin, Frank Cottrell-Boyce and Paul Gravett.

Biograafiline teos räägib, kuidas sai Tove Janssonist, kes toonases Soome mõistes kuulus mitmesse vähemusgruppi, maailmas armastatud kirjanik ja illustraator. Tema loodud muumid ja Muumiorg on erinevates vormides vallutanud kogu maailma: sündinud on multifilmid, ooperid, sõnalavastused jmt. Tema Muumi-lugusid on nimetatud ka filosoofilisteks teosteks. Kunstnike perre sündinud Tove oli üdini andekas, ta kirjutas lugusid ja maalis. Lisaks Muumi-raamatutele illustreeris ta ka teisi raamatuid ning tema fresko "Pidu linnas" kaunistab Helsingi raekoda. Raamatust leiab lugeja ka Tove Janssoni koomiksivormis tööjoonistusedja muumikavandid.

Tove Jansson tegnet sin første mummi på en uthusvegg før hun overførte Mummidalen til papir på 1940-tallet. Denne boken viser en ny og innsiktsfull forståelse av hennes liv og kunst, fra fantasifullt barn til kunststudent, maler, forfatter, tegneserieskaper og illustratør, og som lesbisk bohem og finsk kulturikon. Dette er en hyllest til kunstneren Tove Jansson, skaperen av mummibøkene, som er elsket av barn og voksne over hele verden.

In the course of a career spanning more than fifty years, Posy Simmonds has become one of Britain’s best-known satirical cartoonists. She is also as a much-loved author and artist of widely translated children’s books and graphic novels. These include Fred, animated in 1996 into the Oscar-nominated short film Famous Fred, and Gemma Bovery and Tamara Drewe, both adapted into films, increasing her international fame. Simmonds once described her job on a census form as ‘a visual engineer’. Her extraordinary precision of drawing, her powers of observation and her sharp but welltempered wit have made her one the Britain’s most sophisticated innovators, renowned especially for expanding the scope and subtlety of comics. This is the first book to explore Simmonds’s life and work from her early childhood to the present day. In a series of interviews with Paul Gravett she offered insights into her creative process and provided unprecedented access to her ‘workroom’ and archives containing sketchbooks and rare or never-before-seen artworks. A portrait emerges of Posy Simmonds as a chronicler and critic of contemporary British society and a storyteller in words and pictures of rare perception and humanity.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS IN C'EST BON ANTHOLOGY vol. 2 Nathan Fox (cover) Danijel Zezelj Jessica Khane Pedro Nora Vincent Stall Kim W Andersson Henrik Rehr Dash Shaw Knut Larsson Marko Turunen Paul Gravett (text) Jimmy Jönsson Aleksandar Opacic Jyrki Heikkinen

Tove Janssonin (1914-2001) lahjakkuus ja tuotteliaisuus on hämmästyttävää. Hän on tunnettu muumikirjoista ja -sarjakuvista sekä muuminäytelmistä. Hän myös suunnitteli puvustuksen ja maalasi lavastukset näihin näytelmiin ja kirjoitti muumioopperan libreton. Kaikkeen muumeihin liittyvän lisäksi Tove Jansson kirjoitti myös lukuisia aikuisten romaaneja ja novellikokoelmia. Hän kuvitti toisten kirjoittamia kirjoja, oli mainio pilapiirtäjä ja taidemaalari. Kirja esittelee monipuolisen taiteilijan elämää ja laajaa kuvallista tuotantoa, joka alkoi jo teini-iässä ja jatkui eri muodoissa taiteilijan myöhäiseen ikään asti. Sisältää 106 kuvaa.

Tove Jansson var en oerhört mångsidig konstnär. Här kommer äntligen en bok koncentrerad kring det som kanske var hennes största och mest undervärderade genialitet: illustrationskonst. I denna rikt illustrerade bok, med bilder som även Tove Jansson-älskare inte har sett tidigare, följer författaren Paul Gravett henne från det första mumintrollet som hon ritade på dassväggen i Pellinge, den första boken hon gav ut under pseudonym som 14-åring, skämtteckningarna i Garm, och skapandet av mumindalen på 1940-talet. Resten är historia, men sällan berättad från just det här utifrånperspektivet. Boken är en hyllning till Janssons liv och konst, från fantasifullt barn till konststuderande, målare, författare, serietecknare och illustratör, lesbisk bohem och en av Finlands mest kända och ikoniska konstnärer. Boken är ursprungligen en del av en brittisk serie om världens främsta bilderboksskapare genom tiderna, exempelvis M. Sasek som gjort serien This is... om världsstäder och Dick Bruna som skapat kaninen Miffy. Bland dem har Jansson en given plats.

An unprecedented overview of the life and work of Tove Jansson, one of the world’s most popular artist-illustrators and creator of the Moomin books. A bold and ever-questioning storyteller, Tove Jansson (1914–2001) remains, above all, a great humanist, a Finnish national hero and a role model to many. While best known for creating the Moomins, Jansson was also a prolific novelist, cartoonist and painter. Drawing on a rich selection of material from the Tampere Art Museum and other collections – including her diaries, student work, personal notes, paintings and theatre designs – The Tove Jansson Book gathers a lifetime of varied work together in one engaging volume, revealing the stories behind her most famous creations. From her earliest childhood, Jansson had a passionate artistic life, but it was out of her despair during the darkest years of war, and her determination to protect cheerful reverie, that the Moomins were born in 1945. Worldwide acclaim for the characters soon proliferated through books, plays, television series and even an opera. However, at their heart is a love of Finnish culture and nature that feeds into Jansson’s later novels, for which she won numerous awards. Paul Gravett offers fresh insight into the life of this pioneering cultural icon, tracing Jansson's career from her first illustrated tales – published when she was just fourteen years old – to her time as a political cartoonist during the Second World War, and on to her lesser-known monumental works, including public art commissions and theatrical set designs that made manifest her enchanting worlds. Enlightening and uniquely comprehensive, this book offers an intimate glimpse into Jansson’s life and artistry, following the strands of her passion for working across multiple narrative disciplines.

This beautiful and engaging volume charts the evolution of manga from its roots in late 19th-century Japan through the many and varied forms of comics, cartoons and animation created throughout Asia for more than 100 years. World authority on comic art Paul Gravett details the evolving meanings of the myths and legends told and retold by manga artists of every decade and reveals the development and cross pollination of cultural and aesthetic ideas between manga artists throughout Asia. He explores the explosion of creativity in manga after the Second World War with the emergence of such artists as Osamu Tezuka, whose pioneering Astro Boy spawned a new and much imitated visual dynamic. He highlights how creators have responded to political events since 1950 in the form of propaganda, criticism and commentary in manga magazines, comics and books. There have been many remarkably powerful and sophisticated graphic novels, although some sexually explicit and emotionally dark adult manga has also attracted criticism, raising questions about taste and acceptability. Gravett discusses the influence of censorship on manga and concludes with a survey of current multi- platform offerings of manga in Asia and the transition from cut-price rental libraries to the booming specialist emporia and comic conventions that champion the kaleidoscope of creativity apparent in the digital age.

The phenomenal growth of graphic novels and manga and the explosion of comics on the internet and other platforms have given their creators unprecedented freedom to innovate. Many can enjoy widespread acclaim in the art world, literary circles and through their multimedia adaptations. Comics Art takes an international approach by tracing lines of influence around the world to give historical contexts and contemporary perspectives for this huge current interest in the medium. Richly illustrated with many images taken from original artwork and rare artefacts, Comics Art gives a fascinating, accessible guide to some of the special properties of sequential art, such as panels, page layouts, speech balloons and wordless or 'silent' narration. It addresses concerns about how comics perpetuate stereotypes and support the status quo, while assessing their growing significance, notably through autobiography and reportage, as vehicles for provocative voices often silenced in other media. Comics Art also explores the diversity of styles, media and approaches now possible in the medium and exciting developments in digital comics and in comics conceived for galleries and installations.

Löytöretki sarjakuvaromaanin kiehtovaan maailmaan Kattava, runsaasti kuvitettu tietoteos sukeltaa trendikkään ja yhä arvostetumman sarjakuvaromaanin maailmaan. Teos esittelee ja analysoi 32 sarjakuvaromaania sekä kertoo lyhyemmin yli sadasta muusta teoksesta ja niiden taustoista. Tarinoihin painottuva teos esittelee lajin aiheita ja tyylejä laajasti. Se kertoo, kuinka sarjakuvia luetaan sekä esittelee sarjakuvan vanhoja ja uusia tehokeinoja. Kirja myös opastaa lukijaa aihepiireittäin. Jokaisesta teosesittelystä on ”linkki” muille samoja teemoja käsitteleville sivuille, niin että kirjassa voi ”surffailla” oman kiinnostuksensa mukaan. Paul Gravett on freelance-toimittaja, näyttelykuraattori ja luennoitsija, joka on työskennellyt sarjakuvien parissa yli 20 vuotta. Häneltä on suomennettu teos Manga – 60 vuotta japanilaista sarjakuvaa (2005).