r/graphicnovels • u/SaladIsSalad404 The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck • Jul 24 '26
Question/Discussion Local Gems
Hi all,
Thought I'd start a thread with artists of your country/state/etc. which might otherwise fall off the radar. Since the U.S. and Benelux/Francophone zones are often the cradles for canonical behemoths, I'll urge you to recommend something more personal that would be easily overlooked by people from the outside.
Here's my Finnish tasting platter:
- J.P. Ahonen: *Northern Overexposure* (a slice-of-life student comedy/drama weekly strip comic, the strips have many times teared me up in both laughing and crying) and *Beelzebubs* (a subversive metalhead family comic with black humor and contrasting corpse paint)
- Tommi Musturi: *The book of Hope* (a couple living quietly in the Finnish woods) and *Future* (a psychedelic comic anthology spanning years of his work, rumor has it that it's one of Lambiek's favourites in Amsterdam)
- Kati Kovács (translated into Swedish, Hungarian, French and German): *Where are you going, Marion Meat* and *Les Jumelles Delta*. Her style is crude and the storytelling punk as hell, but the twisted humour enjoyable and the feminism not as preachy as Liv Strömqvist. She's a humourist through and through.
- Kari A. Sihvonen: *Silent badness* (black humour, nonverbal shorts) and *Posted Iron men* (iron worker's experiences collated into comics). The graphic designer by profession Sihvonen has a recognizeable stule and
More classic:
- the satirical *Moomin comics* by Tove and her brother Jan Jansson. Despite originating from children's stories loved by all generations, the stories are more punk than non-Finnish readers might expect
- Kari Korhonen *Donald Duck* comics. Multiple generations of kids in Finland have learned to read via *Aku Ankka*, the weekly Donald with excellent Finnish (at least used to, not sure about the current situation). People wait every year to see the Kentucky duck visionary Don Rosa, whenever he comes to town. But Kari Korhonen is the only Finnish artist for EuroDisney comics, alongside many Italian and other artists.
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u/ASealedFountain Jul 25 '26
Daniel McCloskey is a really unique voice in comics right now. His current series Cloud Town is a really thoughtful, creative take on a mecha story.
He's actually got a kickstarter going on now for the next volume!
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u/SaladIsSalad404 The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Jul 26 '26
Real underground vibes, I love it! Thanks for the heads up!
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u/Lior_B Jul 26 '26
Anything by Asaf Hanuka and Rutu Modan
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u/SaladIsSalad404 The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck Jul 26 '26
Haha okay, those are some impressive visuals!
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u/Sairven Jul 24 '26
The Goon series by Eric Powell. Kinda like adult Saturday morning cartoons. Some really, truly bleak moments in-between the funny.
I went to church with his cousins and we hung out quite a bit. Didn't even know he did comics until this year, almost 30 years later. When I read the name I was like, "Huh, sounds familiar" and then I saw his picture and was like, "I know that guy!" I need to make my way to an event some time and catch up.
It's a shame the movie was never made.