Moomin and the Brigands

By Tove Jansson. Published by Enfant / Drawn & Quarterly. 

Softcover, 40 pages, Colour, 2017 (originally published in 1954)

Moomin’s pushy relations have come to stay, and in the process of getting them out, he unwittingly embarks on a quest for fame and fortune with his sly friend Sniff. But it’s much harder to get rich than either of them expects, whether it’s through selling rare creatures to the zoo, using a fortune-teller to find treasures, or making modern art. Through a stroke of luck, however, Moomin meets the love of his life, Snorkmaiden, and with her help he finds the self-confidence he needs toget his house back. The iconic first Moomin comic strip by Tove Jansson, Moomin and the Brigands is a thrilling introduction to the vibrant inhabitants of Moominvalley we’ve come to know and love.

“Here is where Jansson's weird but true world begins; where fear, loneliness and insecurity are banished by love and the force of imagination.” –Time

“[Jansson’s] work soars with lightness and speed, and her drawings only echo her writing: delicate but precise, observant yet suggestive…Jansson was exceptional, an exuberant explorer of emotional independence and interdependence, a liberating force.” –Los Angeles Times Book Review

“A lost treasure now rediscovered—one of the sweetest, strangest comics strips ever drawn orwritten. A surrealist masterpiece. Honest.” –NeilGaiman, author ofSandman, American GodsandFragile Things

“Moomin is gorgeous, and isflat out the best Moomin book I've ever seen. Tove Jansson was a natural cartoonist. These strips are clever, gentle, witty, and completely engrossing.” –Jeff Smith, cartoonist ofBone