Moomin: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip, Book Five

By Tove Jansson and Lars Jansson. Published by Drawn & Quarterly. 

Hardcover, 88 pages, B&W, 2010 (originally published 1960s)

The final volume in the series drawn by Tove Jansson

Moomin Book Five: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip features the final strips drawn by Tove Jansson and written by her brother Lars for the London Evening News, before Lars took over both the art and the writing. The first "Moomin Winter" returns with more unwanted guests than in Book One, especially the curious and secret-spilling Nibling, sending the Moomin household into a tizzy of secrecy and closed doors. In "Moomin Under Sail," theMoomins find themselves without a new adventure until Too-Ticky's compass gives them the idea to build a boat and head to sea. Finally, we meet the Fuddler in "Fuddler's Courtship."Mymble captures poor Fuddler's heart, and his bumbling drives her straight into the arms of Dr.Hatter, the local psychiatrist. Delightfully quirky, the Moomin family does not fare well under the gaze of someone trained in correcting odd behavior.

“Charming and upbeat, filled with curiosity and warmth.” —Newsarama

“It's like watching someone write with her art but then also put in bold moments of decoration around that writing.” —The Comics Reporter

“Moomin remains a wistful paean to the joys of relaxing and enjoying life and the importance of play . . . It's wish fulfillment at its finest. ” —CHRIS MAUTNER, Comic Book Resources

“The Moomin family strays far from the tranquil charms of Moominvalley: on the French Riviera, Moominpappa gets drunk and Moomin's sweetheart, the Snork Maiden, is seduced by a toothy film star. But then the hattifatteners appear--mute, sock-like animals that grow from seeds and chase after electric storms . . . 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.com

“[Jansson's] strips, more than 800 in five years, stand as perennial classics of children's literature across the Nordic lands . . . Their belated recovery from crumbling newsprint into five eventual volumes seems almost as fantastical and life-affirming as the Moomin fables themselves.” —The Independent