Moomin comic strips

Moomin (Swedish: Mumin or Mumintrollen, Finnish Muumipeikko) is a comic strip created by Tove Jansson, and followed up by Lars Jansson.

The very first comic strip (entitled Mumintrollet och jordens undergång) was a short-lived attempt for the children's section of the Finland-Swedish leftist newspaper Ny Tid, written between 1947-1948, by request on the editor and personal friend, Atos Wirtanen. The series was published with two new strips weekly, and was mainly an adaptation of Comet in Moominland, but changed the story in several ways, for example having new characters such as Thingumy and Bob (their first appearance) and a "comet-cat" (a pun on the swedish term for reflected sunlight made by for example a mirror). The series has been reprinted in book form under the name Jorden går under (lit. The World is Ending) by the newspaper.

The main series of Moomin-comic strips were made directly for the English market: they were spread by the British Associated Newspapers comic strip syndicate and the original publisher was the newspaper Evening News. At its best Moomin appeared in over 40 countries and around 120 papers, with over 20 million readers daily. This makes it the most successful Finnish comic strip ever. Tove and Lars Jansson received the Finnish Comic Strip Association's "Puupää-hattu" hat in 1980. This series originally appeared in newspapers 1954–1975.

The comic strip introduced many new characters that would later become integral parts of the Moomin universe, such as Fillyjonk(s), Stinky, the Police Inspector, and Moominpappa's friend Wimsy.

In the 1990s, a comic book version of Moomin was produced in Scandinavia after Dennis Livson and Lars Jansson's animated series was shown on television. Neither Tove nor Lars Jansson had any involvement in these comic books, however in the wake of the series, two new Moomin comic strips were launched under the artistic and content oversight of Lars and his daughter, Sophia Jansson-Zambra. Sophia now provides sole oversight for the strips.

Comparison with books and TV shows
There are many discrepancies between the comics and the books. The 1990s Moomin television series borrowed plots from the comics as well as the books, such as with the story of Aunt Jane.

Publication
The comic strips are (currently, as of 2008) being republished in a set of hardback books, one volume at a time, by Canadian publisher Drawn and Quarterly.