This is from a Sweedish children’s novel called Trollvinter (called Moominland Midwinter in english) by Tove Jansson, who also illustrated the books as well as a comic strip of the same name. This book is the 6th in the Moomin series.
Moomin is a white, round fairy tail character (at the bottom of this work). He and his family go into hibernation for the winter, but Moomin awakes and spends the rest of the book existing in a cold, harsh, sunless world where he does not feel like he belongs until he meets new friends.
In this scene he meets Tootwicky (a spirit) and his friends.
I love how dark this seems, but the story behind it is actually quite innocent.
I can recommend the film “Tove”, basically shows all the things she does as an adult. Alma Pöysti is great, very much a childlike innocence and enthusiasm, little bit sad though.
It’s such a striking image. I have last seen it probably somewhere in the early 80s when my age was still single digit long and either my parents were reading Moomins to me, or I already knew how to read myself. Regardless, 40 odd years later, the style was immediately recognizable even before scrolling down to reveal a soft round Moomin at the bottom.
Tove Jansson’s style is amazing. I really feel bad that there’s no good English translation of the music album version of Who Will Comfort Toffle. You guys are really missing out.
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