Kävin läpi kovalevyn kansioita ja vastaan tuli julkaisemattomaksi jäänyt sarjakuva, joka oli tehty italialaista sarjakuvalehteä varten. Dialogi lähetettiin aikoinaan käännettäväksi italiaksi, mutta sen jälkeen huhuiluihin ei tullut enää vastauksia. Sarjakuva oli tarkoitettu eräänlaiseksi postikortiksi viime vuoden Napolin reissulta.

I was going through the folders in my hard drives and found this short comic that was originally drawn for an Italian comics journal but was never published. I remember sending the dialogue for translation and after that, despite many attempts to maintain contact I never heard of them again. Our exhibition was in Napoli Comicon in Naples last year, the comic was supposed to be a post card of sort. 

Ei siinä mitään! On oikeastaan hauskaa katsoa tätä mykkää sarjakuvaa kun on jo itse unohtanut, mikä tarinan pointti oli, siis muu kuin keskustelu röökaavan apinan kanssa Helsingin sarjakuvafestivaaleilla.

Festivaalit ovat ihan nurkan takana ja allekirjoittanut on myös mukana. Perjantaina kello 15:00 minua haastatellaan päälavalla ja näyttelyäni Pitakebab ranskalaisilla voi käydä katsomassa Galleria Keitaassa Fleminginkatu 7:ssä, jos vain aikaa on: https://www.facebook.com/events/854958641255480/

And it's fine really! It's actually kind of fun to look at this silent comic now that I have mostly forgotten the story in it, besides talking with a smoking monkey in Helsinki Comics Festival.

The said festival is right behind the corner again and yours truly is also going to be there. On Friday 28th at 3 PM I will be interviewed on the main stage and my exhibition Pita Kebab with Chips is still on in Galleria Keidas in Fleminginkatu 7. Go check it out if you have the time: https://www.facebook.com/events/854958641255480/

Nähdään hei festareilla!

See you in the festival!

(1: I dreamt that I decided to fly to Stockholm on a children's toy plane. I can't remember why, but my friends thought it's a good idea. I remember surprisingly well what the plane looked like. 2: Flying without fuel turned out to be easy peasy, no problem at all and the scenery was pretty as well.) 

(1: But of course there was a problem, I was flying in a wrong direction. 2: To my horror I realised I was in Russian air space and in panic I turned back. I landed in Imatra, but have absolutely no memory of it. 3: I only remember that I was in front of some seedy suburb bar and my nose was bleeding. Someone had just punched me in the face )

(1: Right in front of me stood Aake Kalliala, weeping.* 2: I can't remember if he had been crying already before smacking my face. 3: I only knew that Aake has a really big tattoo on his back that says "I'm Human, not God". It's alright, Aake.)

* Aake Kalliala is a Finnish actor and I don't know why he was in my dream or if he actually has any tattoos.

Tarkempaa tietoa löytää tapahtuman FB-sivulta.

Taiteilijoita on läsnä lauantaina ja sunnuntaina kello 11-17, allekirjoittaneen voi tavata sunnuntaina. Tulkaa hei ihmettelemään! 

Kumioravalla ollaan opittu tekemään kaikki viime tingassa ja vauhdissa. Kumioravasta puheenollen, sillä on ihan uusi nettikauppa, joka saletisti on paljon hienompi ja toimivampi kuin se edellinen. Kattokaa vaikka ja kuvitelkaa se uuden auton tuoksu.

Nähdään Kupliissa!

Torstaina 26.2. allekirjoittanut opettaa sarjakuvan ideointia Turun kaupunginkirjastossa kello 17:00-19:00. Vapaa pääsy kuulemma, joten nähdään Stoorissa!

Stoorit löytyy myös Facebookista

(Whoops, Christmas and everything. Yeah!)

Hei vaan pitkästä aikaa ja hyvää joulua. Kuva saattaa hämmentää, taas vaihteeksi.

Perheen kissa Immu sairastui vakavasti joulun alla eikä ennusteet näyttäneet kovin hyviltä, Immu on kuitenkin yli 17-vuotias. Diagnoosi oli kaliumin puute, joka hoidettiin kiusaamalla vanhusta oraaliliuoksella ja ruokahalun herättäjillä. 

Immu on jo parantunut ja riehuu, syö, röhkii, pieree ja kuorsaa kuten ikäisensä herrasmiehen kuuluu. Se on varmaa, että Immu lähtee meiltä lähitulevaisuudessa, mutta tämän parempaa joululahjaa ei olisi voinut saada.

Hyvää joulua ja onnellista uutta vuotta kaikille.

Hello everyone and merry Christmas. As usual, the visual content may confuse you.

Our family pet Immu fell severely ill right before Christmas and it seemed that odds are against him, after all he is over 17 years old. He was diagnosed with potassium deficiency which was then treated by shoving oral solution and appetite stimulants down the old man's throat.

Immu is better now and runs around, eats, snorts, farts and snores just like a gentleman his age should. We know Immu is going to leave us in the near future, but having him here now is the best gift possible.

Happy holidays and happy New Year to all of you. 

(There in the company of other mute midgets it would have been good to contemplate the state of things, why things didn't go wrong? Instead things have gone well (besides the railway strike) and the 15th night came without nightmares*. Such horrible waste! So horrible... I assume at that point the employees of the nearby cafe would come and try to strike up an acquaintance with me in German.
- Miss. Miss. Is everything alright? - Kotipizza.)

*reference to Juice Leskinen's song Viidestoista yö (the Fifteenth Night)

(1: Aw fuck it so COLD! 2: Uuhhh, now I really need to wrap things up. Umm uhh.. 3: Hey Andreas, Petra, Suvi, everyone from the Chemnitz city library, penguins and the girl at the hotel reception, thank you for your warmth! Dieter and Merja, it's been a pleasure!)

(But, my bus is already coming over there! BYE BYE!)

(Right, so Merja and Dieter did a wonderful job with their presentations: together with our translator and the library representative she pulled a pretty convincing live "radio drama" of her play Särkynyt malja. Dieter read excerpts from his book  Täällä Pohjoisnavan alla in German. I didn't quite understand why "kotipizza"* is so funny to Germans, even though I've (almost) read his book myself. Turns out the word koti sounds like kot, which means shit.)

* Kotipizza is a Finnish pizza restaurant chain

(1: The following morning I heard the news about the railway workers' strike in East Germany and how there wouldn't be any train traffic between Leipzig and Chemnitz for the next 14 hours. - It's better to take a bus if you want to get to Berlin. - Oh cock!
2: Most of us left already that morning, only me and Dieter stayed in Chemnitz. He had a show in the outskirts of the town while I had... nothing. No work. A day off.)

(1: When I was taing care of some business at the hotel reception it revealed to me that I had turned 26 during the night. The receptionist saw it was necessary to give me a mini bottle of sparkling wine.
2: Chemnitz truly is a beautiful city for aimless wandering, but my own lack of language skills limited my options greatly. I then found myself in the company of other mute foreigners.
3: I felt like sitting down with my comrades, to think about what I should do with my day off or if I just should drift to sleep right there, right now. The hotel was, after all, 200 meters away.)

(1: Uhhh... 2: Hey I'm Emmi. So good to see so many of you here. I'm nervous.)

(Earlier that day I had visited a local art gallery and there I went on and on about Tampere.Cool and our event. I also mentioned how I worried about people not coming, so the gallery keeper Bernd decided to help us out.)
(Oh everything went so well! - Yeah, I mean shockingly well!)
(My own presentation went well, Merja and Dieter both offered an experience that was practically magical in library environment. Nothing went to shits!)

Ihan ekaksi Berndille iso käsi Suomen puolelta, kun hän jeesasi FB:n kautta. Onneksi Chemnitzissä tiedottaminen oli hoidettu muutenkin jo tosi hyvin. Oli lehtisiä, radiossa ja lehdessä mainintaa, some-hälinää ja vaikka mitä, joten toinen iso käsi siitä Chemnitzin väelle. Sitä jengiä tulikin 70 hengen edestä. Ihan tajutonta.

Tämän illan päivitys on valitettavasti vain kaksi sivua, mutta huomenna on taas aikaa vääntää. Huomiseen siis!

First off, a great big thanks to Bernd for offering his social media assistance. Luckily the people responsible for the event planning had done a really good job with media as well. They had flyers, we were mentioned in the newspapers and on the radio, there was some social media buzz already etc., so great big thanks to our hosts as well! We ended up having an audience of 70 people. That's insane.

Tonight's update is unfortunately only two pages, but tomorrow I have enough time again. Until tomorrow!

(Help)

(1: Even though the trip took closer to 15 hours, the fear of death kept me entertained so I didn't have the time to get bored. - I am dead and Death is my steed. 2: There was hardly any problems and I even made it to Chemnitz. - Hey Emmi! 3: I can take your bag. - Thanks... - Welcome to Chemnitz! I hope your trip went well? 4: Will Emmi learn to be less afraid of the outside world during this trip? A relevant question. Oh and suppose I have to do something while I'm here... - The car is parked just outside.)

Noni, nyt alkaa tämäkin tarina, useammassa osassa kuten Napolinkin päiväkirja. Helpompi näin ja kamaa kuitenkin riittää kerrottavaksi pitkin viikkoa. Allekirjoittaneella oli siis ilo ja kunnia päästä Chemnitziin selittämään Tampereen sarjakuvameiningeistä ja ihan omastakin tuotannosta. Matkalla oli jännitystä, kielimuureja, currywurstia ja fallista arkkitehtuuria. Ai että!

All righty, finally got myself enough time to start telling this story, in several parts like the Naples diary. It's easier this way and there is enough to show for the whole week. In short, yours truly had the honor and pleasure to go to Chemnitz and educate local enthusiasts about the comics scene in Tampere and believe it or not, my own production as well. The trip was full of excitement, language barriers, currywurst and phallic architecture. Oh lawdy!