Comics festival in Helsinki draws about 2,000 visitors — YLE News
In Helsinki, Finland, a comics festival was held for the first time at the Stoa cultural centre in the Itäkeskus district. Around 2,000 comics fans attended the event on Saturday alone. As YLE News reports, the organisers changed venues after the festival budget was cut by one-third due to reductions in cultural funding.
The festival’s artistic director, Athanasía Aarniosuo, said that cooperation with Stoa had become the optimal solution for the organisers. According to him, the new location also helped attract a new audience thanks to its proximity to a library, a youth centre and the Itis shopping complex.
Graphic novels and webtoons
Long stories and graphic novels are taking an increasingly prominent place in Finnish comics, whereas short strip comics such as Fingerpori, Wild Life and Viivi ja Wagner previously dominated the mainstream. Aarniosuo drew attention to comics based on the authors’ personal experiences, including Pilvi Hyväri’s graphic novel "Koeta pysyä herttasena".
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The festival also discussed the impact of digital formats on comics art. These include webtoons, vertical comics designed for viewing on mobile devices. According to Aarniosuo, webtoons are created in Finland and other European countries, but the format is less visible here than in Asia and the United States.
From horror to manga
This week saw the release of the graphic novel Verikyyhky, created by Sami Makkonen and Lauri Ainala. The horror story is set in an alternative Savonlinna in the early 1990s, and one of its central characters is the demonic creature Upyr from Slavic folklore. The authors researched urban development from 30 years ago; a silo demolished in 2015 became a centre of evil and a kind of Dracula’s castle in the work.
Manga was presented separately at the festival: visitors to the Itäkeskus library could make badges and join a reading club. Librarian Tiina Välke said that manga attracts young people through the opportunity to recognise themselves in its characters, combining romance, adventure, self-reflection and everyday stories.
