ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the Moomin comics written and illustrated by Tove Jansson between 1954 and 1957. Focusing on the central themes of gender and sexuality, the family, women’s emancipation, masculinity, and femininity, the chapter argues that gender politics are already at the forefront of the Moomin comics written and illustrated during this period. I explore the overlapping themes between Jansson’s Moomin comics and novels in order to show how the comics developed themes that would be elaborated in the later novels. Beginning with the context for the publication of the comics, the chapter analyses Jansson’s satire of the bourgeois family and the emancipation of Moominmamma through acts of rebellion that question ideals of homes and family. I conclude by examining representations of masculinity and femininity in the romance between Moomin and Snorkmaiden, in which the constraints of normative gender appear increasingly untenable over the course of the comics.
