1955 - Moomin's desert island (18/74)

Yup. Sentient. Talking.

And happy to be rid of her husband.

I'm predicting she makes them dig the hole and then pushes the moomins in instead.

Tove never claimed these were for children. Her idea, among many, was to take hard subjects and cartoonify them into bite-sized nuggets for easier mental digestion, essentially making it easier for us to deal with hard pasts. Say what you will on the Moomin line (hopefully it's all good things), Tove was a genius, and her Moomin line has helped me deal with a lot of shite in my past.

Something I really appreciate, as an adult, is how Moomin stories tricked me into learning things about the real world as a kid.
The Moomin world is simple and fantastical, but something it doesn't do, is dumb down real problems.
"The invisible child" is a top one for me. In it, the Moomin family takes in Ninny, a child who has gone invisible due to the abuse of her guardian. She canno't be seen or heard. In the Moomin world, making someone feel like they should disappear, can actually cause exactly that to happen.
By showing kindness to what is essentially thin air, the Moomin family slowly help her recover and become a person again.
Tove essentially wrote about child abuse, at the hands of adults, no less, in a way that even kids can understand.
Her stories concisely make points about decency, respect, and kindness, in such powerful ways that I feel they effortlessly implant in you the desire to be a good person.
- I remember that episode! It actually taught me how to help a classmate who seemed like he was going through something. I didn't know what it was then, found out later he was being beaten by his shite of a father. I got him to smile because of the lessons I learned from that episode. I do miss that bloke.

He was an awful Boar

who's the swamp creature with the umbrella, slowly emerging like a sad predator from the water?

That's a weather scientist that tagged along with the Moomins.
- Well that explains the underwater umbrella...

This is super dark. These were kid's books?

No. The novels were for all ages. And they still got into heavy subjects, with an introspective and thoughtful tone. The books use the environs of a fantasy world to tell stories about real-world problems like identity and love.
When looked at through the lens Tove's personal life, each book fairly clearly explores thoughts and feelings she would have been dealing with during that time in her life.
The newspaper comic strips were for adults, and often took on political satire and caricatures. They feature a far less serious and more comedic version of the Moomin world.
You should think of the two as completely unrelated projects.
- Interesting! I became aware of the Moomins fairly recently, within the past few years. Most of my experience so far has been fairly light topics; this one is out there.