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Amanda Vähämäki




Title Creator Publisher Series Price
Gazetta: Comics from Belgrade to Bangkok Ron Regé, Dylan Horrocks, Amanda Vähämäki gazetta $15.00
($15.00 list)
Gazettabig
Read more and comment... 		This international anthology of comics from around the world has much to recommend it both in terms of scope and quality.  Cover artist Ron Rege, Jr.'s contribution is the first publication of his latest project, Cartoon Utopia.  Here he is producing what are, in effect, sermonistic lectures in spritual psychology (or, perhaps, lecturistic sermons on pyschological spirituality) in comics form; whatever one might decide to call them, they are both uniquely fascinating and uplifting, and, really, are worth the price of admission.  The Dylan Horrocks, the first new work by him we've read since we don't know when (what? Atlas #3, was it?), is so good that it makes us mad that this is all we get. Dylan's work has been so sporadic over the last decade that we suspect that there are plenty of folks out there who aren't familiar with his work.  If you fit this description, then you should change your status with all due speed, and picking this up might just be the ticket.  Then there are the two! – count them – contributions by Finland's greatest export, Amanda Vähämäki, rendered in her trademarked delicate yet precise pencils.  The remainder of the contributions are all quite worthy, and will have readers asking themselves why they haven't seen work by these creators before and/or where they can find more:  Belkis Ayón from Havana; Edmund Baudoin from Paris; Igor Hofbauer from Zagreb; André Lemos from Lisbon; Aleksander Opacic from Belgrade; Maurizio Ribichini from Rome; and Sam Seen from Bangkok.  Recommended!
The Comics Journal #296 Lynda Barry, Amanda Vähämäki, David Hajdu, Dash Shaw and more ... Fantagraphics The Comics Journal $10.77
($11.99 list)
Tcj296
Read more and comment... 		The Comics Journal #296 Yes, another year has past and it's time once again for the Best of the Year Issue.  Best picks from comics luminaries Kim Deitch, Lynda Barry, Anders Nilsen, John Porcellino and many others complement the Best of 2008 master list compiled out of the all picks.  This issues also features a great bunch of interviews:  Lynda Barry, Dash Shaw, Frank Quitely, David Hajdu and Mike Luckovich.  R.C. Harvey will fill you in on some great comics that made 2008 "a very good year."  There's nice full clor preview of the first book of C. Tyler's forthcoming book, You'll Never Know. And then there's a whopping 35 page comics section of fine Finnish comics, including an eleven-pager by the one and only Amanda Vähämäki that should whet your appetite for her soon to be released collection, The Bun Field, as well as reminding you that, if you haven't already, you need to get your hands on a copy of Drawn and Quarterly Showcase 5. 
The Bun Field Amanda Vähämäki Drawn and Quarterly $8.88
($12.95 list)
Bunfield
Read more and comment... 		We susupect that in Finland, when it rains it pours.  The old adage holds true in the case of the introduction of Ms. Vähämäki's work to the USA.  Six months ago, nothing, now the work of this Finnish artist extraordinaire can be found in Souvlaki Circus, Drawn & Quarterly Showcase 5, Glomp X, The Comics Journal 296, and now in this delicate tale, deftly drawn in pencil.   Somewhat reminiscent of Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro, The Bun Field captures the magic of those childhood years in which the projections of personal fantasy freely intermingle with the necessities of reality, and creates a zesty stew of emotions and visions.  Get a taste with this PDF preview.
Glömp X Tommi Musteri, Amanda Vähämäki, Jelle Hugaerts Huuda Huuda Glömp $39.95

OUT OF STOCK!
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Read more and comment... 		Straight outta Finland, and now in stock and available for shipping here in the USA.  This is a full color 200+ page hardcover collection of comics that were on display in an accompanying exhibition and that were originally produced, to varying degrees, in three dimensions.  It comes complete with an audio CD that includes an "exclusive soundtrack" composed by Fricara Pacchu, Amon Düde & The Hoop, Kiiskinen and Nuslux. It's definitely a bit of a cop out to describe Glomp is as "the Finnish Kramers Ergot," but we're going to throw that out there just to help give those who have never heard of it some sort of idea of where to place it in the comics continuum.  The best way to get a better idea is to check out this preview page.  This is the tenth volume of Glömp, and the last to be edited by Tommi Masturi.  The anthology has been presenting adventurous comics for 12 years now, publishing over 1500 pages of work in the process.  This time around their goal seems to have been to push comics off the page and into the world of three-dimensions and this book is the 2-D record of that attempt.  This volume starts off with a helpful and well thought out introduction by Jelle Hugaerts that traces  the history of comics anthologies, situates anthologies within the history of comics, and analyzes what works and what doesn't in making a successful anthology.   Here's the contributor list:  the amazing Amanda Vähämäki, Anna Sailamaa, Hanneriina Moisseinen, Jan Anderzén, Jarno Ltva-Nikkola, Pauliina Mäkelä, Roope Eronen, Jyrki Heikkinen, Aapo Rapi & Songa Salomäki, Ami Aho, Kaaatri Sipiläinen, Tommi Musturi, Janne Tervamäki, Reijo Kärkkäinen, and Anna Sailamaa.
Drawn & Quarterly Showcase #5 Anneli Furmark, Amanda Vähämäki, Edward Bak (T.) Drawn and Quarterly $17.77
($19.95 list)
Dqshowcase5
Read more and comment... 		by Anneli Furmark, Amanda Vähämäki, and T. Edward Bak We listed this last month, but in our haste neglected to write it up, a gross oversight on our part, as you will see...  This volume has a special Scandinavian focus, with two of the three comics works originating in the somber lands of the midnight sun.  A melancholy northern mood pervades the entire collection, including its centerpiece, the contribution of the lone North American, T. Edward Bak. The Partisan -- his first fully developed work since Service Industry, the work for which he is best known --  is a complex multi-layered work that (or, at least, so it seems to us) seeks to expiate regret connected to a failed relationship, one in which it was realized too late that the priorities in the relationship weren't what they should have been.  Bak's artwork continues to be inventive and varied, employing bold scratchboard as well as pen and ink and delicate watercolors, each chosen to best express the needs of each particular aspect of the tale.  Preceding The Partisan, is the collection opener, Inland by Anneli Furmark.  This piece is built upon a series of subtle revelations that create a gradual portrait of a set of interlinked relationships.  A deliberate, minimal palette color-codes the action which unfolds in an efficient sequence that establishes a complex interplay of personalities with surprisingly little exposition.  And, finally, there is the grande finalé, the untitled piece by Amanda Vähämäki.   Born in Tampere, Finland in 1981, Vähämäki has a true gift when it comes to color.  Her keen observation is matched by her finely tuned execution.  It is our considered opinion that never before in the history of comics have the nuances of the widely varying shades in which the sky above appears been better captured than here in this story; all rendered with colored pencils, no less.  It is a highly imaginative tale of a pair of adolescents carving out a new, private world for themselves amidst the public, old world around them.  And while we can't help but focus our praise on Amanda's amazing color-centric talent, this should in no way be interpreted as any sort of slight against any of her other skills.  The characterization on display is quite strong, both in the narrative development and in the physical renderings.  There is a nearly seamless visual integration of the characters into their surroundings that functions on a narrative level as well.  This piece is simply a pleasure to behold.  You will find yourself going back to its pages again and again to bask in their beauty.