In the late 80s-mid 90s I drummed in a sort of odd alt.rock/art band named Little My. It was named after a children's book character from Finland that we'd all just happened to love when we were kids.
If you've never seen her books, go out immediately and purchase any of Tove Jansson's genius and dark kid's books. In Japan, her characters are like the Peanuts in popularity. I even noticed last time I was in Hawaii that they've opened up a Moomin store there. She seems to have never really broken here, perhaps because of the darkness in her work.
These are from what I believe is her only picture book,"The Book About Moomin, Mymble and Little My", published by Blue Lantern Books. It's an amazing production, with ingenious die-cuts linking the narrative together, and printed in bold limited yet psychedelic palettes. Most of her books were chapter books, which she illustrated with gorgeous black and white line art.
When the band put out it's first record, Steven Guarnaccia got a copy and he gave me this, which I still have on my shelf. Mints, from Finland, where Jansson is a superstar. "Pikku Myy" means Little My in Finnish. At the time, Steven was one of the only people I knew who was also a huge fan.
My friend Matt, who was the amazing guitarist in Little My, recently sent me this You Tube link; old t.v. animated shows of the Moomintrolls.
