''Fingerpori'' is a Finnish

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

written and drawn by

Pertti Jarla Pertti Jarla (born 25 August 1971 in Nastola, Finland) is a Finnish comics artist most famous for his humorous Fingerpori comic strip. Jarla's humor is strongly based on wordplay and he also deals with subjects which are testing the boundaries of ...

. It started in ''

Helsingin Sanomat ''Helsingin Sanomat'', abbreviated ''HS'' and colloquially known as , is the largest subscription newspaper in Finland and the Nordic countries, owned by Sanoma. Except after certain holidays, it is published daily. Its name derives from that of ...

'' in February 2007, and is comprehensively distributed in major provincial newspapers. Literally, ''fingerpori'' is a thimble, but ''fingerporillinen'' is a proverbial small amount of alcohol, and

Pori ) , website www.pori.fi Pori (; sv, Björneborg ) is a city and municipality on the west coast of Finland. The city is located some from the Gulf of Bothnia, on the estuary of the Kokemäki River, west of Tampere, north of Turku and north-w ...

is a Finnish town.

Setting and style

The main setting of the strip is Fingerpori, an imaginary Finnish small town. The main character in the strip is the eyeglass-wearing Heimo Vesa, but other citizens also appear, such as the brash-mouthed

café A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non-ca ...

worker Rivo-Riitta. As well as the Fingerpori residents, the strip has included characters such as the

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

, The Phantom,

Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in the anthology comic book '' Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in the ...

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

Kimi Räikkönen Kimi-Matias Räikkönen (; born 17 October 1979), nicknamed "The Iceman", is a Finnish racing driver who competed in Formula One between 2001 and 2021 for Sauber, McLaren, Ferrari, Lotus, and Alfa Romeo. Räikkönen won the 2007 Formula One Wo ...

and

Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (, ; 4 June 1867 – 27 January 1951) was a Finnish military leader and statesman. He served as the military leader of the Whites in the Finnish Civil War of 1918, as Regent of Finland (1918–1919), as comma ...

. A few strips, featuring

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

, have caused controversy in some circles. Some of the media where ''Fingerpori'' strips have been published have sometimes demanded changes to the strips and left some of the strips they claim are offensive unpublished.

Sex Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones (ova, oft ...

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

, and laughing at

and corporations have been particularly sensitive points. The

humour Humour (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humorism, humoral medicine of the ancient Gre ...

in ''Fingerpori'' is largely verbal and is often based on (mostly untranslatable) wordplay and puns. For instance, Vesa works at the multidisciplinary research center Fingerpoli, where "girls with pigtails" is a result of a bungled

stem cell In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can differentiate into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type o ...

experiment. Jokes are often also based on allusions, such as recurrent jokes about the skull ring of The Phantom. Besides this, the strips often have an absurdist element. According to Jarla, his original vision for Fingerpori was to create a milieu of an "

East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

Duckburg The Donald Duck universe is a fictional shared universe which is the setting of stories involving Disney cartoon character Donald Duck, as well as Daisy Duck, Huey, Dewey, and Louie, Scrooge McDuck, and many other characters. Life in the Donal ...

", but the current Fingerpori is more like a Finnish town still stuck to the 1970s as in

Aki Kaurismäki Aki Olavi Kaurismäki (; born 4 April 1957) is a Finnish film director and screenwriter. He is best known for the award-winning '' Drifting Clouds'' (1996), ''The Man Without a Past'' (2002), ''Le Havre'' (2011) and ''The Other Side of Hope'' (20 ...

's films. Although ''Fingerpori'' contains some

political satire Political satire is satire that specializes in gaining entertainment from politics; it has also been used with subversive intent where Political discourse analysis, political speech and dissent are forbidden by a regime, as a method of advancing ...

, the author claims it is not a political comic strip.

Publication history

The original form of ''Fingerpori'' was a strip by the same author called ''Karl-Barks-Stadt'', which won the third prize in the strip category of a Nordic comics contest at the

Kemi Kemi (; sme, Giepma ; smn, Kiemâ; sms, Ǩeeʹmm; Swedish (historically): ''Kiemi'') is a town and municipality of Finland. It is located very near the city of Tornio and the Swedish border. The distance to Oulu is to the south and to Rovani ...

Comics Days in 2006. According to the judging board, ''Karl-Barks-Stadt'' was "a really well drawn strip, whose unexpressionistic characters give a lively life to the joke told by the strip". After winning the prize, ''Karl-Barks-Stadt'' appeared in November 2006 in ''

Ilta-Sanomat ''Ilta-Sanomat'' () is one of Finland's two prominent tabloid size evening newspaper and the second largest paper in the country. Its counterpart and biggest rival is ''Iltalehti''. According to the National Media Research done in 2019 ''Ilta- ...

'' as the Finnish strip of the month.Get Jarla to Hesari!
Koivurinne, Wade. ''Kvaak.fi'', 20 January 2007, accessed 19 August 2008. ''Karl-Barks-Stadt'' was Jarla's first continuous comic strip, he had previously only made short one-time strips to the humour magazine '' Pahkasika'' and worked as a graphic designer in the corporate world. The name of the strip is a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsEast German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

Karl-Marx-Stadt Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt , ) is the third-largest city in the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 28th largest city of Germany as ...

(currently known as

Chemnitz Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt , ) is the third-largest city in the German state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden. It is the 28th largest city of Germany as well as the fourth largest city in the area of former East Germany a ...

) and the cartoonist

Carl Barks Carl Barks (March 27, 1901 – August 25, 2000) was an American cartoonist, author, and painter. He is best known for his work in Disney comic books, as the writer and artist of the first Donald Duck stories and as the creator of Scrooge McDuck ...

. In the turn of the year 2006–2007, ''Helsingin Sanomat'' was looking for a new Finnish comic strip to its pages, and the newspaper's comics editor Eeva Lepistö turned her attention to ''Karl-Barks-Stadt''. The strip, now renamed ''Fingerpori'', started appearing in ''Helsingin Sanomat'' on 5 February 2007. It replaced ''

Tiger The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus '' Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on u ...

'', which had appeared in the newspaper for over 40 years and whose creator

Bud Blake Julian W. BlakeSocial Security Death Index
listing for Blake, Julian W., Satakunnan Kansa ''Satakunnan Kansa'' (abbreviated ''SK'', literally translated the "People of Satakunta") is a Finnish language regional newspaper published in Pori, Finland. History and profile The newspaper was established under the name of ''Satakunta'' in 1 ...

'', ''

Aamulehti (Finnish for "morning newspaper") is a Finnish-language daily newspaper published in Tampere, Finland. History and profile ''Aamulehti'' was founded in 1881 to "improve the position of the Finnish people and the Finnish language" during Russi ...

'', ''

Karjalainen Karjalainen ("Karelian") is a Finnish surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Ahti Karjalainen (1907–1986), Finnish composer *Ahti Karjalainen (1923–1990), Finnish politician and former prime minister * Anniina Karjalainen, Finnish ...

'', ''

Keskisuomalainen ''Keskisuomalainen'' is a daily Finnish language newspaper published in Jyväskylä, serving central Finland (''Keski-Suomi'' means Central Finland). Its parent company Keskisuomalainen Oyj owns nearly 80 newspapers. History and profile ''Keski ...

'', ''

Turun Sanomat ''Turun Sanomat'' is the leading regional newspaper of the region of Southwest Finland. It is published in the region's capital, Turku and the third most widely read morning newspaper in Finland after '' Helsingin Sanomat'' and ''Aamulehti''. Hi ...

'', ''

Lapin Kansa ''Lapin Kansa'' is a morning newspaper published in Lapland, Finland. History and profile ''Lapin Kansa'' was established in 1928. The newspaper is based in Rovaniemi. The owner of the paper is Alma Media. In June 2013 Kaleva publishing house b ...

'' and ''

Etelä-Saimaa ''Etelä-Saimaa'' is a morning broadsheet daily newspaper published in Finland. History and profile ''Etelä-Saimaa'' was established in 1885. The paper is published by Sanoma Lehtimedia Oy which also publishes ''Kouvolan Sanomat'', ''Kymen Sano ...

''. Several strip collections in album format have also been published.

Reception

In April 2008, the comics publisher Arktinen Banaani published the first ''Fingerpori'' album. The album, like the strip itself, received a mixed response. In ''Helsingin Sanomat'', professor Olli Alho criticised ''Fingerpori'' because its humour is mostly based on

homonym In linguistics, homonyms are words which are homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of pronunciation), or homophones (equivocal words, that share the same pronunciation, regardless of spelling), or both. Using this definition, ...

puns, which, Alho felt, do not interest the mature reader. Alho compared the strip's "view of the body and the soul" to the grotesque realism defined by Mikhail Bakhtin and its representatives, such as

François Rabelais François Rabelais ( , , ; born between 1483 and 1494; died 1553) was a French Renaissance writer, physician, Renaissance humanist, monk and Greek scholar. He is primarily known as a writer of satire, of the grotesque, and of bawdy jokes and ...

. In contrast, the ''Plaza.fi'' Kaista review praised ''Fingerpori'' as "the best new Finnish strip for a long time", and in a review in '' Suomen Kuvalehti'', Jarla was praised for bringing Finnish pun humour to a new and fresh level.Special people – what connects Heimo Vesa's Fingerpori and Elias Lönnrot's Kajaani? Jantunen, Jyrki. ''Suomen Kuvalehti'', 15/2008.

Albums

* Jarla, Pertti: ''Fingerpori''. Helsinki: Arktinen Banaani, 2008. . * Jarla, Pertti: ''Fingerpori 2''. Helsinki: Arktinen Banaani, 2009. . * Jarla, Pertti: ''Fingerpori III''. Helsinki: Arktinen Banaani, 2010. . * Jarla, Pertti: ''Fingerpori 4''. Helsinki: Arktinen Banaani, 2011. . * Jarla, Pertti: ''Fingerpori 5''. Helsinki : Arktinen Banaani, 2012. . * Jarla, Pertti: ''Fingerpori 6''. Helsinki : Arktinen Banaani, 2013. . * Jarla, Pertti: ''Fingerpori from Finland''. Helsinki: Arktinen Banaani, 2014 * Jarla. Pertti: ''Fingerpori from Finland XL''. Helsinki: Arktinen Banaani, 2019

Magazines

* Jarla, Pertti et al.: ''Pikku Fingerpori: Kähmintää ja kytköksiä''. Helsinki: Arktinen Banaani, 2008. . * Jarla, Pertti et al.: ''Pikku Fingerpori 2: Fingerpori rakentaa ja remontoi''. Helsinki: Arktinen Banaani, 2009. . * Jarla, Pertti et al.: ''Pikku Fingerpori 3: kinkkuja ja kiusauksia''. Helsinki: Arktinen Banaani, 2009. .

References

{{reflist

External links

Fingerpori in EnglishArchive of Fingerpori comic strips published in Finnish newspaper ''Helsingin Sanomat'' (comics in Finnish)
Finnish comic strips Fictional populated places in Finland 2007 comics debuts Comics set in Finland Gag-a-day comics Black comedy comics Satirical comics Religious controversies in comics Cultural depictions of Adolf Hitler Cultural depictions of Jesus Cultural depictions of Pope Benedict XVI