''Rymy-Eetu'' was 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 ...

drawn by Erkki Tanttu, from 1930 to 1973 The titular character Rymy-Eetu is a strong, heavily built man, who is capable of apparently superhuman actions both in wartime and in peacetime.

Characters

Rymy-Eetu was named after his strength and virility, although he was never much of a troublemaker. Sometimes he even seems to control the forces of nature. Sometimes his boisterous character gets him into trouble, but even in tight spots he always manages to keep smoking his pipe. Rymy-Eetu's frequent antagonist is his cousin Kalle Kuikkaneva, a short man wearing eyeglasses, who sometimes wins over Rymy-Eetu because of his cleverness.

Appearance

''Rymy-Eetu'' first appeared in ''

Nuori Voima ''Nuori Voima'' ( fi, Youthful Vigor) is a Finnish literary and cultural magazine which has been published since 1908. It is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland. Both the magazine and its parent organization, Nuoren Voiman Liitto, are among the we ...

'' in 1930. At that time the character didn't have a name. After this, the comic appeared in '' Kansan Kuvalehti'', where Ilmari Turja invented a name for the new hero. ''Rymy-Eetu'' appeared, with short breaks, for about four decades. '' Suomen Kuvalehti'' started re-publishing coloured ''Rymy-Eetu'' strips from ''Kansan Kuvalehti''. In all, the strip appeared in the following magazines: ''Nuori Voima'' (1930 and 1935), ''Kansan Kuvalehti'' (1931-1935 and 1945-1954), '' Hakkapeliitta'' (1936-1944), '' Radiokuuntelija-Antenni'' (1955-1968), '' Käytännön Maamies'' (1970s) and ''Suomen Kuvalehti'' (2007). Otava published ''Rymy-Eetu'' albums from 1938 to 1968. In the albums, Tauno Karilas added rhyming text to the comics, which wasn't present in the original strips. Tanttu seldom wrote any text to his comic, but instead let the images do the talking. Sometimes a speech bubble helped in the narrative. In wartime, ''Rymy-Eetu'' was used in

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. Rymy-Eetu crushed his

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n enemies completely in the comics. After the Moscow armistice, the Finnish publishing association sent a request to book stores to withdraw 288 works from display and sales. Along these works were the albums ''Rymy-Eetu ja Hymy-Freetu'' and ''Rymy-Eetun jymyvoitto''. In 1999, Otava published a collection album called ''Rymy-Eetu ryssän kauhu'', which included all four ''Rymy-Eetu'' albums published during wartime.

Named after Rymy-Eetu

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

, there is a Bavarian cuisine style

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called Rymy-Eetu (opened in January 2008), which has a varying exhibition about the character.HS.fi - Oma kaupunki - ravintolat
{{webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080206150816/http://omakaupunki.hs.fi/mesta/3462720/Rymy-Eetu/kuvat , date=2008-02-06

References

External links

Rymy-Eetun isä - Erkki Tantun haastattelu - Kansan Kuvalehti 1/1951

Legendaarinen Rymy-Eetu alkaa SK:ssa 10/2007
Finnish comic strips Fictional Finnish people 1930 comics debuts 1973 comics endings Gag-a-day comics Superhero comics Comics characters with superhuman strength Comics characters introduced in 1930