Mauri Kunnas
![]() | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/72/Mauri_Kunnas.jpg/250px-Mauri_Kunnas.jpg)
Mauri Tapio Kunnas (born 11 February 1950) is a Finnish cartoonist and children's author.
Kunnas was born in Vammala. He matriculated in 1969 and graduated from the University of Art and Design in Helsinki as a graphic designer in 1975. He has worked as a political cartoonist in many Finnish newspapers. He is currently living in Espoo with his wife Tarja, children Jenna (1983) and Noora (1987) and their cat.
Kunnas is most famous for his numerous children's books, illustrated by himself and featuring anthropomorphic animals. His most famous children's book series is called Koiramäki (Dog Hill), set in historical Finland, featuring anthropomorphic dogs. His other works include Riku, Roope ja Ringo (Ricky, Rocky and Ringo), some "horror" books and books about Joulupukki.
The hordes of clothed animals present in his books by the end of the 1970s led people to compare him to Richard Scarry. But as he became more popular and produced even more work the similarities lessened. Kunnas' children's books usually feature some recurring background characters, like Herra Hakkarainen (Mr. Clutterbuck), a sleepwalking goat.
Aside of children's books, Kunnas has also drawn a rock and roll parody comic called Nyrok City for teenagers and adults. The comic parodies 1970s-1980s era rock and roll culture such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones in a Finnish style. It is one of the few Kunnas works in which the characters are drawn as humans.
Despite his fame, he remembered his origins. Much of the scenic imagery in his work comes from his hometown of Vammala with glimpses of its churches and rustic atmosphere. He also did valuable PR work for the Finnish home of Santa Claus in Twelve Gifts for Santa Claus (USA 1988), and Santa and the Magic Drum (Otava 1996), the latter of which has also been made into an animated film of the same name in same year.
He recently[when?] worked on a grander scale with The Canine Kalevala, a new version of the classic Finnish epic more accessible to children as well as cultural sidestep in his version of The Knights of King Arthur featuring cats in Camelot.
He attributes a large part of his success to his good wife Tarja Kunnas who has worked for twenty years as his assistant doing the painting for her husband's drawings.[1]
In 2014 he won the "Vittoria Samarelli Literary Award" (Castel Goffredo, Italy).[2]
References
- ^ Kunnas, Mauri. "All about Mauri". Retrieved 9 January 2013.
- ^ (in Italian)Il premio Vittoria Samarelli all’illustratore Mauri Kunnas.
External links
- Articles with Italian-language sources (it)
- Articles with short description
- Short description is different from Wikidata
- BLP articles lacking sources from June 2015
- All BLP articles lacking sources
- Articles with topics of unclear notability from May 2023
- All articles with topics of unclear notability
- Articles with multiple maintenance issues
- All articles with vague or ambiguous time
- Vague or ambiguous time from October 2017
- Articles with ISNI identifiers
- Articles with VIAF identifiers
- Articles with WorldCat Entities identifiers
- Articles with BIBSYS identifiers
- Articles with BNF identifiers
- Articles with BNFdata identifiers
- Articles with GND identifiers
- Articles with KANTO identifiers
- Articles with KBR identifiers
- Articles with LCCN identifiers
- Articles with Libris identifiers
- Articles with LNB identifiers
- Articles with NDL identifiers
- Articles with NKC identifiers
- Articles with NLK identifiers
- Articles with NSK identifiers
- Articles with NTA identifiers
- Articles with CINII identifiers
- Articles with MusicBrainz identifiers
- Articles with SUDOC identifiers
- 1950 births
- Living people
- People from Sastamala
- Finnish comic strip cartoonists
- Finnish children's writers
- Finnish children's book illustrators
- Finnish comics artists
- Finnish graphic designers
- Finnish graphic novelists
- Writers who illustrated their own writing
- All stub articles
- Finnish writer stubs
- Cartoonist stubs