Myrkky #1/1989
Myrkky #1/1989 launched Finland's most long-lived adult-humour comics magazine, a format that had no real domestic precedent at that scale. By introducing recurring characters such as Kokonainen and Puolikas (a boozing duo who would anchor the title for its entire twenty-year run), Palle Runqvist, and the skateboard-masked Rullalauta-Naamio in its inaugural issue, the magazine planted the seeds of a genuinely cult cast that defined a genre of unapologetic lowbrow satire for Finnish readers throughout the 1990s. The series ultimately outlasted its Scandinavian model — the Norwegian Pyton — making this first issue the genesis of what Finnish comics culture would later recognise as a formative generational experience.
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Myrkky was brought to Finland as a localised spin-off of the Norwegian adult-humour magazine Pyton, with publishing director Marjaana Tulosmaa of Tampere-based Semic Kustannus (later absorbed into Egmont) initiating the launch in 1989. Antti Marttinen served as editor-in-chief for the entire duration of the magazine's run — an editorial continuity rare for any periodical of its kind. The debut issue, running approximately 52 pages, appeared under the Semic imprint before the publisher was rebranded as Egmont Kustannus; early issues carried only a single annual insert, a figure that grew dramatically as the title found its audience in the early 1990s.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Myrkky #1/1989 is the first issue of a Finnish adult-humour comics anthology that ran continuously from 1989 to 2009 — roughly twenty years.
- The magazine was modelled on the Norwegian Pyton anthology but ultimately ran longer than its Scandinavian source title.
- Editor-in-chief Antti Marttinen helmed the publication from its debut issue through to its final number in 2009.
- The issue was published by Semic Kustannus (Tampere), the imprint that later became Egmont Kustannus.
- Recurring characters Kokonainen and Puolikas — depicted as a hard-drinking duo — make their series debut in this first issue and remained fixtures throughout the magazine's run.
- Palle Runqvist, another strip introduced from the outset, became one of the magazine's most recognisable recurring features, with stories reprinted in the Swedish-language MegaPyton anthology.
- Rullalauta-Naamio ('Skateboard Mask') is catalogued as a character appearing in the series from its launch, representing the magazine's early appetite for absurdist Finnish-created content alongside translated Scandinavian strips.
- The title page of Myrkky #1/1989 carried the tagline later celebrated in fan circles — 'Luupäähuumorin esitaistelija' ('Pioneer of Blockhead Humour') — establishing the irreverent editorial voice from the very first issue.