Myrkky #1/1992
Myrkky #1/1992 is an early installment of what became Finland's longest-running adult-humor anthology, a magazine that ran without interruption from 1989 to 2009 and carved out a genre of its own in Finnish comics culture — irreverent toilet and sex comedy aimed at youth that had no domestic equivalent in regular publication. The issue gathered together several recurring characters — including the Norwegian-originated Rhesus Miinus & Tommy Tussi duo and Pera Pervo (the Finnish incarnation of the Norwegian/British strip Pervo-Kris) — at a formative moment when the magazine was still largely dependent on translated Scandinavian material before its eventual shift toward predominantly Finnish-made content. As the only Finnish periodical of its kind publishing regularly through the 1990s, Myrkky occupied a unique cultural niche: Finnish readers annually voted Pera Pervo their favourite strip more times than any other character in the magazine, underscoring how deeply the anthology connected with its audience. For collectors of Finnish comics history, each early-1990s issue represents the period when the series was establishing the roster of characters and strip-creators that would define it for two decades.
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Myrkky launched in 1989 as the Finnish adaptation of the Norwegian anthology Pyton — itself an adult-humor magazine produced by Gevion and later Bladkompaniet between 1986 and 1996 — and was brought to Finland by Marjaana Tulosmaa, publishing director at Semic Kustannus (later absorbed into the Egmont group) based in Tampere. Antti Marttinen served as editor-in-chief for the magazine's entire twenty-year run, providing editorial continuity rare for a periodical of this type. Early issues like #1/1992 drew heavily on translated Norwegian and Swedish strips, with Norwegian writer Rolf Håndstad (pen name Rhesus Minus) and artist Tommy Sydsæter providing the Rhesus Miinus & Tommy strip, while British-Norwegian artist Kristian B. Walters supplied Pera Pervo (Pervo-Kris); the gradual growth of Finnish domestic contributors — among them Santtu Liima (Matti Nisula), Armas Salakka, and Samuli 'Samson' Lintula — would come to define the magazine's later identity.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Publisher: Egmont Kustannus (operating under the earlier imprint Semic Kustannus), Tampere, Finland; issue dated 1/1992 within the ongoing series that ran from 1989 to 2009.
- Myrkky is the Finnish word for 'poison' or 'venom' and served as the Finnish-language adaptation of the Norwegian adult-humor anthology Pyton, outlasting its Norwegian source magazine by more than a decade.
- Editor-in-chief Antti Marttinen helmed the magazine from its first issue through its final regular edition in November 2008, with a last special appearing in 2009.
- Recurring characters confirmed in this issue include Palle Runqvist, Pera Pervo, Rhesus Miinus (& Tommy Tussi), Opaskoira Adolf, Kokonainen, and Puolikas — all established strip features of the Myrkky/Pyton franchise.
- Pera Pervo is the Finnish title for Pervo-Kris, a strip created by British-Norwegian artist Kristian B. Walters that originally debuted in Pyton Spesial in 1990; Finnish readers voted it their number-one favourite character more times than any other Myrkky strip.
- The Rhesus Miinus & Tommy strip was written by Rolf Håndstad (pen name: Rhesus Minus) and drawn by Tommy Sydsæter, both prominent contributors to the Norwegian parent magazine Pyton.
- Myrkky was described by Finnish comics culture commentators as a formative humor magazine for 1990s Finnish youth, sometimes compared generationally to Pahkasika (the Finnish Asterix-era humor benchmark) for its own readership cohort.
- The magazine's content in this early period was a mix of translated Norwegian/Swedish strips and a growing body of Finnish-created material, with domestic artists such as Santtu Liima, Armas Salakka, and Samuli 'Samson' Lintula becoming fixture contributors.