Titan Books have recently published Nemi 3, another hardback collection of Norwegian cartoonist Lise Myhre's daily comic strip. The 144 page full colour volume includes a great selection of strips featuring the sharp-witted free-thinking Goth, translated into English by Deborah Dawkin and Erik Skuggevik.
Alongside the daily strips, longer Nemi stories are also included from the Norwegian Nemi monthly comic. The 11 page Monstrifer tale is particularly interesting, a story of Nemi's childhood and of learning to be proud of her individuality. Under lesser hands this could have been sickeningly cute, but Lise can be relied on to retain the right balance of pathos and biting humour, with an hilarious final panel for those who have been paying attention.
There are also a selection of full page illustrations spread throughout the book, which originally appeared as covers for the Nemi monthly. Nicely composed designs that would look great on a wall, and in fact in Norway they appear as pages in the Nemi Calendars.
The cover to the book itself is taken from a Norwegian Nemi Christmas album from 2002. For some reason the colour scheme has been changed from the original, and I have to say I prefer the more festive red and green of the Norwegian version (below).
With this third British volume, Nemi seems to be an established part of our Christmas books line up as much as she is in her native country. This doesn't surprise me, as I always felt the themes in the strip were universal enough to work anywhere. If you're a follower of Nemi from the UK Metro newspaper you'll enjoy this book, and if you're new to the strip, give it a go. Without wishing to sound pompous, it's a modern strip for modern times. When this celebrity-obsessed, brand-brainwashed, go-with-the-flow society of ours gets too oppressive, Nemi cuts through it like a knife. Best of all, it's funny.
Forbidden Planet currently have copies signed by Lise Myhre for sale from their online store HERE for just £7.99.
Below: Lise looking very glamourous at the launch party for last year's Nemi book at the Norwegian Embassy. Read about it here.
Cheers for the heads-up Lew. Never heard of it before, but will give it a go.
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