Pekka Puupää: Finland's beloved comic strip character

Finland might be known as the birthplace of the Moomins, but before Tove Jansson's famous characters, there was Pekka Puupää.

Photo by Wikipedia user Mysid. Pekka Puupää is the character on the right.

It is no surprise that when those who know of Moomins, will automatically think of Finland. After all, that is where their creator Tove Jansson first debuted her famous characters. But long before Moomintroll, Snufkins, and Little My, there was Pekka Puupää. Pekka Puupää is a Finnish text comic and later, a film character, created by Ola Fogelberg (pen name Fogeli). The character first appeared in 1925 in a weekly six-panel strip, and later went on to have over ten films, portrayed by various actors.

Pekka Puupää is a kind, simple, and occasionally foolish man. There are other characters that will appear throughout the text comic such as his strict wife Mrs. Justiina Puupää, and his short stubby friend Pätkä. The word "puupää" is a common Finnish insult for someone with low intelligence. It's literal meaning is woodhead ,or what many know from the insults Lucy yells at Charlie Brown: "blockhead!".

Common plot points are often Pekka's failure at multiple job positions, his eccentric solutions to solve his every day problems, misadventures due to being a kind hearted numbskull, and his attempts with Pätkä to run away from their wives to have fun and play games. The famous oblong hat that Pekka wears is now immortalized as a Puupää hat (fully wearable!) that is awarded to one distinguished comic artist each year since 1972 by the Finnish Comics Society. It's an incredible achievement to those who get to wear it! Pekka Puupää may not be Finland's first comic strip character, but he is one of the most significant, well known and beloved.