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Tampere

Tampere Kuplii comics festival

Tampere Kuplii is a feel-good comics festival for everybody interested in comics and graphic novels. The festival is free of charge for visitors, and everyone is welcome.

The dates for 2023 are from Wednesday March 22nd to Sunday March 26th, with the majority of programming taking place over the weekend. The weekend programming is held in Tampere Hall, located close to the town center, just a short walk from the long distance bus and railway stations. Tampere Hall is open from 10 to 18 (10 AM to 6 PM) on Saturday, and from 11 to 17 (11 AM to 5 PM) on Sunday.

Programme and vendors

The weekend programming consists of lectures, panels, signatures, competitions and various free-form activities. Comic vendors will be selling comic books also in English (and a lot other interesting stuff, too!) during the weekend. Our staff as well as our many vendors will also be happy to assist you in English.

Cash, cloaks and comestibles

Cash machines can be found at and near the Tampere Hall event site. Most dealers will accept debit and credit cards and contactless payment is generally preferred.

Tampere Hall is located in the immediate vicinity of the city center, so there is only a short walk to the nearest grocery stores, restaurants and hotels.

Tampere Hall has a cloakroom, that costs 3 € for adults, and under 12-year olds go free of charge. The fee can be paid by cash or card.

Guests of honor

Jarkko Vehniäinen and Marja Lappalainen

Jarkko Vehniäinen and Marja Lappalainen are comic making couple from Helsinki. Their comic strip Kamala Luonto is being published daily in a variety of newspapers. First Lappalainen comes up with the idea for the strip then together they do the script and lastly Vehniäinen draws the comic. Besides Kamala Luonto the couple does commercial illustrations, comics and children’s books.

Jarkko Vehniäinen ja Marja Lappalainen

Kamala Luonto, which was created originally by Jarkko Vehniäinen in 2002, features wildlife animals who analyze ja think about life and its complex problems with a twist of black humour. Marja Lappalainen came along Vehniäinen in 2016. After that the comic gained more characters, evolved personalities and the themes involved were more diverse.

Besides their comic Lappalainen and Vehniäinen share common interest in old science fiction movies and of course, comics. They both started reading comics at early age and their favourite comic is Asterix. Vehniäinen has been drawing for living his whole life. Lappalainen got into the creative business later after working other jobs. Both have been drawing through their whole lives though.

Kamala Luonto is known from the pages of Finnish newspapers all over the country like Helsingin Sanomat, Aamulehti, Turun Sanomat, Iltalehti, Kaleva, Hämeen Sanomat ja Maaseudun tulevaisuus. The comic is also being published in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Vehniäinen has also done some caricatures for monthly magazine Suosikki.

Søren Glosimodt Mosdal

Søren Glosimodt Mosdal

Born 1972 in Nairobi, Kenya. Based in Copenhagen, Søren has worked for the last 20 years as a comic artist and illustrator for a wide range of publishers at home and abroad, especially in France. He has worked for many Danish newspapers and magazines as well.

His comics, often produced in collaboration with author Jacob Ørsted, have been published up through the '00s in a myriad of Danish and foreign anthologies.

Søren Mosdal’s latest books include

Nastrand - Vainajien ranta (Zum Teufel, 2022) by Danish Søren Mosdal is his first publication to be translated to Finnish. The story is viking horror spiced with grotesque humor. The story is based on the thousand-year old poem Völuspá, roughly translated to “prophecy of the seeress”. The poem is known to be a crucial part of Edda, a collection of Scandinavian mythologies.

Deirdre and his lord Thorkel wake up on Nastrand, the shore of the deceased. Those who have died there can wash themselves instead of going to Valhalla. Deirdre and Thorkel are fighting for their survival and to understand the unknown; death is and will always be an unknown destination..

Who we are - join us!

The Tampere Kuplii comics festival is organized by Tampere Kuplii ry, a registered non-profit organization. We're a rather colorful group of people who love comics and we call ourselves the feel-good comics bureaucrats. Tampere Kuplii ry organizes various comics related happenings all around the year throughout the Tampere region. Besides our comics festival, we also organize the yearly Sarjakuva-Finlandia comics competition. Everything we do is based on volunteer work.

Do you want to be a part of Tampere Kuplii? If you want to join our work team during the festival, or you have ideas for programmes (or want to organise one!), or you just want to be a part of the team creating the festival, please contact us!

Contact

Executive director Outi Sippo-Purma
outi(at)tamperekuplii.fi

Chairman Kyösti Koskela
kyosti(at)tamperekuplii.fi
phone: +358 50 5728777

Vice chair Kyuu Eturautti
kyuu(at)tamperekuplii.fi
phone: +358 50 5950047

Publicists
tiedotus(at)tamperekuplii.fi

Artistic director for cosplay
cosplay(at)tamperekuplii.fi

Artistic director for AMV
amv(at)tamperekuplii.fi

Directors of programme
ohjelma(at)tamperekuplii.fi

Director of work force
tyovoima(at)tamperekuplii.fi