Pertti Jarla, Ilkka Heilä and Milla Paloniemi among others

Come Across Comics – right now in the centre of Turku!

Come Across Comics is a project that rips comics our of the books and brings them out to the streets. Right now 50 different “traffic signs” with comics in them, attached to lamp-posts, have made people look upwards during their daily walks in the centre.

The traffic signs are drawn by the best comics artists in Finland: Pertti Jarla, Ilkka Heilä and Milla Paloniemi to name a few.

- Many people see comics as an underground art form, whereby we chose to bring it up and out! says Mitra Vasara, coordinator for the project. – Some people also state, that they are no fans of comics, though they search and read through the comics pages first whenever they catch a newspaper. With this project, comics come very close to everyday lives of the citizens of Turku: they will come across them whilst catching a bus to work or collecting groceries at the market. This way people can enjoy art in the midst of their lives, not needing to enter a museum and paying for experiencing art.

Large variety of themes and styles

In the project there are many kinds of comics, not just the funny ones. This way there is a large variety on the themes and styles. There are 15 different artists also, each creating and expressing in thei unique way. People from different age groups can all experience these comics, but maybe interpret them a bit differently.

Even different language groups have been taken into account: in the traffic signs there are translations in Swedish and in English. All of the comics in the project have been designed especially for this project. The artists were told the exact locations of their comics, so they could create their comics suitable precisely for that place.

Next: 4 parks and the Föri

Local comics artists have also gotten a forum to introduce their art in four parks of Turku: Kupittaa, Vartiovuori, Samppalinna and Urheilupuisto. Their artwork has been framed into “plastic statues”, which will be exhibited from the beginning of June until the end of August – just as the traffic signs.

Föri will be taken over by Pertti Jarlas Fingerpori. He has created an ingenious story about the culture city Turku. The story is shown in eight strips, one appearing to Föri every week starting 27.6.

Åbo Akademi, Hanken has a special auditorium with huge windows, which we will cover with Mika Lietzéns comics of enormous size, also starting after Midsummer. The first part of the project was Kaisa Lekas exhibition at the main library of Turku, and the exhibition will be shown during September in Kirjasto10, Helsinki. During Helsingin Sarjakuvafestivaalit, the Comics Festival of Helsinki, an auction with some of the traffic signs will be arranged – so the signs will get new homes after being outside for the whole summer.