Mika Lietzen and Eeva Meltio nominated for Comics Finlandia 2025

Two R&B-represented creators are among the ten nominees for Finland’s most appreciated comic art prize Comics Finlandia (Sarjakuva-Finlandia).

Mika Lietzen is nominated with the graphic novel Pnuk and Eeva Meltio with the graphic novel Sand (Hiekka). 

Pnuk is Mika Lietzen’s latest graphic novel, published by Asema Kustannus. Pnuk is a dystopia set in an alternative 1980s where the demolished houses of Turku make a surprising return to the cityscape. It is a story of punk rock, freedom, art, the slowly disappearing beauty amidst the ruins and the importance and significance of small things, even when society demands only productivity and achievement. This is Lietzen’s fourth Comics Finlandia nomination.

The jury’s motivation:

“Pnuk is good science fiction about the beautiful ruins left to decay by a more efficient, streamlined society of the future. The work is full of skilfully drawn architecture, but otherwise it doesn’t expound unnecessarily. The characters’ Hergé-like simplified features leave room for the reader’s own emotional interpretation, and the speculative elements of the story do not reveal all their secrets. All in all, Lietzen succeeds in the most important balancing act in comic art: he trusts his reader, but takes sufficient care to do so.”

Eeva Meltio is a Finnish graphic novelist and designer based in Helsinki. Her recent work focuses on storytelling mainly through mediums of drawing, oil painting and animation. Her latest graphic novel Sand (Hiekka, Kraft Ink) is situated in the Midwest and takes place during the severe droughts of the 1930s. Central themes of the story are the devastating effects it had on the society and the environment. Sand is a multi-layered story about grief and forgiveness, about a broken family’s struggle to find a way to deal with the past and an allegory of climate change. Ultimately, however, it is a book about hope. Recently, Sand was shortlisted in the Most Beautiful Books of Finland 2024 competition in the category of book covers.

The jury’s motivation:

”From front cover to back, Sand is a stylish, lingering graphic novel that takes the reader on a journey to the United States in the 1930s, across the oil fields of the Midwest. The bleak flat landscapes create a palpably melancholy atmosphere, but the protagonist Olive’s spunk brings hope and action. Although the work depicts a historical drought period, the human fates shaped by weather and environment seem a timely theme: where the vistas of the Dust Bowl were obscured by sandstorms, those of the 2020s are clouded by ever-accelerating climate change.”

The Comics Finlandia Prize was established in 2007 and is given to a domestic artist or to a group of domestic artists who have created a laudable comic book. The winner will be revealed on 28 March 2025. Read more about the prize here.

Our warmest congratulations to all nominees!