Aapo Rapi - Naaburger

Huuda Huuda - 2009

This little gem was a small, oblong, glossy zine presented in glorious post Fritz-The-Cat trip glow, by an artist from Finland.  Huuda Huuda, a great publisher of rugged illustration and psychedelic exploration stories, does their work mostly in their obscure native language but translates a few stories in English.  I decided to do a review of this work because it touches on my favorite themes: ennui, existential decay, and desolation through humorous idiom.

Our main character resembles Homer Simpson, with the same jelly-like physique and primatial facial structure.  There is something pathologically dense in his conduct.  The first dozen or so scenes involve him wandering from one meat-pie truck to another along a deserted forest road, striking up banal conversations with the cooks and eventually getting punched in the face.

Speaking of which, I don't know what a meat-pie is, but I assume it's your typical blue-collar meat/gruel/slop.  Perhaps it is the Finnish backwater equivalent of the Burrito, the Gyro, or the Hamburger.  Comparisons are made between the consumer and his greasy muse.  There's no distinction between the simple, fatty meal and the man who eats it.  From birth to grave, a "naaburger" philosophy.

Eventually the story follows the course of a working class failure of a marriage, complete with unemployment drama, aloof pregnancy, and acrid insults.

We rarely see the faces of the people our ape-faced main character interacts with.  The meatpie theme runs consistent.  It is his only interest in life.  The metaphor is used by him to describe the christening of their marriage.

I enjoy seeing into the hidden parts of other countries.  It feels as though Finland is not so far away.  I see this happening in Montana.  The great thing is, our story is sparsely populated with dialogue but full of emotion.  There's the despair, that's the meat.  There's the humor, and that's the bread.  Done and done.

-Aaron $hunga