Illustrator Antonio Lupatelli - whose illustrating pseudonym was Tony Wolf - has died at the age of 88, according to reports from Italian media.
He was best known for his work with popular book series Pingu, having created the iconic penguin at the heart of the stories.
Born in 1930 in Busseto, Italy, Lupatelli died in Cremona in Italy on 18 May, La Repubblica reports.
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Along with his work on Pingu, his long career also saw him illustrate children's books and comics for various European publishers, including Fleetway in the UK and Fratelli Fabbri Editori and Lo Scarabeo in Italy.
Lupatelli - whose other alter-egos included Oda Taro, L'Alpino and Antony Moore - was also widely respected in Italy for his fairytale work, having illustrated many fairytales and even created 'Fairy Tarot' cards.
However, many others will remember him for his work on Pingu, which was later turned into an stop-motion children's series of the same name, created by Swiss-German Otmar Gutmann.
The TV series of Pingu - which even won itself a BAFTA - ran from the late 1980s to 2006, with the much-loved penguin voiced entirely by an Italian guy called Carlo Bonami until 2000.
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Carlo even invented his own penguin language for the characters to use. According to voiceover artist David Sant, Bonami was a famous clown in Italy, who came up with the language using a technique used in theatre and commedia dell'arte.
He told the Guardian: "A famous Italian clown called Carlo Bonomi voiced the first four series of Pingu. He did all the characters, using an invented language of noises that became known as Penguinese.
"When a British company bought the rights in 2001, they needed someone who could speak Penguinese as well as Bonomi did, so I sent them my CV. I needed the money. I'd been touring with my physical theatre company and things were always a bit hand to mouth.
"The language sounds random - 'moot moot' and the rest - but it's actually quite precise. Theatrically, it's like Grammelot, a technique that has been used in theatre and commedia dell'arte for hundreds of years. It's designed to sound like a real language, and the audience can sort of guess what it means, but it's basically gibberish."
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Sant also explained that the process was 'exhausting', as recording the show involved going through various stages.
He added: "Recording was exhausting. The animators would script each episode in English, then film it with the puppets.
"Afterwards we had to translate the scripts into Penguinese, recording each part while watching the characters talking on screen.
"I shared Pingu with Marcello Magni, who also had a background in physical theatre. We did about 17 characters, from Pingu's baby sister Pinga to Robby the Seal and the rest of the family. We made up about 95 percent of the words on the day, though some would recur: 'toy' became something like 'tellibelli', I think, and 'drink' was 'ciochilani'.
Topics: TV and Film, UK Entertainment