Tove Jansson. Original illustration for Kometjakten (Comet in Moominland). 1946
Moomintroll, Moominmamma, and Moominpappa are disarming, rotund, hippopotamuslike trolls who live in the forest of Moominvalley, surrounded by unique cohorts including Snork Maiden, Too-Ticky, Little My, Groke, Sniff, and Snufkin. Their adventures have all the trappings of pleasant fairy-tale life but also contain danger and desolation that reflect the wartime context in which they were conceived. Jansson produced the first book, The Moomins and the Great Flood, in 1945, and in the following book, Comet in Moominland (1946), the valley is threatened by a hurtling comet, a metaphorical stand-in for a nuclear weapon. Jansson was a writer, painter, and political cartoonist who claimed that her proclivity for drawing was due to her own happy childhood.
Learn more at MoMA.org/centuryofthechild