Tove Jansson after Tove had become an adult, the two often traveled together, and during her final years Signe also lived with Tove part-time. Jansson is principally known as the author of the Moomin books. Jansson created the Moomins, a family of trolls who are white, round and smooth in appearance, with large snouts that make them vaguely resemble hippopotamuses. The first Moomin book, "The Moomins and the Great Flood", was written in 1945. Although the primary characters are Moominmamma and Moomintroll, most of the principal characters of later stories were only introduced in the next book, so "The Moomins and the
Tove Jansson captured on several hours of film, shot by Pietilä. Several documentaries have been made of this footage, the latest being "Haru, yksinäinen saari" ("Haru, the lonely island") (1998) and "Tove ja Tooti Euroopassa" ("Tove and Tooti in Europe") (2004). Jansson died on 27 June 2001 at the age of 86 from cancer and is buried with her parents and younger brother Lars. She is buried in the Hietaniemi Cemetery in Helsinki. Tove Jansson worked as an illustrator and cartoonist for the Swedish-language satirical magazine "Garm" from the 1930s to 1953. One of her political cartoons achieved a brief international fame: