Francesco Tullio Altan was born in 1942 in Treviso. In 1970 he moved to Rio de Janeiro where he created his first comic strip for children. In 1975 he returned to Italy and created the dog Pimpa, his most famous character, initially published in Corriere dei Piccoli and then reprised in comics, stories, books, games, television series and shows. He created other famous characters (Kika and Kamillo Kromo), comic strips for an adult audience (the stories of the metalworker Cipputi), parodies of famous people (Christopher Columbus, Casanova, Saint Francis of Assisi). His collaboration with L’Espresso and Panorama lasted for ten years, and more recently with La Repubblica.