Thierry Courtin, the creator of the character of children's literature T'choupi, died at the age of 68, we learned Thursday from Nathan editions. "The Nathan teams, who for more than 30 years have accompanied the famous character T'choupi, are saddened to announce the death of Thierry Courtin, its creator," the publishing house said in a statement.
T'choupi is a little boy who evolves in a universe close to ours, but who has a round appearance closer to that of a penguin, with a smooth gray and white coat. He is the hero of many educational stories like T'choupi dresses himself, T'choupi eats everything or T'choupi goes on the potty, but also adventures like T'choupi takes the plane or T'choupi sleeps at Grandpa and Grandma's. The character was created in 1992 by Thierry Courtin, who was a graphic designer at Bayard Presse.
"T'choupi is the daily life of three-year-olds"
"I had in my boxes a drawing that I had never published, a little penguin that I loved very much. And I turned him into T'choupi," he explained in a video by Nathan Jeunesse for the character's 20th birthday. "T'choupi is the daily life of three-year-olds. It does not evolve in age. He has his own character, he has things he doesn't like, he has things he likes," he added.
Nathan's communications director, Quentin Gauthier, paid tribute to "a very faithful author at home, with intuitions that proved to be very accurate on how to talk to small children." "T'choupi was the first character to address certain themes that are important for this age" such as the relationship to hygiene or conflicts with parents, he added, interviewed by AFP.
His adventures have been declined in animated series, musical shows and other derivative products (toys, games, magazine, etc.), and exported to many countries.
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