PEYO, THE FATHER OF THE SMURFS!
A Smurf's Life
Pierre Culliford, born in Belgium June 25, 1928, was a cartoonist known as Peyo. We can consider ourselves lucky! After Peyo left school in Brussels, he looked in the paper for a job. Two caught his eye: offers for a dental assistant and an illustrator. When he presented himself to the dentist, he was told he was just 15 minutes too late! At the time, Belgium was a hothouse of comic strip artists. Peyo quickly found himself working with some of the most talented, amongst them characters such as his lifelong writing partner Yvan Delporte.
The big break. After struggling for some time, he eventually got the break he deserved when he started working for "Le Journal de Spirou." Johan and Peewit were amongst his most popular characters. But in 1958, the Smurfs made their first appearance and went on to become the world-famous characters we now know. Although most cartoon characters are known through their books before becoming TV characters, the opposite was true of the Smurfs in North America. The incredible success of the Smurf figurines led to them being adapted for television. Yet the story of their arrival at Hanna-Barbera and the success with NBC is almost worthy of a film in itself.
Smurfs around the world
Despite the death of Peyo in 1992, the success of the Smurfs is truly planetary. As everyone who has worked on the series recognizes, the Smurfs are successful largely because of their basic appeal. And that appeal stretches right across the board - - from mini-tales to pop songs and on to the exciting world of multimedia. Smurf material is now available on video and DVD. The video games regularly top the sales charts. Theatre productions tour Europe. An all-new live-action film, featuring computer-generated animated Smurfs, is currently in production. Produced by Sony/Columbia, and starring Neil Patrick Harris, Hank Azaria (Gargamel), and the voices of Jonathan Winters (Papa Smurf), Katy Perry (Smurfette), Paul Reubens (Brainy Smurf), and many others, the film is scheduled to be released in 2011.
Papercutz is proud to bring the original Smurfs comics back into print in North America. The United States has finally caught up with the rest of the world in recognizing that comics are a true art form, and that the Smurfs graphic novels are classics. Between the release of the SMURFS graphic novels and a new motion picture, the Smurfs are ready to conquer North America all over again! And that’s just smurfy!