Smurfs

The Smurfs (Les Schtroumpfs in French) are a fictional group of small sky blue creatures who live somewhere in the forests of Europe. more...

Home
Action Figures
Animation Art, Characters
Animation Art
Animation Characters
Betty Boop
Bags, Cases
Boxes
Figures
Jewelry, Watches
Other
Pins
Signs
Casper The Ghost
Curious George
Dr. Seuss
Felix the Cat
Garfield
Ghostbusters
Hanna-Barbera
Other Hanna-Barbera
Scooby-Doo
The Flintstones
Hello Kitty
King Features
Muppets
Other Animation Characters
Peanuts
Cups, Mugs
Figurines
Other
Pins
Plush Items
Pink Panther
Popeye
Rocky & Bullwinkle
Sesame Street
Shrek
Smurfs
South Park
SpongeBob SquarePants
The Simpsons
Tom & Jerry
Walter Lantz/Woody...
Warner Bros.
Bugs Bunny
Daffy Duck
Marvin the Martian
Other Warner Bros. Items
Pepe Le Pew
Porky Pig
Powerpuff Girls
Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote
Sylvester
Tasmanian Devil
Tweety
Ziggy
Japanese, Anime
Apparel & Accessories
Bronze Age (1970-79)
Collections
Comics
Figurines
Full Runs
Golden Age (1938-55)
Graphic Novels, TPBs
International
Magazines
Modern Age (1980-Now)
Newspaper Comics
Original Comic Art
Other Comics
Platinum Age (1897-1937)
Posters
Silver Age (1956-69)
Supplies

The Belgian cartoonist Peyo introduced Smurfs to the world, but English-speakers perhaps know them best through the animated television series from Hanna-Barbera Productions, The Smurfs.

History

"Johan & Pirlouit"

Peyo wrote a Franco-Belgian comics serial in Le Journal de Spirou called "Johan & Pirlouit" (translated to English as Johan and Peewit). The setting lies in the Middle Ages in Europe. Johan serves as a brave young page to the king, and Peewit (pronounced Pee-Wee) functions as his faithful, if boastful and cheating, midget sidekick.

On October 23, 1958, Peyo introduced a new set of characters to the "Johan & Pirlouit" story. This alone caused no great excitement, as the brave duo constantly encountered strange new people and places. This time, they had the mission of recovering a Magic Flute, which required some sorcery by the wizard Homnibus. And in this manner, they met a schtroumpf. The figures soon proved to be a huge success, and the first independent smurf stories appeared in Spirou in 1959, together with the first merchandising.

With the commercial success of The Smurf empire came the merchandising empire of Smurf miniatures, models, games, and toys. Entire collecting clubs devote themselves to collecting PVC toys.

Schtroumpf/Smurf origins

"Schtroumpf" is an invented word. The way of saying "Schtroumpf" in French is quite similar to the German word "Strumpf" which does mean "sock" in English. According to Peyo, the word came to him as he asked André Franquin for salt during lunch and, struggling to find the word that eluded him, finally managed to say "passe-moi le schtroumpf" ("pass me the smurf"). It would later be translated into nearly 30 languages and, in some of those languages, "schtroumpf" became "smurf" (see The Smurfs in other languages). The word "smurf" was first used in Dutch, as the comics were simultaneously published in French (in Spirou magazine) and Dutch (in Robbedoes, the Dutch translation of the magazine). In any case, the tiny blue people proved a sudden hit, commercially speaking, and quickly moved into their own comic series which became a tremendous success.

In several interviews, Peyo stated that the Smurfs was his favourite series in the early sixties, but later his own preference went to his "Johan & Pirlouit" series, and he sometimes expressed exasperation with the overbearing success of the Smurfs.

Read more at Wikipedia.org