In 1947, the Belgian comics artist Peyo (real name Pierre Culliford) started writing the Johan strip about a medieval royal servant. The stories first appeared in Le Dernière Heure and then in Le Soir newspaper between 1950 and 1952. In September 1952, Johan moved to the comics magazine Le Journal de Spirou.
Two years later a greedy dwarf joined Johan in his adventures and, to reflect this, the strip became known as Johan et Pirlouit (translated in English as Johan and Peewit). In the story published on 23rd October 1958, called La flûte à six trous ('The Six Hole Flute'), the two became allies with a group of small sky-blue creatures in Phrygian caps called Les Schtroumpfs, known in English as the Smurfs. The Smurfs proved so popular that they appeared in their own strip in the following year.
The Smurfs in Johan and PeewitThe Official Smurfs website is marking the fiftieth anniversary of the little blue creatures with a charity auction in aid of unicef. Have a Happy Smurfday!
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7 comments:
I had no idea the Smurfs had been around that long. I thought they came out in the 80's. Great article, thanks for sharing it.
Augghhhhhh! A day that shall live in infamy!!! nooooooo!
cute history tidbit! :)
Thank you all for your comments.
I like to focus on more quirky topics for my 'On this day in history' posts occasionally.
This one certainly seems to have generated a lot of interest.
That's one Smurfing Smurf of a post you monther Smurfer!
We used this as an excuse to watch the Smurfs cartoons and read my old Smurf comic books in "class" today. ;)
planck: er.. thanks (I think) ;)
eryn: glad that the post proved useful to you. it just goes to show that history can be fun
thanks for the comments
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