A
Smurf's Life
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 the US. 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. How many people know, for example, that even the
multi-award-winning composer Michel Legrand has lent his voice to the Smurfs?Smurfs
around the world.
The success of the Smurfs is truly planetary. As everyone who has worked on
the series recognises, 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, on CD-Rom and CD-i. The video games regularly top
the sales charts. Theatre productions tour Europe. Yet each adaptation offers
new challenges, which must be faced without the help of Peyo who died in 1992.
But how will the world of the Smurfs adapt to that of the 21st century? If
the past is anything to go by, the answer must be: smurfingly!
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