Well, I’m here to tell you : yes.  You were betrayed.  Even more so : you were betrayed into thinking the Smurfs were a cartoon series to begin with.  No, my friends, they were a comic book series, and for the first ten books or so, they were one of the best series the European continent ever produced.  So, without further ado, I present you five reasons why the Smurfs don’t suck, five books you should read.

At nr. 5, it’s Le Cosmo Schtroumpf (published as The Astro Smurf in English) – first published in 1970, after running in Spirou Magazine in 1969 (which was the year of the first moon landing), this is a story of how everything is possible if you believe in your dreams – and if you’ve got some help at hand.  One of the smurfs builds a rocket, but fails to launch it and is severely disapponted.  The other Smurfs decide to trick him into believing he actually went to the moon, by staging an elaborate hoax, disguising themselves as Swoofs, a tribe of red-skinned space people, and giving him the time of his life.  It’s a funny story, with a quite philosophical undertone about man’s hubris and the values of community.  Incidentally, this was the first story in the Hannah-Barbera cartoon series, but then with green instead of red Swoofs, something Papercutz has continued.  Also, notice how in English, all references to the Soviet space programme (with cosmonauts) has been replaced by US terminology (with astronauts)…

Nr. 4 is Le Centieme Schtroumpf (The One Hundredth Smurf, not yet published in English), which originally ran as a minicomic in Spirou in 1962.  It’s a tale of magical realism, in which one of the Smurfs creates a mirror to enjoy looking at his own beautiful self (never mind that all Smurfs look alike).  When lightning strikes, however, his mirror image comes to life, as the 100th Smurf.  This one, however, does everything as if through a mirror (he even speaks in mirrored type).  In the end, though, he manages to turn himself around.  The story is a good introduction in the most important Smurfs that still play the main parts in today’s stories.  And it has some very mischievous humour !

As the third reason to read the Smurfs, I picked Schtroumpf Vert et Vert Schtroumpf.  This story from 1973, was written by Peyo and Yvan Delporte (as were all original Smurfs stories), and has as yet not been translated in to English.  Even though the Smurfs all speak the same weird language, it would seem that there is a slight difference between Southern Smurfs and Northern Smurfs, for example when talking about a corkscrew.  Northern Smurfs will typically use the word “Corksmurf”, whereas Southern Smurfs refer to it as a “Smurfscrew”.  This minute detail manages to completely divide the Smurf village, as the smurfs create a border right through it, and North and South starts rioting.  Only an intervention of Papa Smurf, featuring Gargamel, is able to restore unity.  Some people will use this story as en example of Peyo’s leftist tendencies – to me it’s a little parable about how people are essentially the same, and how we should work together instead of focusing on what divides us.  But maybe I’m biased, being Belgian and all…

The second best Smurfs story ever written, is Les Schtroumpfs Noirs (better known in English as The Purple Smurfs, for reasons of political correctness), the very first Smurfs story that did not feature any of the characters from the Johan Et Pirlouit series.  It tells of an epidemic hitting the Smurfs village, in which the blue midgets turn into their evil counterparts when bitten by a black fly.  They start turning their friends by biting them in their tail, until only Papa Smurf remains.  It all looks extremely hopeless, but thankfully everything ends well. Basically, this is the Night Of the Living Dead, but then pocket-sized, and six years earlier than Romero’s masterpiece.  And with a better ending.

But the best, the very best Smurfs book ever published, is Le Schtroumpfissime (in English, The Smurf King).  When Papa Smurf has to leave the village to go on an urgent errand, one of the other dwarves decides the should replace him.  It takes a whole lot of effort, but in the end he manages to get all the other Smurfs to vote for him as their new leader.  After which he quickly turns into a tyrant, who turns the community in a totalitarian state, locks up the opposition and wages all-out war on the village.  Basically, as Papa Smurf tells them when he returns, he’s made them “behave like humans”.  This is one of the best books about how totalitarianism starts, and how it manages to involve ordinary decent people, that I ever read.  It should be compulsory reading in every Pol Sci class.

Well, there you have it.  Five stories, enough to counterbalance the less-than-favorable mish-mash the movie has turned out to be.

Those among you who have a soft spot for the little blue dwarves that are the Smurfs, who are awaiting the upcoming Smurfs movie with dread in their hearts and would rather dwell on the fact that Smurfs creator Peyo originally created some actually pretty fine comics, and who happen to be in Paris, are in for a treat.  At the Hôtel Marcel Dassault, you can go and enjoy a special exhibition on the life and work of Peyo, born Pierre Culliford, with about 150 artifacts, including many pieces of original art, sketches and personal artifacts.

Peyo in 1971

The exhibition’s curators, Eric Leroy and Véronique Culliford, wanted to show that Peyo was more than just the creators of a very succesful “property”, but also a master narrator and a meticulous draftsman, even though he himself would have been the first to be very modest about all of it.  The show includes original work from nearly all of Peyo’s series, including Johan Et Pirlouit (Johan And Peewit), Benoît Brisefer (Steven Strong, Poussy, and, of course, The Smurfs).  Also on display are some rare illustrations that Peyo created for several Boy Scout calendars in the 1960s, and the original art  for a series of strips feauturing the young heroes Jacky and Célestin, which run in the Belgian daily, Le Soir.

The main focus of the exhibition is on Peyo’s own favorite creation, Johan Et Pirlouit, and their adventures in a very a particular kind of almost mythical Middle Ages, full of wizards, dragons, evil knights and strange little blue men which very outspoken personalities.   In addition to the original artwork, the exhibition also includes photographs and personal artefacts from Peyo’s life.

The exhibition “Life and work of a Master Storyteller” is organised by Artcurial and runs in the Hôtel Marcel Dassault, 7 Rond-Point Des Champs-Elysées, 75008 in Paris until August 30th.  In similar news : Smurfette seems to have gained an expensive taste from all the recent media coverage.  But enough about that…

In his book, Buéno makes a well-wrought sociological analysis of the Smurfs and their village.  He comes to the conclusion that the Smurfs live in a society that is “the embodiment of a totalitarian utopia, steeped in Stalinism and Nazism”.  The smurfs know no individual property and are led by a Great Leader, Papa Smurf, who runs a very authoritarian and paternalist ship. But it doesn’t stop there.  Gargamel, the Smurfs’ adversary, is supposed to be a Jewish caricature, on a par with antisemite Nazi propaganda in the 1930s, and of course the Smurfs’ obvious antipathy with the Black Smurfs (which is, in the context of the story, quite understandable) makes them quite obviously very racist to boot.

It’s not the first time that the Smurfs have called up less than savory connotations.  A quick search on the almighty Google brings all kinds of unsavoury theories to the surface, which interpret the Smurfs as being everything from neo-nazi KKK propaganda, over communists to a gay sexist sect (and you thought Tintin in the Congo had troubles with modern readers?!?!). More seriously, last year  American Smurfs publisher Papercutz changed the colour of the black smurfs from the first Smurfs album of the same name, to purple, in order to avoid accusations of racism or bigotry.

(cover to the Purple Smurf from the NBM/Papercutz edition)

They say that all press is good press, but the people behind the coming Smurfs movie probably would prefer some more wholesome coverage.  In any case Thierry Culliford, the son of Smurfs creator Peyo, and current director of the studio that still creates the new Smurfs books, dismisses Buéno’s book as somewhere “between the grotesque and the not serious”.

(based on reporting the the Flemish daily De Morgen)

OK, so this year, two prime Belgian comics will be getting a 3D animation treatment.  When it comes to the Tintin movie, all visuals are closely guarded, and only released one tiny little bit at a time.  With the Smurfs, the producers are a little more daring : after a first teaser, which hardly featured the little blue gnomes at all, they went all the way this week with a real, bonafide trailer.  Or should we say failer, because the only think that really makes any sense, is Hank Azaria’s make up.

The story’s pretty straightforward : the Smurfs are on the run from Gargamel and somehow end up in New York.  And so they have to get back before their archenemy gets them.  Indeed, another case of “Get Americans to like foreign stuff by moving it over to their Homeland”.  And leave everything that’s particular and lovable about that foreign stuff behind.

I’ll be honest.  I wanted this to be good.  I seriously hoped that this movie would bring back the magic of the comics.  But no – the trailer is a shame.  Only Hank Azaria’s make up makes a bit of sense.  The rest is a sorry mess of below-par animation with too many details where none are necessary (who’s waiting for seams in the Smurfs’ pants ?) and all-out weirdness instead of natural movement (just look at the gnomes walking).   The voices are all wrong, the humour lacks all of the sweet-and-sour that characterises the comics.  And what’s the deal with the Scottish Smurf ? (you’re right, that is silly, everyone knows Smurfs in Scotland were wiped out by mutant red squirrels – Joe)

One of the particularly interesting aspects of the Smurfs, is that there’s a hundred of them.  They live together in their own little ecosystem, and have to make do with each other’s qualities and less desirable character traits.  That interaction is what makes the Smurfs stories great allegories of human life.  Now, if you go and limit the number of characters to the most recognisable (Smurfette, Papa Smurf, Brainy and a few others), you are bound to end up with a blander, poorer version of the original.

But don’t take my word for it.  My son, who is by far the biggest Smurf fan (and expert) I know, took one look at the trailer, said “This is so wrong”, and walked away.  That, my friends, is your public speaking.

The teaser poster for the Krostons movie

In 1968, in the midst of the roaring revolution of the late sixties, Paul Deliège (1931-2005) felt a little stuck in his series, Bobo, which had been running in Spirou magazine for about five years, and came up with the perfect antidote for the sweet, little, blue gnomes that had become quite popular by then.  It only took three green dwarves in heavy coats, masks and wide-brimmed hats (adorned with skulls) to, well, maybe not entirely have the Spirou readers forget the Smurfs, but at least to make up for a damn good comic.  Les Krostons, as they became known, may be small in stature, but their ambitions are grand : they want to conquer the world with using the tried method of anarchic sabotage.

The Belgian comic blog Stripspeciaalzaak found out that at the moment, Dreamworks and Warner Bros are preparing a 3D animation feature film based on Les Krostons, to be directed by Frederik Du Chau, a Belgian ex-patriate currently living in the States who previously directed the first Tom & Jerry feature, Quest For Camelot, Racing Stripes and, most recently, Underdog.

According to Du Chau there’s no release date for the film as yet, but a series of test shots were shown at the most recent Cannes festival, and the audience was pretty enthusiastic. “The film is in 3D – we are using technology that’s more advanced than the technology used film Avatar” he told de Stripspeciaalzaak.  Since the Krostons are not that well-known (even in Belgium and France they are hardly more than a curiosity), the story deviates considerably from the storyline that was elaborated in the seven albums that the series ran (an intégrale in three parts was published, but strangely not by Dupuis).  The film introduces us to Max Ariane Max, which incidentally was the pseudonym that Deliège used at the time he created the Krostons.  He’s on the brink of a divorce, has problems with his children is probably aobut to lose his job.  His children find a box with a beautifully illustrated book, which seems to turn his fortune.  The illustrations in the book, the Krostons, come to life, however, and have only one prupose :  Max tries to thwart those plans.   Let’s wait and see.

Oh, and in the mean time, the first screenshot of the real Smurfs movie was posted on Slashfilm, along with a short description of the trailer that will be attached to prints of Toy Story 3 (and which can be seen here).  Together with an earlier shot of Hank Azaria as Gargamel, this makes me quite hopeful about how the 3D versions of the little blue gnomes will look.  The news that the story will transport them from the Middle Ages to modern day New York, however, makes me fear for the worst.  Let’s wait and see – the film is not scheduled to be released before August 3rd 2011.

(The Smurfs enjoy some Masonic themed opera)

Two books will kick off the series in October, 2010. The Smurfs and The Magic Flute originally appeared in the Johan Et Pirlouit series, where it introduced the Smurfs (albeit in a proto-format). In the late seventies, this story lead to a local Smurf craze in parts of Europe when it was used by Belgian animation studio Belvision as the basis for an animated feature. The other one, The Purple Smurfs, has a trickier past. This story, in which Smurfs turn evil after they’ve been bitten by a certain type of fly, originally was called Les Schtroumpfs Noirs (the Black Smurfs). For obvious reasons, the American producers of the cartoon series that would make the Smurfs in the global succes they have become, weren’t too keen in casting a group of black characters in the role of the black guys (even though the good guys are blue, and they all wear white clothes). So they decided to lighten the tainted Smurfs’ teint and called them the Purple Smurfs. Which they remained.

Incidentally, among French cognoscenti it is an ongoing dispute whether Les Schtroumpfs Noirs predates Night Of The Living Dead by five years as the first real popular culture stories to feature Zombie-like creatures. After all, the Black Smurfs try to turn their blue counterparts by biting them, not in the brain, but in the tail. And in the end, only a few remain… OK, so it all ends well – this is a children’s story, remember ?

(“Purple Smurf, all in my brain…“)

Later in the series, one of the best comics ever to come out of Belgium will also be translated : The King Smurf (which, I guess, would be more recognisable and less political than the original title, Le Schtroumpfissime) from 1964, one of the best satirical treatises on the origins and dangers of absolutism. Here too, all’s well that ends well, but at least one little Belgian kid got his first lessons in political sciences from a cartoonist and his little characters…

To promote the new series, a special low-price promo comic will be published in July, featuring the story, the Smurf-napper, which introduces the Smurfs’ arch-enemy, Gargamel, and his cat, Azrael. Expect a lot more Smurf mayhem when the release date of the movie gets closer.

Wim Lockefeer lives in Belgium where sightings of small, blue men are not at all unusual ; you can read more of his comics musings on The Ephemerist blog

(a jolly Smurf gets his passport and visa stamped for China, (c) Peyo)

In his books Peyo continually stressed the value of a life in balance with nature: modern technology typically leads to disaster and a lesson learned.  This fits niceley with the theme of the Expo, “Better City, Better Life”. Additionally, in the Belgian pavillion, portraits will be shown of thirty great Belgians, such as Hergé, the creator of Tintin. Meantime, for no other reason than we can, via the magic of the web, showing the international nature of the Smurfs here they are in Hungarian! (vid link via Andrea Kis’ Twitter)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ao99RIKyd8

Wim Lockefeer lives in Belgium and suspects the closest he will get to this is watching The Lady From Shanghai on DVD; you can read more of his comics musings on The Ephemerist blog

(the Smurfs hopefuls line up for a film audition, borrowed from the official site and (c) IMPS)