The Surprising History of Smurfs

Author’s note: This article is summarized from various sources, and attributions are linked within.

Brainy SmurfPhoto byTracy Carbone

Most people have heard of Smurfs. They’re the adorable, fictional blue creatures who delighted children and adults in the U.S. starting in the 1980s. “The Smurf stories involve a fictional colony of small, blue, humanoid creatures who live in mushroom-shaped houses in the forest.”

What you may not know is that the Smurfs first came to life in 1958, as a series of comic characters. First published by “Belgian comics artist Peyo (the pen name of Pierre Culliford) in 1958, wherein they were known as Les Schtroumpfs.”

So where this idea come from? The story goes, “The word "smurf" is the original Dutch translation of the French "schtroumpf", which, according to Peyo, is a word he invented during a meal with fellow cartoonist André Franquin when he could not remember the word salt.”

At the time the Smurf idea was created, the artist Peyo, wrote, created, and illustrated a Franco-Beligan comic series “titled Johan et Pirlouit (translated to English as Johan and Peewit), set in Europe during the Middle Ages and including elements of sword-and-sorcery.” The main character Johan “functions as his faithful, if boastful and cheating, midget sidekick” the king. In 1958, Spirou magazine published “the Johan et Pirlouit story La Flûte à six trous ("The Flute with Six Holes").”

In this the story the characters met “a tiny, blue-skinned humanoid in white clothing called a "Schtroumpf", followed by his numerous peers who looked just like him, with an elderly leader who wore red clothing and had a white beard.”

The characters were an instant success and the first “independent Smurf stories appeared in Spirou in 1959, together with the first merchandising.”

Over time the Smurfs grew as a comic and later expanded into “advertising, films, TV series, ice capades, video games, theme parks, and toys. By 2008, the franchise had generated $4 billion in revenue, making The Smurfs one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.^”

The toys became a huge part of culture for many years “Entire collecting clubs have devoted themselves to collecting PVC Smurfs and Smurf merchandise.”

All of the 100 or so Smurfs are named for simple characteristics of people, similar to Snow White’s Seven Dwarves. Of note, “all Smurfs, with the exception of Papa, Baby, Smurfette, Nanny and Grandpa, are said to be 100 years old…All of the original Smurfs were male; later female additions are Smurfette and Sassette. Smurfette was Gargamel's creation, while Sassette was created by the Smurflings.”

SmurfettePhoto byTracy Carbone

Though original Smurf toys were created from 1959 until the end of the 1960s by a company called Dupuis, the best known are from Schleich, a German toy company. Most of the promotional toys were created by Schleich including the McDonald’s ones from the 1990s. This company “currently produces 8 to 12 new figurines a year. Over 300 million of them have been sold so far.”

If you enjoyed the cartoon as a child, you were not alone. “The Smurfs was named the 97th best animated series by IGN. It has been called "kiddie cocaine" for people growing up during the 1980s.”

Smurf CollectionPhoto byTracy Carbone

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