Book Addict – The Smurf’s Archives vol. 1
For fans who love humor and adventure, this hardcover collection has never been presented in this format before with over 300 pages of story and historical commentary.
I’ve been a fan of the Smurfs since I was a kid and watched the original Hanna-Barbera carotoons. They were wonderful and me being a hard-core action kid, G.I.Joe. Transformers, Robotech, Blackstar, Herculoids, Space Ghost, you name it, I watched it. But I also really liked The Smurfs. There was just something fun and interesting about them. It wasn’t until much later that I learned they were based on a comic series in Europe that debuted in 1958 by Pierre Culliford, also known as Peyo.
Fast-forward to Christmas of 2022. My family and I took a trip to visit my oldest son in Utrecht, Netherlands. Great trip, love that country, I won’t bore you with those details but my oldest took me to a comic shop, because, naturally. 😉
In there my mind was blown. This is the shop I went too;
It’s my favorite comic shop. In there were large statues of Smurfs, Tintin was on the walls, it was glorious.
And what was selling the most? Cartoon books. Donald Duck, Smurfs, Tintin, Mickey Mouse, Scrooge McDuck, and Asterix. Click on them if you don’t know what they are.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrooge_McDuck
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Duck
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Smurfs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Tintin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Mouse
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterix
They are great, fun comics done at a level that is for everyone. Kids love them and can learn to read from them, adults can enjoy them for the escapism.
Fast-forward again, to 2024 and I see an announcement that Papercutz is doing this volume as a series. So I jumped at the chance to finally be able to read some Smurf’s comics. And I was not disappointed.
For the first time ever, The Smurfs adventures are collected in their originally published order in English. From their very first appearance in the 1958 Johan and Peewit story, “The Smurfs and the Magic Flute,” to their debut “Little Smurfs” adventures and their 1963, first album-sized story “The Flying Smurf,” The Smurfs Archives Volume 1 is the perfect collection for every Smurf fan, young and old. Collecting the first twelve Smurf stories along with introductions and historical context by Smurfologist, Matt Murray, this 304-page hardcover collector’s edition is a must own book.
This book is chock full of the history of the Smurfs and their creator Pierre Culliford or Peyo as his penname. Matt Murray does an excellent job as a real life Smurfologist taking us from the very beginnings of the Smurfs with their appearance in his first strip called Johan and Peewit’s The Smurfs and the Magic Flute all the way through to their own strips. The Smurf’s don’t take full control of the book until about half-way through this volume when Johan and Peewit starts to decline. Then it’s all out Smurfs for the rest of the book, and, I’m assuming, into the later volumes.
What I really like most is Peyo’s art. He’s got a beautiful pop to his lines, whereas I’m used to the animated slick style where the lines are kind of dead or flat. In these comics those lines pop a whole lot more. Here’s an example;
It’s beautiful work.
I highly recommend this book to everyone.
From what I can see there are going to be at least 4 volumes so far.
You can purchase it here;
