PEYO (1928-1992)

Johan et Pirlouit - La flûte à 6 schtroumpfs India ink on paper for the plate 58 of the album. Signed at the bottom right. 39,1 x 28,1 cm. Dupuis, 1960. As unlikely as it may seem today, Peyo was not one of the great figures of the Journal de Spirou in the 1950s. He owed his entry into the magazine to the support of Franquin, with whom he had worked in a cartoon studio. It took him a few years of hard work and the appearance of Pirlouit alongside Johan to meet a first success with the readers. When Peyo began publishing The Six-Hole Flute in 1958 in issue 1047 of the Journal de Spirou, he did not yet know that his life would be turned upside down. Not only his story, his graphics and his layout were now very experienced, but above all the appearance of these little blue goblins was going to trigger a popular craze that would later affect the whole world. When the time comes to publish this story in album in 1960, the title becomes The Flute with six Smurfs. A few years later, it is still this story that Peyo puts forward for the feature film Belvision which adapts his universe. A success, because this adaptation of The Flute of Six Smurfs opens the doors of the Hanna-Barbera Studios, for a series of cartoons which will conquer the world.