Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Comics: Once Smurfs go black . . .

The story is familiar: A lone Patient-Zero is exposed to a dangerous new contagion that alters them into a mindless predator. Efforts are made to contain and treat the infected, but Patient-Zero breaks free and spreads the disease. Soon, the infected outnumber the healthy and things look bleak . . .

You've seen it before.

But have you seen it in Smurf Village before?

Comic Book Legends (one of the maybe 3 comic blogs consistently worth reading) has a wonderful story on the Les Schtroumpfs Noirs: "the Black Smurfs."

I'll let columnist Brian Cronin explain:

The Smurfs (or, as they were known in the Franco-Belgium comics where they debuted, Les Schtroumpfs) first appeared in comic writer/artist Peyo's light-hearted sword and sorcery series, Johan et Pirlouit (Johan and Peewit) in 1958. They were quite popular and by 1959 they were starring in their own back-up stories.

Their first album came out in 1963, titled Les Schtroumpfs Noirs - the Black Smurfs.
And the Black Smurfs, their first solo comic title, was basically about zombie smurfs!!!

You see, a Smurf in the comic is stung by a rare fly who effectively turns him into a zombie (his skin turns black). He then bites other Smurfs, who ALSO turn into zombies!

The comic was never reprinted in the United States (I don't know why - likely the "Black" thing, but perhaps the zombie aspect of it, also?), so I'll have to share with you the French pages (Smurf comics aren't exactly hard to follow, luckily)...


He then gives you every page of the short story. Click through and scroll to the bottom of the page. Bonus: There's a bit about Simon Garth, Marvel's Living Zombie in there as well.

8 comments:

Aaron White said...

What are your other picks for worthwhile comics blogs? I'm partial to comicsreporter.com from Tom Spurgeon.

Rabid Fox said...

You may be right about the "black" objection, as I seem to recall the animated series depicted the infected Smurfs as purple. Of course, that could simply have been a choice by animators who wanted to use an actual color.

Madelon said...

Hehe, awesome. I'm Dutch, originally, and actually owned a copy of a lot of the Smurf albums (including the Black Smurfs issue) as a child. Strange how you look at things differently as you grow older and get exposed to gore, violence and the undead... ;)

CRwM said...

Aaron,

Agreed. Tom's the guy to beat as far as comic blog writing goes.

CRwM said...

Mr. Fox,

There are a couple of clips of said episode on attached to the article and your memory is spot on. They went with purple.

Though, to give all due credit, the "why no black" theory belongs to Brian Cronin, author of the original article.

Tom said...

Ha ha ha ha ha!!!

Troy Z said...

Don't forget to see the "In the House/In a Heartbeat" remix of the animated version of this story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oYAju4WI90 .

[GM/BM/MM](Game,Blog,Music Master) delaCruziFixion said...

That's nice. I love smurfs. Look at my blog www.delacruzifixion.blogspot.com . I have many smurfs XD