CBR: Pipeline - Sep 8, 2010

[CBR News]

Augie is feeling Smurftastic!Â*He got his hands on the new Smurf books and has an early review of them for you.Â*And if you're not listening to the podcast, click here for a sample rundown for what the show is all about.


Full article here.

[Dard]

So they turned the smurfs purple in the american comic version, too?
It was already ridiculous in the cartoon, and it continues to be ridiculous.

But I guess this redrawing makes sense since almost all americans probably only know the smurfs from the cartoon and would be surprised to see such a difference in the comics.

[Jason Michael]

The Smurf books have already been released. I got them from Amazon on Sept. 1. They are very enjoyable, but I definitely would have liked them to be published in a larger format. Though the art is simple enough that the smaller size doesn't make comprehension difficult, it would definitely showcase the art better if it was album size.
Changing the color of the Smurfs from black to purple in "The Purple Smurfs" doesn't really change the story, and if NBM is still concerned that US readers might be offended by or misunderstand a virus that turns the Smurfs black then I think it's okay to use purple as an alternative. The editorial does address the issue. I was more concerned with the size of the reproduction than the purple. And neither change is enough to make me stop buying the books. They are well-crafted comics.
I do have some questions for others better versed in the Smurfs than I am.

Did Peyo produce a lot of Smurfs comics? Could this series conceivably run hundreds of volumes, or are there only a couple of dozen books? I have a couple of issues of the Smurfs that Marvel published decades ago that say they are by Peyo, but I always wondered if his name was on them for contractual reasons and that they were the work of others. I have nothing to base this on, just a feeling I had at the time.

Jason

[De Carabas]

It's "The Flying Smurf," (20 pages long) which chronicles one Smurf's efforts to be the first Smurf to fly.

I have to track this down now. The very first Smurf figurine I ever got was of this fella (no, thank you, Google Images):

[Stryfe]

Another hand up for the Gummi Bears series. The cartoon was rich with history and actually had a really good series finale.

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

For Smurf lovers out there: My local Target store has a bunch of Smurf stuff in their dollar bins, including tiny versions of the figurines, mugs, and bags. I don't know how I managed to NOT grab handfuls of them...

-Augie