60 years of Smurfs

In 1958 cartoonist Peyo introduced the tiny blue-skinned characters in Spirou magazine as side characters in a comic set in the Middle Ages. They were a hit, and they soon got their own series. In the 1980s the Smurfs were turned into a TV series (photo). While most Smurfs are said to be about 100 years old, one episode reveals Papa Smurf be 546. The village leader is the only one to wear red.

Always accompanied by his cat Azrael, the evil wizard Gargamel needs to capture Smurfs to create gold. He is apparently the only human being running around in this lost area of the world, and he's not very friendly. Luckily, all of his elaborate plans to catch the Smurfs inevitably fail.

Pierre Culliford, best known as Peyo, first worked in an animation studio before publishing his first comic series in the newspaper "Le Soir." After he introduced the Smurfs in his "Johan and Peewit" comics, the popular characters gained their own series. Peyo directed the 1976 film "The Smurfs and the Magic Flute" and supervised the US-Belgian TV series from the 1980s. He died in 1992, aged 64.

The Smurfs are generally hard-working types, but there's one exception: Lazy Smurf, also known as Sleepy Smurf. He's the laziest of all smurfs and can be found sleeping anywhere at any time of the day. Most of the Smurfs are named after their personality traits. There are at least 100 different Smurf characters.

Long the single female of the series, Smurfette was created by Gargamel, who aimed to have her spy on the Smurfs and sow jealousy among them. She then became a real smurf after Papa Smurf changed her hair from black to blonde — just one of her stereotypically feminine features. The narrative scheme of having a single woman appear among a bunch of males has been dubbed the "Smurfette principle."

"The Smurfs and the Magic Flute" was the first animated film starring the blue species. It premiered in 1976 in Belgium but was only released in 1983 in the US, following the popularity of the TV series. A trilogy of Smurf computer-animated films was released from 2011 to 2017. Critics weren't impressed; the new movies obviously didn't have the old-school charm of the original animated series.

Merchandising is another important part of the Smurfs phenomenon. Countless collectible figurines are still being traded to this day. The German confectionery company Haribo has also adopted the cap-topped Smurf shape for one of its gummi candies. They are strawberry or raspberry-flavored, and 100 grams contain 334 calories. Sweet.