The first to stick to it is Tébo, a 50-year-old French children’s comic book author who has already redrawn another classic, Mickey.
Tébo explains in the presentation file of the album to have groped, but found the adequate style for among others the Smurfette, without heels, the beefy Smurf, without tattoo, or the Smurf with glasses. And of course Gargamel, the wizard who is their sworn enemy.
“I’ve been redoing the pages for months and months. I’m constantly reworking everything,” he says. “I want it to stay cute, I didn’t want it to be just cartoon bullshit.”
The famous little creatures of the forest were born in 1958 under the pencil of the Belgian Peyo (Pierre Culliford of his real name). First in an adventure of Johan and Pirlouit, then by taking their independence.
“I respect them too much”
From 1963 until his death in 1992, Peyo released 16 Smurfs albums and oversaw the 1975 animated film, “The Smurfs’ Six Flute,” as well as the widely shown television cartoon from the early 1980s. .
The 2023 album, in bookstores on May 5, will be called “Who is this Schtroumpf? “.
It is the “first volume of a prestigious collection which will see renowned authors invite themselves into the world of Peyo for a + one-shot +”, according to Le Lombard editions.
“The birth of this album is a case where the planets align”, tells AFP the editorial director of Lombard, Mathias Vincent.
“I knew Tébo well and I knew that he was passionate about the world of the Smurfs. Then, during a dinner with IMPS, the company that manages the rights of the Smurfs, I was told that they opened the door to new authors. One of the first names mentioned was that of Tébo,” he adds.
“He is from the generation for whom the Smurfs were absolutely everywhere: in toys, in candy, in tattoos… We wanted to avoid parody, because he can have acerbic humor, but he immediately said: no, no , I respect the Smurfs too much to be mean to them,” reports Mathias Vincent.
Family affair
IMPS was founded in 1984 by Peyo’s daughter. Véronique Culliford takes care of “image and brand management”.
The brand has always been a family affair. Peyo’s wife, Nine (Janine Culliford), a colorist, had the genius idea of coloring the characters blue. Peyo’s son, Thierry Culliford, has co-authored all the Smurfs screenplays since 1992, that of volume 16 with his father, and those of volumes 17 to 40 with others.
This new style is a bet that has been attempted for other mythical comic book characters.
Several authors have thus taken up in their own way the cowboy Lucky Luke, created by another Belgian, Morris. Corto Maltese, the character of the Italian Hugo Pratt, has been reinterpreted by the Frenchman Bastien Vivès.
Other characters, however, remain unchanged, such as Asterix, whose adventures continue faithfully to the graphics of Uderzo, or Gaston Lagaffe, that Dupuis editions entrusted to the Canadian Delaf, for an album today blocked by the Belgian’s daughter. Frankin.
Tintin stands out. The rights holders vigorously refuse any new drawing of the characters created by the Belgian Hergé.