Peyo

=Peyo =

Brussels
Pierre Culliford, better known as Peyo, was born in Belgium in 1928 and died in 1992 at the age of 64. You might be asking yourself who is this and who cares, but Peyo was the creator of The Smurfs and other popular comic strips. Peyo went to school in Brussels to become an artist and started working for a small Belgium animation studio. There he met several men that would help launch his career. When the business went bankrupt, all the other animators moved to a different company. Peyo, though, was too young and they wouldn’t hire him. Peyo did odd jobs just to live and created a comic strip called //Johan// for a local newspaper. In 1954, a friend introduced Peyo to //Spirou//, a Franco-Belgian magazine. One of his first popular comics was called //Johan// //and Peewit//. It was in this comic that the first Smurf was introduced in 1958. The Smurfs became popular and began their own series in 1959. While all this was going on, Peyo opened his own studio and let other artists continue creating //The Smurfs// while he focused on //Johan and Peewit//. In 1959, Peyo let his son and daughter take charge of The Smurf franchise merchandising while he took on the role of businessman and supervisor. This was the first time small figurines debuted. In 1981, The Smurfs became an international sensation and Peyo became a story supervisor. In 1989, he created //Cartoon Creation// to publish new Smurf stories, but it was forced to shut down in 1991 due to poor management. Peyo’s studio still exists today and many new stories are being produced under his name. Peyo received the Youth Prize Award in 1984 at a Comics Festival in France. Peyo and his Smurfs were so well loved that in 2008 a high-valued collector’s coin, the Belgium Five Euro 50th anniversary of The Smurfs commemorative coin was created to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the creation of The Smurfs and the 80th anniversary of the birth Peyo. Thanks to Peyo and his Smurfs, small figurines were introduced to the world. Peyo left a huge legacy all throughout Europe and the rest of the world. There is probably not one place in Belgium where people have not heard of Peyo and his Smurfs.