was born in Brussels, on June 25th, 1928. His real name was Pierre Culliford. At first, he almost became a dentist’s assistant. Luckily, he got a job in a cartoon studio. There he met and worked with some of Europe’s most famous comic book artists such as Franquin and Morris. Unfortunately the studio closed down and Peyo decided to become a full-time comic artist. He found himself a pen name from his childhood nickname ‘Pe- yot’.
Peyo became successful as a comic (連環畫) artist. He decided to draw what he really loved,
stories based in the Middle Ages. He created the character Johan and drew some Johan strips (漫畫) for the Belgian daily newspaper ‘Le Soir’ and then for ‘Spirou’ magazine. Johan soon became a huge success and one of the magazine’s main characters.
For Johan’s ninth book of adventures, Peyo needed a group of imps (小精靈) to build a magic flute. At a meal with his friend Andre Franquin. he asked Franquin to pass him the salt. But he couldn’t remember the word so he said, “Pass me the … um… the smurf!”. Franquin handed it over and answered, “Here’s the smurf. Onee you’ve smurfed with it you can smurf it back to me!” And so the name and language of the little imps were invented. The readers soon fell in love with these little smurfs, who love having fun, live in mushroom-shaped houses and speak a strange and wonderful language.
The Smurfs films were first seen on Belgian television and then in France and the Netherlands. In 1981. The Smurfs was on the American NBC TV Channel for the first time, but the success didn’t stop there. The success of the Smurfs became planetary in the 80’s because of the cartoons. There are few regions left where people don’t know smurfs, but their name changes in every county; the Smurfs, die Schlümpfe, Los Pitufos, I Puffi. de Smurfen, les Schtroumpfs… and 藍精靈 in Chinese.
In August 2011, the Smurfs make their return to the big screen again, this time in 3D! Peyo left us on December 24, 1992, but the Smurfs have continued their many adventures and are today looking forward to a bright and even more exciting future.
小題1:Peyo’s real name was .
| A．Pierre | B．Franquin |
| C．Morris | D．Johan |
小題2:Peyo tried many different jobs except .
| A．as a dentist’s assistant | B．the one in a cartoon studio |
| C．as a full-time comic artist | D．as a newsagent |
小題3:The Smurfs .
| A．are a group of blue imps from Peyo’s book |
| B．are serious and hate having fun |
| C．soon became one of the ‘Spirou’ magazine’s main characters |
| D．will be in the movie on December 24th, 2011 |
小題4:The last paragraph tells us .
| A．The Smurfs have come back to their big screen home. |
| B．Peyo has left for another country. |
| C．The Smurfs’ story stops after Peyo left us. |
| D．There might be more works about Smurfs in the future. |
