Peyo

Peyo was a Belgian comics artist, known all over the world as the creator of the 'Smurfs', or 'Les Schtroumpfs' as they are called in French.

Early Life
Peyo was born in 1928 in the Belgian municipality Schaerbeek, as the son of an English father and a Belgian mother. He started his working life at the age of 15. He began as a cinema projectionist, and then went to work in an animation studio. The studio closed down and Peyo decided to focus on cartoon comic strips.

Smurfs
In 1958, Peyo created a Johan et Pirlouit story named La Flûte à Six Trous (The Flute with Six Holes). In this story, Johan and Pirlouit meet The Smurfs, for the very first time. The Smurfs are three apples tall and live during the medieval era. Peyo has stated that the Smurfs were motivated by the trolls of Nordic fairy tales and that the Smurfs' blue pallor was selected because it was a color he thought children would like.