Peyo

Peyo was the pen name of Pierre Culliford, a Belgian comics writer and artist, born on 25 June 1928 in Schaerbeek and died on 24 December 1992 in Brussels. The name came from a young cousin who pronounced “Pierrot” as “Peyo”. He joined the CBA animation studio in 1945, alongside André Franquin, Morris and Eddy Paape, created Johan in 1946 for the newspaper “La Dernière Heure” and moved him to the magazine “Spirou” in 1951, where Peewit joined him in 1954. In May 1958, in “La Flûte à six trous”, the Smurfs first appeared and became his best-known creation; Benoît Brisefer followed in 1960. He founded Studio Peyo in 1963. The Smurfs were adapted for television by Hanna-Barbera from 1981.