Peyo introduced the Smurfs in the Johan and Peewit storyline The Magic Flute in 1958; the characters quickly supplanted Johan and Peewit in popularity and left them behind for their own series.
12 Facts About Peyo
2.
In 1960, Peyo founded a studio to accommodate his assistants such as Francois Walthery, Gos, and Marc Wasterlain and created the series Steven Strong and Jacky and Celestin.
3.
Peyo's output diminished in the 1970s, at first due to the time he invested in The Smurfs and the Magic Flute, a film adaptation of the Johan and Peewit story "La flute a six schtroumpfs"; in the 1980s, he put in more time, despite recurring health problems, into an American adaptation of The Smurfs as an animated television series.
4.
Peyo joined Le Lombard in 1992 but died a few months later.
5.
Peyo began work, fresh from his coursework at the Academie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, at the Compagnie belge d'actualites, a small Belgian animation studio, where he met a few of his future colleagues and co-celebrities, like Andre Franquin, Morris, and Eddy Paape.
6.
Peyo made his first comics for the newspaper La Derniere Heure, but accepted many promotional drawing jobs for income.
7.
Peyo wrote and drew a number of characters and storylines, including Pierrot, and Benoit Brisefer.
8.
Peyo himself supervised the work and worked primarily on Johan and Peewit, leaving the Smurfs to the studio.
9.
Peyo became more of a businessman and supervisor and was less involved in the actual creation of the comics.
10.
Some reached the United States, where Hanna-Barbera created a Saturday morning animated series in 1981 for which Peyo served as story supervisor.
11.
Peyo died of a heart attack in Brussels on Christmas Eve 1992, at the age of 64.
12.
Only those comics Peyo collaborated on are listed here: the comics made in those series after his death can be found in the articles for each series.