Johan and Peewit


Johan and Peewit is a Belgian comics series created by Peyo. Since its initial appearance in 1947 it has been published in 13 albums that appeared before the death of Peyo in 1992. Thereafter, a team of comic book creators from Studio Peyo continued to publish the stories.
The series is set in Medieval Europe and includes elements of sword-and-sorcery. Johan et Pirlouit provided the framework for the first appearances of The Smurfs.

Publication history

Initially titled simply Johan, the series first appeared in the newspaper La Dernière Heure in 1947, and then in Le Soir from 1950 until 1952. It began publication in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Spirou on September 11, 1952, and the initially blond-haired hero became dark-haired.
In 1954, Johan was joined by Pirlouit, and the series took its final name. It was in Johan et Pirlouit, on October 23, 1958, that the first smurf appeared.
Peyo stated that Pirlouit was his favourite character, and Johan et Pirlouit was the only series on which he always did the drawings without the aid of the studio. Their adventures appeared regularly in Spirou in the 1950s and early 1960s, but the success of the Smurfs meant that they were much neglected afterwards, aside from a very short one-off adventure in 1977. However, following Peyo's death, other artists and writers have revived the series with 4 more albums between 1994 and 2001.

Synopsis

Set in the Middle Ages in an unnamed European kingdom, the series follows the adventures of Johan, a brave young page to the King, and Peewit, his faithful, if boastful and cheating, midget sidekick. Johan rides off in search of adventure with his trusty horse Bayard, while Peewit gallops sporadically, and grudgingly, behind on his goat, Biquette. The pair are driven by duty to their King and the courage to defend the underpowered. Struggles for power between deposed lords and usurping villains form the basis of many of the plots which also contain elements of detective fiction as the pair hunt down traitors and outlaws, as well as fantasy, with witches and sorcerers, giants, ghosts and, above all, the Smurfs.
The first few adventures did not feature Peewit. From his first appearance in 1947, Johan had a number of solo adventures and met Peewit in 1954, thus, in line with many other comic series of the time, giving Johan's earnest hero a comic relief sidekick similar to Tintin's Captain Haddock, Spirou's Fantasio or Gil Jourdan's Libellule.

Characters

Contrary to what he believes himself, Peewit is a terrible musician, though, unlike Cacofonix from the Asterix series, the other inhabitants of the castle cannot bring themselves to tell him how bad he is — though the King did once make a show of removing earplugs in Peewit's presence. His "music" has also been known to cause rain.
Peewit is easily upset, especially when Johan volunteers him to go on another adventure but, being cunning and agile, he is quite capable of escaping from a tight corner and putting up a fight. When outwitting his enemies, he screams out his cry of triumph: "Peeeewiiiiit". In the Smurfs cartoon series, rather than being a random dwarf, he is the King's nephew, as he states in the episode The Sorcery Of Maltrochu, and is portrayed as a kid, younger than Johan.
While never as popular as the Smurfs, Johan and certainly Peewit enjoyed their share of fame and popularity as well, and consequently some merchandising was made. In 1959, a first Peewit figurine was made by Dupuis, followed a few years later by a Johan. In the 1970s, Bully and Schleich made Johan and Peewit figurines in their series of PVC Smurf figurines. Plush puppets were made as well.

In other media and comics

Originally a Johan and Peewit adventure, The Smurfs and the Magic Flute was adapted into an animated film in 1976 in Europe, with considerable success. It was re-released in 1983 in the wake of the success of the Smurfs cartoons from Hanna-Barbera, and enjoyed some success in the USA as well.
Johan and Peewit were also featured in some of the animated Smurf cartoons, being the main stars in many episodes. In France and other European countries, their TV cartoon adventures were treated as a separate series from that of the Smurfs, even though the latter feature heavily.
In the early 1980s, some records about their adventures were made in France and Italy, contributors including Cristina D'Avena.
Another Peyo series was Benoît Brisefer about a little boy with extraordinary strength. Benoît's adventures are set in modern times. In one episode a man strongly resembling Johan can be seen signing into a luxury hotel near a film studio — he even wears a brown jacket and red trousers similar to Johan's; in another, Benoît reads a newspaper which appears to indicate the announcement of a film called Johan: The Return II with a photo of Johan next to it.
When the Smurfs got their own series, Johan and Peewit did not feature. However, they did appear in a 2008 Smurf adventure called Les schtroumpfeurs de flûte. This story, published to mark the 50th anniversary of the first appearance of the Smurfs, is a prequel to La flûte à six schtroumpfs and tells how the Smurfs first deliver the flute which was to be the basis of the 1958 story. Johan and Peewit help out a human friend of the Smurfs, but do not actually get to meet the little blue elves themselves.

Stories and English translations

Few of Johan and Peewit's adventures have been published in English: La Flûte à six Schtroumpfs as The Smurfs and the Magic Flute, La guerre des sept fontaines as The War of the Seven Springs, and La Flèche noire under the title The Black Arrow.
Below is a list of the French titles, their year of publication, an English translation of the titles and a brief description.
The first 13 albums were published by Dupuis; those that came afterwards were published by Le Lombard.
As well as Spirou magazine, some of the shorter stories, like Sortilèges au château, were published in Risque-Tout which came from the same publishers.
Johan's adventures published in newspapers prior to his appearing in Spirou are not included.
French TitleDate of PublicationEnglish TranslationWriterArtist