The Purple Smurfs

Note: This article will only focus on the first story of the book/strip itself and not the rest of the other stories (The Flying Smurf and The Smurfnapper).

The Purple Smurfs also known as The Black Smurfs (Les Schtroumpfs Noirs in French), is the first comic based on The Smurfs, who were first introduced in the Johan & Peewit comic book: The Flute with Six Holes (La Flûte à six trous in French). This comic centers around a fly which is able to turn a Smurf into an insane driven and black/purple skinned monster. This eventually leads to an epidemic within the village as Papa Smurf, as well as the other healthy Smurfs, develop a cure to end the virus once and for all.

Why It Smurfs (Why It Rocks)

 * 1) This comic not only introduced the blue little creatures we know and love today, but it also introduced one of the very first ever viral Zombie Apocalypses to be depicted just like Night of the Living Dead, only that the movie came out almost a decade after this comic. In fact, some of the tropes found in the story also became the tropes in later zombie movies:
 * 2) *The BZZZ Fly's "virus" can transform another Smurf by biting a it's tail, similar to how biting a person's neck can also infect him/her.
 * 3) *The plot about finding a cure to the also reminisces to some Zombie movies are about finding a vaccine just like World War Z.
 * 4) *In the climax of the Story, before the big battle against the Purple/Black Smurfs, the first Smurf to be infected by the fly regains back a sense of his knowledge to paint himself blue to avoid being sprayed with the Tuberose Pollen (which is actually the cure to the disease). Likewise, this is also similar to the zombies in #ALIVE, where some Zombies regain a sense of their job occupations to infect other people. In the movie, a Firefighter Zombie is seen using a wire rope to scale the large building.
 * 5) The comic book also introduced some classical characters in Smurfs such as Clumsy Smurf, Papa Smurf, Brainy Smurf and Jokey Smurf.
 * 6) The idea of a epidemic attacking the Smurf Village in a zombie-like style is actually executed greatly here.
 * 7) It also references the infamous "Black Death" plague from the 13th century to make the sick infected Smurfs, which is creative and unique as it makes one see the plague in a whole new perspective.
 * 8) "SMURF-REKA!"
 * 9) Although a comic based around a viral epidemic might sound serious, the story also includes some comedic moments such as a running gag about Clumsy Smurf not being able to get the right thing (example: He gets a poppy when Papa Smurf instructs him to get Tuberose Pollen).
 * 10) The designs on The Smurfs are overall simple and quite cartoony compared to their Johan & Peewit designs.
 * 11) The battle against the Purple/Black Smurfs is a page-turner and a intriguing battle as it depicts the Smurfs struggling to get the Purple/Black Smurfs to return back to normal, while a fake one amongst them is making them lose as well as the fact that when one gets cured, it eventually turns back.
 * 12) The twist at the end which turns all the Smurfs back to normal is reliving.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) This comic book story can actually get quite dark at times as it shows the transformation (although not that graphic) of the Smurfs turning purple/black, the purple/black Smurfs biting the tail of a Smurf violently.
 * 2) The story eventually had to turn the Smurfs from black to purple to avoid racial discrimination and also because some people may not know what the Black Death is.
 * 3) The story can get repetitive at times as it is basically the Smurfs going through Trial and Error in finding the right cure.
 * 4) The so-called "Smurf" language in here can get really annoying as it always is.

Trivia

 * 1) The story was actually first published in 1959 (4 years before it became its standalone comic) in a Spirou issue. The story had contained some differences such as new panels showing the Smurf encountering the first infected Smurf and that Jokey and Brainy were not introduced yet.
 * 2) There are 3 different animated adaptions of this story. The first animated adaption was in 1965 as part of Les Aventures des Schtroumpfs which is (sadly) lost to time, the second animated adaption was in 1981 for the 1980s Smurfs Hanna Barbera Cartoon where it shows the first ever "Purple Smurf change" and finally, the third animated adaption was in 1998 as a CD-ROM which contained the Flying Smurf story but it was only sold in European Markets.