The Smurfs is a Belgian comic series, created by cartoonist Peyo (pen name of Pierre Culliford). The fictional characters of the Smurfs first appeared in Johan and Peewit in 1958, and the first independent Smurf comics appeared in 1959. Thirty Smurf comic albums have been created, 16 of them by Peyo. Originally, the Smurf stories appeared in Spirou magazine with reprints in many different magazines, but after Peyo left the publisher Dupuis, many comics were first published in dedicated Smurf magazines, which existed in French, Dutch and German. A number of short stories and one page gags have been collected in comic books next to the regular series of 30. By 2008, Smurf comics have been translated into 25 languages, and some 25 million albums have been sold. A new Smurfs comic album sold i