“Who’s That Smurf?” is a Funny, Self-Aware Story

I first came across Tebo’s work in his “Raowl” series, which I reviewed positively here a few years back.

He’s still doing that series in the pages of “Spirou Journal“, though the format of it has shifted a bit. But through Spirou, I also learned that he’s a part of the Atelier Mastodon with other notables like Nob and Lewis Trondheim. He has a sense of humor that fits right in there. (And there is a six volume series the studio did that I’d LOVE to see translated…)

And now he’s done a one-shot Smurfs album that is equally self-aware, adventurous, and funny. It’s also, if you look at it a certain way, slightly satirical. It can point out the foibles of your typical Smurfs story while reading like a love letter to the series. It’s the kind of book only a true Smurfs fan could have put together, and it made me laugh out loud several times.

Smurftastic Credits

Trust Me, There’s a Smurfing Story Here

A Smurf falls out of the sky into the Smurfs’ village and has amnesia. He doesn’t remember where he came from. He doesn’t feel like a Smurf. And he can’t understand a smurfing word everyone around him smurfs. Why do they talk like that?

Immediately, the story starts with this self-referential humor of “Just how silly can we make smurf word substitutions”? Tebo pushes the gag as far as he can, using a point of view character who, for very real plot-based purposes, doesn’t belong there. With that new angle, it makes sense and isn’t just a gag engine. Tebo can crack jokes that ring true to the character without getting mean about it towards the overall series.

I bet if you go back to the animated series or even the original comics, they didn’t do the “smurf” substitution nearly as often as everyone remembers it being. But everyone does remember it. Tebo uses it to great effect here.

It’s a trick he pulls off throughout the book, poking fun at the typical Smurfs story structure where Papa Smurf will always have a potion, Gargamel will always turn out to be the villain, and the plot occasionally is a little thin just because it is, in the end, a children’s tale. But everyone will run the forest trying to get away from something, that’s for sure!

He also explores the Smurf universe in some surprising ways that I won’t spoil for you here.

Thankfully, he takes the time for some funny moments. There are single page sequences that stand up well on their own that are done just for laughs. You’ll get the Smurfs on the run from a new menace for a few pages, and then the Smurfs have a discussion that’s a laugh a minute. Tebo balances the humor and the overall plot well.

There’s also a chicken who becomes a Smurf that threatens to steal the book in a very subtle way.

Tebo maintains his own cartooning style for this book, not sticking to the standard Smurf style guide. Hefty Smurf looks like a bigger body-building guy, though he still maintains his heart tattoo. Brainy Smurf still has his glasses but now they (usually) hide his eyes completely. Dopey’s hat covers his eyes and his body language has a hunch that makes him look even less bright than usual. And our Point of View Smurf character has an absolutely enormous nose that should cause him to topple over whenever he stands still. He almost looks like a Funko Smurf, though Funko did actually do Smurfs characters (of course they did!) with noses that looked relatively small. Oh, irony.

And, of course, Tebo tells the stories and the gags well. His sense of storytelling is solid, classic work. Whether it’s a back and forth between a Smurf and a dragon or Papa Smurf and Dopey Smurf, his sense of timing and attitude of all the characters work hand in hand to deliver very funny pages.

The book is a joy to read from beginning to end. And don’t miss the Asterix joke that made me laugh out loud twice — once because it’s an Asterix reference in a Smurf book, and then a second time on a meta level because Papercutz is publishing both series.

Smurfs on Paper

The great news is that this book is available in a good ol’ fashioned dead wood version.

I have to be consistent, though, and complain about the size. It’s roughly 9 1/2″ by 7″, which makes it puny next to a full size album and even worse next to the new Collector Editions of Asterix or the Smurfs Archives books. Maybe it’ll get a full size reprinting in the back of “The Smurfs Archive” volume 20-something-or-other. I’m an eternal optimist.

Here’s a comparison of what it looks like next to a standard Asterix book:

Of course, I understand why they did it this way. It’s cheaper to make. The audience for it probably mostly wants a smaller, more manga-sized edition. (Don’t worry, it’s not that small.) Book stores don’t have shelves big enough for these kinds of books.

Tebo’s artwork is simple enough that the book doesn’t completely suffer from being shrunk down. There are no legibility problems. Still, there are plenty of smaller panels with multiple Smurfs in them that the extra dimensions would be nice to have so we were a little closer to the original art’s size. We could appreciate everything more easily.

This is the hill I will die on. Alone. C’est la vie.

The story, itself, runs to page 56. That’s followed by a gallery of Tebo sketches and designs. It’s mostly Smurfs studies followed by a couple of pages in their pencil phase. It is super fun to see his style applied to the Smurfs from all sorts of angles and poses. Just be careful: There are spoilers in those pages! Read the book first!

Who’s Next?

I’ve long been a proponent for books of this type — legacy characters done in individual creators’ styles, not the originator’s style. There’s a great Mathieu Lauffray-drawn “Valerian” book, for example. Matthieu Bonhomme’s “Lucky Luke” albums were well-received. I still would argue that Flix’s “Spirou in Berlin” is the best introduction to those characters you can find.

Who should do a Smurfs book next, though? (Note: I’m not expecting there to be another Smurfs book like this, but as a mental exercise, this might be fun.)

The first thought that comes to mind is a fellow Spirou Journal regular and L’Atelier Mastodon creator, Nob. He did a great Smurfs Spirou Journal cover once. If he had a story in him, I’d love to see it.

Lewis Trondheim could write anything, and I’m sure he could draw a fun Smurf, too.

If we stuck to Spirou Journal artists, then Jose Luis Munuera and Alessandro Barbucci come to mind.

Manu Larcenet? That could be bleak, but he has enough different styles to make it work. Actually, I’d love to see his “The Road” style for backgrounds with his more normal cartoony style on the Smurfs. (He also did a Valerian book that sadly has not been translated into English.)

Who else would you recommend? Leave a comment below.

Recommended?

Yes. Heck yes. This feels like a loving tribute to a classic, done with an awareness and a style that ingratiates itself to the fans without being too in the weeds or too busy sucking up to tell a fun story with a lot of laughs.

Also, Tebo’s style works really well for this book so it’s a lot of fun to look at, too.

Check out the trailer for the book.

Get it at Amazon today in hardcover, softcover, or digitally. [As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases, but I bought this book myself, thanks.]