The Black Smurfs (comic story)

The Black Smurfs is the first story of the original French-language The Smurfs comic book series and was part of the Little Comics Collection sub-series that was sold only in Belgium created by Peyo, it is published for the first time in issue 1107 of the Spirou publication as the first "mini-récit" in the magazine on July 2, 1959. This was a special supplemental page which readers would remove and fold up in order to create a small booklet.

During the 40th anniversary of the Smurfs' appearances, the story was re-released on 1998 in Spirou issue 3158 with an alternate comic book front cover.   A remastered version was published as a hardcover book on April 23th 2008 as part of the 50th anniversary of the Smurfs' appearances. Originally, readers had to obtain the books by cutting a coupon in their daily newspaper, give it to their bookseller and pay 4.99 euros per piece in addition to the newspaper for 1 euro.   The story sees the Smurfs' first standalone adventures, the initial introduction of Grouchy Smurf (whom at the time was a normal Smurf) and his behavioral origins, and the first time of which the Smurfs Village was now established in a lush-filled animal-populated forest in which it would be eventually be named as the Smurf Forest.

Characters

 * Papa Smurf
 * Grouchy Smurf (first appearance; in his pre-Grouchy state)
 * Dopey Smurf
 * Brainy Smurf (revised version only)
 * Jokey Smurf (revised version only)
 * Generic Smurfs

Plot
The story begins with a recap on the Smurfs' initial appearance in the Johan and Peewit comic book story "The Flute With Six Holes". Then it transitions onto the Smurfs gathering to work on the bridge crossing the river in the forest, Papa Smurf spots one of them dozing off and sends him into the forest to cut a pole in the forest. As he works on chopping down his first tree, that Smurf gets stung by a fly known as the Bzz Fly that turns his skin jet black, drives him insane and reduces his vocabulary to the single word "gnap!"   Papa Smurf becomes concerned when that Smurf fails to return and sends an unamed Smurf, to go find him. No sooner does the smurf find him, though, that he quickly returns to Papa Smurf, telling him that that Smurf has turned black. Papa Smurf becomes fearful, realizing that that Smurf has been infected by the Bzz fly. The smurf spots the transformed Smurf hopping his way to the village. They chase after him and capture him, binding him in rope. After Papa Smurf tells some of his little Smurfs to take the captured black Smurf to his house, he tells the others that the similar case of this disease was when he was 108 years old, but now he can't remember what the composition of the remedy that he used.   However, the captured black Smurf doesn't stay bound for long. After breaking his bonds, he spots a normal Smurf outside his house and bites his tail, turning that Smurf black as well. As he watches the two black Smurfs hop into the forest, Papa Smurf sees that he needs to find the antidote. He tells his little Smurfs not to disturb him as he spends the night working on a possible cure for the black Smurfs, which was a green pill.   By morning, Papa Smurf send some Smurfs to capture one, though in the process another Smurf gets bitten while trying to capture one, getting caught in his own lasso. This results in some Smurfs capturing the new changed one. Papa Smurf tries his cure on the captive though it fails as it only causes him to faint. It was a mistake, however, to release him, as Papa Smurf sends a Smurf to carry him back to his house, but the Black Smurf wakes up and escapes by biting the Smurf's tail who in turns infects a bystander.   He and the new transformed Smurfs went back to the forest to escape capture. Then, Papa Smurf decides to make another possible cure which is ointment. The next day none of the Smurfs want to get another Black Smurf, so Papa sends three Smurfs out to get one. They capture a Black Smurf as one of them acts as bait while the others knock it out with a rock. They return with it and Papa Smurf pours and rubs the ointment on the Black Smurf's head, which causes it to break its bonds. Papa Smurf then runs for cover as a bunch of Black Smurfs hops out of his laboratory and into the forest...all except for one which is knocked out and dragged back inside Papa Smurf's laboratory so that Papa Smurf can attempt to find a possible cure, though he escapes as well.   Having no other option, Papa Smurf and his remaining Smurfs leave to capture the Bzz fly as fifteen of them (sixteen at the point during Papa Smurf's talk) are now infected. However, some of the Smurfs end up capturing other animals, while the infected keep adding to their numbers. Eventually Papa Smurf captures the Bzz fly; however, he fails to get a cure from it, which causes problems. As time is running out each day, dozens of Smurfs are getting infected, until they are only about a handful left. Papa Smurf then decides to give it a tuberose flower to eat, which causes it to sneeze and turn blue. Realizing the cure is tuberose pollen, he and a smurf go out to test it on a Black Smurf and it works! They get all the flowers and they take the flowers home.   Meanwhile, the first Black Smurf and leader of the transformed Smurfs sneaks into the village and overhears this, so to avoid being sprayed with the antidote, he paints himself blue. After giving all the remaining Smurfs their bellows that contain the antidote, they prepare to battle the Black Smurfs. However, a swarm of all the infected Smurfs appear into the village and attack. It becomes a disaster, for if a Black Smurf was cured, he is immediately bitten again. Also the fake blue Smurf turns the favor over to his side by biting some of the Smurfs with bellows. <BR> <BR> This changes the playing field as this enables his transformed brethren to turn the last remaining Smurfs black -- all except for but Papa Smurf, who is now out of pollen. The village leader runs to his laboratory to get more of the antidote when the leader who painted himself blue ambushed him. This fails as he got hit by knocks over a lamp, causing a fire in Papa Smurf's house. While Papa Smurf is trying to douse the flames, the leader bites him. Knowing all hope is lost tells the reader this as the village leader turns black as well. Fortunately, a explosion occurs that also sprays the pollen in the air turning the Black Smurfs into their happy blue selves, and decided to throw a celebration, ending the story.

Revised version
On January 1963, Peyo releases a revision of the comic book story in the album of the same name. The revision replaces the unnamed Smurf with Brainy Smurf as that particular Smurf to find Grouchy (in his pre-Grouchy state) transformed into a Black Smurf, while some panels such as the (now replaced) unnamed Smurf getting pounded by the latter are removed.

The updated revision also extended some scenes in the comic book story, such as the ending in which Jokey Smurf plays a joke on the Smurfs to believe that there was a Black Smurf remaining.