The Smurfs Anthology #2
The second Papercutz anthology of original Smurf stories offers a delightful and instructive mix of Peyo’s colorful tales. A series of essays interspersed throughout the collection provides social and historical context for the cartoons, particularly with regard to Smurfette, who was originally created as a destructive weapon foisted on the all-male Smurf village, reflecting period chauvinism. Other tales here feature the hilarity of Vanity Smurf creating a mirror image of himself, complete with identical reversed speech bubbles, in The Hundredth Smurf; and one of Peyo’s Johan and Pirlouit adventures, The War of Seven Fountains, in which the Smurfs are merely an interlude, just as they appeared during the series’ initial publication. As with other reprints of midcentury comics, some may bristle at the thought of young readers encountering the antiquated politics representative of the period, but that’s all the more reason for adults to give in to their nostalgia for the whimsical Smurfs and share this collection with kids. Peyo, whose charming Benny Breakiron stories are also being reintroduced, certainly continues to deserve a readership. Grades 4-8. --Francisca Goldsmith