Night of the undead Smurfs

The Smurfs are tiny blue trolls, three apples high, who live in the Cursed Land which humans can reach only by using an enchanted flute. First introduced in the Franco-Belgian comic “Johan et Pirlouit” in 1958, the Smurfs have become a worldwide commercial success with comic albums, cartoons, toys and even music records. Here in Sweden, the Conservative Youth League once sent a Smurf tie to then-Prime Minister Carl Bildt. And yes, the blue dwarfs are entirely fictitious. Thank god, because their singing voices are extremely annoying!

Despite their innocuous appearance, the Smurfs have been the subject of bizarre rumors. Perceived similarities with the KKK, Leon Trotsky or Maoism have all been duly noted, hopefully mostly tongue-in-cheek. I noticed the Maoist connection long ago. Doesn't the Smurf Village look suspiciously alike to a people's commune during the Great Leap Forward? And yes, they all wear Frygian caps, a sure sign of Illuminati influence. That the wizard Gargamel (the Smurf's perennial adversary) has a cat named after the Angel of Death has lead some people to claim that the entire comic must be Satanist or Satanic.

The only serious criticism I've seen so far is that Gargamel looks like an anti-Semitic stereotype. In fact, his predecessor Monulf from the Johan-et-Pirlouit album “Le Pays Maudit” looks like he's taken straight from Der Stürmer. Another possible ethno-criticism has been creatively forestalled, however. When the story featuring evil black Smurfs was published in the United States, the bad guys had suddenly all turned purple…

“The Purple Smurfs” was the only Smurf comic that actually scared me as a kid. It's essentially a zombie story, arguably the only zombie story adapted for a pre-school audience. Many people have noticed parallels with “The Night of the Living Dead”. One of the amiable Smurfs is stung by a dangerous fly and turns into an undead monster whose bite immediately zombifies the victim, making him join the dark side. Soon, Smurf civilization as we know it is threatened with complete destruction, as Smurf Village is besieged and attacked by scores of zombie-midgets. Unfortunately for the few remaining blue Smurfs, the evil purple variety can move much faster than Romero's zombified humans. I won't reveal how the story ends, except that it's truly apocalyptic and involves a huge explosion!

Not sure how to rate this old horror comic, but for ol' times sake, I give it four stars. Despite the Über-obvious parallels to zombies, vampires and the Battle of Armageddon, the concept does feel original somehow…