Johan and Peewit

Johan and Peewit
Johan and Peewit set off on adventure, with Peewit "singing" a fabliau in Old French
Publication information
Publisher	Dupuis and Dargaud
First appearance	1947
Created by	Peyo
Partnerships	The Smurfs

Johan and Peewit (French: Johan et Pirlouit) is a Belgian comics series created by Peyo. Since its initial appearance in 1947 it has been published in 13 albums that appeared before the death of Peyo in 1992. Thereafter, a team of comic book creators from Studio Peyo continued to publish the stories.

The series is set in Medieval Europe and includes elements of sword-and-sorcery. Johan et Pirlouit provided the framework for the first appearances of The Smurfs.

Initially titled simply Johan, the series first appeared in the newspaper La Dernière Heure in 1947, and then in Le Soir from 1950 until 1952. It began publication in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Spirou on September 11, 1952, and the initially blond-haired hero became dark-haired.

In 1954, Johan was joined by Pirlouit, and the series took its final name. It was in Johan et Pirlouit, on October 23, 1958, that the first smurf appeared.

Peyo stated that Pirlouit was his favourite character, and Johan et Pirlouit was the only series on which he always did the drawings without the aid of the studio. Their adventures appeared regularly in Spirou in the 1950s and early 1960s, but the success of the Smurfs meant that they were much neglected afterwards, aside from a very short one-off adventure in 1977. However, following Peyo's death, other artists and writers have revived the series with 4 more albums between 1994 and 2001.

Set in the Middle Ages in an unnamed European kingdom, the series follows the adventures of Johan, a brave young page to the King, and Peewit, his faithful, if boastful and cheating, midget sidekick. Johan rides off in search of adventure with his trusty horse Bayard, while Peewit gallops sporadically, and grudgingly, behind on his goat, Biquette. The pair are driven by duty to their King and the courage to defend the underpowered. Struggles for power between deposed lords and usurping villains form the basis of many of the plots which also contain elements of detective fiction as the pair hunt down traitors and outlaws, as well as fantasy, with witches and sorcerers, giants, ghosts and, above all, the Smurfs.