Rob and fellow network all-star Brett Young discuss Marvel’s last classic treasury comic, SMURFS!
Check out images from this comic by clicking here!
This podcast is a proud member of the FIRE AND WATER PODCAST NETWORK:
- Visit the Fire & Water WEBSITE: http://fireandwaterpodcast.com
- Follow Fire & Water on BLUE SKY – https://bsky.app/profile/fwpodcasts.bsky.social
- Like our Fire & Water FACEBOOK page – https://www.facebook.com/FWPodcastNetwork
- Support The Fire & Water Podcast Network on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/fwpodcasts
- Use our HASHTAG online: #FWPodcasts
- E-MAIL – fwpodcasts@gmail.com
Thanks for listening!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
This one of my bros favorite he’s got some of the translated comics . And a bunch of the Smurf cartoons on dvd .
Didn’t the they add more Smurf girls later in the cartoon cause I remember there being sassiest and smurfet . I’m not the girl Smurfs interact to that much in the cartoon I could be wrong. If anyone knows let me know in the comments.
OK, you guys had me cracking up on my drive to work on a day I really needed it. I was the perfect age to love the Smurfs cartoon as a kid, and even had a handful of the toys that I remember intermixing with my MOTU figures back in the day. Here’s my take on the Smurf&Smurf PodSmurf NetSmurf:
Rob-Commentary Smurf. Smurfing the best DVDs and Blue-Smurf discs with his insightful memories and smurfs of trivia
Shag- Incorrigible Smurf. He knows smurfing better, but this rascal just keeps right on saying that smurf.
Ryan-Meticulous Smurf. Never one to leave a stone unsmurfed, he’s always digging into the smurf of the matter with his smurffy research.
Stella-Oracle Smurf. Want a literary reference and a Hismurfical look at the character? You found the best smurf for the job.
Chris-Power Records Smurf. WereSmurf by Night left a Gargamel-sized impact on this smurf at a young age.
Cindy-StoneCold Smurf. Smurf 3:16 says I just smacked your smurf upside the head because you deserved it. And that’s the bottom Smurf.
Siskoid-Bloggler Smurf. Keeping the ancient secrets of Smurf Trek alive in written form. Also known as the Smurfette whisperer.
Shotgun-Decisive Smurf. Yes or no. Johan or Gargamel. Smurf or Not. This smurf is anything but wishy washy.
Isabel-Laughing Smurf. If this smurf is guffawing loudly, it’s probably over a smurfed-up hairstyle.
Nathalie- Fashion Sense Smurf. The reason no smurf would ever be caught wearing smurfing spandex.
Josee-Art Smurf. Some smurfs can strike a Super-Smurf pose, and some just can’t. This is the smurf that lets you know who is who.
Amelie-Beauty Smurf. The only smurf that knows the perfect eye shadow for blue skin tone.
Elyse-Logistics Smurf. How the Smurf do you live in a mushroom? What-sized apples are used to measure a smurf? Smurfbody has to ask the tough questions.
Max-Stretchy Smurf. The biggest fan of Plastic Smurf, Elastic Smurf, and, oddly enough, the Smurf fly.
Bass-Teen Titans Smurf. If you want a smurfy lecture, just mention Wolfman/Perez, and this smurf will appear. Smurffy fact, bring up Hawk Smurf if you need a break.
Paul-Curator Smurf. Known for his love of the Bronze Age, especially with his work on DC Special Smurf. And the MVSmurf on draft episodes.
Shawn-Advertisement Smurf. Smurftess Fruit Pies, Sea Smurfs, and Kool-Aid Smurf make this Smurf smile more than the Smurf-Family, capturing the cat Calcurael.
Sean-Inspirational Smurf. Trying to make the world smurffier one smurfed-up story at a time. This smurf uses personal stories to entertain and inspire.
Brett-Coach Smurf. Proudly sporting a Smurfball jersey, while serving a tray of Smurf Lagoons and Smurf Hawaiians to all his fantastic guests, while smurfing the same joke.
Thanks for covering this issue. Even if the subject matter is less-than-Smurfy, it’s good to have this perspective on the end of the Treasury era.
Pronunciation note: Peewit (of Johan and Peewit) is pronounced “Pee-wee.” I assume that this is some French-language thing (insert Hercule Poirot to point out that the Smurfs are, in fact, Belgian).
While I didn’t have any of the Marvel Smurf comics back in the day, I did have a (presumably later) collection of Smurf comics bound under the name “Romeo and Smurfette” that I believe I got from a school book fair one year. It followed the same pattern described for these books: translated adventures brought over from Belgium, mostly one-pagers, with the occasional longer story included. I don’t recall that it featured much Gargamel, though. I assume Marvel made an effort to include Gargamel stories due to his inclusion in the Saturday morning cartoon.
Regarding the question of the size of the forest (and why Gargamel could never seem to find the Smurf Village). My understanding is that the size of the forest was less of an issue (although it must have been reasonably large just to have the variety of adventures in it that they have) than the fact that the Smurf Village itself was enchanted. As I recall (and I hope I’m not just making it up!), no human could ever find the Smurf Village unless led there by a Smurf. I assume that this was one of those “because comics” rules that could be broken whenever a writer wanted to (I do know that in “The Smurfs and the Magic Flute,” Johan and Peewit used a magical spell), but that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
Until next time!
I was aging out of Saturday morning cartoons by the time the Smurfs came along & I never could quite understand their enormous popularity at the time. Thanks for the fun episode!
Since Treasurycast and MASHcast came out at the same time, someone (I didn’t watch enough to do this) could assign the MASH characters to different Smurfs. I’d Papa Smurf more Colonel Potter or Colonel Blake? Is Smurfette more Major Houlihan or Radar?
Well, I’ll be smurfed! You smurfin’ guys went and gave us another Treasury Smurf!
O.k., I’ll stop with the smurfcabulary now.
The Smurfs really weren’t my jam: the cartoon debuted on Saturday mornings when I was in the 7th grade or thereabouts, so I was ‘too mature’ for it (although I recall that a few of the girls in my class liked watching it) and I recall seeing the Smurf monthly comic on the spinner racks back then and thinking, “Yeah, no.” However, I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation – you guys really squeezed quite a bit of entertaining content out of what seems like a rather middling Treasury book. I especially liked Brett’s story about the amusement park and ensuing blue vomit incident. Oh, man, his poor mom…
By the way, while the treasury hasn’t been scanned, I found pretty decent scans of the three regular monthly issues at several sites – I won’t post links here, because they are likely in violation of all kinds of copyright regulations, but if you’re interested, feel free to shoot me an e-mail.
We had one job: drag an hour out of Smurf talk.
Mission Smurfin’ accomplished.
I can’t smurf you enough for smurfing me on the show, Rob. It was smurfy. Go smurf yourself something nice.
Smurftastic episode, Smurf and Smurf! I Smurfin’ enjoyed the history segment and even the stories. Great to have SmurfCast back no matter what the subject matter.
Ps my copy is CGC 9.8 and on sale now for $799!
1 HULK SMURFS CROSSOVER NOW
2 LIKE Any dungons and dragons player in the 80s we had a smurf adventure, and star wars and wizard of oz. and of corse i did Doc savage but THAT was not universal
If anyone hasn’t seen it previously, be sure to watch the UNICEF PSA where the Smurf village gets bombed to hell. Who thought that was a good idea?
I still remember the image of Baby Smurf sitting along among the wreckage….
Enjoyed Smurfs way more than I should have. Watched them all the time.
Found this whole thing fascinating, especially theold-time standard song pun titles. ‘Nice Smurf if you can get it’ … I probably would understand that reference even as a kid.
I always wondered what those hats were called. I want one!
Liked the Smurfs. especially the Colecovision videogame where you rescued Smurfette. You know I really miss Saturday Morning cartoons.
Fun discussion guys! I was BIG into Smurfs. My mom managed a Hallmark store and they carried the Smurf figurines even before the Hanna-Barbara series hit. Once it did, the store was Smurf headquarters, and I had a direct connection. I still have most of my figurines, and we put out the seasonal ones at the appropriate holidays. I even had nice stuffed figures of Johann and Pewit, but unfortunately most of my Smurf-merch bit the dust when my dad’s basement flooded a few years back (what is it with Smurfs and flooding?).
Among those lost items, I believe, were mini-Smurf comics. These were the size of the Super Powers/M.A.S.K. pack-in comics. I can’t recall exactly how I got them or how they were distributed, but I think some of the stories were the same as the regular sized Marvel comic series, which this treasury was made from. And no, unfortunately I never had this treasury.
Brett’s story about yakking blue ice cream hit home a bit. Kings Island amusement park near Cincinnati, OH used to have a Hanna-Barbara kids land. Their famous treat was their blue ice cream. I think initally it was called Huckleberry Hound ice cream. Since the Smurfs were popularized by HB here in the US, they kind of took over the park in the 80s. The HB boat ride that had Scooby-Doo, the Flintstones, etc, became a Smurf ride, for instance. And the blue ice cream became Smurf ice cream. HB eventually left Kings Island, but the blue ice cream remained, and it’s still there. And because its so popular in Ohio and norther and central Kentucky, there are ice cream parlors/fast food joints that still carry it. And most people still call it Smurf ice cream.
Oh, and I’d never forgive myself if I didn’t mention that the Smurfs had THE GREATEST licensed breakfast cereal ever, Smurf Berry Crunch. That berry flavor has never been properly replicated, although oddly enough, last year’s Keelber “Strong Berry” version of their Fudge Striped cookies, based on the 2025 Superman movie, came very close.
I think those smaller comics were intended as Halloween giveaways. They sound like comics Marvel published with super-hero and Star Comics material in the late 1980’s, many under the title “Marvel Comics Presents” before that long running series debuted. They were about 4″X6″ and 16 pages long. I know that they shipped in bulk but I can’t remember if they were intended to be given away by comics stores to encourage kids to come to the store in costume or if they were sold to customers who wanted an alternative to candy for trick or treaters.
Are these the ones: https://www.comics.org/series/173912/covers/
Yep, that’s them! Thanks for unlocking that memory! I had several of those.
Great discussion. I was a little too old to get deeply into Smurfs when the cartoon premiered, but I remember it being a big deal and getting a lot of attention as a new show. I was still watching SuperFriends, so I wasn’t totally aged out of Saturday morning, and I did watch Smurfs a few times.
My uninformed head canon was that the Smurfs stories took place in modern times but that they were deep in the woods where no one ever found them — sort of like how the Legion of Doom headquarters was hidden so deep in the murky swamp that apparently even Superman couldn’t find it.