"The Smurf Menace" (original French title La Menace Schtroumpf) is a comic book story developed and published by Studio Peyo. It was released in English for North America on January 31, 2017 from Papercutz, with two additional stories included, "The Shadow Of The Smurf Apprentice" and "The Mansion Of A Thousand Mirrors".
Characters[]
- Papa Smurf/The Great Chief
- Brainy Smurf/Gray Brainy Smurf
- Smurfette/Gray Smurfette
- Handy Smurf/Gray Handy Smurf
- Greedy Smurf/Gray Greedy Smurf
- Jokey Smurf/Gray Jokey Smurf
- Hefty Smurf/Gray Hefty Smurf
- Farmer Smurf
- Lazy Smurf
- Vanity Smurf
- Harmony Smurf
- Chef Smurf (Mentioned only)
- Unnamed Smurfs
Plot Summary[]
One day, Papa Smurf has been noticing that his little Smurfs have been constantly getting themselves into fights and arguments with each other, eventually coming to blows. Papa Smurf tries to warn them that the unity of the village may be in danger if their behavior continues, but his warning falls on deaf ears as the situation gets worse and worse. He decides it is time to do something.
One day, a group of Smurfs that are sent out to gather sarsaparilla run into a group of identical Smurfs wearing gray clothes and having red eyes. These Gray Smurfs claim that the sarsaparilla field is theirs, and they get into an argument with the original Smurfs which results in a fight where two of the original Smurfs get captured by the Gray Smurfs. The third original Smurf follows where the Gray Smurfs are taking his captured fellow Smurfs and discovers a duplicate Smurf Village not far from his own, surrounded by a high fence, where their leader is a Smurf who looks identical to Papa Smurf but has darker clothes. The third original Smurf returns to his own village to warn Papa Smurf and his fellow Smurfs about this identical village full of Gray Smurfs. Papa Smurf doesn't believe his story at first, but he goes to investigate the claim and meets up with their leader, the Great Leader, asking for the safe return of the captured Smurfs. The Great Leader is reluctant to let them go at first, but then with a bit of Papa Smurf's reasoning he allows them to be released.
Papa Smurf invites the Great Leader and his Gray Smurfs to attend a party being held in their village. The Great Leader refuses to attend, but later on changes his mind and the two groups of Smurfs meet with each other, though not without some problems between them, as Gray Smurfette proved to be rather antagonistic toward the original Smurfette, for example.
A day later, the Gray Smurfs are seen working on the dam, which makes the original Smurfs less receptive to what they were doing there. The Great Leader says that his Smurfs need water for his village, and so Papa Smurf has his little Smurfs work together with the Gray Smurfs in order to build a canal for their village. The following day, however, Hefty and Farmer find out that the river has been completely dried out, and that the Gray Smurfs were hoarding all the water. The Gray Smurfs meet the original Smurfs at the dam with spears, claiming it to be theirs now. The original Smurfs end up returning back to the village with no water for their crops.
The relations between the original Smurfs and the Gray Smurfs gets worse as three Gray Smurfs bully some original Smurfs into giving away their collected harvest from the forest. Hefty decides to take matters into his own hands and gives those Gray Smurfs a good beating, sending them back into their village. They respond by sending a message via arrow to Papa Smurf, demanding for Hefty Smurf to be surrendered. Papa Smurf refuses to do so, and suddenly the Gray Smurfs attack the original Smurfs armed with swords, shields, spears, and catapults. Papa Smurf races to his laboratory, which is then demolished by a catapult, and finds a spellbook that he is looking for, but he is soon captured along with the other Smurfs, and all his spellbooks are then burned.
Papa Smurf and the original Smurfs are all taken to the Gray Smurf Village where they are put to work as prisoners and given harsh treatment. During the imprisonment, Papa Smurf reveals that he was responsible for the creation of the Gray Smurfs with a magic powder that caused them and their village to appear. However, without the spellbooks, he cannot make them disappear. With Hefty and Jokey's help, Papa Smurf discovers that the Gray Smurf Village also has a laboratory which has copies of the spellbooks, including the one that he was looking for that contains the formula to make the Gray Smurfs disappear.
After making up the formula, Papa Smurf tries to return to camp with Hefty and Jokey but are soon stopped by the Gray Smurf guards and were made a public example by the Great Leader for disobedience. It was then Papa Smurf pulled out the vial containing the powder, but unfortunately it wouldn't open. He tries to throw it to one of his little Smurfs so they could open it before the Gray Smurfs got a hold of it, but Gray Brainy catches it first and was about to bring it to the Great Leader when Jokey trips him, causing him to break open the vial and release the powder which made the Gray Smurfs and their village disappear.
Free from the tyranny of the Gray Smurfs, the original Smurfs return to their village and life goes back to normal.
Notes[]
- The 1980s cartoon show episode "Papa Smurf, Papa Smurf" has Papa Smurf accidentally creating a duplicate of himself through a formula that also ends up duplicating Gargamel, but the duplication doesn't create an evil version of Papa Smurf (or a good version of Gargamel, for that matter).
- The 2021 cartoon show episode "The Pluffs!" have Brainy and Smurfblossom visit a parallel universe where the Smurfs are gray and mean, while Gargamel and Azrael are kind.
- "The Shadow Of The Smurf Apprentice" is a comic book adaptation of the cartoon show episode "Jokey's Shadow", while "The Mansion Of A Thousand Mirrors" is an adaptation of the episode "A Maze Of Mirrors".