The Smurfs Return Out of the Blue

Over the past few years, Terry Nantier, founder of NBM Publishing, has been wishing to bring the Smurfs back. Having read the books as a child, Nantier hoped that as a comics publisher he would be able to bring the adventures of the Smurfs to English-speaking kids. Nantier’s wish came true with the publication of the original first two tales. NBM’s Papercitz division plans to also release the rest of the series on at a time, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Nantier’s wish only came true, though, due to the accouncement of the Smurfs movie, slated to come out next year. The movie will star Neil Patrick Harris, Hank Azaria, Katy Perry, and Alan Cumming.

“Peyo was one of the most famous cartoonists of his day.” Nantier told Speakeasy. The rights “were with a Belgian company that represents the Peyo family. We had been wanting to have this for sometime even before the movie came around but as the movie started, it made sense to pursue them. I approached them at Frankfurt Book Fair last year with our interest. We had been trying to get the rights for years though.”

Nantier said that there are roughly 50 albums to be published and he intends to “bring out every single last page.”