The Smurfs (French: Les Schtroumpfs) is a comic and television franchise centered on a group of small blue fictional creatures called Smurfs, created by and first introduced as a series of illustrated comic strips by the Belgian cartoonist Peyo (pen name of Pierre Culliford) on October 23, 1958. Culliford's initial comic first appeared in the Belgian magazine Spirou, and several decades later was adapted into an English language children's television series by Hanna-Barbera Productions, titled The Smurfs.