Since its initial appearance in , it has been published in 13 albums that appeared before the death of Peyo in Thereafter, a team of comic book creators from Studio Peyo continued to publish the stories. The series is set in Medieval Europe , and mainly concerns the adventures of Johan, a young squire and his jester sidekick Peewit, and includes elements of sword-and-sorcery.
It is also notable for branching out into The Smurfs franchise, following their first introduction in the story The Smurfs and the Magic Flute. It began publication in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine Spirou on 11 September [ 1 ] and the initially blond-haired hero became dark-haired.
In , Johan was joined by Pirlouit, and the series took its final name. It was in Johan et Pirlouit , on 23 October , that the first smurf appeared. Peyo stated that Pirlouit was his favourite character, [ 4 ] 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 s and early s, but the success of the Smurfs meant that they were much neglected afterwards, aside from a very short one-off adventure in However, following Peyo's death, other artists and writers have revived the series with 4 more albums between and 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.
