We smurf fans have a lot to thank Nine Culliford for. Nine Culliford died on 5th July 2016 and was the wife of Pierre Culliford, more famously known as Peyo. It is thought to believe that it was her suggestion to make the smurfs blue.
Nine Culliford was a colourist and worked closely with Peyo in creating the initial design elements of the smurfs. Different colours were initially discussed at the beginning, but Peyo believed a pink colour would make them look too human like. The colour green was dismissed as the smurfs would live in a forest surrounded by green foliage, the colour red would make them stand out way too much and yellow is considered unlucky by some so that was quickly dismissed. Supposedly in Nine Culliford’s eyes this only left one possible colour – blue.
Nine was the colourist for the Smurfs from their first appearance in “Johan et Pirlouit” (Johan and Peewit) in 1958 until her husband’s death in 1992, and she continued to be active on Smurf projects after her son Thierry and her daughter Véronique took over.
It was in 1959 that the smurfs starred in their own mini stories and was also the same year that we saw the introduction of smurf merchandise. The concept was conceived by Dupuis when they started to produce 5cm latex figurines of their characters that included the Smurfs.
It is hard to think of any other comic character that is not as well known as the Smurfs. Their distinctive blue colour ensures that Smurfs will always be unique and unlike anything else.
If some call Peyo the spiritual father of the Smurfs then Nine must surely be called their spiritual mother. Nine Culliford was 86 years of age when she passed away.
Thank you Nine for your contribution, R.I.P
Keep on Smurfin
Kath B