[PLACE HORRIBLY HACKY PLAY ON THE WORD “SMURF” HERE]: A review of NIGHT OF THE SMURFING DEAD

Wow. Zombies really are everywhere. Shit, if they could get into the world of STAR WARS, why not Smurfs?



This time, Gargamel has outdone himself. Tired of always losing, he creates a zombie Smurf to loose upon his sworn enemies. In this rather revealing scene, we find out why Smurfette is the only female Smurf: Gargamel created her out of hopes that introducing sexual possibilities to the Smurfs would destroy them over the awe-inspiring power of pussy. How fucking awesome is that?


The zombie Smurf comes upon Vanity Smurf first, and soon, all the Smurfs are being transformed into zombies. They start eating each other in the bloodiest Smurfs tale you’re ever likely to see. A team of Smurfs, lead by Papa Smurf (naturally), hole up in Handy Smurf’s house as they scheme to come up with a plan to get out of this mess.


Writer and illustrator John Hoban, who also did APOCALYPSE CITY, goes balls-out for laughs on this one. If you’re looking for social commentary, what the fuck are you doing looking for it in a book called NIGHT OF THE SMURFING DEAD?! This is clearly a fuck-off book, and it’s great fun. While it’s a bit of a fanboy-ish thing to do, see if you can notice all the homages to other zombie material. In fact, much of it seems to be inspired by NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (obviously), but when Handy Smurf loses his hand (ha-ha, get it?), guess what replaces it? And how about when Papa Smurf straps on a lawnmower for . . . eh, you get it.


The best part is, Hoban has got such a good feel for the Smurfs that they look exactly as they did on the classic show. It looks like this could be an official Smurfs story. It speaks to the child within while appealing to the adult you (supposedly) are.


The only flaw is that the “smurf” thing is overdone. You know. The Smurfs always replaced curse words with “smurf.” Hoban ratchets it up about a thousand times. For the most part, it’s funny, but it gets out of hand at times.


Don’t let that stop you from giving this book a try. Read it. Have some fun. Have a few laughs. It’s worth a few minutes of your time. Just hope that Hoban doesn’t decide to do a sequel. This is perfect as it is; any more would ruin the joke.


[It should also be noted that spell-check has no problem with “Smurf.”]


NIGHT OF THE SMURFING DEAD
Written and illustrated by John Hoban
Published by ?????
25 pages
$5 (if memory serves correctly)