Peyo stated that Pirlouit was his favourite character, 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 1950s and early 1960s, but the success of the Smurfs meant that they were much neglected afterwards, aside from a very short one-off adventure in 1977. However, following Peyo's death, other artists and writers have revived the series with 4 more albums between 1994 and 2001.