Editing Snorks (section)

===Early years (1977–1981)===
In 1977, [[Freddy Monnickendam]], a Belgian businessman and artist, first made contact with the comics industry when he negotiated the rights for the [[The Smurfs (comics)|Smurfs comics]] to [[Pierre Kartner|Father Abraham]]. He later became the head of [[Freddy Monnickendam |SEPP]], a branch of [[Dupuis]], as an editor responsible for the merchandising of the Smurfs' comic series. Then he negotiated the contract between [[Peyo]], [[NBC]] and [[Hanna-Barbera]] for the creation of a new [[The Smurfs (1981 TV series)|''Smurfs'' cartoon]] series; Peyo wanted the show to be as faithful as possible to his original comics, but Monnickendam wanted it to be more mainstream and accessible. These negotiations would later result in a legal dispute between the two men due to the division of the rights and the money involved. As a final result, Monnickendam decided to compete with the Smurfs' success, starting a new series of cartoons.