Kamagurka

Vocation

Belgian cartoonist, playwright, comic strip artist, painter, comedian, singer and producer. Kamagurka is the artist name of of Luc Charles Zeebroek. At age 17, he visited the satirical monthly Hara-Kiri (1960-1993) in Paris, that was affiliated with the weekly Hara-Kiri Hebdo (1969- Nov 1970), the predecessor of Charlie Hebdo. Here he met Georges Blondeau (GéBé), whilst his schoolmates visited the Louvre. He showed GéBé some cartoons, and was encouraged to come back with even more weird drawings. Meanwhile he published cartoons in the newspaper De Zeewacht (since 1972) and the Humo magazine (since 1975) under Guy Mortier. He studied Art in Brugge and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, but he left the academy before graduating. At age 20 he went regularly back to Charly Hebdo in Paris to find inspiration and had his first cartoons published in Hara Kiri. Together with Peter van Heirseele (aka Herr Seele), he set up the absurdist strip Cowboy Henk (24 Sept 1981 - End 2011). Kamagurka wrote the script; Peter did the illustrations. Both were inspired by the cartoons of the anti-hero strips of the American underground artists. Both men met much resistance (annoyed readers writing letters to the editors) in the beginning with their in sex, drugs and rock and roll believing anti-hero's. Kamagurka's absurdist cartoons would later be published in major papers and magazines in Holland (NRC Handelsblad, Vrij Nederland, Haagse Post, Playboy, Esquire), France (Charlie Hebdo, Hara Kiri), the UK (Squib, The Spectator, Deadpan),Germany (Titanic, Suddeutsche Zeitung, Zitty, Eulenspiegel), Austria (Die Presse) and the USA (The New Yorker, National Lampoon, RAW). He wrote more than 25 comics. He also produced Dutch and Flemish radio, television and theatre shows. He worked to together with Herrn Seele, pseudonym of Peter van Heirseele (13 April 1959, Torhout), who he met in Ghent in the late seventies. He got several prices for his work: in 1978 at age 22 the Louis Paul Boonprijs and Torhoutse Stripgidsprijs, in 1985 de Geuzenprijs, in 1993 the Nederlandse Stripschapprijs, in 2001 the Press Cartoon Belgium and in 2009 the Bernd Pfarr Sonderpreis. Link to Wikipedia