kamagurka

Kamagurka

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Kamagurka, aka Luc Zeebroek (Nieuwpoort, Belgium, 5 May 1956) is a Belgian cartoonist, theater- and televisionmaker. Kamagurka is known for his absurd cartoons and tvshows. He has a big variety of comicfigures, but "Bert en Bobje" are the most welknown. He also writes the scenarios for Herr Seele's comic of Cowboy Henk.
[edit] Biography

Kamagurka studied Art in Bruges and later performed studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent. However, he quit school before he would graduate.

He got to be known in Belgium because of his work as cartoonist in the weekly magazine Humo. Inspired by the absurd and shocking comics and cartoons of Robert Crumb, Roland Topor and the controversial French magazine Hara Kiri he introduced similar drawings in Belgium.

During a schooltrip in Paris Kamagurka decided to go to the editorial building of the magazine Hari Kiri. Only twenty years old, he ended up going there every two weeks to stay there for three days. Kamagurka still believes this to be his true education and the foundation of the rest of his career.

In 1972 he made his debut as cartoonist in "De Zeewacht". Three years later he became the regular cartoonist at Humo, with the support of Guy Mortier. In those first years the magazine received dozens of critical letters of readers in which Kamagurkas cartoons were attacked because people didn't understand them or because they saw them as too "vulguar". This made him a cultfigure. Until this day he is still one of the main cartoonists of the magazine.

Since the 80s he also makes a few cartoons with Herr Seele, with whom he also made several radio ("Studio Kafka", "Kamagurkistan") and televisionshows (like "Lava", "Johnnywood", "Wees blij met wat je hebt" and "Bob en George"). since 1981 they also make the comic Cowboy Henk, with Kamagurka responsible for the jokes and Seele making the drawings.

Kamagurka doesn't only make cartoons, but also paints and performs theater all throughout Flanders and The Netherlands.

He has made music since the beginning of the 80s with singles as "Constant Degoutant" , "Marjoleintje", "Een klein leger, maar een dik leger" (1981) and one censured by national radio "Weg met Boudewijn. Leve Fabiola". They called themselves Kamagurka en de Vlaamse Primitieven. In 2000 he released a new album called : "Oh Sabrina, wat heb je met mijn snor gedaan?" with singles like the title song and "Nee, mijn lief: je bent niet te dik."

In 1985 he received the Geuzenprijs for his entire oeuvre.

Since from 2002 he paid large contributions to "De Laatste Show". In 2005 he also had a theaterproduction with Jules Deelder: "Kamadeeldra".

Since 2006 he has been making television for "Man bijt Hond" with his show "De grens".

In 2008 Kamagurka does a huge artproject called "Kamalmanak". The idea is that he makes a painting for each day in 2008, which is a leap year so in the end it will result in 366 paintings. The project is sponsored by the businessman Marc Coucke, member of the board of directors of the company Omega Pharma. Coucke is not only an artlover but also a big admirer of the art of Luc Zeebroek.

During the Kamalmanak project he started to make short movies for the digital Dutch site NRC Tv. While filming one of these short films he invented a new art movement called Accidentalism. He has changed the art of portraits by what he calls 'Accidentalism'. It goes as follows: Kamagurka paints a portrait of someone he sees in his mind. Then he shows this portrait on television, in newspapers, on the internet..with the following questions :"Is this you ?" or 'Do you know somebody who looks like this portrait ?'. As evidence the person who has been painted by accident can send a picture. The person who looks most like the painted portrait is by the artist officially claimed as the portrayed one. That's how accidentalism works -par accident- French for accidental or coincidental.