Herr Seele is the pseudonym of Peter Van Heirseele (born 13 April 1959,

Torhout Torhout (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities of Belgium, municipality located in the Belgium, Belgian province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Torhout proper, the villages of Wijnendale and Sint-Henri ...

, Belgium), a

Flemish Flemish may refer to: * Flemish, adjective for Flanders, Belgium * Flemish region, one of the three regions of Belgium *Flemish Community, one of the three constitutionally defined language communities of Belgium * Flemish dialects, a Dutch dialec ...

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

, author, actor and piano collector. He is mainly known for drawing the

absurd humor Surreal humour (also called surreal comedy, absurdist humour, or absurdist comedy) is a form of humour predicated on deliberate violations of causal reasoning, thus producing events and behaviors that are obviously illogical. Portrayals of su ...

comic strip '' Cowboy Henk'', for which his colleague

Kamagurka Luc Zeebroek (born 5 May 1956), better known as Kamagurka, is a Belgium, Belgian cartoonist, playwright, comic strip artist, painter, comedian, comedic singer and television producer, known for the Absurd humor, absurd nature of his work. He cre ...

writes the scripts. The strip has been published in ''

HUMO ''Humo'' (stylized in all caps) is a popular Dutch-language Belgian weekly radio and television magazine. History and profile ''Humoradio'' (meaning a portmanteau of 'humor' and 'radio' in English) was first published in 1936 as a Dutch-langua ...

'' since 1981, with only a minor interruption from October 2011 until the spring of 2013. During this period, Seele made another

gag-a-day A gag-a-day comic strip A comic strip is a Comics, sequence of cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often Serial (literature), serialized, with text in Speech balloon, balloons and Glossary of ...

comic series ''Dikke Billie Walter''. Since the spring of 2013, ''Cowboy Henk'' appears in the magazine again.

Biography

Van Heirseele was born in

and attended the Sint-Jozefsinstituut. When he was sixteen, he went to the

Ghent Ghent ( ; ; historically known as ''Gaunt'' in English) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the Provinces of Belgium, province ...

Academy for the Fine Arts, where he completed his high school years and followed with a year in sculpting, after which he learned to tune and repair pianos at the Ystrad Mynach School in

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. He then went to

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

, Italy, where he learned how to renovate them.

Career

In 1981, he began drawing '' Cowboy Henk'' with

, for the first time using the pseudonym ''Herr Seele''. Originally, the comic strip was intended for '' De Vooruit'', but soon it was published exclusively in ''HUMO''. ''Cowboy Henk'' was published in several countries, including Brazil (in a comics magazine named ''Animal''),

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

and the United States ('' RAW)''. In 1983, Herr Seele started acting on television, his first show being ''Sfeervol Bullshitten'', which was written by Kamagurka. It was followed in 1985 by a 20-part series, called ''Kamagurka en Herr Seele'', written by the duo for the Dutch

VPRO The VPRO (stylized vpro; originally an acronym for ''Vrijzinnig Protestantse Radio Omroep'', lit. 'Liberal Protestant Radio Broadcaster', nowadays known as ''Omroepvereniging VPRO'') is a Netherlands, Dutch Public broadcasting, public broadca ...

. After these first successes, other shows followed, like ''Johnnywood'', ''Wees Blij Met Wat Je Hebt'', ''Lava'' and ''Bob & George''. He has also made the radio show ''

Studio Kafka ''Studio Kafka'' was a Flemish sketch comedy radio show presented on the radio station Studio Brussel between 1995 and 1999. It was presented by Belgian cartoonists Kamagurka and Herr Seele and aired each Sunday afternoon between 13.00 and 14.00 p ...

'' with Kamagurka.

Piano Collection

Herr Seele owns one of the most renowned collections of early historic pianos in the world, which is stored at

Ostend Ostend ( ; ; ; ) is a coastal city and municipality in the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerke, Raversijde, Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the la ...

and contains over 200 instruments. He is also a

piano tuner Piano tuning is the process of adjusting the tension of the strings of an acoustic piano so that the Interval (music), musical intervals between strings are Musical tuning, in tune. The meaning of the term 'in tune', in the context of piano tunin ...

himself.

Album cover design

He designed the cover of ''"Steelt de Schouw!" (1994)'' for Pater Moeskroen.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Seele, Herr Belgian comics artists 20th-century Belgian painters 21st-century Belgian painters Belgian stand-up comedians 20th-century Flemish male actors Belgian comic strip cartoonists Belgian humorists Belgian male comedians Belgian comedy musicians Belgian radio presenters Belgian illustrators Belgian surrealist artists Flemish television presenters Belgian male singers People from Turnhout Pseudonymous comics artists Belgian album-cover and concert-poster artists Underground cartoonists Piano tuners 1959 births Living people Raw (magazine) 21st-century Flemish male actors