Introduction
Luc Cromheecke (born 2 August 1961), is a Belgian comics artist best known for the comic series Tom Carbon, Taco Zip, Roboboy and Plunk.
Biography
Luc Cromheecke was born in Antwerp in 1961. After having studied painting, graphic arts and publicity at the Royal Academy for Fine Arts of Antwerp, he created the magazine "Flan Imperial" with fellow student Fritzgerald; it featured material by Dutch artists René Windig and Eddie De Jong. The magazine didn't sell well despite a short review in Robbedoes, and folded after one issue.
In 1983 Cromheecke started the comic strip Taco Zip, which appears in Robbedoes, De Volkskrant, and De Morgen. He creates in the next years the series Tom Carbon, which appears in the Dutch magazine Sjors and again in Robbedoes. Both series have an initial run of 4 albums, and Tom Carbon gets translated in French and German. In 1989, he is invited by the Comics Museum in Brussels to make the material for the displays about merchandising, for which he uses a minor character from Taco Zip, the mad alien Plunk.
In the next years, Cromheecke does a number of short lived series and makes many illustrations for magazines and for publicity campaigns. In 1994, he partakes in an exposition of young talents at the Angoulême International Comics Festival with Lewis Trondheim and others. He also makes a few CD-roms, and a short-lived series Ben le Forestier for the French magazine Astrapi, but in general seems to have quit the comics scene in those years.
In 2003, Cromheecke returns with Roboboy, a juvenile series about a robot child living with a normal family, and the havoc it unwillingly creates. Because of this renewed interest in his work, he starts creating new stories for older series like Tom Carbon and Taco Zip. Together with Jean-Michel Thiriet, he creates a weekly page in Spirou magazine. In 2006, he also creates the spin-off series Plunk for Spirou, and publishes the first album of Ben de Boswachter. An exposition celebrating twenty years of Taco Zip debutes at Strip Turnhout in Turnhout, and travels to different cities in Belgium and the Netherlands, including the oldest comic shop of Europe, Lambiek in Amsterdam At the end of 2005, Cromheecke draws the cover for the last issue of Robbedoes magazine, which is also used for the last collection of Robbedoes magazines, album #262.
Cromheecke cites as his influences American comic strips like B.C. and Peanuts.
Awards
- 1992: nominated for the Award for a First Comic Book at the Angoulême International Comics Festival, France
- 1994: nominated for the Award for best foreign comic at the Angoulême International Comics Festival
- 2002: Best Author (Dutch language) at the Prix Saint-Michel, Brussels
- 2003: Best Youth Album (Dutch language) at the Prix Saint-Michel
- 2003: Best Youth Album (Dutch language) at the Stripdagen, Alphen aan den Rijn
- 2007: nominated for the Bronzen Adhemar, Turnhout
- 2007: nominated for the Award for Best Dutch Language Youth Comic at the Stripschapprizes
- 2008: nominated for the Award for Best Dutch Language Youth Comic at the Stripschapprizes
- 2010: nominated for the Award for Best Dutch Language Youth Comic at the Stripschapprizes for Roboboy 6