Karel Verschuere

A self-taught artist, Karel Verschuere was one of the first artists working in the studio of Willy Vandersteen. During World War II, he was sent to the eastfront and faught with the nazis in Russia for four years. Back in Belgium he was sent to prison for four years for his role during the War. In the early 1950s, he began his own advertising firm with Herman Geerts, called Gevers.

Verschuere eventually found employment Studio Vandersteen in 1952. There, he speclialized in realistic comics, which came in handy, since Vandersteen's strength was with the humorous comics. He became the main artist on the Biblical series 'Judi', that appeared in Ons Volkske. For the same magazine, he illustrated 'Boeren Voorwaarts', 'Strijd om Land' and 'Voor Outer en Heerd'.

He co-created the series 'Bessy' with Willy Vandersteen under the joint pseudonym of Wirel (Wi for Willy, Rel for Karel) in 1952. As one of Vandersteen's first co-workers, he was also one of the few who got co-credits and even a percentage of the royalties. 'Bessy' first appeared in the daily newspaper La Libre Belgique, but later also in Ons Volk, Katholieke Illustratie and Het Gazet van Antwerpen.

Verschuere also showed his skills in the co-creation of series like 'Karl May', 'De Rode Ridder', and 'Biggles'. In 1966, he was assigned head of the 'Bessy' studio in Antwerp, that had to produce one story a week for the German publisher Bastei. Verschuere left the studios in 1967. He started working independently, and created comics like 'De Avonturen van Koen de Wilde' in KZV in 1954, the albums 'Het Leven van St. Antonius van Padua' and 'De Avonturen van Klavervier' in 1961 and 1963, as well as two 'Belles Histoires de l'Oncle Paul' in Spirou.

He launched 'Buffalo Bill' with a script by R. Dierckx in 1967, but the series was cancelled after only four albums, published by De Goudvink in Schelle. After a brief return to the 'Bessy' studio in 1969, Verschuere began working for the German publisher Pabel on his own, taking with him Eduard De Rop, Eugeen Goossens and Erik Vandemeulebroucke to form Studio Verschuere. The studios produced the humorous western 'Tom Berry', as well as the realistic comic 'Adlerfelder'. However, Verschuere's co-workers left him after a disagreement on the payment, after which he had to cancel his production for the Germans.

Afterwards, he did the cowboy series 'Sam D. Howard' in Het Laatste Nieuws in 1972, followed by two stories with 'Miguel' for the weekly De Post. He eventually broke with the comics world and went to work at the Rent-a-Car service of Peugot and for Daniel Construction Company International. For the personel's magazine of the latter, he did however draw the gag strip 'Pampers Baby'. Karel Verschuere died from cancer in 1982.