Emiel De Bolle drawing appearing in the 'Cartoonale 1992' compilation.
Emiel De Bolle was a Belgian caricaturist and political cartoonist, who sometimes worked under the pseudonym "Luk Cooke". His cartoons ran in Het Nieuwsblad and De Gentenaar in the column Prik (1976-2000) and later also in 't Pallieterke. In addition, he contributed to the comic series 'Stam & Pilou' by De Marck & De Wulf.
Life and career
Emiel De Bolle was born in 1947 in Ternat, a town in the Belgian province of Flemish Brabant. Between 1962 and 1966, he studied Decorative Arts, Graphic Design and Commercial Arts at the Sint-Lukas School of Arts in Schaarbeek and later journalism (1969-1970) at the Higher Institute for Journalism. In 1969, he became lay out editor with the newspaper De Standaard and, between 1973 and 1977, worked as a graphic designer for packaging. In addition, he designed the album covers of 'Met De Dood in het Hart' (1977) and 'De Zevende Dag' (1979) by folk singer Jef Elbers, who later became active for the far-right party Vlaams Blok and also scripted the children's TV series 'Merlina' and its comic strip spin-off, drawn by Danny De Haes.
Between 1976 and 2004, De Bolle was a teacher in observational drawing for adults. In 2004, he established his own studio in Gooik, where he organized drawing workshops. In 2026, he passed away at age 79.
Early cartoon by Emiel De Bolle, signed Luk Cooke, appearing in the 1968 compilation book 'Davidsfonds Kartoenboek 2'.
Cartoons and comics career
While fulfilling his military service in the German town of Soest, Emiel De Bolle got interested in cartooning through the conservative Flemish-nationalist satirical weekly 't Pallieterke: his adjutant had happened to be a good friend of the magazine's founder Bruno de Winter. Picking up the drawing pen himself, he became good friends with fellow cartoonists Brasser and Alidor.
Between 1975 and 2000, his political cartoons ran in the newspapers Het Nieuwsblad and its sister paper De Gentenaar, under the editorial title 'Prik', alternating with their other house cartoonist Brasser. Additional artists for the 'Prik' section were Leo Fabri, Cram and Royer. Emiel De Bolle and Brasser also co-hosted the TV show 'Pen & Streek' (1996-1999) on Ring-TV, the regional network broadcasting in the Belgian province Flemish Brabant. Every Friday, one of them made a cartoon live in the studio. For eleven years, Emiel de Bolle drew for Doorbraak, the membership magazine of the Flemish People's Movement (Vlaamse Volksbeweging), and until 2014 for the news site Politiek.net. From January 2012 on, his cartoons also ran in 't Pallieterke.
In the second half of the 2000s, De Bolle was also active for Studio Max, the comic studio led by Rik Dewulf and Marc Daniëls. There, he assisted on the inking, background art and coloring of their children's humor comic 'Stam & Pilou', as well as the celebrity comic 'De Planckaerts', about Flemish cyclist Eddy Planckaert and his family, and team's work on the 28th installment of Jacques Martin's 'Les Voyages d'Alix', dealing with Alexander the Great (2009).
Together with André Nollet, Emiel De Bolle was curator of an exhibition based on Brasser's cartoons in the European Cartoon Centre. During the 1990s, he was secretary of the Vlaamse Onafhankelijke Stripgilde (Flemish Independent Comics Guild).
Emiel De Bolle drawing from the 'Cartoonale 1993' compilation.