'Iedereen op Claudia' (2017).
Sam Peeters is a Dutch graphic novelist, illustrator and teacher in Comic Design and Illustration, as well as a founding member of the Lamelos collective, also consisting of Aleks Deurloo, Jeroen Funke and his brother Boris Peeters. After teaming up at the art academy in the 1990s, the Lamelos team has given color to the Dutch small press comics scene with both their collectively created zines and as hosts of playful happenings and events. Their best-known joint creation is the superhero spoof 'Kaasheld en Poephoofd' (2002-2018). As a solo creator, Peeters made his mark with the experimental pantomime graphic novels 'In De Schaduw Van Mijn Lul' (2010), 'Fucking Hell' (2016), 'Iedereen Op Claudia' (2017) and 'Echo/Narcissus' (2026), in which he told layered and complex narratives through visuals alone. Sam Peeters the comic artist should not be confused with the Belgian director Sam Peeters, the Belgian actor Sam Peeters nor the Flemish teacher and writer Sam Peeters, author of 'Autistisch Gelukkig: Positief Leven Met Autisme' (2010).
Early life and career
Sam Peeters was born in 1976 in Venray, a town in the southern Dutch province of Limburg. The Peeters family eventually moved up north, setting in the city of Groningen. During his childhood, Sam developed a keen passion for comics and art, an interest he shared with his older brothers Joshua (b. 1973) and Boris (b. 1974). Between 1995 and 2000, both Sam and Boris studied Illustration at the Constantijn Huygens University of the Arts in Kampen (nowadays part of the ArtEZ University of the Arts). Among their fellow students there were Aleks Deurloo, Jeroen Funke and Hans Klaver (Schwantz), artists who would all become prominent members of the Dutch indie comics scene. As important inspirations for his work, Sam Peeters has mentioned André Franquin, Jeroen de Leijer, Benito Jacovitti and his fellow members of the Lamelos collective. In 1996, Peeters saw his first comics published in the regional Hanzekrant newspaper.
'Kaasheld'.
Lamelos
At the Art Academy of Kampen, Sam and Boris Peeters began collaborating on joint comic projects, initially accompanied by fellow students Aleks Deurloo and Bouwe Brouwer. They called themselves Lamelos ("Lemmego"), a name derived from the VPRO children's TV show 'Rembo & Rembo', where a character was chained to a fence while constantly yelling "Hellepie, lamelos!" ("Help! Let me go!"). Under this banner, they began working on collectively created and self-published DIY comic zines through their "Prima Titel" imprint, starting with 'Lamelos: Mission 1' in 1997. Shortly afterwards, Jeroen Funke joined the team, and after their third release, Brouwer left - he eventually became a primary school teacher and part-time photographer and haiku writer. As a four-piece collective, Lamelos spearheaded the 21st century generation of Dutch indie comic creators, innovating the scene with their playfully absurd and experimental creations and events. Inspired by the 1990s wave of alternative "non-art" cartoonists like Jeroen de Leijer and Marc van der Holst, they tried out different ways of making comics for each release. Sometimes, they alternated on artwork per page or panel, on other occasions they divided the tasks for doing characer art and backgrounds. While some of the Lamelos productions are made by only single or selected members of the group, their body of work remains a collective effort, prevailing over the individual contributions of each creator.
During their heyday in the first decade of the 21st century, Lamelos released over a 100 self-published comic books, which they presented and sold at comic conventions and other events. In addition, their comics have appeared in alternative comic magazines like Beeldstorm (1998-2000), Zone 5300 (2001- ), Gr'nn (2001-2004), Zozolala (2002-2007), MYX (2003-2007), Parcifal (2005-2006) and the football monthly Johan, as well as the online portal Cutie Magazine.
Invitations for Lamelos events at comic shop Lambiek (2008, 2010).
Lamelos characters
For the short-lived satirical magazine PIM ("Politically Incorrect Magazine", 2002), they made their signature creation 'Kaasheld' ("Cheesehead"). A superhero spoof, the character's head is modelled after one of the least impressive traditions of Dutch gastronomy during birthday celebrations: little blocks of cheese on a cocktail stick adorned with the Dutch flag. While PIM magazine folded after only three issues, Kaasheld proved to be more than a one-time character. Continuing their comic in magazines like Zone 5300, MYX, Vice, Parcifal, Lamelos gave their cheesy superhero the sidekick Poephoofd ("Poophead"), in reference to the general Dutch annoyance of dog poop on the streets. Combined, this typically Dutch superhero team-up fought against their enemies in an absurdistic as well as mundane superhero world. Between 2006 and 2014, MYX publisher Silvester collected the series in five volumes. From 2011 to 2018, the 'Kaasheld en Poephoofd' comic appeared on the back page of the homeless newspaper Haags Straatnieuws, where it replaced Marnix Rueb's 'Haagse Harry'. During this final incarnation, the strip was mostly created by Boris Peeters and Jeroen Funke, who were both living in The Hague at the time. Other characters created by Lamelos are 'Popo & Bobo' (2003-2006), whose absurdistic adventures were published in three silkscreened booklets by Bries. Another recurring character was Professor Fleischmann, a very smart inventor, initially co-created with Olivier Schrauwen. In 2003, their comic strip 'Mak & Luuk' appeared in the music magazine OOR.
Lamelos auction at Lambiek on 25 July 2008. From left to right: Aleks Deurloo, Sam Peeters, Boris Peeters and Jeroen Funke.
Innovators of indie comics
In their comics, the Lamelos team playfully referred to classic comics like Jacovitti's 'Pinocchio', Frans Piët's 'Sjors en Sjimmie' and Walt Disney's Donald Duck, as well as to characters created by artist friends, such as 'Boer Jelmen' by Matthias Giesen. Additionally, their 'Kaasheld en Poephoofd' books contain guest contributions by fellow creators such as Luc Cromheecke, Floor de Goede, Marc van der Holst, Erik Kriek, Jeroen de Leijer, Michiel van de Pol, Peter Pontiac, Marcel Ruijters, Olivier Schrauwen, Typex, Berend J. Vonk and Wasco. In turn, the Lamelos crew had guest spots in the third 'Scribbly' collection by Jean-Paul Arends (2002), 'Gutsman 10' by Erik Kriek (2008) and Mattt Baay's 'Bunbun: Oh No Not Again' (2013). With friend and colleague Typex, they made 'Spekkie Pik in het Seksbos' (Bries, 2009), a pornographic spoof of Marc van der Holst's 'Spekkie Big'.
Their artwork has been exhibited in several Dutch cities, and also internationally in Angoulême (France), Berlin (Germany), Helsinki (Finland), Budapest (Hungary), Lucca (Italy) and Barcelona (Spain). Mixing their cheerful yet slightly anarchist humor with absurd acts, Lamelos has been a regular presense at comic fairs and cultural festivals like Lowlands and Crossing Border. Starting out with making funny videos for Lowlands TV, Lamelos became an annual Lowlands act with their own comic-style tents on the festival grounds, and performances in cardboard costumes. In addition, they have made appearances as their Cheesehero and Poophead personas, and the team became known for their "Apples act", appearing as man-sized apples in bulbous costumes. One of the most notable Lamelos acts was the "Cardboard Robot Battle", which they have held at festivals in the Netherlands and abroad, often combatting against the members of other comic collectives (for instance in Helsinki and Barcelona). Notorious were the regular Lamelos auctions, mostly held at the Amsterdam comic store and gallery Lambiek (2006-2011). Amidst much noise and booze, the team auctioned off old, ugly and useless items, with the revenues being invested in new beer, while the unsold items were ceremoniously destroyed. In 2017, Zone 5300 dedicated its issue #116 to the 20th anniversary of the Lamelos collective.
Early intallment of 'In de Schaduw van Mijn Lul', published in Eisner #3, 2009.
Solo career
By the 2010s, the individual Lamelos members had started families and spread out over the Netherlands. This has severely reduced their collective projects, which have remained limited to occasional team-ups. Sam Peeters found a dayjob in teaching, first in Illustration at the Minerva Academy in his hometown Groningen, later also in Comic Design at the ArtEZ University of the Arts in Zwolle (the first specialized comics faculty in the Netherlands, initiated in 2009).
Outside of Lamelos, artwork by Sam Peeters has appeared in magazines like Vrij Nederland, Jippo, Gr'nn, Van Speijk, Eisner and Wasco's Aline anthology. He is represented by Hans Buying's Comic House agency. Between 2000 and 2003, he had his own 'Sam' comic strip in the Groningen student newspaper Groninger Studentenkrant. Starting in 2005, he also made cover illustrations for the publishing house Wolters Noordhoff. Later on, he created several critically acclaimed graphic novels, published by Oog&Blik and Scratch Books. Specializing in pantomime comics, Peeters has a fondness for old myths and thrilling dramas, while graphically he has experimented with different reading directions, clichés, metaphors, color usage, clear lines and panel layout. In a 2012 online video interview with the Lucca Comics Channel, Peeters explained his motiviation for choosing only the visual narrative. He noticed that in the Dutch comics tradition, people were generally reading the text and only briefly scanning the image, before going to the next panel. In his own comics, Peeters wanted to challenge the audience by having them look more carefully at the images, and analyzing more thoroughly what is going on.
'In de Schaduw van mijn Lul' (2010).
In de Schaduw van mijn Lul
In 2010, Sam Peeters released his first solo graphic novel, 'In de Schaduw van mijn Lul' ("In the Shadow of my Dick"), with publisher Oog&Blik. Described as a playful creation story, the book starts in an idyllic landscape, where a man - modelled after the author - is standing with an incredibly large penis resting diagonally in the grass. In the dong's shadow is an entire mini-society, where a man is doing his shopping. His actions set off a chain of events, all with different characters, until an interstellar war breaks out in the small town, after which things heat up in the aforementioned penis shadow. This prompts the artist to walk on, causing the shadow to disappear and the town being scorched in the sunlight - visually illustrating the comic artist as a godlike creator and destroyer of worlds.
'Fucking Hell' (2016).
Fucking Hell
A couple of years later, Peeters himself returned to school when he enrolled at the Sint-Lukas School of Arts in Brussels, Belgium for a master's degree in Comic Design. In 2016, he graduated summa cum laude with his second graphic novel, 'Fucking Hell' (Scratch, 2016), a bizarre romance story showing that love conquers all. The story follows a lovesick Devil, who is heartbroken after a one-night stand with Ilse at a sex party. Neglecting his duties as the Ruler of Evil, he tries desperately to find his love interest, until he is finally forced to ask the help of his greatest competition, God.
'Iedereen op Claudia' (2017).
Iedereen op Claudia
Sam Peeters' next graphic novel was another pantomime tale of unrequited love, 'Iedereen op Claudia' (Scratch, 2017). In this tragicomical story, filled with visual metaphors, the nameless protagonist has a lifelong yearn for the beautiful Claudia, but the two never seem to get together. From the moment she joined his class, Claudia literally becames implanted in his heart. The only problem is that everyone seems to be in love with her. Growing up, he never seems to forget her. Later in life, the two regularly cross paths, but there are constant barriers that keep them apart. After every meeting, the hero's infatuation turns more and more into obsession, making him loose grip on reality while his violent sexual fantasies get the best of him. A painful yet relatable story with many "what if" situations, the book was celebrated as a masterful showcase of how comics can present a layered narrative without any dialogue.
In 2018, Margreet de Heer, at the time "Comic Artist Laureate of the Netherlands", included 'Iedereen op Claudia' in her guide promoting graphic novels for high school reading lists. A daring choice, since Peeters' book had no words and only a visual narrative. However, De Heer and her co-workers for the guide felt that the book could measure up to literature because of its layered storytelling. Seven years later, in May 2026, the book 'Iedereen op Claudia' suddenly became the center of a media storm in Belgium, when an Antwerp school dropped the entire graphic novel reading list after a parent had taken offense to their fourteen-year-old child being exposed to the sexually violent imagery from one of the book's hallucination sequences. Interviewed about the matter, Peeters contextualized the specific scene but stated that he also felt the book wasn't appropriate for readers under the age of 17 or 18, and that the book would require careful guidance from the school teachers.
'Echo'.
Echo/Narcissus
In May 2026, Scratch released the next Sam Peeters graphic novel, 'Echo/Narcissus'. A book with two sides and front covers - one for 'Echo', the other for 'Narcissus' -, it is the artist's modern pantomime retelling of the ancient Roman tale of Echo and Narcissus from Ovid's 'Metamorphoses'. In the original story, the mountain nymph Echo is doomed to repeat only other people's last words, while the beautiful but vainly arrogant Narcissus is in love with his own reflection and rejects everyone, including Echo, who subsequently wastes away from grief. In Peeters' narrative, Narcissus is a man who feels in his element when he goes hunting alone during the day. However, when he returns to his village, a shocking discovery leaves him unsure if there is anyone left he can trust. Echo is a cheerful young woman who loves being the center of attention. When her fine talk becomes too much for others, her own friend makes sure Echo no longer dares to be who she really is.
'Narcissus'.
Graphic contributions
In addition to comics and teaching, Sam Peeters has explored other art forms, such as silkscreens, paintings, film and performing arts. Between 30 March and 10 June 2012, a mural created by Peeters was on display during the fourth edition of Kunsthal Light in Rotterdam, depicting the biblical story of Cain and Abel. Also in 2012, Sam Peeters was the first of five comic creators to make a mural decorating the construction fencing surrounding the new buildings on the Grote Markt market square in Groningen. Each installment addressed the changes in the Groningen city center, linked to the construction status at that moment. The next installments were made by Barbara Stok, Erik Wielaert, Bart Nijstad and Maria van Driel.
As a solo artist, Sam Peeters appeared in the 2002 'Stenders Vroeg Vakantieboek', related to the morning radio show of Rob Stenders. In 2006, he was one of the contributors to Menno Kooistra's Dutch horror anthology 'Bloeddorst'. Contributions by Sam and Boris Peeters were featured in the 2010 anthology 'Holanda - El Placer de Dibujar', a showcase of Dutch comic talent for the Comic Barcelona festival. Peeters was also one of the contributing artists to 'Mooi is Dat' (2010) and 'Filmfanfare' (2012), two anthologies with comic interpretations of Dutch literary works and movies, respectively. For the latter, he contributed a comic visualizing the Fons Rademakers film 'De Aanslag', based on the Harry Mulisch novel of the same name. In 2016, Peeters appeared in 'Duplex', an anthology of eight graphic poems, edited by Stefan Nieuwenhuis and published by Zone 5300 and Strip2000.
Legacy
With the Lamelos collective, Sam Peeters was at the vanguard of a new wave of alternative comics in the Netherlands. With their playful happenings, they made comics visible among new audiences, beyong the general comic reader. With his fellow teachers like Hanco Kolk and Typex, along with faculty head Mara Joustra, he has been training a new generation of comic creators at ArtEZ in Zwolle - the first graduates being Amanda Majoor and Abe Borst. Among his later students have been the comic creators Melanie Kranenburg, Bob Op 't Land, Niek van Ooijen, Lae Schäfer and Anne & Eva Staal.
Sam Peeters signing 'Iedereen op Claudia' at comic shop Lambiek on 12 May 2017. The artist had previously signed his work at Lambiek on 14 May 2010 and 19 May 2016.