'The Sandwich Brothers' (2026).
Dirk Verschure is a Berlin-based Dutch animator and cartoonist, known for his surreal humor. Both his comics and 2D animated shorts are populated by zany funny animals and other anthropomorphic characters, from his infamous bunnies to birds losing their legs and two "Sandwich Brothers". Between 2016 and 2023, he was one of the driving forces behind the Dutch-German alternative comics zine Kutlul.
Early life and career
Dirk Verschure was born in 1980 in Gemert, a town in the southern Dutch province of North-Brabant. During the first half of the 2000s, he studied Animation at the St. Joost School of Art & Design in Breda. His graduation project was the short 'Beasts' (2005), which consisted of five chapters starring animals in absurd situations. While the short was well-received, Verschure got stuck with the follow-up, and shelved his personal animation projects for many years. Instead, he began working on commission, while filling his sketchbooks and self-published zines with his comics and cartoon art. In terms of comics, he has named Johnny Ryan as an important inspiration, while in the field of animation he's influenced by the offbeat and provocative British animator Phil Mulloy.
Berlin
During the early 2010s, Verschure and his wife, graphic designer Vera Bekema, moved to the German capital of Berlin, where he joined the Zyklopik collective of freelance animators and comic artists. While working on commissioned animation projects, he began selling his framed drawings of large, scaled fishes with thick lips at the local flea market. In 2015, he also formed the musical duo Dead Kittens with Israeli producer and multi-instrumentalist KD (Oded K.dar), with whom he has performed "contemporary "Pönk" full of unexpected elements" in "live show full of anarchy and madness". Under the Noisolution label, they released the albums 'Pet Obituaries' (2018) and 'I Am Not A Ghost' (2019).
Promo art for Dirk Verschure's animated shorts.
Return to animation
It wasn't until the 2020s before Verschure returned to making his own animated shorts, all featuring his trademark absurdity and animal characters. He spent two years working on the seven-minute short 'Birds Whose Legs Break Off' (2022), a dark comedy in which a bizarre and mysterious disease causing the limbs of birds to fall off. Two years later, he released 'Cat With Glasses' (2024), about a cat whose glasses keep falling off his snout and eventually turning to the famous Dr. Spoo for eyball surgery.
'Dirk's Big Bunny Book'.
Dirks Big Bunny Blog
In the meantime, on 23 March 2011, Verschure had started his 'Dirks Big Bunny Blog', where he began posting a daily surreal cartoon starring one or more bunny characters. Alternating between visual and verbal comedy, in Verschure's cartoons basically everything is possible. Teapots, trees, and fish can fly, children make a doll out of water, and characters can walk on clouds.
'Dirk's Big Bunny Book'.
In a 5 July 2012 interview with the newspaper NRC, Verschure said that the absurdity of his work was often inspired by physics: "Nature cannot be grasped. What we see is not what it seems. The fact that no one knows exactly what gravity is, is a beautiful fact. It is beautiful and poetic to think about that. I can lie awake at night thinking about perspective. That everyone sees a bookshelf in a different way. That is a major source for my cartoons. I try to put that sense of wonder into my work."
After gaining a substantial online following, a collection of these bunnies cartoons was released by Silvester under the title 'Dirks Big Bunny Boek' (2012). Teaming up with his wife Vera as graphic designer, Verschure self-published another cartoon collection in the following year, 'Life How It's Supposed To Be' (2013).
'The Chicken Who Knew' (Kutlul #0, Spring 2016).
Kutlul
In the Spring of 2016, Verschure released the zero issue of the German-Dutch "mega-zine" Kutlul, along with Joost Halbertsma, Annika Hauke and Niels Kalk. Presented as a "zine celebrating bad humor, weird comics and the pure joy of drawing", the magazine's title is a mash-up of the Dutch slang terms for "cunt" and "dick". With its two main editors based in Rotterdam (Halbertsma) and Berlin (Verschure), fifteen irregularly appearing and irregularly numbered issues appeared until 2023. Several of the release parties were held at Lambiek in Amsterdam, accompanied by beer, underground music and handmade cardboard store displays.
Among the many additional Kutlul contributors have been Naomi Taverdin, Felix Hauke, Ralph Schulz, Fufu Frauenwalh, Andy Leuenberg, Pedro Amaro, Lilith Peters, Mustafa Kandaz, Jan Huijben, Hendrik Nieuwenhuis, Marc Kolle, Vincent Zurwesten, Stanley van der Meer, Vera Bekema, Argibald, Marcel Ruijters, Maia Matches, Sidhi Achmat, Howlin' Quin de Vreede, Rogier Smal, Lisa Mckendrick & Tim Drage, Arno Pelzer, Pieter Zandvliet, Paralodia, Nicole van den Berg and Andy Leuenberger. In June 2023, the final issue, numbered #15, appeared with the subtitle "Goodbye Cruel World!".
'Donald Duck Lookalikes' and 'Shit and Death issue #3'.
Comic zines
Since the 2010s, both Verschure and his wife Vera Bekema have been self-publishing DIY zines, prints and cards with their own English-language comics, each showcasing a preference for the surreal and the absurd. Verschure's comic books feature a wide range of anthropomorphic characters, as well as monsters and dead animals. Among his titles are 'Donald Duck Lookalikes', 'Cursed and Haunted', 'Jacob the Yoghurtdog' and the 'Shit and Death' series.
'Pandemic Funnies' print.
In 2026, Verschure self-published his full-length comic book 'The Sandwich Brothers', starring a host of anthropomorphic characters, including two slices of bread, fruit and vegetables, a frog and a giraffe and a set of fingers. The book's host is a duck called Donny, with no relation to Disney's Donald. In the lead story, the Sandwich Brothers try to make ends meet, while struggling with gaming addiction, a risky job at the Heavy Duty Factory, and the bitter feud between their fruity friends Lemon and Melon.
Dirk Verschure, signing 'The Sandwich Brothers' at Lambiek in Amsterdam on 10 July 2026. Photo © Johnny Torpedo.