Cowboy Henk
| Cowboy Henk | |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | HUMO (Belgium). Published by Loempia, Kritak, De Bezige Bij and Standaard Uitgeverij. |
| First appearance | September 24, 1981. |
| Created by | Kamagurka, Herr Seele. |
Cowboy Henk is a Belgian absurd humor/surreal humour gag-a-day comic strip series, drawn by Herr Seele and written by Kamagurka. It was originally published in the newspaper De Morgen, but later taken over by the magazine HUMO in which it is still published today and for whom Henk is now their mascot. The series was in continuous syndication from 1981 until 2011. After the brief interruption it was continued again in the spring of 2013.
In 1981 Kamagurka published a one-album-only long comic story named : Mijnheerke Plagiaat ("Mister Plagiarism"), in the Belgian newspaper Vooruit (later De Morgen). At the end of the story the comics character Mr. Plagiaat decided to think up a comic character of his own, whom he named Cowboy Henk, contrary to Zorro. On September 24, 1981 the first Cowboy Henk gag appeared in print. Kamagurka wrote the jokes and dialogues while his friend, Herr Seele, drew the stories.
Originally Cowboy Henk appeared in black-and-white as a gag-a-day comic of only four to six panels per episode. Sometimes he had adventures spread over more pages too. De Morgen received many angry letters from readers who complained about the style of comedy. In Flanders Cowboy Henk was published exclusively in the magazine HUMO from 1982 until 2011, usually as a single page gag-a-day page. He also appeared on many magazine covers, thus becoming one of HUMO 's official mascots. In October 2011, after nearly 20 years of continuous publication, the series was no longer published in HUMO and disappeared without fanfare. According to the redaction the series hardly got any reactions from readers anymore, even when publication was ceased. From that moment on until 2012 Seele drew the short-lived black-and-white comic strip Dikke Billie Walter ("Fat Billie Walter"), with Kamagurka as script writer. On April 10, 2013, the Flemish radio station Studio Brussel interviewed Seele and he announced Henk's comeback in HUMO. The character indeed reappeared. First as a gag cartoon, spread over an entire page and making topical comedy, later as a parody comic strip series of Belgian history until finally back in its old form as a comic strip.
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