Erik Vandemeulebroucke

Erik Vandemeulebroucke, who signs his work with his first name and sometimes Iwan, was the son of a famous Flemish sculptor. His first comic was 'Smokkelaars of Belevenissen van Tist Knuppels en Cesar', that appeared with text by his brother Ignaas in Kerkelijk Leven from 1960. From 1962, he did some primitive gags with 'Kobus Koek'. Also with his brother, he created the secret agent 'Jim Lont, Geheimagent 0,02', of which the first album appeared at Hacha in 1965. Erik continued the series under the pseudonym Iwan in Het Gazet van Antwerpen from May 1966.

In 1967, Vandemeulebroucke worked at the studios of Karel Verschuere and Edward De Rop for a couple of months. There, he illustrated some episodes of 'Tom Berry' for the German publisher Pabel Verlag. He continued to draw to comics for newspapers, such as De Post ('Lamerika: Het Ei van Columbus' and 'Felix en de Marsman', with text by Plinius) and Antwerpse Post ('Dobberman en Van Geyt', written by Wim Tocquet).

In 1973, Erik founded his own studios in Berchem, where he worked together with Hugo de Sterk, Stan Sluydts and André Donders. The studios worked exclusively for the German Kauka Verlag on the series 'Die Pichelsteiner' (in Primo), 'Tom und Biberherz' and 'Fix und Foxi' (both for Fix und Foxi weekly). Disillusioned by the hard work and low pay for his work on series, Erik eventually left the comic scene. He began his own printing firm called Breughel Screen (later Breughel International) in 1977.