'Boerke'.
Pieter De Poortere is a Belgian comic artist, children's book illustrator, graphic artist and animator, most famous for his internationally successful pantomime comic 'Boerke' ('Dickie', 2000), about the mishaps of a generally unlucky mustached farmer. The series combines an innocent-looking graphic style with pitch black comedy. 'Boerke' has been published in many foreign magazines and adapted into animated TV shorts and an upcoming animated feature. De Poortere also draws the newspaper gag comic 'De School van Slechte Ouders' (2025- ) in De Morgen, about a school where awful parents are "re-educated". De Poortere is additionally known for his large crowd illustrations. He is part of the new wave of Flemish humorists who broke through in the 1990s, together with Kim Duchateau, Jeroom, Bart Schoofs and Nix.
Early life
Pieter De Poortere was born in 1976 in the Belgian city of Ghent. He enjoyed drawing as a child and ranks among his graphic influences André Franquin, Lewis Trondheim, Louis-Michel Carpentier, Chris Ware, Hanco Kolk, François Bourgeon, Françoise Mouly, Ever Meulen, Jacques Tardi, Régis Loisel, Luc Jacamon & Matz, Brüno, Carlos Vermut, Joann Sfar, Christophe Blain, Joan Cornellà, Osamu Tezuka, Hayao Miyazaki, Matt Groening, George Grosz, Fernand Léger, Gustave Van de Woestyne and old Walt Disney cartoons. Influenced by Urbanus, he already drew similar nonsensical pantomime comics as a child, such as 'Pieter Pech', the duck 'Hooligans' and a comic strip about Jesus and Mary. Even in those days, he already drew huge illustrations depicting crowds.
'De Zichtbare Man'.
De Zichtbare Man
De Poortere studied printing, lay-out and drawing at the Viso in Mariakerke and illustration at the Sint-Lucas Academy in Ghent, where two of his teachers were Ever Meulen and Ferry. He also attended evening classes in drawing. Through Meulen, De Poortere was able to publish comics and cartoons in the magazine Humo. He was originally hired as a lay-out designer and cartoonist, but since he wasn't good with computer design, he was fired within the same month. Luckily, De Poortere still had a job at an advertising company and was allowed to continue publishing his drawings in Humo. His first feature was 'De Zichtbare Man' ("The Visible Man", 1998) about a superhero who is never aware of what goes on around him. The gags were also made available in book format. Unlike De Poortere's other comics, 'De Zichtbare Man' was quite dialogue-heavy and quickly surpassed by a follow-up comic series, 'Boerke' (2000- ).
'Boerke' comic. The bespectacled man with the black sweater in the final panel is a self-portrait of De Poortere.
Boerke
De Poortere's signature series 'Boerke' (literally: "Little Farmer", 2000- ) is a pantomime gag comic about a well-meaning, but extraordinarily naïve farmer. The drawings are reminiscent of those in a children's comic book, with simple round lines and bright colors. Gags usually start off innocently, but tend to end in very disturbing and cynical punchlines. Boerke is always the victim of cruel accidents or heartless people who exploit his naïvité, and he regularly ends up commiting suicide in the final panel. After first being published in Humo magazine, a first book collection appeared in 2001, which immediately won the Dutch Stripschapspenning award. The same year, De Poortere also created a female version of 'Boerke' named 'Hoerke' ("Little Whore", 2001- ), which ran as a spin-off. In 2011, Boerke starred in his first long adventure story, 'De Zoon Van', in which he appears to be the son of Adolf Hitler, a result of a fling with the maid. The story follows him as he reunited with his father and is prepared to become the Führer's successor.
Other special installments in the series have been 'Boerke in Hollywood' (2010) and 'Prins Boerke' (2014), in which, respectively, Boerke and Hoerke star in several well-known movies and fairy tales. Together with students in 3D animation of the Haute École Albert Jacquard in Namur, De Poortere made a short animated film called 'Once Upon A Time' (2012). On the occasion of the character's 15th anniversary in 2014, the 'Boerke Bijbel' was released by publisher Blloan. It collected the first five albums in one huge volume with gold ink and a hardcover.
'Prins Boerke'.
In addition to Humo, 'Boerke' also found a spot in the Dutch and Flemish magazines Zone 5300, Bizz, S-Magazine and Focus Knack. The lack of dialogue opened doors to foreign publications too. In France, 'Boerke' appeared in Ferraille Illustré, Le Monde and Fluide Glacial. The comic was also translated into English as 'Dickie' and has been published in Spanish, Finnish, Hungarian, German and Italian as well. However, one of the book covers of the American translation had to be redrawn, because if featured a cow urinating like a man. Prudish American publishers claimed that the animal appeared to be masturbating. While De Poortere felt this was just their overactive imagination, he nevertheless redrew the cover to show the urinating cow from the back. When this was still considered too risqué, De Poortere redrew the cow entering an outhouse latrine. This design was accepted.
In 2024, De Poortere collaborated with the fashion design company Brava, to use Boerke as part of their collection.
Boerke animation
On 29 March 2021, De Poortere launched an animated TV series based on 'Boerke' ('Dickie'). The animation is produced in collaboration with TV production company De Hofleveranciers and the animation studio Fabrique Fantastique, with music by Flip Kowlier (best known as a member of the hip hop band Hof van Commerce, alongside Serge Buyse). Each episode is two minutes long and broadcast four times a week at 11 PM on Canvas, the second channel of the Flemish public television organization VRT. While 'Boerke' is a pantomime comic, the animated adaptation does feature voice acting. The title character is played by Jos Dom. Female side characters are portrayed by Maaike Cafmeyer, while male side characters are voiced by Han Coucke.
After two seasons, De Poortere decided to pursue even higher amibitions and develop a full-length animated feature starring 'Boerke'. The plot, set-up as a mockumentary about Boerke's "mysterious death", is scripted by Bill Morrison. Funding is provided by the Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds ('Flemish Au Audiovisual Foundation').
'Joe de Eskimo'.
Joe de Eskimo
By the time De Poortere wrote a fan letter to one of his idols, Lewis Trondheim, it turned out that the cartoonist had already heard about him. He asked De Poortere whether he would be interested in making a children's comic. The end result, 'Joe de Eskimo' (2007), features the adventures of an Inuit man, but even the artist himself acknowledged that it was "far too cruel" for the target audience. In France, the comic appeared in the Trondheim-edited Shampooing collection at Delcourt, and it was published in Dutch by Bries. A sequel, 'Eskimo Gaat Op Reis' was published in 2009. Since 2008, De Poortere has made regular contributions to the sections 'La Gazette de Frémion' and 'Que Vous Êtes Joli ! Que Vous me Semblez Beau' in the French magazine Fluide Glacial.
Activity spread for Spirou #3925 (2013).
Crowd drawings
Apart from comics, De Poortere has enjoyed himself making huge crowd drawings in the style of Martin Handford's 'Where's Waldo?'. Just like Waldo, readers are invited to look for Boerke ('Dicky') in a large, detailed illustration full with people and/or animals. Some of these "look-and-find" drawings are innocent pictures, full with pop culture references. Others are set in a macabre location, such as the Nazi camp Auschwitz, or a beach about to be hit by a tsunami.
Children's books
De Poortere has also created straightforward children's picture books, such as the 2011 titles 'Poes Gaat Slapen' and 'Poes Is Jarig' for publisher Lannoo. The books also featured the little ghost Hendrik, who later starred in books with large crowd pictures, such as 'Hendriks Spookjesboek' (Lannoo, 2011) and 'Hendriks Spookjescircus' (Lannoo, 2012). Other children's picture books by De Poortere are 'De Regenboogstraat' (Blloan, 2013) and 'Thuis in theater' (Vrijdag, 2016).
''Poes Gaat Slapen' and 'Hendriks Sprookjescircus'.
In 2020, Pieter De Poortere created a children's book in collaboration with the Ghent Museum of Fine Arts, titled 'LAM'. Published by Nanuq, the book was about Jan and Hubert van Eyck's tryptich 'Agnus Dei' (better known as the Ghent Altarpiece). In the story, readers have to look for characters from Van Eyck's paintings, hidden in large crowd drawings. The book adds numerous cameos of well-known comic characters and people from Ghent, while also depicting well known locations in the city. Later that year; De Poortere illutrated another comic book about Van Eyck, written by children's authors Frank Pollet and Moniek Vermeulen, titled 'Het Verdwenen Paneel' (2020). The story was based on the 1934 theft of the panel 'The Just Judges' of the Ghent Altarpiece. In 2005, the famous theft of this painting had also inspired the plot of Merho's 'De Kiekeboes' album 'Tiznoland'.
'Renée' (2025). The image refers to René Magritte's painting 'Gioconda', only here with a view of the Grand Market in Brussels. In the sky we recognize cameos of The Spanish Ghost (from Willy Vandersteen's 'Suske en Wiske'), Thompson and Thomson (from Hergé's 'Tintin', Laurel & Hardy, Charlie Chaplin and Mary Poppins. In the right corner another Magritte painting is referenced, namely the man with a floating apple in front of his face, from Magritte's painting 'The Son of Man'.
In 2025, Nanuq released De Poortere's children's picture book 'Renée', starring a young girl, named after the Brussels painter René Magritte, who wanders around in Brussels. Each page is a crowd drawing set in a well-known Brussels location, with various cameos of famous people associated with the Belgian capital, like Magritte (whose canvases are frequently referenced), jazz musician Toots Thielemans and the famous Manneken Pis statue.
'Super Mickey' (2019).
Super Mickey
In 2019, De Poortere published 'Super Mickey' (Glénat, 2019), his own comic book interpretation of Mickey Mouse. The comic was drawn in his familiar pantomime style and with official permission of the Walt Disney Company. De Poortere said that drawing Mickey's ears and nose were more difficult than he expected and he had to submit himself to Disney's strict regulations. Nevertheless, he enjoyed the experience very much. The story is based on the 'Super Goof' character, invented by Del Connell and Paul Murry, which imagines Goofy as a superhero. In De Poortere's story, Goofy suffers from a burn-out and can no longer be a superhero, so Mickey steps in to help him. However, the mouse has no superpowers of his own, so he has to fight crime by using his intelligence.
'De School voor Slechte Ouders' (De Morgen, 26 June 2025). The father is told that he's not allowed to consume "that" in school and thinks the lunchlady refers to pizza, but she actually meant their glasses of beer.
De School voor Slechte Ouders
On 6 March 2025, De Poortere launched a new gag comic in the newspaper De Morgen, titled 'De School van Slechte Ouders'. The series revolves around a father and his son, whom De Poortere lifted from an earlier unpublished comic project, 'Youri'. Nameless in the comic, De Poortere considers calling them Filip and Alexander. Basically a manchild, the father figure is completely unprepared for his paternal role, and so attends a re-education center. The son is timid and easily frightened. The series allowed De Poortere, a father himself, to poke fun at bad parenting and child neglect. Interviewed by De Morgen, the artist acknowledged that he recognizes a lot of his childhood fears in Alexander, but also feels some connection with Filip. When he was 18 years old, he was still very immature and it would have been a total disaster if he had children at that young age. The character of Alexander is basically a nightmarish fantasy of that idea.
Cover for Focus Knack, 16-22 May 2007. The illustration is set at Cannes, during the film festival. The attentive viewer can spot references to films like 'King Kong', 'Superman', 'Tarzan', 'Star Wars', 'Godzilla', Charlie Chaplin, 'Jaws', 'The Seven Year Itch' (with Marilyn Monroe), 'E.T.', 'Pulp Fiction' and 'Titanic'.
Graphic contributions
Together with actor Han Coucke and composer Joris Schoenmaekers, Pieter De Poortere made the 2002 theater/comic play 'K.A.K.'. The piece was an ironic satire of xenophobia. De Poortere provided the illustrations, which were also published in book format afterwards. For the Flemish human interest TV show 'Man Bijt Hond', De Poortere made some animated shorts in Flash animation, which were broadcast during the daily segment 'Zonder Handen' in which amateurs were allowed to do their thing for one minute straight. On 11 July 2011, De Poortere designed a comics mural to promote Flemish comic strips in the Rue Euler in Paris, featuring characters created by Jeroen Janssen, Randall Caesar, Judith Vanistendael, Olivier Schrauwen and Brecht Evens. He was one of several artists to make a comic strip for the artbook 'Building Bridges in Europe’ (2012), published by the European Association of National Builders' Merchants Associations and Manufacturers (UFEMAT). In 2017, De Poortere paid tribute to André Franquin's 'Gaston Lagaffe' in the homage album 'Gefelicitaart!'. In October of that same year, he was one of many artists to pay tribute to Ever Meulen during the 'Ever Meulen & Friends' exhibition in Brussels. In 2020, he joined 75 Dutch & Flemish comic artists to make a graphic contribution to the free collective comic book 'Striphelden versus Corona' (Oogachtend, Uitgeverij L, 2020). The book was intended to support comics stores that had to close their doors for two months during the lockdown at the height of the COVID-19 virus pandemic. De Poortere also designed the book's cover. In 2022, he additionally designed the poster for the international Anima animation festival in Brussels.
Recognition
In 2009, De Poortere was one of 20 Flemish comic artists whose work was exhibited during the 'Ceci n'est pas la BD Flamande' exhibition at the Comics Festival of Angoulême, France. A year later he won the Prix Saint-Michel in Brussels for "Best Dutch-language comic". Between 8 October 2025 and 31 January 2026, De Poortere's work was the subject of the exhibition 'Inkt & Ironie', in the library of Hasselt.
Other activities
On 16 June 2022, De Poortere was named president of the non-profit organization behind the Belgian Comic Strip Center in Brussels.
Legacy and influence
Pieter De Poortere has been named an influence by Katrien Van Schuylenbergh.
Photo of Pieter De Poortere, taken by Bart De Poortere.