Het Scream-Team - 'Schimmels!' (Suske en Wiske Weekblad #16, 1999).
Dirk Michiels is a Belgian comic artist and illustrator. During the 1980s and 1990s, he worked with Luc Morjaeu on celebrity comic and commercial illustrations, under the collective pseudonym Mormic. They co-created comics based on the TV series 'Jacobus en Corneel' and the classic children's book 'Erik, of het Klein Insectenboek' (1990-1992). Later on, he assisted on Marc Legendre's 'Biebel', Jef Nys' 'Jommeke' and comics for Samson & Gert Krant. After working on some short-lived comic features for Suske en Wiske Weekblad, Michiels moved to Canada.
Early life
Dirk Michiels was born in 1960 in the Antwerp region. While studying at the Royal Academy of Mechelen, he tried to get his first comics published. As his early projects with scriptwriter Yaack Bakker and artist Michel Mahy remained unpublished, he found a daytime job with the municipal services of Puurs. There, he met fellow aspiring comic artist Luc Morjaeu, who was fulfilling his civil service there.
Studio Mormic
By the mid-1980s, Michiels and Morjaeu had teamed up to start the Mormic Studios, a collaboration that lasted until 1997. Their collective pseudonym "Mormic" was a contraction of the first syllables of their last names. One of their first assignments was working with writer Yaack Bakker on a celebrity comic based on the Flemish children's TV show 'Jacobus en Corneel', which ran in Stipkrant, the children's supplement of newspaper Het Nieuwsblad. A book collection was published by Standaard Uitgeverij in 1987. During the 1980s and 1990s, the Mormic team worked on commercial and advertising assignments, including Disney merchandising and artwork related to the Swiss claymation series 'Pingu'. At the height of their collaboration, the Mormic Studios had five people on their staff. For the Belgian publishing company Zuidnederlandse Uitgeverij, Mormic made book covers, games and puzzles, while designing greeting cards for Hallmark. Their most prestigious and ambitious project was a four-volume comic book adaptation of Godfried Bomans' 1941 children's novel 'Erik, of het Klein Insectenboek' (1990-1992), again scripted by Yaack Bakker. In Belgium, the stories were serialized in Stipkrant, and in the Netherlands in Minitoe, the newspaper supplement of Courant Nieuws van de Dag. For Suske en Wiske Weekblad, Mormic created four short stories with the alien characters 'De Mormics' (1993-1994).
One of the later Mormic projects was the celebrity comic 'De Familie Backeljau', based on the 1990s TV series of the same name, although this was mainly Morjaeu's project. In addition to their own productions, Studio Mormic additionally provided assistance to other Flemish comic creators. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Morjaeu and Michiels helped Marc Legendre with his popular gag comics 'Biebel' and 'Kas'. Around 1991, they were hired by newspaper Het Volk to assist on the 'Jommeke' comic by Jef Nys. The Mormic duo started out doing background art, with Morjaeu doing pencils and Michiels the inking. The first regular album with their participation was volume #168, 'Het Heksenbal' (1992), and after that they contributed to about a dozen more. They also worked with artist Patrick Van Lierde on several short 'Jommeke' stories for seasonal books. During the 1990s, they had additionally done merchandising art related to the 'Samson en Gert' TV show of Studio, which since its start in 1990 had been a massive success. In 1996 the comic received its own Saturday children's supplement with newspapers Het Laatste Nieuws and De Nieuwe Gazet, the Samson & Gert Krant. While the main production team of the 'Samson & Gert' comic was the duo Swerts & Vanas, Mormic provided additional artwork for the newspaper supplement and the special holiday books.
Solo career
In 1997, the Mormic team was dissolved, yet Michiels remained active in the Belgian comic industry. He was still working with Marc Legendre on 'Biebel' and other projects, and his name continued to appear in the credits of the Samson & Gert Krant. In 1999 and 2000, he was present in Suske en Wiske Weekblad, the weekly comic magazine of publisher Standaard. With Legendre as writer, he created two 23-page stories of 'Scream-Team' (1999-2000), about two kids who end up in supernatural mysteries. In 2000, Michiels also drew a four-page short story with 'Sam', the resourceful female car mechanic created originally by Legendre and artist Jan Bosschaert. As Michiels' cartoony rendition of the character deviated too much from Bosschaert's art, the project was shelved after this single story. Shortly afterwards, Michiels moved to Canada, where he makes illustrations for among others children's books and coloring books.
'Sam', by Dirk Michiels (Suske en Wiske Weekblad #45, 2000).