Cartoon from 3 February 2024.
Bart Vantieghem (sometimes spelled "Bart Van Tieghem") is a Belgian editorial cartoonist, gag comic artist and stand-up comedian. His humor is dark and absurd and has sometimes caused controversy. As a comic creator, he has been notable since 2005 for various political satire comics about the municipality council of Bruges, scripted in collaboration with Koen De Brabander and serialized in his house newspaper Het Brugsch Handelsblad. Since 2003, Vantieghem has been the illustrator of Marc De Bel's children's book series 'De Fantastische Avonturen van Kapitein Cacao'.
Early life and career
Bart Vantieghem was born in 1967 in Ghent, and as a teen moved with his mother to the village of Oostkamp, near Bruges. As a student in the city of Bruges, Vantieghem worked as a taxi driver for the company Rony Taxi's. At the time, he knew nothing about the city, but he bluffed his way through the job interview and was hired. For several years, Vantieghem also spent his weekends in Ghent, where he played drums in a local band. In 2007, he settled in Bruges. His main graphic influence as a cartoonist is Kamagurka.
"The Pope's Stuntman" (from Humo), caricaturing Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa.
Cartooning career
In the 1990s, Bart Vantieghem went to the newspaper De Morgen with the suggestion of swapping some of the photos in their weekend supplement with drawings. He was instantly hired as a freelance artist for them, and later on also appeared in newspapers like De Standaard, De Krant van West-Vlaanderen, De Streekkrant and De Zondag, as well as the magazines Jobat, Humo, Passionate Magazine and Teek. Vantieghem's cartoons are characterized by absurd, black comedy and characters with disproportionately large heads. The humor is often inspired by real-life current events. Vantieghem's cartoons have been collected in the book 'De Cavia Die Rood Kreeg' (Van Halewyck, 2001).
In real life, Vantieghem also likes to joke around. Posing as the fictional politician Jacky Beunhaes, he has made fake posters which he plastered on walls next to real-life election propaganda. Another time, he went for a walk with his "dog" (in reality a stuffed mutt on a leash ) and his "tiger" (a lifesize plush tiger).
Cartoon from 29 February 2012. Translation: "In our series 'The most fun ways to get fired'. "This is Helga! When the music stops, she'll do a lap dance with one of you, who no longer has to show up for work again tomorrow."
Controversy
In the late 1990s, some of Vantieghem's illustrations livening up issue #74 of Teek magazine caused controversy with the Delhaize supermarket chain. The issue discussed a readers' poll about sex-related questions. The head of Delhaize's non-food supplies department Annie Schockaert felt the "vulgar" imagery was not family friendly and "potentially harmful to minors."
On 1 January 2015, Vantieghem posted a photo comic, depicting himself being beheaded by a man dressed as a Muslim terrorist. The snapshots were taken in the dunes of a local beach, to evoke a desert atmosphere. To make it look as if he was decapitated, Vantieghem was buried up to his shoulders in sand, after which he was splashed with water. The gag was titled 'IS Bucket Challenge', referencing the Muslim terrorist group IS, notorious for their decapitations of hostages, and the social media 'ICE bucket challenge' hype, where people have a bucket of cold water poured over them. The comic quickly went viral and caused controversy. However, comedian Alex Agnew felt it was a good offensive joke, since it actually had a point to make, directed at IS terrorists.
The controversial photo comic of 1 January 2015.
On 21 January 2024, field cyclist Wout Van Aert participated in the World Championship Field Cycling in Benidorm, Spain, when he suddenly fell and broke his saddle. Undaunted, he climbed back on his bike and won the contest. On 23 January, Vantieghem drew a cartoon depicting Van Aert on his saddleless bike, with members of the LGBTQ community being "enthusiastic", but adding the distinction: "about [Mathieu] Van Der Poel's rainbow-colored shirt, of course!". Some readers felt the cartoon was in bad taste towards the LGBTQ community, so the website providers of the E3 Saxo Classic took it offline after one day and issued an official apology. Interviewed on Radio 2, Vantieghem explained that he understood that the organization was a bit startled by the commotion, but said that he didn't receive any negative reactions from LGBTQ people themselves: "It's an old moronic cliché joke about gay people, but in the word balloon you'll notice that they say something completely different. They have no eye for Van Aert's missing saddle, but the rainbow flag on Van der Poel's shirt." Vantieghem's cartoon was defended by comedians Reinart Belpaire and Marlies Verschueren, who are respectively gay and transgender, who felt it was funny.
Cartoon from 22 January 2024, depicting Belgian cyclist Wout Van Aert, who won the World Championship Field Racing with a broken saddle. Translation: "LGBTQ community is very enthusiastic. "About the rainbow shirt of Mathieu Van Der Poel, of course!".
Bruges politics comics
In 2005, Koen De Brabander contacted Vantieghem after having bought a cartoon book by him. He suggested working together, marking the first time Vantieghem collaborated with a scriptwriter. Throughout the decades, they have made several gag comics about local politics in Bruges. From the start, they deliberately decided to only focus on politicians who are part of the local municipality, not just any Flemish politician. Their first gag series was 'De Avonturen van Patrick & Yves' (2005-2012), depicting Christian-democratic mayor Patrick Moenaert and Yves Roose, alderman of Culture, as respectively a tyrant and a drunk sidekick. Episodes were syndicated weekly on the now-defunct satirical website the Moon Art Gallery and later in Het Brugsch Handelsblad, which is part of the regional newspaper Krant van West-Vlaanderen. In 2009 and 2010, two compilation albums were published by Die Keure. After a while, De Brabander grew a bit tired of the concept, which, at the time, was still limited to just a three-to-four panel format, so Vantieghem continued it on his own.
'Kameraad Renaat' (3 December 2018), poking fun at mayor Renaat Landuyt and his colleagues Boudewijn Laloo, Pol van den Driessche, Dirk De Fauw and Ann Soete.
When the socialist Renaat Landuyt was elected as new mayor of Bruges in 2013, De Brabander was inspired to join in again. The comic was retitled to 'De Avonturen van Kameraad Renaat' (2013-2018), depicting Landuyt as a Soviet-style communist. De Brabander and Vantieghem took the opportunity to ask for a full page, allowing for more narrative possibilities. While Vantieghem remained the scriptwriter and had the definitive say over the end project, De Brabander brainstormed with him and made suggestions, sometimes merely to keep the tone a bit more civil.
In 2019, Christian-democratic politician Dirk De Fauw was elected mayor, with Nico Blontrock becoming his alderman of Culture. Again a title change came about, this time to 'Dictator Dirk' (2019-2026), depicting him as a despot. Since 2020, the 'Dictator Dirk' stories have also been collected in album format, published by Bonte. On 21 February 2026, the 'Dictator Dirk' strip was suddenly discontinued in Het Brugsch Handelsblad. One of the aldermen, Franky Demon, had mentioned in the parent newspaper Krant van West-Vlaanderen that he was deeply hurt by a Valentine's Day-themed episode, in which he was depicted as gay, and ending up in bed with a bunny after a misplaced arrow by Cupid. Vantieghem drew a new episode to show Demon in another light, but this was refused by his editors, to avoid drawing more attention to the situation. However, Vantieghem did share the new comic on his Facebook account, making his editor decide to discontinue 'Dictator Dirk' altogether and finish his contract with Vantieghem.
The political satire of De Brabander and Vantieghem has been very popular in Bruges and has also received appreciation from some of the targeted politicians themselves. Mayor De Fauw said that the comic is the first thing he reads in Het Brugsch Handelsblad and "always with a smile". He also personally scripted the 150th episode. De Fauw did admit he liked some jokes better than others, but often gave book collections away to fellow politicians as a personal gift. De Brabander and Vantieghem stated that most of the negative reactions usually come from politicians who aren't even depicted in their comic, which apparently is too much for their bruised egos.
'Dictator Dirk' (28 January 2019), satirizing mayor Dirk De Fauw, alderman of Public Domain Franky Demon and alderman of Culture Nico Blontrock.
Stand-up comedy
Since 2009, Bart Vantieghem has also been active as a stand-up comedian, citing Gunter Lamoot as a humorist he admires. In 2011, Vantieghem won the Commeere Comedy Cup, a local comedy contest in Bruges, which he hosted afterwards for several editions. In an interview posted on the website of the Cultural Center of Bruges, where Vantieghem frequently performs, he explained that in his stand-up routines, he's able to go much further than in his cartoons and receive an instant reaction from his audience: "In comedy, it's usually not done to kick down. People in power and policy makers are the targets, you should leave the little man alone. I don't mind. In comedy nothing is more fun than putting moral guardians on their high horse. I also don't want to make superficial things general audiences love: it's O.K. to taste some ground glass in your mouth." Vantieghem recalled that his controversial comedy has sometimes polarized audiences. One time he performed at the New Year's party of the Flemish-nationalist Marnixring van Outrijve organisation: "A year earlier, they had programmed a magician. I think the contrast between his and my work was a little bit too big. I barely escaped a lynching. To make matters clear: people who are used to comedy can usually appreciate my show."
Performances of his stage show 'Bart Vantieghem Sucks' have featured intermezzos by burlesque dancers Daiquiri Daisy, Victoria Rose and Miss Candy Kiss. A strange combination, which was nevertheless appreciated by his select audience. Vantieghem has also toured with the comedy collective Independent Comedy throughout Flanders, and in January 2020, Steven Degryse was a support act in his show.
On occasion, Vantieghem's stand-up and cartooning career mixed. Since the 2010s, he has provided artwork for fellow comedian Filip Haeyaert, best known under his stage persona "Ygor uit Poperinge" ("Ygor From Poperinge"). Based on Haeyaert's ideas, he made three-panel gag strips with this character, a mustached man dressed in a black stereotypical medieval executioner's outfit. The gags feature black, surreal and scatological comedy, and have appeared online and in the book 'Ygor uit Poperinge: Dertig Februari - Verhalen en Cartoons' (Agoria, 2015).
'Ygor uit Poperinge' (1 February 2016). Translation: "Relax, Mr. Ygor! I'm just going to have a 'look'. How old you said you were?".
Graphic contributions
Since 2013, Vantieghem has been the illustrator of Marc De Bel's children's book series' De Fantastische Avonturen van Kapitein Cacao'. Other illustrators who have once livened up the pages of De Bel's children's stories have been Tine Vercruysse, Jan Bosschaert, Harmen van Straaten, Ken Broeders, Ivan Adriaenssens and Michael Vincent. In 2023, Vantieghem designed a campaign to motivate citizens of Bruges having difficulties with the bureaucratic measures in their city to report them, in order to improve them.
The "Polizei" car
In his spare time, Bart Vantieghem has a passion for vintage cars. He once owned a Skoda Octavia car and, between 2016 and 2025, a 1964 Mercedes Benz 190, redesigned to look like an East-German police car, complete with "Polizei" logo on the side and a siren on the roof. He often drove his "Polizei" car to old-timer events, where visitors asked him whether they could take a snapshot with it. Although his siren and flashing lights were perfectly functional, he only used them at such events, and never on the public road. More than 13 times, police officers told him to pull over to check his car, but in reality everything about it was perfectly legal. Still, early in January 2025 he sold his trademark vehicle, an event that was reported in local newspapers.
Bart Vantieghem in 2015 during one of his stand-up comedy acts. The photo depicts a real-life child with the illness progeria (which causes children to age far more rapidly than normal). Interviewed by the Cultural Center of Bruges, Vantieghem explained: "I tell the audience that my son has progeria, which scared me so much that I dropped him in a forest for others to find. I then show a gigantic photo of a real-life child with progeria, so confrontational that you virtually lose half of the audience. But then I add that the boy aged so quickly that he was able to bike back home from the forest and still annoys him with his constant nagging about the war and how everything used to be better in the past. After this joke, I win back my audience for about 90 percent."