Kamagurka

Kamagurka (real name: Luc Zeebroek) (May 5, 1956) is a Belgian comedian, cartoonist, painter and singer, best known for his absurd cartoons. He often works together with Johan De Smet.

He is a huge fan of Frank Zappa, The Residents and Captain Beefheart. He used to play their music to his children before they went to sleep.

Collaboration with Frank Zappa

In 1976 Kamagurka met Zappa backstage at a concert and showed him a comic strip with empty text balloons. He asked Zappa if he could fill them in. Zappa wrote his own text and the comic was published in the Belgian magazine "Humo" under the name "Zappa in Zoeloeland". The cartoon references a few Conceptual Continuity gags: Sofa, Arf! and "the diatonic system." (See: Progress? on Ahead Of Their Time).

A scene from Kamagurka's 1976 comic strip "Zappa in Zoeloeland" with text by Frank Zappa.

The cartoon

A man is watching television. Suddenly his face transforms into Zappa's face. ("What's this? I'm growing nubs... no, hair!") After the transformation ("Ah, that's more like it") Zappa rises from his chair ("Now to rise from this consensed form of a "vliegende vette" sofa") and walks to the door. He opens it and shouts: "The diatonic system lives! The diatonic system still thrives, even in bilingual communities." (Kamagurka is Belgian and Belgium is a bilingual community.)

While the people in the neighbourhood react unimpressed Zappa and a girlfriend sit upside down in their sofas while Zappa laughs: "Blew their fucking socks off with that one, heh!" Then his face changes again while he mutters: "Arf". In the last panel the man is back his usual self and he mutters: "Orff?" (The caption mentions that Carl Orff is a "very diatonic composer".)

See also

• Wikipedia:Kamagurka
• [[1]]