While attending a regular school, Mortsel-born Marc Verhaegen also took courses in drawing at the Academy of Kontich when he was only 10 years old. He eventually went to study at the Sint-Lukas School of Arts in Brussels, where he specialized in animation film. He did his first comics work in the underground scene, producing comics with the character 'Fil Marver' (some in cooperation with Eric Leeraar) and the bicycle-racing comic 'Cycloman' (also with Leeraar), which he signed with the pseudonym Marver.
He got a job as an animator, and collaborated on several projects, such as the 'Wonderland' show for the BRT and short animation sequences for 'Sesame Street'. Since Verhaegen wanted to do something different, he was glad to hear from a friend that the Standaard Uitgeverij was looking for an artist to draw the comic series 'Boes'.
He did this from 1987 to 1988, after which he joined the Vandersteen Studios to work on the famous 'Suske en Wiske' series.
In April, 2002, Verhaegen succeeded Paul Geerts as the regular artist/writer on the 'Suske en Wiske' comic. He made a couple of trilogies and some independent stories, until he was fired from the studios in February 2005.
Text (c) Lambiek
