are you guys in the US familiar (or anywhere else but western-Europe) with
Franquin? He's a genius. Check out his "Idees Noires" ("Dark Thoughts"), even if there's no English translation, but I assume there should be one.
And Gaston is hilarious, every single page he made of it, most of the Marsupilami series is great as well.
Especially Belgium and to some extent France and Netherlands have a very rich tradition of comic writers and designers or however you might name it.
The US writer I know is
Zak Sally, formerly known as the bassist of Low, but now running his own company for a bunch of years already in writing and self-pressing his own graphic novels.