Enki Bilal

Enki Bilal (born October 7, 1951) is an artist and writer.

Born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, he moved to Paris at the age of 9. He met René Goscinny at the age of 14, and at his encouragement tried turning his talent to comic books. He worked on Goscinny's magazine Pilote[?] in the 1970s, publishing his first story in 1972: Le Bol Maudit.

He began working with script writer Pierre Christin[?] in 1975 on a series of separate tales, with a surreal or dark nature.

The Nikopol trilogy (La Foire aux Immortels, La Femme Piège and Froid Equateur) took more than a decade to appear but is probably Bilal at his best, writing the script as well as doing all the artwork - the final chapter even managed to be awarded the book of the year award by the very serious magazine Lire[?].

He's now working on another trilogy which deals with the breakup of Yugoslavia but from the future. The first installement came in 1998 in the shape of Le Sommeil du Monstre opening with the main character, Nike, remembering the war in a series of traumatic flashbacks...

Bibliography includes

• La Croisière des Oublies (1975)
• Le Vaisseau de Pierre (1976)
• La Ville qui n'existait pas (1977)
• Mémoires d'Outre-Espace (1978)
• Les Phalanges de l'Ordre Noir (1979)
• La Foire aux Immortels (1980)
• Partie de Chasse (1983)
• L'Etoile Oubliée de Laurie Bloom (Los Angeles) – Ed. Autrement (1984)
• La Femme Piège (1986)
• Coeurs Sanglants et Autres Faits Divers (1988)
• Froid Equator (1992)
• Le Sommeil du Monstre (1998)
• 32 Décembre (2003)

Filmography as director

• Tykho Moon[?] (1996)
• Bunker Palace Hôtel[?] (1989)
• La Femme Piège[?] (in production)

External link

• Interview (http://home.zonnet.nl/euronet/rpk/bilal/bilalhm.htm)