| Enki Bilal | |
|---|---|
| Born | Enes Bilal (1951-10-07)7 October 1951 (age 73) Belgrade,PR Serbia,Yugoslavia |
| Nationality | French, Serbian |
| Area(s) | Artist, writer, director |
Notable works | Nikopol Trilogy,Légendes d'Aujourd'hui,Partie de chasse |
| Awards | Full list |
Enki Bilal (bornEnes Bilal; born 7 October 1951) is a Frenchcomic book creator and film director.
Bilal was born inBelgrade,PR Serbia,Yugoslavia,[1] to aCzech mother, Ana, who came to Belgrade as child fromKarlovy Vary, and aBosnian Muslim father, Muhamed Hamo Bilal, fromLjubuški, who had beenJosip Broz Tito's tailor. When he was five years old, his father managed to take a trip and stay inParis as a political émigré. Enki and the rest of the family, his mother Ana and sister Enisa, stayed in Yugoslavia, and four years later they followed.[2][3] Enki Bilal has no sense of belonging to any ethnic group and religion, nor is he obsessed with soil and roots. He said in one interview: "I also feel Bosnian by my father's origin, a Serb by my place of birth and a Croat by my relationship with a certain one to my childhood friends, not to mention my other Czech half, who I am inherited from mother".[4]
At age 14, he metRené Goscinny and with his encouragement applied his talent to comics. He produced work for Goscinny'sFranco-Belgian comics magazinePilote in the 1970s, publishing his first story,Le Bol Maudit, in 1972.
In 1975, Bilal began working with script writerPierre Christin on a series of dark and surreal tales, resulting in the body of work titledLégendes d'Aujourd'hui.
In 1983, Bilal was asked by film directorAlain Resnais to collaborate on his filmLa vie est un roman, for which Bilal provided painted images that were incorporated in the "medieval" episodes of the film.
He is best known for theNikopol trilogy (La Foire aux immortels,La Femme piège andFroid Équateur), which took more than a decade to complete. Bilal wrote the script and did the artwork. The final chapter,Froid Équateur, was chosen book of the year by the magazineLire and is acknowledged by the inventor ofchess boxing,Iepe Rubingh, as the inspiration for the sport.
Quatre? (2007), the last book in theHatzfeldtetralogy, deals with the breakup ofYugoslavia from a future viewpoint. The first installment came in 1998 in the shape ofLe Sommeil du Monstre opening with the main character, Nike, remembering the war in a series of traumatic flashbacks. The third chapter of the tetralogy isRendez-vous à Paris (2006), which was the fifth best selling new comic of 2006, with 280,000 copies sold.[5]
His cinematic career was revived with the expensiveImmortel, his first attempt to adapt his books to the screen. The film divided critics, some panning the use of CGI characters but others seeing it as a faithful reinterpretation of the books.[citation needed]
On 13 May 2008 a video game based on theNikopol trilogy was announced titledNikopol: Secrets of the Immortals. Published in North America by Got Game Entertainment in August 2008, the game is a "point and click" adventure for the PC; however, the Lead Designer was Marc Rutschlé[6] and not Bilal himself, who was the art designer, along withYoshitaka Amano, for the video gameBeyond Good and Evil 2.
In 2012, Bilal was featured in a solo exhibition atThe Louvre. The exhibition, titled "The Ghosts of the Louvre", ran from 20 December 2012 to 18 March 2013. The exhibition was organized by Fabrice Douar, and featured a series of paintings of "Ghosts", done atop photographs that Bilal took of the Louvre's collection.[7]
From its start through the 1980s, Bilal was a frequent contributor to the AmericanHeavy Metal magazine. Many notable Bilal comics made their English debut in this period of the magazine. Although shorter stories appeared later in the '90s,Heavy Metal readers had to wait until 2012 for another graphic novel feature from Bilal.
Graphic novels
| English title | Date (start) | Issue (start) | Date (end) | Issue (end) | Writer | Number of pages |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exterminator 17 | 1978/10 | Vol. 2 No. 6 | 1979/03 | Vol. 2 No. 11 | Jean-Pierre Dionnet | 60 |
| Progress! | 1980/07 | Vol. 4 No. 4 | 1980/11 | Vol. 4 No. 8 | Pierre Christin | 54 |
| The Nikopol Trilogy: The Immortals' Fete | 1981/05 | Vol. 5 No. 2 | 1981/12 | Vol. 5 No. 9 | Enki Bilal | 62 |
| The Voyage of Those Forgotten | 1982/04 | Vol. 6 No. 1 | 1982/11 | Vol. 6 No. 8 | Pierre Christin | 52 |
| The City That Didn't Exist | 1983/03 | Vol. 6 No. 12 | 1983/09 | Vol. 7 No. 6 | Pierre Christin | 54 |
| The Hunting Party | 1984/06 | Vol. 8 No. 3 | 1985/03 | Vol. 8 No. 12 | Pierre Christin | 82 |
| The Nikopol Trilogy: The Trapped Woman | 1986/Fall | Vol. 10 No. 3 | same as start | Enki Bilal | 54 | |
| Animal'z | 2012/03 | March 2012 | 2014/04 | 270 | Enki Bilal | 87 |
Short stories
| English title | Date | Issue | Note | Number of pages |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Crossroads of the Universe" | 1977/07 | Vol. 1 No. 4 | reprinted in Greatest Hits 1994 | 7 |
| "The Death of Orlaon, or: Legendary Immortality" | 1978/07 | Vol. 2 No. 3 | reprinted in The Best of 1982 | 4 |
| "Ultimate Negotiations" | 1979/01 | Vol. 2 No. 9 | 4 | |
| "True Tales of Outer Space: The Planet of no Return" | 1979/02 | Vol. 2 No. 10 | 7 | |
| "Going Native" | 1979/04 | Vol. 2 No. 12 | 7 | |
| "The Road to Ruin" | 1980/02 | Vol. 3 No. 10 | written by Pierre De La Varech | 2 |
| "Of Needle and Thread" | 1980/04 | Vol. 4 No. 1 | reprinted in hardcover version of Greatest Hits 1994 | 4 |
| "Only the Plitch" | 1980/05 | Vol. 4 No. 2 | reprinted in The Best of No. 2 1986 | 10 |
| "Amusing Stories Section: A Day in the Log of the City of Alger" | 1982/08 | Vol. 6 No. 5 | written by Jean-Pierre Dionnet | 4 |
| "Enki Bilal Enters the World of Hardcore Science Fiction" | 1983/10 | Vol. 7 No. 7 | Art gallery | 7 |
| "The Gray Man" | 1984/09 | Vol. 9 No. 6 | reprinted in Greatest Hits 1994 | 1 |
| "Over the Wall" | 1984 | Son of Heavy Metal | 4 | |
| "The Leader's Surprise" | 1997/07 | Vol. 21 No. 3 | 4 | |
| "Mondovision" | 1997/11 | Vol. 21 No. 5 | 4 | |
| "Close the Shutters and Open Your Eyes" | 1997 | Horror Special – Vol. 11 No 1 | 10 | |
| "On the Wing" | 1997/Fall | 20 Years of Heavy Metal – Vol. 11 No. 2 | 7 | |
| "New York, 2000 AD." | 1998/01 | Vol. 21 No. 6 | 4 | |
| "The Slow Boat to Vega" | 1998/03 | Vol. 22 No. 1 | 4 |
Since the late seventies, it were publishersNBM,[14]Catalan Communications,Humanoids Publishing, andTitan Comics that have released several albums by Bilal.
A collection of short stories.
Paperback books
Hardcover, large format books
The Bilal Library:(small format – 190 × 260 cm – paperbacks)
Trade Paperback:
Hardcover, large format books
| Year | Title | Director | Writer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Bunker Palace Hôtel | Yes | Yes |
| 1996 | Tykho Moon | Yes | Yes |
| 2004 | Immortel, ad vitam | Yes | Yes |
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