Enki Bilal wants to be a painter

I have admired the work of Enki Bilal since I stumbled upon him sometime in the late 1980s. Unfortunately, he publishes very rarely, and now, it seems, he has just published his final work in the "comics" genre.

Enki Bilal wants to be a painter. And who can blame him? Moebius also wanted to become an artist, and hopefully, Bilal will end up doing some fantastic art. The only real problem with that is, that from now on, his work will be a lot less accessible.

The stories that Bilal tells are less interesting than his graphic talent. Usually, the stories are set in a strange, futuristic urban landscape, and the new album, Memories of Outer Space, is no exception. I haven't read it yet, but I'm planning to buy it one of these days.

Bilal has participated in making several films, one of which is Immortel, which is based on The Woman Trap from the Nikopol Trilogy. I've seen a trailer, and I must admit that I would probably only watch it for that distinctive "Bilal Feel". The Woman Trap was, by the way, my first encounter with Bilal's work, and I still think it is one of his best albums along with the one he did about the Berlin Wall. However, I am looking forward to see what his art is going to be like.

Comments

[Ian Kaplan]

The graphic novel has truely become an art form. There
are some amazing works in this genre. David McKean's
beautiful "Black Orchid" to Frank Miller's raw "The
Dark Knight Returns" and "Ronin". Long ago this genre
left the realm of children.

The graphic novels have also explored deeper, darker
waters. I have a graphic novel on the civil war
burning through Sarajevo and of course there are the
Maus novels on the Nazi death camps.

I'm glad that life is returning to a more sane schedule
for you, Mari-Ann. I hope that spring blossoms with
good food, wonderful books and other sensual things.

All the best,

Ian

[Mari-Ann]

Hi Ian. Good to have you back. You've been MIA for a while, it seems? I don't know any of the works you mentioned, but I'll go and have a look for them at Amazon.

And yes, it's so nice to have a little more time on my hands in the evenings.

Hugs