Enki Bilal (born October 7, 1951) is a cartoonist and film director.

Born in Belgrade, former 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.

His latest publication has been 32 Décembre (2003), the second book in another trilogy this time dealing with the breakup of former 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...

His cinematic career has recently been revived with the expensive Immortel, Ad Vitam which is his first attempt to adapt his books to the screen. The film has split critics, some panning the use of CGI characters but others have seen it as a faithful reinterpretation of the books.

Bibliography includes

• La Croisière des oubliés (The Cruise of Lost Souls) (1975)
• Le Vaisseau de pierre (Ship of Stone) (1976)
• La Ville qui n'existait pas (The Town That Didn't Exist) (1977)
• Mémoires d'outre-espace (Memories From Outer Space) (1978)
• Les Phalanges de l'ordre noir (The Black Order Brigade) (1979)
• La Foire aux immortels (The Carnival of Immortals) (1980)
• Partie de chasse (The Hunting Party) (1983)
• L'Étoile oubliée de Laurie Bloom (The Forgotten Star of Laurie Bloom) (Los Angeles) – Ed. Autrement (1984)
• La Femme piège (The Woman Trap) (1986)
• Coeurs sanglants et autres faits divers (Bleeding Hearts and Other Stories) (1988)
• Froid-Équateur (Equator Cold) (1992)
• Le Sommeil du monstre (The Dormant Beast) (1998)
• Exterminateur 17 (Exterminator 17) (2002)
• 32 Décembre (December 32) (2003)

Filmography as director

• Bunker Palace Hôtel (1989)
• Tykho Moon (1996)
• Immortel (Ad Vitam) (2004)

External links

• Interview
• Fan website (in French)