I thought this was morbidly fun post for Halloween, and note the drole Henry Kissinger character.
This little story was originally published in the mid-to-late 70's, and later included in the Memories trade paper back (Humanoids, 2005). Bilal is known for such works as the Nikopol Trilogy, Légendes d'Aujourd'hui, and Partie de chasse. I was going to say Serbia's Enki Bilal, but...
Bilal was born in Belgrade to a Czech mother and a Bosnian Muslim father. When he was five years old, his father managed to emigrate to Paris. Enki and the rest of the family followed four years later. 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 feel Bosnian by my father's origin, a Serb by my place of birth and a Croat by my relationship with childhood friends, not to mention there's my Czech half'. --WP
I love the style of Enki Bilal. I admire him of course for his outstanding drawings but also especially for his range of topics. He excels not just at political and historic subjects but as well at creating sci-fi scenarios and surreal, almost magical realities, sometimes also mixing those different aspects masterfully. After the Nikopol Trilogy, I very much recommend reading:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Order_Brigade
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hunting_Party_(comics)
https://www.babelio.com/livres/Bilal-Hors-Jeu/21708 (especially but not only if you are into sports and soccer)
Hey, thanks for adding on with the cool art posts. ^^
And thanks for adding the info above. Have you read the "Memories" book by chance? The full name is actually Memories : Memories of Outer Space and Memories of Other Times, i.e. two books in one.
I'm really enjoying the book's short story format, because in the past, I've had trouble getting in to some of Bilal's long-format books. I could maybe post another 'best of' short story later, if you're interested.
Hej hej! I was thinking about posting Bilal material anyway and your post gave me the missing impulse.
My last re-read of Memories was some years ago already. I found it in my collection and quickly checked it for a minute now and find the quality differs quite a lot from story to story. For example, I love the first story with the Grabulbians, or however they are called. It is beautifully illustrated and the colours were done really well. On top of that, the anti-militaristic and anti-authoritarian message in a sci-fi setting, is exactly my cup of tea.
I like both, his short stories but also his full length graphic novels. I remember that I especially enjoyed The Black Order Brigade. While being kind of dry and realistic the storytelling and character design is great.
Please post all the Bilal material you feel like, short stories or else. I enjoy all of it :)
Ah yeah, good point! That was a fun theme there. I think possibly because I've read so much Philip K. Dick and Harry Harrison, that's why I didn't notice the theme so much. Something like that.