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Bilal, Enki (Artist/Author) & Cauvin, Patrick (Co-Author) : Enki Bilal: Hors Jeu

Les Editions Autrement, Paris, France, 1987

ISBN 2862602078

First Edition / First Printing. Fine in No Dust Jacket, As Issued. Unpaginated. The artist/writer's fully-illustrated story. One of the greatest comics art books of the 20th century. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions. Published in a small and limited print run as a hardcover original only. The First Edition is now rare. A brilliant production by Enki Bilal: Oversize-volume format. Pictorial hard boards with titles on the cover and spine, as issued. Art and text by Enki Bilal. Co-written with Patrick Cauvin. Printed on pristine-white, thick uncoated stock paper in Paris, France to the highest standards. Without DJ, as issued. Presents Enki Bilal's "Hors Jeu". One of his single most beautiful works ever. A masterpiece of the Master Draftsman's art. Until recently (with the arrival of a breakthrough artist like Marjane Satrapi and now, Riad Sattouf), "graphic novel" in Europe was a pretty much meaningless term whereas in the English-speaking world, it has been widely used to describe illustrated fiction for adults for some time. The sex and nudity as well as erudition and aestheticism of Bilal's work is radically different, inhabiting another imaginary universe in the distant future; he has more in common with dystopian/visionary writers like J. G. Ballard and William S. Burroughs than with Art Spiegelman, Daniel Clowes, or Chris Ware. His technique is mixed-media, watercolor combined with ink, pencil, and chalk, willfully deployed to the point that the paper used is effaced and transformed: "The most remarkable thing about Bilal's art is its texture. He revels in the textures of decaying buildings, chipped paint, tortured wood, cracked ceramics, rough stone, broken concrete, grime, soot-covered surfaces, and wrinkled skin. He indulges this love of texture to such a degree that the ugly becomes the beautiful" (Charley Parker). Whereas one of Spiegelman's principles is that the graphic artist's line should be as simple and even crude as possible (we are always aware of the paper on which the artwork is done and in a way that we are not with Bilal), the lapidary exquisiteness and minute precision of Bilal's hand recall such Masters as Goya, Otto Dix, and R. B. Kitaj in their subversive beauty. Bilal's mastery of color is unsurpassed; there is nothing quite like the colors of the illustrations in "Hors Jeu", which are magnificently presented as full-page plates. An absolute "must-have" title for Enki Bilal collectors. This copy is very boldly and beautifully signed in pencil on the title page by Enki Bilal. It is signed directly on the page itself, not on a tipped-in page. This title is a contemporary art classic. As far as we know, this is the only such signed copy of the First Hardcover Edition/First Printing available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright, a pristine beauty. Please note: Signed Bilal prints are readily available. Signed copies of his books are not. A rare signed copy thus. Lavishly illustrated with color plates. One of the greatest artists of our time. A fine collectible copy. . ISBN 2862602078.

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