ENKI BILAL: HORS JEU - Rare Fine Copy of The First Hardcover Edition/First Printing: Signed by Enki Bilal - ONLY SIGNED COPY ONLINE

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

ISBN 10: 2862602078 / ISBN 13: 9782862602073

Published by Paris, France: Les Editions Autrement, 1987

About this Item

1st Printing. Signed. Unpaginated. Published in 1987. The graphic artist's fully-illustrated story. One of the greatest graphic novels of the 20th century. The First Hardcover Edition. Precedes and should not be confused with all other subsequent editions, particularly subsequent printings by Les Editions Autrement and the 2018 Casterman Edition. Published in a small and limited first print run as a hardcover original only. There is NO British or American Edition. 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. It is nothing less than a masterwork of the Master Draftsman's art. Until recently (with the arrival of a breakthrough artist like Marjane Satrapi and then, 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 in a way that we no longer are 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. 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 great graphic novel. As far as we know, this is the only such signed copy of the true First Hardcover Edition/First Printing (French Original) available online and is in especially fine condition: Clean, crisp, and bright. 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. Seller Inventory # 14638

Bibliographic Details

Title: ENKI BILAL: HORS JEU - Rare Fine Copy of The...

Publisher: Paris, France: Les Editions Autrement, 1987

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Fine

Dust Jacket Condition: None, As Issued

Signed: Signed by Author

Edition: 1st Edition.