Enki Bilal
Superstar European SF and Fantasy comics artist Enki Bilal revisits the Louvre in twenty-two portraits... He imagines 22 fates of men, women and children whose lives have been affected by a work of art. 22 portraits for 5000 years of creation.They haunt the halls of the Louvre ... they are long dead, often violently ... they are a Roman legionary, a muse, a painter, a German officer ... Each, one day, met a painter or a sculptor and was their model ...
Bilal felt them, wandering the corridors of the Louvre, close to the work that tipped their life: Mona Lisa, the Victory of Samothrace, Christ reclining, an Egyptian mask ...Bilal startlingly brings them back to life.
Both a work of Fantasy and a masterful homage, this was presented in a special exhibition in the Louvre in early 2013.
REVIEWS:
"A melange of art, history, and innovation, Phantoms of the Louvre is curious and unexpected."
-San Francisco Book Review
"Look, I could spend a lot of breath telling you how amazing this stuff is, but honestly: why? It’s Enki-friggin’-Bilal drawing and writing about the greatest museum on Earth! What the hell else do you want from comics? Unless your taste resides solely in your mouth, you need this like you need oxygen."
-Comics Waiting Room
"Each painting catches the feel of the original work while adding its own ironic spin, resulting in the most unique and thought-provoking “Louvre Edition” to date."
-Seattle Post Intelligencer
"Gorgeous. a supremely interesting springboard to watch a creator with Bilal’s imagination and abilities dive off of repeatedly."
-Comic Book Resources
"Captivating! His distinctive dark artistry and flamboyant imagination are equally apparent in this book."
- Publishers Weekly
"Highly Recommended. What a variety! Bilal's selections cover 5,000 years of human history, from an Egyptian mask to the Mona Lisa, from the Human-Headed Winged Bull of Mesopotamia to the Winged Victory of Samothrace."
- Andrew ‘Capt. Comics’ Smith, The Chicago Tribune
9 x 11 ½”, 144 pp., color POB, $29.99
ISBN 9781561638413
Buy the e-book: $9.99