Wednesday, June 4, 2008

The Nikopol Trilogy



The year is 2023, Alcide Nikopol has just returned to a fascist-governed Paris after a 30 year banishment and the gods of Egypt have returned to Earth demanding crude oil.

Yugoslavian Bilal's cyberpunk story invites parallels to be made with present times despite it's 1980 publish date. It begins like every good cyberpunk story with gripping mystery and intrigue and refuses to let go from there. The characters are post-modern, despicable chemically and genetically modified, sometimes immortal and yet all too human.

Matching it's story, Bilal's art paints a wispy, grimy, war-torn hellhole of a future and even with his varied uses of color, the panels maintain the dark character of a mortar-hewn chunk of asphalt from a back alley in the worst part of town.

By Enki Bilal

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