All Access

Job no:81378-5 Title : RP_All Access (New PB Verdions) Client : Pro-vision

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175 Size : 203.2(w)254(h)mm Co : M6 (mac J)

Dept : DTP D/O : 22.10.05 (Job no:000000 D/O : 00.00.04 Co: CM0)

5th Black

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M

irko Ilic´ was born an only child in Bosnia in 1956. His father served in the military;

his mother worked at home as a seamstress. Ilic´ discovered his gift early and

immediately realized its power. At the tender age of three, he used one of his mother’s

fabric markers to draw on the kitchen floor. She quickly discovered the unsolicited artwork;

instead of yelling, she found a piece of carpet to cover up the drawing so she could show

it to her husband. To this day Ilic´ remembers his parents standing over the drawing and talking

to each other in a distinctly positive whisper.

A little while later, he drew a horse and carriage in one of his grandfather’s books and found

once again that he was praised for his transgression. He had discovered that drawing provided

a way to express himself and get the approval he desired at the same time. From that point on,

his talent was nurtured by his mother and by his teachers. “Between the ages of twelve

and fourteen, I discovered that drawing was the easiest thing to do for me, so I went into

that direction more and more.”

R

ELOCATION His father’s military postings forced the family to move four times over

the course of Ilic´ ’s childhood. “I found myself in four different elementary schools,

in different parts of the country, with different customs and ethnicity.” Ilic´ was harassed

for his accent and his heritage. Peaceful resistance was not a viable option. The only way

to escape was to beat up somebody at each new school to immediately establish his position.

He was thus forced to balance his artistic side with a tough attitude that would protect him

in new surroundings.

Coming of age in Communist Yugoslavia, Mirko Ilic´ used his work

as a means of self-expression and political action that was

simultaneously covert and highly visible. After moving to New York,

he found that his time of resistance wasn’t over.

1974 1998

NOW

Slikovnica Za Diktatore

(Dictators Picture Book),

comic strip Dictators

Picture Book was the first

comic Ilic´ ever published.

“I was playing with sounds.

Every image has some form

of sound or noise. It was

heavily influenced by the

US underground comics.”

ILIC15

´

MIRKO

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Job no:81378-5 Title : RP_All Access (New PB Verdions) Client : Pro-vision

Scn :

#

175 Size : 203.2(w)254(h)mm Co : M6 (mac J)

Dept : DTP D/O : 22.10.05 (Job no:000000 D/O : 00.00.04 Co: CM0)

p130

5th Black

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1

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1976

20

1977

21

1978

22

“ I BROUGHT THE EDITORS A BUNCH OF MY DRAWINGS

AND LEFT THEM THERE. I NEVER BOTHERED TO SIGN MY WORK—

EITHER IN THE FRONT OR BACK. TWO WEEKS LATER

ONE OF MY DRAWINGS WAS PUBLISHED

WITHOUT MY NAME.”

198019791974

Debil Blues, comic strip “The first comics that you could sing and play along to,” says Ilic´ of this 1976 strip. Again, he is preoccupied with sound

but has evolved to a much higher level of sophistication in the two years since Dictators Picture Book.

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