Nightmares and Daydreams: A.C. 2020

Mirko Ilić is a Bosnian-born comics artist and graphic designer based in New York. He spent his formative years as a youth in Yugoslavia during the Communist-bloc era, where he became known for his early illustrations for comic books and magazines. His comics were then published internationally in Heavy Metal, Metal Hurlant, and Marvel’s Epic Illustrated, among others. Soon after he moved to the United States, he became the art director of Time magazine's international edition and The New York Times’ op-ed pages. Throughout his illustrious career, Ilić has collaborated with design luminaries such as Steven Heller and Milton Glaser including on Milton Glaser: POP (The Monacelli Press, 2023). He has designed album covers for Rage Against the Machine, and created film titles for You've Got Mail. His works (including some of his comics) are in the collections of the MOMA, the SFMOMA, the Smithsonian, Die Nueue Sammlung, and many other global institutions. His biography Mirko Ilić: Fist to Face by Dejan Kršić was published in 2012 (PRINT). Nightmares and Daydreams: A.C. 2020 (SelfMadeHero, 2026) signals his return to the visual medium he loves: comics.