| Birth Name: | Ed Hillyer |
| Nationality: | British |
| Area: | Writer, artist |
| Alias: | ILYA |
| Notable Works: | Bic |
Ed Hillyer, better known as ILYA, is a British comics writer/artist.
His work has appeared in publications from all the major US and UK comics companies, from Fleetway Editions' Crisis, Dark Horse's Manga Mania, Deadline magazine to work for DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. Since 2000, his works have appeared from a wide variety of international book publishers and cultural institutions, including Little Brown, Robinson, SelfMadeHero, Myriad Editions, The Royal Academy of Arts, The British Council, Lonely Planet Guides, The Independent on Sunday, The Times & Guardian newspapers, and many more.
He is perhaps best known for his character Bic who appeared in a self-published series of comics (collected as Skidmarks from Tundra UK, 1993, and Active Images, 2003) and then as part of the larger cast of The End of The Century Club, his award-winning series of original graphic novels (Best Graphic Novel, UKCAC - United Kingdom Comic Art Convention - 1997).
ILYA collaborated with Eddie Campbell on his "Deadface"/Bacchus series (Vol II: The Gods of Business), and co-created spin-off title/series The Eyeball Kid.
Between 2006-2008 he edited three volumes of The Mammoth Book of Best New Manga, an anthology presenting the work of an international roster of contributors whose comics show the influence or inspiration of Japanese manga and anime, including: Michiru Morikawa, winner of the International Manga and Anime Festival's grand prize in 2005, previous category winners Asia Alfasi and Joanna Zhou, as well as established UK cartoonists Andi Watson and Craig Conlan. He has been on the judges panel of the UK Japanese Embassy's annual 'Manga Jiman' (
Ten episodes of his animated online comic strip Jean Genii (originally commissioned by the BBC) are viewable online.[1]
Ed Hillyer's first prose novel, The Clay Dreaming, was published in March 2010 by Myriad Editions.
In 2014, he completed a new graphic novel, Room For Love, about a relationship between a middle-aged romance novelist and a teenage runaway. It was published by SelfMadeHero.
He is currently resident 'Cartoon Historian', regularly appearing in alternate issues of The New Internationalist magazine - 19 episodes published as of January 2024.