A Serb, but born in Timisoara, Romania on 17 September 1974, Marco Ilïn will put down roots in Quebec from a very early age following the emigration of his parents to Canada. In 1981, at the age of twelve, he wins the first prize in a comic strip competition organised by the Salon du Livre of Montréal. This success is all the encouragement he needs to create two comic book characters, Solly et Sotty, whose first adventures are published in ZIP magazine from July 1987. In the period 1989-1990, Solly et Sotty take up residence at VIDEO PRESSE magazine for episodes of seven plates per month (Les Sept merveilles du monde). Marco then turns to illustrating several adventure books for a publisher called Aquila Communication.
In October 1992, he manages to win the first prize in the “Comique” category of the Concours International de Charleroi, illustrating sixteen plates based upon the humorous script prescribed by the organisers. He completes his study in Abstract Sciences (D. E. C.), attends the award ceremony in November of the following year and is also present at the launch of the album compiling the submissions of the three winners of this competition. SPIROU’s editor in chief offers him a traineeship as an illustrator at the magazine’s offices for the summer of 1994. He then works on animations until Colman and Desberg ask him to do the illustrations for complete stories of their character Billy The Cat in 1996. Having produced enough material for an album, an argument about copyright flares up between the members of the team and Marco talks to various Belgian scriptwriters about comic book story projects. It is with Zidrou (Benoît Drouzie) that he will make the most progress and their talks will probably result in a new creation in the pages of SPIROU…