Ilban Ertem is one of Turkey's best known comic artists. He was raised in a village on the coast of the Bosphorus, where he spent all his free time making charcoal drawings and paintings. By age 21 he decided to become a professional draughtsman, and his first assignments were drawing children's stories and art for spice products.
He turned to cartooning after meeting Turkish grandmaster Oguz Aral in 1973. One of his best-known characters is the alley cat 'Vicdan'. He was a contributor to Gırgır and later also to Firt Magazine throughout this decade and the 1980s. When these magazines went out of business, he began to work for Avni Magazine, Hibir Magazine and Joker Magazine. He also wrote some short stories for Graphic Novel Magazine before returning to painting and illustrations. By 2008 he was working on his cartoon book 'Misty Continent Atlas'.
