Noureddine Hiahemzizou

Noureddine Hiahemzizou, born in 1937 in Algiers, is a designer, illustrator, cartoonist, model maker and poster designer, graduated from the National School of Fine Arts of Algiers.

He started at the weekly “Algérie Actualité” in 1968 as a layout designer and illustrator and became known by publishing a humorous series under the title “Zach” (La Cigale) and the same year in the daily “El Moudjahid” with the character Si Fliou, based on an idea from journalist Abderrahmane Mekhlef, in a comic strip entitled "The Adventures of Si Fliou". In 1969, Algérie Actualités published a booklet, its adaptation of a short story by Ahmed Chenouf Boudi: "Commando En Mission" on the Algerian War, a comic strip on the theme of the war of national liberation. That same year, he invented the character of Si Fliou in the form of strips in the newspaper El Moudjahid.

In the cinema he began as a production assistant in the film "Z" by Costa Gavras in 1967. Then he designed numerous posters for Algerian films including "Hassan Terro" by Mohamed Lakhdar Hamina (1968), "The Way" of the deceased Mohamed Slim Riad (1968), "Hell at Ten Years" (collective 1969), "Patrouille À L'Est" by the late Amar Laskri (1971), "Le Mariage De Moussa" by Tayeb Mefti (1982), "Harvest d'Acier" by Ghaouti Benddedouche (1983), "Chant D'Automne" by the late Meziane Yala (1983), "Les Portes Du Silence" by the late Amar Laskri (1987), "Faits Divers" (collective 2019), etc.

Encouraged by Noureddine Nait Mazi, the director of the daily, in 1976 he adapted Youcef Khader's spy novel "SM 15 Halte Au Plan Tacteur" into a comic strip, published in 1970 by the Société Nationale d'Édition et de Diffusion which came out the album in 1976. In 1981, he released "À L'Aube D'Un Jour De Novembre" followed in 1999 "La Fabuleuse Histoire De Raïs Hamidou", an illustrated album, with a text by the late storyteller Belkacem Babaci. In 2003, on the occasion of the Year of Algeria in France, "Si Fliou" was published as an album by the Entreprise Nationale des Arts Graphiques (ENAG). In 2010, he illustrated “Djeha” by the satirical poet Abderrahmane Lounès and in 2011 “Impasse De La Régence” by Youcef Tounsi published by Casbah editions. In 2018, he republished “Si Fliou” at the National Graphic Arts Company.

He won the Sid Ali Melouah Heritage Prize at the 7th Algiers International Comics Festival in 2012.

Noureddine Hiahemzizou will die on August 23, 2023, at the age of 86. One of the fathers of Algerian comics, in addition to his luminous memory, leaves behind a rich body of work which has nourished the imagination of several generations and inspired numerous artists.