Marco Ilïn was born in Timişoara, Romania, but moved with to Quebec with his family when still a child in 1980. He won a comics contest for children at age 12. He created the characters 'Solly et Sotty', who appeared in the magazine ZIP from 1987, and later in Video Presse. Marco also did illustration work for adventure books published by Aquila Communication. He won a prize at a festival in Charleroi, Belgium, in 1992. He finished his scientific studies, and cooperated on the collective album 'Premières Armes' before getting an apprenticeship with Spirou magazine in 1994. He cooperated with Colman and Desberg on several short stories starring 'Billy the Cat'. The cooperation ended after a conflict about the copyrights, and Marco continued to make several independent short stories for Spirou with writers like Thiriet and Vehlmann.
