Zoran Smiljanić (1961) is a comic strip author. Since 1981, when he published his first comic strip, he has drawn around 1700 pages. Since 1987 his comics are regularly published in the magazine Mladina where he debuted with the comic strip Hardfuckers, provoking the authorities of the time. His early comics were politically engaged, explicit and provocative, which caused him various troubles during Yugoslav times. Hence, he used the pseudonym Vittorio de la Croce for a while. After the year 2000 he began drawing historical and biographical themes. With co-writer Marijan Pušavec, he created the most extenisive Slovene comic strip epic Meksikajnarji (Mexicanos) (UMco, 2008). The story talks of Slovene volunteers who between 1864 and 1867 went to Mexico to fight for Emperpor Maximillian, the brother of the Austrian Emperor. The comic strip Zadnji let Tonija Mrlaka (The Last Flight of Toni Mrlak) (Buch, 2017) addresses the darker aspects of Slovenia's War of Independence. These were followed by biographies about the writer Ivan Cankar, the architect Jože Plečnik and the poet Karel Destovnik – Kajuh, as well as the historical Črni plamen: požig Narodnega doma v Trstu (Black Flame: the burning of the Trieste National Hall) (ZRC, 2020), that focuses on the rise of Facism. He is currently working on a project about Fritz Lang's connection with Slovenia.