This past week, the graphic novel “مدينة مجاورة الأرض,” or “A City Neighboring Earth“, by Jorj Abu Mhayya, took the 2012 International Comics Book Festival of Algeria (FIBDA) book award for a work in Arabic. Meanwhile, the pioneering Egyptian magazine TokTok won first prize in the “independent magazine” category. (Apology for yesterday at bottom.)

The FIBDA, a hotspot of Arab comic production and celebration, ran from October 4-14 this year. It was the fifth session and attracted artists of international stature.

“A City Neighboring Earth” publisher Dar Onboz posted on Facebook yesterday:

Back to Beirut from Algeria with this special award given to Jorj by a highly esteemed jury of experts and professionals. All unanimously confirmed that “madina moujawira lil ard” is a demarcation point in the history of comics, not just in the Arab world, but world wide as well! Thank you all for your continuous encouragement and support! Thank you Jorj for this beautiful book! Dar Onboz is eagerly waiting to publish volume 2!

Volume 1 was published late last year, and follows Farid Tawil, who comes home from work one day to discover his family house is no longer here and that the city he has always lived in is no longer the same. The book’s illustrations, according to a review in Al Akhbar, are stunningly dense and rich. (Read the review.)

You can also watch the book trailer:

There seems to be a rising interest in translating Arab graphic works into English, from Mazen Kerbaj’s work on Words Without Borders to Lamia Ziade’s Bye Bye Beirut (Interlink Graphics), to the translation of Magdy al-Shafee’s Metro (Metropolitan Books), to the forthcoming translation of Walid Taher’s Bit of Air (University of Texas Press).

All the FIBDA awards:

Meilleur Album en langue arabe : Ville avoisinant la terre, Jorj Abou Mhayya (Dar Onboz/Liban)

Meilleur Album en langue étrangère : La Grippe coloniale 2, Appollo & Serge Huo-Chao-Si (Vents d’Ouest)

Meilleur Scénario : Golo, Mes mille et une nuits du Caire, (Futuropolis)

Meilleur Dessin : Hector Sonon, Toubab or not Toubab, (Rivages/Casterman/Noir)

Meilleur Projet : A contre-pied, Bensâada Illies & Benali Mohammed El Amine

Mention Spéciale du jury : L’Algérie pour les nuls, Samir Toudji (Algérie)

Encouragement : Une Vie volée, Japhet Miagotar (Cameroun)

Meilleur Fanzine ou magazine BD : Tok Tok mag (Egypte)

Mention du jury : pour le magazine Taïwan Comix

I do have to note that the founder of Dar Onboz (the book’s publisher) being on the prize jury is probably not best practices. But the book nonetheless looks wonderfully intriguing.

Also: Mazen Kerbaj sent out a note that he’s published a new comic (in addition to the WWB one), “Mon nuage,” and he promises it’s in “easy French.”

Note: My apologies for yesterday posting something that was meant for my Arabic children’s lit blog. This is why I can’t manage two blogs.

I hope I don’t harp on this too much, but (grown-up) comics are just…so…cool. The piece below ran in the Egypt Independent print edition, and is now online, with two elaborations from TokTok’s Mohammed Shennawy and Rolling Bulb’s Mohamed Fahmy (Ganzeer):

Recent work by Lena Merhej.

Shennawy’s additional advice to budding graphic novelists was to support the whole field:

هي المتابعة الدائمة للمطبوعات والفنانين الجدد في عالم الكوميكس وايضا نشر اعمالهم لأن النشر وطبع الأعمال بيظهر الأخطاء ويكسب خبرة كبيرة جدا!

And Ganzeer said:

Reuters and Al Ahram Hebdo both report that the great Syrian satirical cartoonist, Ali Ferzat, plans to re-launch al-Domari, or The Lamplighter, in Cairo.

Ferzat was recently in Cairo, and, according to Reuters, sketches that he made while working near Tahrir Square will soon appear in a re-launched al-Domari, set to be based in Cairo.

Lucky Cairo.

The prolific and beloved Syrian cartoonist founded the journal in 2000. For three years, it was one of Syria’s only independent media outlets.  Then, in 2003, it was was forced to shut down by the al-Assad regime.

“The magazine’s purpose is gradually remove the darkness that befell our Arab world,” Farzat told Reuters.

He also told the news agency that he hopes to form a symposium with young artists and cartoonists in Egypt to support the art movement that grew out of Egypt’s uprising.

Ferzat was also recently in Brussels to receive his 2011 Sakharov Award, and in Strasbourg for the Cartooning for Peace exhibition. He is freer to travel now, since he was forced to relocate to Kuwait. He also said, to a reporter for European Parliament news, that “revolutions need voices from abroad to pass on their message. This makes the revolution stronger.”

And according to Al Ahram Hebdo:

Ferzat quitte Le Caire avec son enthousiasme et sa bonne humeur habituels et un espoir hors du commun. « La réédition de mon journal n’est pas une histoire de notoriété, mais une implantation d’idée. Moi, je m’en irais un jour (de ce monde), mais mes idées resteront à jamais immortalisées noir sur blanc. Ce journal ne sera pas uniquement ma réussite, mais celle de tout le pays ; c’est un symbole de développement. Il n’aurait pas dû s’arrêter si tôt … », regrette-t-il, sur un ton de litanie.

Surely, at any moment, Syria is never far from Ferzat’s mind. He recently told the newspaper Discordance that « le silence de la communauté internationale tue les Syriens en jouant la carte du temps. L’opposition ne demande pas d’intervention militaire, juste des zones tampons et des zones d’exclusions aériennes pour pouvoir créer des couloirs humanitaires « .

If you haven’t yet seen this video with Ferzat, of him working, then you should. Samar Media did several of them. You’ve seen them all, right?

Five years after its initial publication, Magdy al-Shafee’s graphic novel Metro is once again available in Arabic in Egypt:

By Elisabeth Jaquette

“Only at Kotob Khan.” Photo: Elisabeth Jaquette. Click for larger image. 

Metro is Egypt’s first graphic novel and a vivid portrait of poverty and corruption under Mubarak’s rule. When it was first published in January 2008, it was quickly banned on the ground of “offending public morals”: the police raided the Malameh publishing house, confiscated all copies of the book, and banned Malameh from printing further copies. Al-Shafee as well as his publisher, Mohammed al-Sharkawi, were charged under article 178 of the Egyptian penal code (which criminalizes the printing or distribution of publications that “infringe upon public decency”) and ultimately each fined 5,000 LE.

An English translation by Chip Rosetti was published in June 2012 and made available in Egypt, and Dar Merit was rumored to have acquired the rights in Arabic. Yet until recently, Metro was still unavailable in Egypt in its original language.

Five years later, Metro is back on the shelves in Arabic. It was republished in August 2012 by The Comic Shop, “the first publishing house in the Arab world specialized in comic books for adults,” which launched in October 2011. (Much of their website is still under construction, but they do offer a small tantalizing selection of other graphic novels from the Middle East, in both Arabic and English). In Egypt, Metro is now being sold at Kotob Khan, which advertises itself as the only shop in the country carrying copies. (Editor’s note: directions to the store.)

It’s certainly an exciting time for graphic novels in Egypt: the collections Autostrade and خارج السيطرة (Out of Control) were published in 2011, the same year Division Publishing House was founded with the goal of ‘spreading comics across Egypt and the Middle East like wildfire.’ In 2012, الفن التاسع (The 9th Art) held a 24-hour comics workshop culminating in the publication of إنت حرّ (You Are Free), and the magazine TokTok is currently on its eighth issue. Yet with censorship concerns under Morsi’s tenure, including attacks on freedom of the press and an increase in lawsuits for ‘insulting the president,’ it remains to be seen whether future graphic novels like Metro will be able to be published without similar concerns.

Previous coverage of Metro on ArabLit:

Magdy El Shafee on the English Edition of ‘Metro,’ Censorship

‘Most Requested’ Graphic Novel Available in English June 5

Egyptian Graphic Novelist Magdy Al-Shafee Speaks at Italian Festival

El Shafee to Try Again Publishing ‘Metro’

Author Fined for ‘Offensive’ Graphic Novel

Elisabeth Jaquette is a MA student in Anthropology at Columbia University and a CASA fellow at the American University in Cairo. She has lived in Cairo since 2007, where she runs an Arabic-English book club and tweets at @lissiejaquette.

For the last year, Sherif Adel has been sharing his comics, and sometimes those of some of his friends, at برباطوظ (barbatoze.tumblr.com). He shares his thoughts on blogging his work and the Egyptian graphic-novelling scene.

Copyright Sherif Adel, barbatoze.tumblr.com/

ArabLit: You said in an interview with Daily News Egypt that you want to make people laugh. So that’s first. Are there other reasons you draw and publish comics (instead of just cleaning teeth)? [Editor's note: Adel is also a dentist.]

Sherif Adel: To tell a story. To get better at telling stories. I’m a firm believer in “learning by doing”, I consider Barbatoze comics a way of getting experience and improving my skills as a cartoonist. Gaining audience and getting feedback is it’s cherry on top.

AL: You said in DNE that you’re working on a book. What do you see as the benefits to printing up a book vs. only reaching your audience online? Will you publish parts of the book on your website?

SA: My main goal has always been to get into print. In my opinion online audiences are a lot different than book readers. Online readers want something short, funny, or clever; they’re less conscious about what makes a comic a comic. Book readers are the ones looking for a story, they want to get lost in it and are much more likely to hang around till you’re done telling your tale.
I’ll probably publish a teaser for it online, perhaps the first chapter, something to catch people’s interest. We’ll see.

AL: What do you think makes a really good single-panel comic? Multi-page comic? Full-length graphic novel? Do they require very different skills?

SA: Yes, definitely a big difference. Making a graphic novel is a lot like making a movie. You have a premise. You create the characters, not just the way they look, but also their psychology, the way they talk and behave. You write what is a basically a movie script, with location descriptions, dialogue, and everything that’s going around in the background. When you’ve got yourself a script, you start imagining the scenes and how you’re going to fit everything into panels. Making a shorter comic has a lot less emphasis on the characters since readers wont be invested in them for too long, and much more influence on delivering the punchline. I’m terrible at single-panel comics or caricatures. I think it mainly relies on visuals, Kinda like slapping an idea onto your face. Not really my thing.

AL: What are the most exciting things happening on the Arabic comic (and graphic novel) scene today?

SA: The most exciting thing happening in the Arabic comics scene, is that it exists! People are becoming more aware of comics as a medium. The idea that comics are geared towards children is slowly fading. Cartoonists and artists in general, are getting more recognition. On a personal note, I love the fact that we now have a professional comic book store in Egypt — Kryptonite Toys. I once straight up went to the owner of the place and told him: I love that this place exists!

AL: What does the Egyptian, and Arabic-language comics scene need that it doesn’t currently have?

SA: Maybe publishing houses that are specialized in comics. Not sure if that exists yet.* I’d also like to see weekly Egyptian/Arabic comic magazines that are aimed at children but not necessarily cheesy; something that is kid-friendly but I would enjoy reading it myself.

AL: As a parent, I second that! Do you also enjoy reading regular novels (with only words) and/or poetry? What sort? 

SA: I read a lot of novels. Satire, horror, thriller, crime, drama, you name it. Here’s a few of my favorites: Ready Player One, The White Tiger, Life of Pi, Tokyo, Trainspotting, ثلاثية غرناطة, تراب الماس, عزازيل, يوتوبيا.** Not really interested in poetry, though.

AL: Do you have advice for emerging graphic novelists/comics artists?

SA: Yes. I wasted a lot of time over-criticizing my work and thinking it’s not good enough. Things only started to turn when I decided to have a positive attitude and to think, OK, maybe this isn’t as perfect as I would like it to be, but it will do for now, and it will get better. That was when I actually started to learn.

AL: You have also had guest artists on Barbatoze. Do you want Barbatoze to become a place where many artists can share their work? Or you envision it mainly as your own?

SA: I consider it a personal project, I don’t really see it as a place for people to share their work.

According to multiple sources, Magdy El Shafee was one of 39 arrested yesterday at Abdel Moneim Riyadh Square:

Youm7 reported that El Shafee — godfather of the Egyptian graphic novel, who faced trials and other hurdles for his ground-breaking Metro – was arrested when he went down to try to stop the clashes yesterday. He was apparently arrested at random.

Dar Merit Publisher Mohammad Hashem said on Facebook that El Shafee was accused of perpetrating violence. Al Mogaz quoted author Mohammad Fathi as saying El Shafee didn’t try to escape from police “because he didn’t do anything.”

Other novelists said on Facebook that El Shafee was being interrogated today at Abdeen Court. It also appeared El Shafee may have been injured in the clashes.

More:

Formerly Banned Graphic Novel ‘Metro’ Now Available in Cairo

Magdy El Shafee on the English Edition of ‘Metro,’ Censorship

Graphic novelist Magdy El Shafee, who was arrested along with 39 others — including 14 minors, a Syrian, and an American — was remanded with the others to Tora Prison for four days while an “investigation” proceeds, according to writers and publishers who were with El Shafee this morning:

The latest update is that El Shafee has been released on bail of 1,000LE. Nonetheless, the 5 p.m. protest at the Journalists’ Syndicate was still slated to continue.

Dar Merit publisher Mohammad Hashem said the charges being investigated include use of a weapon, attempted murder of police officers, and damaging public and private property. Novelist Muhammad Aladdin added that there were seven charges in all.

Elisabeth Jaquette, writing at Words Without Borders, listed them as: demonstrating, threatening to use force, acquiring an unlicensed weapon, carrying weapons and ammunition, the attempted murder of three police officers, assaulting a public officer, and destroying private and public facilities.

El Shafee was arrested yesterday during clashes at Abdel Moneim Riyadh Square, which he had apparently approached in order to stop them.  Al Mogaz quoted author Mohammad Fathi as saying El Shafee didn’t try to escape from police “because he didn’t do anything.”

El Shafee, whose pioneering graphic novel Metro has appeared in English and in Italian, was dogged by Mubarak-era censors. Metro was banned soon after its 2008 publication on the grounds that it “offended public morals,” although it’s likely that El Shafee’s portrayal of endemic corruption also touched a chord. El-Shafee and his publisher were both arrested, tried, and fined 5,000 LE.

El Shafee’s work has also appeared in World War 3 Illustrated; the publishers there have posted a photo of El Shafee from his court appearance that came from Sameh Samir; they have urged US readers to call the Egyptian embassy at  202-895-5400.

More on Twitter at #FreeMagdy and by following novelist Muhammad Aladdin (@MuhAladdin), among others.

Photo of Magdy El Shafee being released:

Photo from AbdAllah Ice.

Other reports:

In Words Without Borders from Elisabeth Jaquette: Magdy El Shafee Arrested and Held at Tora Prison

More:

Formerly Banned Graphic Novel ‘Metro’ Now Available in Cairo

Magdy El Shafee on the English Edition of ‘Metro,’ Censorship

On May 11, if you’re one of the 28 million who live — collectively — in Cairo or New York City, then get yourself to one of these events celebrating and exploring the Egyptian graphic novel:

If you’re in NYC:

At 2 pm, at the School of Visual Arts auditorium on 23rd Street in Manhattan, Magdy El Shafee will give a presentation via live Skype discussing the new movement of cartoonists that has emerged in the last few years, about the changing situation in Egypt, and about his own case and art.

As event organizers note, El Shafee’s 2008 graphic novel, Metro: A Story of Cairo was yanked from stores and banned by the Mubarak regime. El Shafee and his publisher were arrested, jailed, and fined. It was first available in Italian, then English, then in republication in Arabic, as well as in French and German.

El Shafee has continued to write and draw from his life; several of these comics have appeared in English translation in World War 3 Illustrated magazine, the US’s longest-running political comics anthology.

In late April, El Shafee was swept up with 39 others in a mass arrest of anti-Mursi protesters. He was released on bail, but seven charges still hang over him, including use of a weapon, attempted murder of police officers, and damaging public and private property.

Introducing and interviewing El Shafee will be Peter Kuper and Seth Tobocman, co-founders of World War 3 Illustrated.
Admission is free.

If you’re in Cairo:

Celebrate the release of TokTok 9, Egypt’s premiere graphic-novel magazine, with the band Like Jelly. Festivities will start at 7 p.m. at the Institut Francais, Madraset El Huquq St., Munira, not far from the Saad Zaghloul metro station.

Blogger, editor, cartoonist and Fulbright fellow Jonathan Guyer(@mideastXmidwest) will be talking cartoons at Helwan University on May 14:

Jonathan Guyer (@mideastXmidwest) has recently launched Oum Cartoon / أم كرتون – oumcartoon.tumblr.com – a blog about Arabic cartoons. ArabLit asked him a few questions about the site:

“Morsi’s Achievements.” From Oum Cartoon. By Amro Selim.

ArabLit: How do you choose which cartoons to post? What makes a great cartoon? 

Jonathan Guyer: With so many cartoons published daily in the Egyptian press, I’ve been playing it by ear. The goal of Oum Cartoon is to offer a lens into the comic landscape, from the opposition to semi-official newspapers to the Brotherhood and everything in between. I’ve begun by posting illustrations that capture political developments that are often absent in the Western media. For example, cartoonists are drawing gags about electricity cuts and gas shortages with frequency. These shed more light on the situation here than news reports.

A great cartoon is one that engages the reader, forcing one to rethink a political reality and laugh at one’s own bias. But a cartoon is only as effective as its lines and its composition. It must contain movement, so that the reader feels as if he or she is standing alongside the characters.

Whenever I interview a cartoonist, I ask him or her, “What is a cartoon?” Does it need a joke? Is sarcasm a prerequisite? What is the reader’s role in all of this? In due time, I’ll post these reflections from Egypt’s leading cartoonists on the blog.

AL: Who are your favorite working cartoonists? And all-time?

JG: There are so many outstanding illustrators working in Egypt right now. Al-Masry Al-Youm‘s Doaa El-Adl draws fiercely against the establishment and has a beautiful style of inking; I have great respect for her project. Al-Shorouk‘s Amro Selim deserves credit for his prolific output, up to seven cartoons a day, all of which are a stitch. Ahmed Nady pens powerful and disturbing grotesques. And that’s just to name a few.

One of the most exciting publications in Egypt right now, as you’ve written much about, is the comic magazine Tok Tok. The gang behind it — Makhlouf, Andeel, Shenawy, among others — are part of a new Golden Age of Egyptian caricature. Thanks to them and other pioneers, it seems that everywhere I look in Cairo — in public squares, galleries, and of course in graffiti — there are cartoons.

All time favorite? I’m a nut for R. Crumb, despite his occasional misogyny. His portraits of old bluesmen (and women) are simply outstanding. Crumb’s intricate cross-hatching gets me every time. Meanwhile, there are tons of brilliant U.S. cartoonists, like Susie Cagle, Matt Wuerker, Matt Bors and Ann Telnaes, who are revolutionizing how cartoons interact with the internet. I discussed their work in this Cairo Review essay from last fall.

AL: Are you interested in them more from a political standpoint or an artistic/aesthetic one? Or are they separable? 

JG: I’m a glutton for cartoons and a political addict so I find it challenging to disconnect the aesthetic from the political angle. For instance, the zinger in this cartoon by Abdallah wouldn’t work without the martians and their googly eyes. Amro Selim’s loose handwriting is part and parcel of this illustration‘s laugh line. Content and form are intimately linked but I need to study more Kant and Adorno to understand why.

Can pen strokes and the captions be deconstructed? There is a tradition in Egypt of writers and artists working together on cartoons, most famously the duo of illustrator Mustafa Hussein and humorist Ahmad Ragab, who have been publishing in Al-Akhbar since the 70′s. Today, Al-Tahrir newspaper uses a similar arrangement — pairing artists and writers. But many cartoonists I have spoken to think that these two roles mustn’t be separated.

AL: Can you tell us about the cache of old comics you found?

Old comics.

JG: An antiques dealer in the Boursa, in downtown Cairo, sold me a collection of sixty out-of-print books of Egyptian and Arab cartoons. Among the jackpot: monographs of Egyptian greats (Salah Jahin, Hegazi, and Mohi El-Din El-Labad); cartoon books on celebrities such as Saddam Hussein and Princess Di; a pamphlet put out by the Caricature Club in partnership with the Ministry of Population and Family Welfare — and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The only lemon is, “A Hundred and One Uses of a Dead Cat.”

I’ve also dug up 40+ graphic novels, illustrated humor books, and vintage comics from booksellers in Cairo and Alexandria. I even have a comic of Kafka’s The Trial translated into Arabic as well as three comics about the 18 days in Tahrir Square. I’m excited to share all of these gems with Oum Cartoon readers.

AL: You also do your own cartooning…where can we see those? Does being a cartoonist change how you see others’ cartoons?

JG: In college, I started drawing for the Brown Daily Herald and have since spilled ink on ForeignPolicy.com, FireDogLake, the Arabist, CairObserver, and others. Some of my favorite cartoons can be found here. Sketches and doodles going back to 2008 are archived on my other blog, Mideast by Midwest.

As a cartoonist, I’m fascinated by the process of creating as much as the final product. Where does the idea come from? How do editors respond? Where does the cartoonist buy his pens? What’s his or her sketchbook look like?

And back to aesthetics, I like a free hand and a bit of sloppiness and as such I am drawn to artists who use Photoshop very minimally. When I visited Amro Selim’s office, his cartoon from that day’s Al-Shorouk was drawn on a leaf of scratch paper, the back of an internal memo I think.

Jonathan Guyer is associate editor of the Cairo Review of Global Affairs and a Fulbright fellow researching political cartoons in Egypt. He previously served as a program associate for the New America Foundation’s Middle East Task Force in Washington, DC, and as assistant editor ofForeign Policy’s Middle East Channel. He has contributed to the National, Guardian, and Daily Beast. On Twitter: @mideastXmidwest.

Lebanese musician, graphic novelist, and painter Mazen Kerbaj has announced the release of his long-awaited new book:

The novel, Lettre a la Mere, will be published in France by L’Apocalypse. The launch party, exhibition, and signing is at the Beirut Art Center today, from 6 to 9 p.m.

According to the Art Center:

For this occasion, Kerbaj will also exhibit the original comic strip boards, many of which have been shown in the context of the Angoulême International Comics Festival last January, and the Fumetto International Comix Festival Lucerne last March.

The exhibition will be on view until August 3, 2013 on the upper floor of Beirut Art Center.

In his release email, he added that, “for those who are not in Lebanon, the book is available in bookstores in France (and the half-dead francophone world). For the rest of the world, it is available online at amazon.fr.”

Information and excerpts at: 

http://www.lapo.fr/

Mazen Kerbaj trans. into English:

“We Have,” trans. Mazen Kerbaj, on Words Without Borders.

“Military Method,” a cartoon on MR Zine.

Algiers has long been a cartooning hotspot, and the International Comics Book Festival of Algeria (FIBDA) is an important annual event. But although Algiers has welcomed and celebrated both Arabophone and Francophone comic artists — Lebanese graphic novelist Jorj Abu Mhayya and Egyptian magazine TokTok both won awards at last year’s fair — the Algerian scene has its own flavor. In the last few years, the manga form has been on the rise:

Although Richard Jacquemond noted, in a recent book chapter, that the Arabic book market has largely resisted the global manga trend, it has had some traction among artists in the Emirates and also, notably, in Algiers.

A September 22 AFP article notes that “Algeria’s home-grown manga a hit with the young.”

It particularly quotes Salim Brahimi, the founder of Z-Link, Algeria’s first publisher dedicated to manga comics, and Laabstore, a magazine that showcases new work. The Z-Link and Laabstore manga are promoted as ”100% Algerian.”

Most excitingly, the comics are published trilingually — or soon will be — in French, darija (colloquial) Arabic, and soon in Amazigh, according to AFP.

Z-Link launched its manga misison in 2007. In 2008, 40 percent of a print run — around 3,000 copies per title — would be sold. Today, the numbers are more like 70%, and print runs have gotten as large as 10,000 copies per title, according to AFP.

Ten thousand copies per title begins to show a high profile, and Z-Link’s Kamal Bahloul told AFP that, ”When we started this adventure there were just two of us. Now we have nearly 30 employees. We are growing five percent on average every year.”

Japan also has noticed.  This year, Japan’s Kyoto International Manga Museum acquired several Algerian works.

Bahloul told AFP: “In 20 or 30 years, young Algerians will all have mangas and comics on their bookshelves.”

Scholarship

Alexandra Gueydan-Tureka’s “The rise of Dz-manga in Algeria: glocalization and the emergence of a new transnational voice”

Blog review

Bande dessinée, Algerian Love, en manga DZ

Laabstore Magazine

http://laabstore.com/

Video with Salim Brahimi, founding editor of Laabstore:

ArabLit contributor Nadia Ghanem writes that “The sixth edition of the International Comic Strip Festival in Algiers (FIBDA) delivered just what I was looking for: Algerian Love”:

By Nadia Ghanem

This manga, written in Algerian Derja and published by Z-Link Editions, is the work of Mohamed Amine Rahmani. It recounts the story of el-Nuri, a young Algerian guy in secondary school (lycée years) who finds a ‘love’ letter in his philosophy book addressed to him.

El-Nuri, between disbelief and a crush on the writer of this unopened love note, is hesitant but seduced. Aided by emotional support from Kamal el-terrorist, Zahira l-Khatira, and the twin-team Salim and Hakim, he sticks around to meet up with Leila the Bomba, and… I’ll stop here, I don’t want to spoil your first manga story in Derja, and hope this album gets much attention and wide distribution.

For those in Algiers, there are a few more copies at the Festival on Laabstore’s stand.

Laabstore is the French language magazine promoting Algerian mangas, also published by Z-Link.  For those who don’t want to climb all the way up to the Martyrs’ monument, there are two more copies on the shelves of Le Tiers Monde bookstore (at 300 dinars).

And for those outside of Algiers? I do not know how you will get hold of it, and this illustrates the national and regional problem of book distribution, and the problem of few bookshops with available titles (and affordable ones).  Algerian Love was published in 2013, and Z-Link editions have several more Algerian mangas that are well worth a read, but they are written in French and it is the Derja language ones that interest me, sorry Francophiles.

Mohamed Amine Rahmani notes on the final page that Algerian Love is composed in Derja from Biskra, a city in the East of Algeria. It is written using the Arabic script and what a relief that is. Arabic is the script that represents the sound of Derja the best I believe, but mostly it is the script with which the majority of young Algerians are comfortable.

What made Rahmani brave is what so many other cartoonists avoid: speaking in Algerian to Algerians. And who is the readership he primarily targets? I couldn’t say, and if you are or know Rahmani maybe you could ask him and tell me — well, us.

When we catch up, Mohamed Amine, I’d also like to have around the coffee table the Moroccan cartoonist Mostafa Oghniya with a Tagine of Rabbits.  On an upper bookshelf at FIBDA’s largest tent featuring an international range of mangas, I saw thrice.  That is, three versions of a Tagine of Rabbits, Mostafa Oghniya’s cartoon strip, which was first written in French. It was then translated and published in Moroccan Derja, written with the Arabic script, and also translated in Tamazight written in neo-Tifinagh script.

This album is more of a children’s book and recounts the tramway journey of Samir and his cousin Zineb, off to meet Samir’s big brother after a mysterious phone call from the latter. To calm Zineb’s and his own nerves until they arrive at their appointed stop, Samir speculates on the reason behind his brother’s urgent call, which must be motivated by giant rabbits and bald aliens.

I shall memorise Morocco’s choice of neo-Tifinagh just to decipher how to say “welcome aliens” in Tamazight.

On a final note, these comic strips or manga albums in Algerian and Moroccan are those I found in complete form. There was an exhibition of plates from a group of young cartoonists called Les Déchainés (the Unchained or Unbridled) who participated in a training from March to July 2013, and whose collective work is to be published as an album by Dalimen editions.

It is excerpts of their work that were displayed at FIBDA and among them was Fatma’s Memories (Dhikrayat Fatma), a cartoon strip set in 1942, written by Safia Ouarezki in Algerian Derja and drawn by Mahmoud Benameur. It traces the story of a dreamy young girl made to marry her tender cousin Amar. Amar soon leaves to fight for and in Europe, and American troops are posted in the village soon after. Fatma remembers, and I shall wait to listen to her story.

FIBDA is held on Riad el-Feth’s esplanade from 8 October to 12 October. Nadia Ghanem is a reader based in London and tweets at @ayatghanem.

Also:

How To Foster Multilingualism in Algeria?

The Rising Profile of Algerian Manga

And more for the graphic-novelling inclined:

Q&A: Magdy El Shafee, Graphic Novelist and Author of Metro

Graphic (Novel) repression in Egypt

Neila Columbo recently listened to and met with _Z_, the Tunisian political cartoonist who blogs at http://www.debatunisie.com/:

By Neila Columbo

From a video profile on Z, done by Samar Media.

Various scenarios fluttered in my thoughts when I learned the Tunisian political cartoonist _Z_, who rose to prominence during the 2010-2011 Tunisian Revolution, would be speaking in Boston in the fall.

With great curiosity, I asked: Who is _Z_? Particular in the digital age, where seemingly every facet of a person’s biographical history is available, he was an unfathomable enigma, a great mystery, known publicly by a single alphabetical letter.

I began to research; I discovered his blog. Written in French, with various Arabic phrases throughout, I intently studied his collection of iconography, with reoccurring themes of flamingos, society, and an ominous figure in differing poses, yet invariably with his hand placed upon his heart. His anonymity both intrigued and disheartened me — the circumstances of his country’s political climate and thus the context in which he must work, yet his sheer courage to continue on, despite all. It was seemingly inconceivable, at least in theory, that one should not possess the inherent freedom to draw as one would wish — whether it is illustrating flamingos, a springtime flower, or, in certain cases, a country’s dictator.

It was then November. He would speak at Harvard University on the 14th of the month. The day arrived, and as I prepared to attend, I pondered, of all matters concerning an anonymous political cartoonist risking his life for the values of human rights and free speech, what he would be wearing.

As the talk began, he introduced himself as a professional architect based in Paris, France, as well as an anonymous Tunisian political cartoonist by “night.” How these two distinct worlds meet would be discussed in his presentation. His talk would be primarily in French, translated by his host, a Harvard graduate student, noting humbly that he wished he could more fully express his thoughts and ideas in English. He was by all accounts fluently expressive in both, yet his story transcends most profoundly through his incisive, titillating, and moving illustrations.

No film or photography would be permitted, it was noted, as _Z_ continues to receive threats daily.

Seated at the front, he perused the room with his eyes. It was at this point that a new realization began to form. Dressed in beige twill pants and a gentleman’s collared shirt, he looked to be the requisite young professional city dweller, with no intimation of a political satirist who held an important role in denouncing, and consequently, ousting, a long-standing authoritarian regime. He was any one of us in the room.

“Le Blog”

The Tunisian Revolution formally began in late 2010 following the self-immolation of a young man, twenty-six years of age, Mohamed Bouazizi, in the rural town of Sidi Bouzid in December that year. Yet, the collective storm of discontent, fear, and oppression, as _Z_ recounted, had been gathering for decades.

Growing up in Tunis, while his friends would be playing football, _Z_ would be in his room, drawing pictures. He loved to draw, he recounted; it helped to understand the world around him.

Growing up in Tunis, while his friends would be playing football, _Z_ would be in his room, drawing pictures. As a young child, he loved to draw, he recounted; it helped to understand the world around him. His parents understood his artistic talent, yet understandably felt concern that there would be no future for him as an illustrator in Tunisia. While there is a strong tradition of editorial cartoons in Tunisia, since the time Zine el Abidine Ben Ali assumed power in a coup d’état in 1987, freedom of speech had been largely suppressed. Consequently, his parents encouraged him to study another subject he would love equally as much. He chose architecture, as architects, he thought, also draw.

Upon completing a degree in architecture in Paris, he secured a position as an architect with an urban planning and architecture firm in the city. During this time, he began to contemplate broad connections between his work in urban planning, globalization, and the environment, and how illustration could visualize its complex intersection. In 2007, he began to write a blog with various musings on these subjects.

Kelibia

Three years later, in 2010, he was reading about a development project in the planning stages, coordinated by the administration of then-President Ben Ali and a Dubai real estate firm. It was an expansive urban project that would use public land to build a private leisure resort, and Ben Ali’s administration spun the project to the Tunisian press as one that would benefit the public through added jobs and economic growth. Yet, as _Z_ reviewed the technical drawings of the site, given his knowledge as an architect, he realized the effects the project would have on the urban context and surrounding environment, which would require use of a natural waterway that had been a traditional haven for pink flamingos and other birds that migrated to this location every year. _Z_ distilled the government propaganda and perceived the true purpose of the development project, which was to benefit the upper class, not the majority of Tunisians very much in need of work, as Ben Ali had stated.

Credit: _Z_ , March 2008, http://www.debatunisie.com/

He felt compelled to make the drawings accessible so Tunisians could understand the actual plans for the site. This was a pivotal point for_Z_, as his understanding of of the architectural drawings inspired “an “intellectual journey,” he said, as he began to fulfill a paradoxical role of both architect as well as critic of modern urban development and its impact on the natural environment.

_Z_’s criticism of the architectural drawings inspired an “intellectual journey,” he said, as he began to fulfill a paradoxical role of both architect and blogger criticizing modern urban development, and, consequently its impact on the natural environment.

His irreverent cartoons began to capture the attention of Tunisians, opening readers’s minds to the extravagant projects being discussed. People began to protest against the project, a reflection of the simmering cauldron rippling through Tunisian society from the oppressive effects of Ben Ali’s regime. The pink flamingos in his drawings came to symbolize this struggle and the revolution to come.

It was during this time, early on in his blog, that _Z_drew one of his first cartoons of Ben Ali. In a different time and place, as he drew a simple black-lined illustration of Ben Ali during his talk in Cambridge, Mass. in November, he quietly told us, “I could spend three years in jail for drawing this in Tunisia.”

Contre Le Pouvoir

One of the first cartoonists in Tunisia to draw Ben Ali, _Z’s_ blog was soon censored. Tunisian youth bypassed the block, and his work began to gain greater prominence among the media and public for its honest depictions of Ben Ali’s dictatorship and suffocating effects on Tunisian society.

Credit: _Z_ , July 2010, http://www.debatunisie.com/

From this point onward, Ben Ali would become the center of _Z_’s political satire, which, at the time, was considered by some as more blasphemous than drawing the Prophet. This decision paralleled an important moment among Tunisian youth, a phrase known in French as “contre le pouvoir” —the understanding that revolutionary change was indeed possible through political struggle.

As the government began to censor more media outlets, bloggers such as _Z_ faced greater peril. In November 2009, a Tunisian woman known as Fatima reposted _Z_’s cartoons on a similar blog and was arrested and jailed for five days under the assumption she was _Z_. He would publish a pointed cartoon during this time, with the statement “I am not Fatima, we are all Fatima” to prove unequivocally Fatima was not him and ensure her release. In March 2012, fellow Tunisian blogger Jabeur Mejri would be sentenced to a seven-and-a-half-year jail term for posting caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad on Facebook.

Credit: _Z_ , November 2009, http://www.debatunisie.com/

While _Z_ understood the risk he faced in continuing to publish cartoons on his blog, he felt compelled by “basic, simple, human values —the universal ideas of social justice…of political liberty…of freedom of expression.” It is a moral reflection, he stated, not necessarily a nationalist one.

Yet he recognized he could not achieve these ideals alone. Before the revolution began in 2010, he sought help in France for his case, although he received no response. He joined the initiative “Cartooning for Peace,” founded by French cartoonist Plantu, and in January 2011 he decided to reveal his identity to his family, still based in Tunis, following Ben Ali’s fall from power. The sacrifice to his personal relationships throughout the past three years, he shared, has been difficult and isolating.

The Boat Is Sinking

_Z_ now describes Tunisia as straddling two incompatible states of existence, existentially forced between “Zaba and Zaballah” — in other words, an authoritarian police state vs. Islamism. The secular elites criticize Zaballah, yet they do not support the cause of the majority in Tunisia to improve social and economic conditions.

Credit: _Z_, August 2013, http://www.debatunisie.com/

And for most Tunisians, this Hobson’s choice seems inevitably unforgiving.

Credit: _Z_, October 2011, http://www.debatunisie.com/

While the energy of the revolution has formally shifted to the complicated, messy process of establishing a fragile democracy, bringing forth free elections in late 2011 leading to a coalition of the Islamist Ennahda Movement and the left-leaning Ettakatol party, the embers of revolutionary chaos still exist. In certain ways, _Z_ feels Tunisians are back to the beginning: quasi-military discipline, fear among Tunisians to speak out against the government, internal social struggle. It is as if a film is replaying itself in a theatre, again and again.

During his talk, _Z_ explained that in Arabic, the words for ‘bull’ and ‘revolution,’ are very close—thawrah ثورة, is revolution, just one letter different from thowr ثور , bull. The bull he draws, like the revolution, is dead.

Can a new bull enter the arena? Like us all, he, too, is waiting.

Credit: _Z_, October 2013, http://www.debatunisie.com/

Neila Columbo is a freelance journalist, and writes about sustainable development, climate change, international affairs, and food-related subjects; she tweets at @NeilaColumbo.

This month, Words Without Borders launched its International Graphic Novels: Volume VIIII, which features an excerpt from Donia Maher, Ganzeer, and Ahmed Nady’s “The Apartment in Bab El Louk,” trans. brilliantly by Elisabeth Jaquette.

The collaborative project is a gorgeous look at life in Bab El-Louk. You can see it here. Ganzeer answered a few questions about how it came about, and what he plans to do next.

AL: How did this collaboration come about? How did it “work”? Did you talk it out, or just each do your part?

G: Pretty simple. Donia sent me her text, which I read and enjoyed. She did know that she wanted the visual to very much aid in the storytelling and not just be a meaningless add-on, but she did give me full control over the style and direction. I also had full control over what text would be on which page, how much text there would be, the whole thing. The very last part of her text was written in entirely in dialogue, no prose, to which she thought would be great if illustrated comic book style by the great Ahmed Nady. Upon reading it, I totally agreed that Nady would be great for that last bit, which to get him to do I had to bring him over to my place and pull a couple of all-nighters that were very much powered by delivered pizzas.

AL: What’s inspired your ideas about what’s possible in a “graphic novel”? Indeed, it neither follows the rules of telling a story (with rising & falling action / character development) nor of an ordinary graphic novel (with panels, sparse text, progressive action). It’s much more like a fabulous noir poem, or a video installation… Are there particular art forms that give you inspiration?

G: I would never attempt to pass “The Apartment in Bab El-Louk” as a graphic novel or anything remotely close to it. Just because there are drawings, doesn’t make it a comic book or graphic novel. The sequentiality that would exist on a singular page of your typical graphic novel is nowhere to be seen in this particular book, save for the very last nine pages illustrated by Ahmad Nady. An entire story told in full-page splashes just isn’t a graphic novel. The narration is a little bit more designy, making the book more of a visual album of sorts. Or as you eloquently put it: “a fabulous noir poem.”

The reason for this approach is very much due to Donia’s text, which had it been published without the visuals could not be categorized as a novella, because you don’t have that kind of narration that is typical of stories. It reads more like a reflective prose of some sort. Which I feel required a similar visual language to match it, and one in which the text would very much be a part of the image. This kind of marriage of reflective text and image requires a better understanding of design more so than illustration. Luckily, I get my inspiration from all kinds of mediums. I just love visual communication in all its forms.

AL: Where are you going next? Will you respond to the clamorous fans demanding you publish a graphic novel, trans. into many world languages?

G: I’m still struggling to free up the time and peace of mind to work on graphic novel. Or two. It’s sad because there’s already interest from a number of local publishers. Creating a graphic novel, however, is a very timely process, and publishers here don’t pay any advances, and I find it especially difficult to work on more than one thing at once, so the only way I’d be able to put out a graphic novel was if I didn’t have to worry about rent money or food for a good year. Maybe 2015? Maybe never?

Ganzeer (the Egyptian artist Mohamed Fahmy) has been threatening to get to work on a big graphic novel for some time. Now it seems that he has:

A few panels have appeared on his website, along with the note that this is a “[s]neak peak of work-in-progress pages from a graphic novel I’ll be working on over the next couple of years. Will reveal more information a bit more down the line.”

If you’re interested in Ganzeer’s work (as you should be), get yourself a copy of his collaboration with Donia Maher and Ahmed Nady, The Apartment in Bab el-Louk. If you can’t get your hands on the original Arabic, you can read Elisabeth Jaquette’s excellent translated excerpt on Words Without Borders. 

Keep following Ganzeer’s work:

At his website, http://www.ganzeer.com/. You’re welcome.

Comics — and graphic novels — continue to blossom in Arabic-writing hotspots, including Algiers, Beirut, and Cairo:

Starting tomorrow, the first edition of Between Cadres (BECA) — Egypt Comix Week — will take place in Alexandria and Cairo. It is, according to Ahram Online, “the first large scale event in Egypt dedicated to comics.”

The week of exhibitions, workshops, discussion groups, and lectures has been organized by the Alliance Française, the Goethe Institute and Sefsafa publishers. Artists from Egypt, Germany, and France will participate. They include German comic artists Isabel Kreitz and Barbara Yelin, French artists Marc-Antoine Mathieu and Jean-Marc Troubet, and Egyptians Michel Maalouf and Fawaz.

Cartooning has a long and rich history across the region — hence the Sawwaf Arabic Comics Initiative at the American University of Beirut (AUB). Mu’taz Sawwaf, whose family is supporting the initiative, said in a prepared statement that comics and cartoons have always influenced society and public opinion and continue to inspire them in the 21st century.

“Yet no one has tried to understand and promote comics art from an educational, academic, and entertainment perspective, nor has anyone honored the Arab pillars of this very creative art form,” Sawwaf said.

Lina Ghaibeh, an associate professor of animation, motion, and graphics at the AUB, has been named the founding director of the initiative. In the release, she said that she hoped “we will be able to grow this initiative and develop it into a full-fledged Arabic Comics Center for the study of this Arabic cultural heritage.”

As Jonathan Guyer notes over at Oum Cartoon, Ghaibeh’s recent lecture on propaganda and Arab comics is worth watching.

But while short-form political cartoons, and longer ones for children, have a rich history in many Arab cities, the interest in longer works for adults is relatively new.  “Young people are looking for forms of expression that represent them,” cartoonist Haytham Ramadan told Ahram Online. They’re finding it in places like the popular comics-based magazine TokTok, he said.

The Ahram Online piece also sounds a note of warning on the future of Egyptian comics, slipping into first person:

It is still not clear if the margin of freedom in Egypt will curb the momentum that is still in its infancy, and what the future of comics in Egypt will be.

We still remember the destiny of the first Egyptian graphic novel by Magdi Al-Shafei, Metro, released in January 2008.

Metro is available in Cairo again, although in very limited distribution.

Today marks the launch of Sherif Adel’s “Foot 3aleyna Bokra” (“Pass By Tomorrow”), an all-new satirical SF comic that will be published on the first Wednesday of the month:

The fun, campy “Pass By Tomorrow” — set in the year 3104, and featuring the not-altogether-heroic Fahmi — will see its kickoff tonight at Townhouse Rawabet, next to downtown Cairo’s Townhouse Gallery, at 7 p.m. Musical guests Hany Must and Friends will also be there.

This is author-illustrator Sherif Adel’s (@barbatoze) first serialized comic story, and he’s opened up with a bang. The first issue is fun, cleanly and brightly drawn, with fumbling, larger-than-life characters and a fast-moving story, good for ages 11-111. This work could easily draw in new adult readers, as well as older children, with its engaging humor and expressive drawing work.

The plan, Adel says, is to have out each new issue on the first Wednesday of the month and a launch event on that Friday. If you want to get one of the first 2,000 copies, you’ll have to get to Townhouse Rawabet tonight at 7. If you’re still not sure if you want to brave traffic tonight (and yes, there’s still bad traffic in 3104), we’ve got a brief interview with Adel about what he’s got in store.

ArabLit: So was Pass By Tomorrow written in the far future and transported back to you to transcribe for us? 

Sherif Adel: I’m afraid that’s classified information, let’s just say it involves a time machine, a fake moustache, and a falafel sandwich.

AL: Why the history of the future? For camp/humor value? Just because it’s more fun? Because you’re freer to comment on anything you like: past, present, future?

SA: “Where is Egypt heading to?” is a question that we have been asking ourselves over and over during the past few years and -in my experience at least- we’ve been slowly realising that nothing major is actually changing. Corruption, misbehaviour, harassment, bad traffic, political indifference, and pretty much everything is settling back into place. So Pass By Tomorrow is my answer to an extension of that question, “How will Egypt be like in 1000 years?” In my opinion, it will also be about the same. Our chaotic foolish half-assed way of dealing with our problems and the world, will prevail. On the bright side, we get a lot of surreal comedy on a day to day basis; so there’s always that.

AL: What are the “red lines” of the future?

SA: No red lines per se, except for my personal red lines of not including obscenities and sexual content in my work.

AL: What are your inspirations? 

SA: Inspirations.. I consider myself an avid consumer of fiction in many of it’s forms; I’m specifically enthusiastic about comics, video-games and cartoons. For Pass By Tomorrow, I would say my biggest inspiration is “ملف المستقبل – The Future File” by Dr. Nabil Farouk. They are science fiction novellas that were insanely popular in the Nineties, and I’d go as far to say they introduced a whole generation (myself included) to science fiction and to the hobby of reading itself.

Pass By Tomorrow started out in my mind as a strict parody to ملف المستقبل, the latter was a optimistic imagination of the future where Egypt is a world leading country built on science and ethics with an intelligence team that saved the planet more times than you can count on one hand; while the former is a realistic (and thus satirical) imagination of the future where things are.. as I said pretty much the same as they are now. As I went along with writing the script of Pass By Tomorrow it departed from being a parody towards being it’s own thing; there are still nods here and there to ملف المستقبل, but yeah I wouldn’t consider it just a parody anymore.

AL: Do you have the whole story mapped out? Or rather, has it all been transported from the future to our time? Or is it coming in pieces?

SA: I have the story mapped out, but I’m re-adjusting and tweaking the plot as I go along. I’m planning on using the monthly issue format to be able to get a feel for what people are expecting, enjoying or disliking with the feedback that I get.

AL: I’m not sure of my confidence in the Egyptian intelligence services of the year 3014. 

SA: Me neither.

AL: No girls in the story yet! Well, except our very helpful office admin and the holo-radio lady. Are there women in the future? Does Fahmi have a lady-friend?

SA: Yes, Sahar -سحر- one of the 4 major characters is a lady. The first issue was building up the setting and introducing the reader to the world through the protagonist. The rest of the team are introduced with the 2nd issue.

AL: Are tales of 3014 for readers of all ages? Thus far, I’d say they’re for anyone 11-111.

SA: My intention, as is with the rest of my work, is that anyone of any age can grab a copy and enjoy it. That being said, I would assume that people who spent their childhood in the Nineties will get most of the references and jokes. An interest in SciFi and pop culture would help as well.

More about tonight’s event: on Facebook.

In Publishing Perspectives, Olivia Snaije reports on the strong foreign-rights sales of France’s 2014 bestsellers. One May release — Riad Sattouf’s L’Arabe du futur — is scheduled for release from Metropolitan Books next May:

Sattouf, a best-selling cartoonist and filmmaker who grew up in Syria, Libya, and Algeria, now lives in Paris. He’s the author of four comics series in France, as well as a weekly column in the satirical Charlie Hebdo. 

The Arab of the Future – which according to Publishing Perspectives has sold more than 120,000 copies in French — will be his first work in English.

According to Metropolitan Books:

The Arab of the Future, the #1 French best­seller, tells the  unforgettable story of Riad Sattouf’s childhood, spent in the shadows of 3 dictators — Muammar Gaddafi, Hafez al­Assad, and his father.

In striking, virtuoso graphic style that captures both the immediacy of childhood and the fervor of political idealism, Riad Sattouf recounts his nomadic childhood growing up in rural France, Gaddafi’s Libya, and Assad’s Syria­­but always under the roof of his father, a Syrian Pan­Arabist who drags his family along in his pursuit of grandiose dreams for the Arab nation.

Riad, delicate and wide­eyed, follows in the trail of his mismatched parents; his mother, a bookish French student, is as modest as his father is flamboyant. Venturing first to the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab State and then joining the family tribe in Homs, Syria, they hold fast to the vision of the paradise that always lies just around the corner. And hold they do, though food is scarce, children kill dogs for sport, and with locks banned, the Sattoufs come home one day to discover another family occupying their apartment. The ultimate outsider, Riad, with his flowing blond hair, is called the ultimate insult… Jewish. And in no time at all, his father has come up with yet another grand plan, moving from building a new people to building his own great palace.

Brimming with life and dark humor, The Arab of the Future reveals the truth and texture of one eccentric family in an absurd Middle East, and also introduces a master cartoonist in a work destined to stand alongside Maus and Persepolis.

According to Publishing Perspectives, the agency handling rights has “so far negotiated 14 sales to publishers including a pre-empt, 3-book deal to Metropolitan Books in the US, a 2-book deal to Intrinseca in Brazil, to Knaus in Germany, De Geus in the Netherlands and a 3-book deal to Salamandra for Spanish and Catalan.”

You can also read an excerpt from the French publisher.  From the book:

Also:

Snaije’s earlier profile of Sattouf and review of his Ma Circoncision (My Circumcision)