#cairocomix

Cairo Comix 2 Kicks Off

Snapshots from day one of the Middle East’s underground comic con. 

If this is the first you’re hearing of the Cairo Comix Festival, here’s my dispatch from the 2015 confab:

The action-packed CairoComix Festival, held September 30 through October 3 at the American University in Cairo’s Tahrir Campus, convened artists and fans to celebrate the new wave of sequential narratives that has drenched the Arab region. A festival of this magnitude could not have happened five years ago: there was no market or interest, not enough publications or professional output. More than a dozen stalls in AUC’s courtyard were a testament to the arrival of Arab comics, among them neo-Pharaonic superheroes (El-Osba), kitschy futuristic serials (Foot Aleina Bokra), literary explorations (Cavafy’s), and an array of comic strips and caricaturists. Serving on the jury for the festival’s six awards, I was introduced to a whole bookshelf of comics, from amateur ventures to highly professional publications.

The festival was a milestone as regional comics enter a new phase. It’s no coincidence that a movement of adult comics in Arabic has transpired in the past decade – it corresponds with political change. In 2007, Lebanese artists launched the Arab alt-comix zine Samandal, and CairoComix co-founder Magdy El-Shafee published his comic noirMetro. And since the 2011 uprisings, the rest of the region has produced worthy competition, notably Egypt’s Tok Tok, Morocco’s Skefkef, and Tunisia’s Lab619. Defying the hierarchal editorial structures of mainstream publishing, each of these periodic ‘zines has been created by a collective of varied artists. The fact that so many new comics have emerged in Egypt and Middle East means we need new methods for reading illustrated stories, and not just to excavate the political from the silly and sober.

Je serai au Caire du 26 au 6 octobre, pour le 2e festival Cairo Comix !

I will attend Cairo’s 2nd edition of Cairo Comix festival, from the 30 to the 2nd of #inktober !

Winning Comics

It was a great honor to serve on the jury of this year’s Cairo Comix Festival. 

And the winners are...

Best Graphic Novel: Locust Effect by Hanan Al-Kararg

Best Short Story: Angels Sleep in the Sea by Migo 

Best Comics Magazine: Lab 619 (Tunisia)

Best Press Comic Strip: Ahmed Okasha and Amr El-Tarouty

Best Digital Comic: Qahera by Deena Mohamed

Best Work in Progress: Riham Husseiny

Cairo Comix Festival

As ever, Egypt’s comic scene is bustling. Some recent developments:  Makhlouf’s martian portrait drawing hangout, Mohamed Wahba Elshenawy’s comic classes, a forthcoming ‘zine called Garage, and the Ministry of Culture’s touring political cartoon gallery. 

Now, three prominent comic artists are planning Cairo Comix, a week of exploration, which undoubtably will advance the craft. The conveners—Magdy ElShafee, Shennawy, and Twins Cartoon (all pictured above)—are among the vanguard of the Egyptian capital’s emergent alt-comix scene. Their mission statement: 

CairoComix—in its first year—aspires to promote the growth of visual art entertainment, and create a nurturing environment that entertain the audience and foster the development of an Arabic Comics ecosystem.

Save the date: September 30 through October 3. Comic artists can submit their works for a variety of awards, all with a September 15 deadline. More details soon.