Facts &
Figures
Arab
Countries
18
Number of
Submissions
148
Female
Participation
45%
Editorial Cartoons
Omar Abdallat | Jordan
Omar is an internationally acclaimed Jordanian British cartoonist, a public and motivational speaker, women’s and youth’s rights advocate, and a social media activist with several awards for outstanding online presence. He is also a seasoned trainer and lecturer in creative production, drawing, caricature, creative thinking, and social media engagement through art.
Graphic Novels
Jorj Abou Mhaya | Lebanon
Jorj Abou Mhaya is a Lebanese illustrator, political cartoonist and comic book author, who also worked in 2D cartoons and animation. After exhibiting his first painting collection at the International Art Gallery in London, Jorj moved to the fields of illustration, comics, political cartoons, and advertising in Lebanon and the Middle East. Apart from the work he publishes in newspapers, he is mostly known for his graphic novel “Madīna Mujāwira lil Arḍ” (A city near Earth) published by Dar Onboz, also translated to French and published by Denoël Graphic publishing house under the title “Ville Avoisinant La Terre”.
Comics
Ganzeer | Egypt
Born in Cairo, Egypt, Ganzeer operates seamlessly between art, design, and storytelling, creating what he has coined: Concept Pop. His medium of choice according to Art forum is “a little bit of everything: stencils, murals, paintings, pamphlets, comics, installations, and graphic design.”
Graphic Illustration
Tracy Chahwan | Lebanon
Tracy Chahwan is a cartoonist and illustrator from Lebanon. She is an active member of the acclaimed Samandal comics collective. Since 2016, she has been working closely with the Beirut music scene, designing posters and visuals for numerous venues. In 2018, she published her first graphic novel “Beirut Bloody Beirut”.
Chilldren’s Book Illustration
Hanane Kai | Lebanon
Hanan Kai is a Lebanese illustrator and art director who started her adventure as a graphic designer before pursuing her passion for illustration. In 2016, she won the Bologna Ragazzi (New Horizons) Prize and the Sharjah Children’s Book Award, and her name was shortlisted for several international awards. Hanan aspires, through her work, to leave an impactful message and to feed the thought and the spirit.
EMAD HAJJAJ
Emad Hajjaj is a Jordanian artist known for his satirical cartoon character “Abu Mahjoob” and the famous national slogan “We are all Jordan”, and one of the prominent producers of animated films in Jordan. He presented many innovations in editorial caricature and satirical content and created cartoon characters for various artistic and commercial purposes. Hajjaj worked as a painter with major Arab newspapers and websites, such as the London-based Al Quds Al Arabi newspaper, Al Ghad and Al Ra’i Jordanian newspapers, and Sky News Arabia, as well as an art director in many Jordanian advertising agencies. Throughout his artistic career, he held many exhibitions, the most important of which are City Hall Exhibition – Amman in 2000 and American University Exhibition – Beirut in 2003. He also participated in many international and Arab exhibitions, festivals and conferences in the fields of caricature, satirical writing and animation, the most important of which are: Annecy International Animation Film Festival and Market – France 2006, Meknes International Animated Film Festival- Morocco 2007, Lighting Lamps Exhibition – London 2009, St. Just Le Martel Festival in France 2018, Sfax Caricature Workshops 2017.
As a result of his controversial cynical drawings, Emad Hajjaj was dismissed from a newspaper and forced to change his work more than once in search of a liberal workplace with better working conditions and less constraints on freedom of expression. He gained wide popularity in Jordan and the Arab world that the Arabian Business magazine considered him more than once as one of the hundred most influential Arab figures. He won Al Hussein Journalist Creativity Award in 2001, Dubai’s Arab Journalism Award in 2006 and again in 2010, and the Montpellier International Cartoon Forum Award in France in 2012, in addition to many local, Arab and international honorary shields and awards.
Emad Hajjaj was born in 1967, holds a BA in Graphic Design from Yarmouk University in 1991. He has been the President of the Jordanian Cartoonists Association for two consecutive terms since 2016, and a member of the Jordanian Journalists Syndicate, a member of the French Cartoonists Syndicate, and a member of the Federation of Cartoonists Organizations (FECO). He has many publications in the field of caricature, the most important of which is “Al Mahjoob” Book, a book in three parts that were published in 2000, 2008, and 2019, respectively. Hajjaj is married, has three children, and is currently working as an editorial cartoonist for the London-based Al Araby Al Jadeed newspaper and website.
Fanzeen: The Outer Space Magazine
With a passion for Comics, Mike F. Derderian founded Fanzeen Magazine In 2018. Mike approached visual artist and Comics illustrator (and his friend) Lutfi Zayed to design the magazine and its logo. Issue zero of the magazine was a collection of Comics that were the outcome of a workshop with the American Comics artist Peter Cooper (editor of World War III magazine) at F.A.D.A. 317 studio in Jordan. Mike decided to collect these comics in a magazine under the name “Fanzeen” because of its consonance with the word “benzene”, and based on the idea of pouring benzene on fire in the hope that it would ignite the horizon and shed a light on the art of Comics in and outside of Jordan.
Fanzeen is an independent magazine which relies on the sales of its issues in order to be printed, in addition to private financial support from Derderian, through his freelance work (as a graffiti artist and designer among other things) believing in the importance of Fanzeen as a platform for publishing the works of artists from Jordan, neighboring countries and the world. Additional financial support at the beginning of the journey of this magazine was offered by wonderful individuals such as Nisreen Mousa, Barbara Rowell (Jacaranda), Linda Ali (Fann wa Chai: Art Gallery and Tea Bar) and Khaled Nahar (Khaled Comics). Moreover, the continuity of Fanzeen is the result of the time and effort expended by the work team, and of course the comic artists who believe in it and publish their lines, words, and fantasies in the magazine for free.
Fanzeen’s Contributions:
Fanzeen went through many stages, participations and contributions. Issue Zero was launched in F.A.D.A. 317., and Issue 1 was released at the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts in Amman, where copies of the issue were sold at the CairoComix Festival, via Lutfi Zayed. After that, the magazine was launched at the Sharjah Art Book Fair “Focal Point” for two years in a row. Issue 3 was launched at the Fiction House Café, and later, under the auspices of Fanzeen, a comics’ corner was created during Amman Design Week with Rana Beiruti. The magazine then participated in an exhibition organized by the Arab Comics initiative at the American University of Beirut, as well as in the Comics Week Exhibition in Ras Al-Ain, Amman in cooperation with the French, Spanish and Belgian institutes. This was followed by the launch of the fourth issue in F.A.D.A. 317 and Jacaranda. At the time of this book, Mike sent out a call for the launch of the fifth issue of the magazine
8th Mahmoud Kahil
Award 2023 Finalists
Yassin AlKhalil | Syria
Seïf Eddine Nechi | Tunisia
Tracy Chahwan | Lebanon
Mariam Omar | Egypt
Haya Halaw | Syria
Meet the Jury
Eszter Szep
Hungary
Powerpaola
Colombia
Othman Selmi
Tunsia
Ralph Doumit
Lebanon
George Khoury
Lebanon