Facts & Figures
Arab Countries
15
Number of Submissions
300
Female Participation
43%
10th Mahmoud Kahil Award Winners
April 2025
Editorial Cartoons
Tawfik | Egypt
Tawfik’s extensive experience spans roles as a technical director and designer for animation projects, alongside a long tenure as a comics artist for Basim and Majid magazines. He won First Prize in Journalistic Comics at the Cairo International Comics Festival in 2016.
Co-founder of the award-winning TOK-TOK magazine, Tawfik has participated in international exhibitions, published works referenced in the Encyclopedia of Arab Caricature and Comic Artists, and collaborated with Harvard University on Middle Eastern comics. He also published Tawfik-Comics, a collection of his works spanning thirteen years.
Graphic Novels
Mohamed Ali | Egypt
Ali has participated in numerous collective art exhibitions and was awarded the Angoulême Maison des Auteurs art residency in 2020. His comic work was featured in the 2018 Mahmoud Kahil Award annual book, and his contributions to animation have earned him two awards in Cairo and Dubai.
A published author, Ali has released two comic books, published consecutively in 2021 and 2022. His work continues to shape the fields of comics and animation, establishing him as a leading figure in contemporary visual storytelling.
Comics
Nour Haidar | Lebanon
Nour Haidar is a talented 24-year-old illustrator and comic book artist based in Beirut, a city rich with unique and inspiring stories. Her passion for the arts began in childhood, but it was during her studies at the Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts that she developed a deep interest in illustration and sequential storytelling.
Since then, Haidar has embarked on a diverse range of projects, exploring various mediums and styles with each new endeavor. Her artistic curiosity has driven her to experiment with different themes and techniques, always seeking to tell compelling stories through her work. Haidar believes that every image holds its own narrative, and her creations reflect this belief, capturing the essence of the stories that surround her.
Graphic Illustration
Sally Samir | Egypt
She has participated in various exhibitions and received notable recognition, including the State Encouragement Award in Arts for pre-school children’s book illustrations in 2022. Her book Where, Moon? won the Best Design and Production Award at the Lebanon International Book Fair.
Her creative and impactful approach to illustrations continues to shape the field of children’s literature, where she brings vibrant stories to life with every new project.
Chilldren’s Book Illustration
Shiroug Mohamed Ali Idris | Sudan
Her work is deeply inspired by African folklore and mythology, with a strong emphasis on representing Afro-Arabian heritage. Through her illustrations, Shiroug seeks to highlight and preserve the rich narratives of her roots, creating art that resonates with both historical depth and contemporary relevance.
Amaal Khattab
In the early 1980s, Amaal Khattab had the opportunity to join the team of artists and illustrators at her favorite magazine, “Samir”. There, she participated in drawing stories and coloring illustrations at her small desk, surrounded by fellow artists and creative collaborators, including Mohamed El-Tahamy and Alaa El-Saeed – the artist behind the redesign of Samir’s character in the early 1980s.
Her artistic and aesthetic maturity reached its peak in the 1990s, where she skillfully and professionally brought these iconic images to life, making Samir’s covers and pages vibrantly beautiful and full of life.
Amaal Khattab was selected among 12 artists who applied for the position of replacing Samir’s illustrator. She proved her talent by illustrating Samir and his friend Tahtah for five years before leaving Egypt for Lebanon, where she helped establish Bisat Al-Reeh Magazine in the United States, where she was hosted by Walt Disney in his studios. She continued working in illustration for 22 years thereafter. Amaal worked at Samir Magazine from the early 1980s until her retirement around 2017.
Maamoul Press
Maamoul Press is a small press and collective working at the intersection of comics, printmaking, and book arts, fostering by-us for-us storytelling from marginalized communities through publishing, workshops, and more. We orient our work, and call on you, to refuse and resist zionist and imperialist hegemony everywhere, towards collective liberation.
Founded in 2019 in metro Detroit, Maamoul launched with an 8-week comics workshop that provided an intensive learning experience to local participants, as they created their own comics zines. Since then we have published numerous books, zines, and prints, curated the work of our artist members for exhibitions, and tabled at fairs across North America. Our work is by and for artists and communities from SWANA and other marginalized backgrounds, working against hostile publishing landscapes that seek to suppress and control our narratives. We are rooted in a collaborative and DIY ethos with a long tradition in printmaking and zine-making spaces, forging alternative, community-based modes of publishing, and sharing knowledge and skills through always free workshops and programs. Where possible we have directed proceeds to supporting various causes locally as well as in our homelands, with a focus since October 2023 on mutual aid efforts in Gaza, while also directly supporting Gazan artists through publishing their work. Find us at maamoulpress.com and @maamoulpress.
10th Mahmoud Kahil Award 2025 Finalists
Editorial Cartoon
- Naser Jaafari | Jordan
- Mohamed Afefa | Palestine
- Mohamed Zahran | Egypt
Graphic Novel
- Mohammad Sabaaneh | Palestine
- Karen Keyrouz | Lebanon
- Mohamad Kraytem | Lebanon
Comics
- Farid Nagy Nasr | Egypt
- Tawfik | Egypt
- Mai Koraiem | Egypt
Graphic Illustration
- Yousif Elamin | Sudan
- Mahmoud Abdou | Egypt
Children’s Book Illustration
- Baraa Alawoor | Palestine
- Hayam Safwat | Egypt
Meet the Jury
Her most notable work is the comic series about Nofret, which follows a girl navigating the political and religious intrigues of pharaoh Akhenaten’s reign. The final installment of the series was released in April 2022. In total, she has written and illustrated 34 comic books, including He Electrified the World, the best-selling Danish comic book of its year. Additionally, she has illustrated nearly 200 children’s books.
Bech has received all major Danish comics awards, and in 2015 was honored with the Adamson statuette from the Swedish Comics Academy in Stockholm. Her works have been exhibited 37 times in eight countries, including France and Germany.
More details can be found at: www.sussibech.dk.
Doaa has participated in numerous exhibitions, and she has received numerous awards, including the Egyptian Syndicate of Journalists’ Best Cartoon (2009) and the Mustafa and Ali Amin prize (2015). In 2016, the BBC named her one of the most inspirational and influential women of the year. She later received the Mahmoud Kahil Award (2017) and (2024) both in the Editorial Cartoons category, was nominated by Cartoon Home Network International in Norway among the Top Ten Cartoonists in the world (2018), and won First Prize at the Women Cartoonist International Award (2020).
@doaa.eladl.cartoon
He has written, co-written, edited or contributed to more than twenty books on comics and has curated exhibitions at institutions such as The British Library, the National Comics Centre in Angoulême, The Centre Pompidou, and The Barbican Centre, where he organized the first exhibition of Asian Comics, currently touring museums in the USA.
His upcoming projects include curating for the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, opening in London 2026, and contributing to a new museum of graphic narrative in Brussels. More details can be found at www.paulgravett.com and @paul_gravett.
In 2004, she illustrated her first book and has since illustrated over 44 books for publishers in Lebanon and internationally.
Fidawi has received nine national and international awards, including the Etisalat Children’s Book Award for Book of the Year (2014) and Best Illustrated Children’s Book (2017), as well as the 2nd Mahmoud Kahil Award in the Children’s Book Illustration category (2017). In 2024, she was nominated for the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Award.
She has conducted illustration workshops in Brazil, Morocco, Italy, Turkey, UAE, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon. Based in Beirut, she runs regular workshops and is a part time instructor at AUB and ALBA, teaching both manual and digital illustration.
@mayafidawi
Jad has received several awards for his contributions to the field. His works A Thousand and One Nights and Shehrazade are part of the permanent collection at Le Musée de la Bande Dessinée (The International Comics Museum) in Angoulême, France.
georgeskhouryjad.wordpress.com
Facts &
Figures
Arab
Countries
11
Number of
Submitions
200
Female
Participation
58%
2ND Mahmoud Kahil
Award Winners
March 2017
Editorial Cartoons
Doaa AlAdl | Egypt
Doaa El Adl, born in Dumiat, is an Egyptian caricaturist. She graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Cinema and Theatre Interior department. Doaa worked as a political caricaturist at Al Doctor newspaper, Rose Al Youssef Magazine and Sabah El Kheir Magazine. She currently works at Al Masry Al Youm. In the field of children illustrations, she contributed to Qatr El Nada, Alaa-ElDin and Bassem Magazine. Read more
www.instagram.com/doaa.eladl.cartoon
Graphic Novels
Fouad Mezher | Lebanon
Based in Lebanon, Fouad Mezher works as an illustrator on projects ranging from children’s books to animations, but his primary focus is on comics. His work in comics started with Samandal in which he wrote and illustrated the series The Educator as well as other short comics. His other work in comics includes illustrating The Fifth Column: Homecoming, written by Fadi Baki, in Zamakan, as well as writing and illustrating the silent comic Fragile for Risha Project. Read more
Comics
Othman Selmi | Tunisia
Otham Selmi was born in 1977 in Tunisia. After receiving his diploma in graphic arts, he devised his time to comics at a cartoon studio. He is currently Director of Creativity in a communications agency. He wrote many books for young Tunisians, and drew in many magazines abroad.Read more
Graphic Illustration
Muhammad Mustafa | Egypt
Muhammad Mustafa is a Cairo-based visual artist. He studied Fine Arts in Cairo, majoring in Painting, graduating in 2007. He started his work in the advertising field as an illustrator, and throughout his work years joined different multinational agencies in Egypt, Bahrain and Dubai. In 2012, he decided to pursue his path as a freelance illustrator to further explore different kinds of art projects alongside his commercial work. Read more
Chilldren’s Book Illustration
Maya Fidawi | Lebanon
I was pretty much known to be lazy student throughout my school years, but I was also known as “that girl who knows how to draw” ..so survived by that, waiting for the art class impatiently; the only subject that woke me up from the coma I had during all those years. After miraculously graduating, it didn’t really take me much time to decide that my passion was art, so I enrolled at the Lebanese University, faculty of Art, and majored in painting and sculpting, graduating in 2000, and freelancing since my 1st year of university.Read more
Habib Haddad
Habib Haddad was born in Tripoli, Lebanon in 1945. With a passion for drawing since childhood, he taught himself bypassing any formal education in art, and continues to live from his art. During the 70’s he worked for Al Nida’ newspaper and Al Akhbar magazine in Beirut. At the beginning of 1977 Haddad immigrated to France, where he served as a caricaturist for Al Mustakbal magazine Paris, and later during the 80’s at Al Anba Kuwaiti newspaper, and the Parisian “Editor” Newspaper. He finally moved to Al Hayat Newspaper for which he worked for twenty five years, only recently retiring.Read more
Cairo Comix Festival
CairoComix Festival deals in particular with the development of the independent movement of comics in Egypt at a large scale in the Middle East and North Africa, where comics represent a popular form and art equivalent to other media means such as street art, animation, cinema, video art and graphic design; and where artists in the field usually practice one or more of these arts. CairoComix is regarded as a celebration of art gathering readers, painters and writers of this art, whether at the local or international level in one place, which isn’t usually seen but in the presentation of different awards such as Best Arab Comic Award. The first edition of the festival took place in September 2015, and included 20 guests coming from Arab and other countries.Read more
4th Mahmoud Kahil
Award 2019 Finalists
Othman Selmi | Tunisia
Ahmed Tawfiq | Egypt
Seifeddine Nechi | Tunisia
Omar AlNasiri | Morocco
Fouad Mezher | Lebanon
Mohammad Koraytem | Lebanon
Diala Brisli | Syria
Hazem Kamal | Egypt
Sahar Abdallah | Egypt
Walid Taher | Egypt
Meet the Jury
-
Andrew Warner
USA
-
Armand Homsy
Lebanon
-
Bahia Shehab
Lebanon
-
Geroge Khoury
Lebanon
-
Mohammad Shennawy
Egypt
-
Jean-Pierre Mercier
France
Andy Warner is the New York Times Best selling author of Brief Histories of Everyday Objects. His comics have been published by Slate, American Public Media, The Center for Constitutional Rights, UNHCR, UNRWA, and Buzzfeed. He is a contribution editor at The Nib and teaches cartooning at Stanford University.
Renowned Lebanese editorial cartoonist in An Nahar daily newspaper for the past 2 decades. Armand joined the newspaper as an Editorial cartoonist after winning a cartoon contest held by the newspaper in 1994. His cartoons have been showcased in many international venues. Armand holds a degree in Interior Design and is a university teacher, sharing his passion for drawing and design with tomorrow’s talents.
www.kerbaj.com
Bahia Shehab is an artist, designer and art historian. She is associate professor of design and founder of the graphic design program at the American University in Cairo. Her work has been exhibited internationally and has received a number of international recognitions and awards.
George Khoury (JAD), is head of the Animation Department at Future Television since its launch in 1993. He is author of several articles and essays on Comics and Animation, along a career in Animation and Comics since the early 80s. His artworks and films are featured in many local and international festivals and galleries, receiving numerous awards. He is founder of JADWORKSHOP comic collective, and co-founder of the “Lebanese Syndicate of Professional Graphic Designers, Illustrators and Animators”.
https://www.joanbaz.com/
Graphic comics designer and artist born in Cairo in 1978. He has been publishing his cartoons and designs in different publications since 2000. He is a founding member of “TokTok” magazine issued in Cairo in 2011. He is also founder of “9th art” institution dealing with activities and publications of Arab comics and one of the founders of CairoComix in Cairo.