Facts & Figures

Arab Countries

16

Number of Submissions

450

Female Participation

43%

6th Mahmoud Kahil Award Winners

March 2021

Sherif Arafa

Editorial Cartoons

Mowafaq Katt | Syria
Born in Damascus in 1955, Mwafaq Katt is a cartoonist and animation filmmaker. He freelances editorial cartoons for several Arabic newspapers and magazines. His work was awarded in numerous international and local film festivals and competitions, including the Arab Journalism Award in 2016. Mwafaq taught animation in several Syrian universities. He illustrated various books, brochures, and posters for the UNICEF and facilitated many UNDP workshops in Damascus. He has served as a jury member for many cartoon contests and film festivals. He holds a Masters degree in Arts from the Higher Institute of Cinema (VGIK), Moscow.

@mwafaq_katt

Sherif Arafa

Graphic Novels

Mai Koraiem | Egypt
Born in Alexandria on May 5, 1980, Mai Koraiem graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts, Painting Department, in 2003. In 2013, she started her comics career. In 2015, she published her first graphic novel, entitled “When the Gods gave up on Kavafis,” selected one of the best three graphic novels at the Cairo Comix Festival. In 2017, she won the best short story, “Pour Femme,” at the Cairo Comix Festival. She published in 2018 a children’s book and educational book with “Aphorisma” Publishing House in Berlin. In 2020, Mai published her second graphic novel entitled “Case 43 Labban” by “Kotobna” Publishing House.

@mai.koraiem.58

Sherif Arafa

Comics

Migo | Egypt
Born in 1988, Migo Mohamad is an Egyptian Comics artist and author. He studied film in the United States. He worked in many magazines such as TokTok, Samandal, Lab619, and Words Without Borders. His art showed in many international art exhibitions. Migo is an art director for several books and magazines. In 2017, he directed a short animation film for BBC Arabic, “Shame,” and received the Best Short Story award at the Cairo Comix International Festival 2015.

@migo.rollz

Sherif Arafa

Graphic Illustration

Michael Jabareen | Palestine
Michael J. is an experimental designer/artist who develops art expression methodologies to ensure the most efficient and effective connection with the audience by experimenting and integrating different schools of art, both visual and performance. After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Architectural Engineering in 2016, Michael dedicated his passion towards art to influence social and individual practices using the power of the image in visual communication and behavioral guidance. At the moment, he works on integrating art in business entrepreneurship, illustration, comics, multimedia production, theatrical practices, and architectural and interior design.

@MichaelMJabareen

Sherif Arafa

Chilldren’s Book Illustration

Diala Brisly | Syria
Born in Kuwait to Syrian parents in 1980, Diala grew up in Damascus and was based there until the uprisings. She fled with legions of other artists until she got asylum in France. Diala began as a cartoonist at the Syrian-based Spacetoon channel in 2001. Since then, her career has spanned various mediums and capacities. In 2014, she started her initiative making murals in the refugee camps and alternative education centers between Lebanon and Turkey to encourage kids to go back to school after skipping a few years because of the war. Diala Brisly hopes that her visual work would stand as a testament to the historical events that have unfolded around her and the social issues that have driven her work’s heart. Several themes have consistently run through all her projects; social justice, freedom for the Syrian people, and a desire to give a voice to children.

@dialabrisly

Mka 2020 Winners
Mka 2022 Winners
Rada and Mutaz Sawaf Center for Arab Comics Studies AUB
Ibrahim Lmhadi
Naji Al Ali
The Moroccan octogenarian Ibrahim Lmhadi is considered one of the earliest artists to lay the groundwork for cartoons in Morocco, and to begin to draw them amid the sensitive political and social circumstances in Morocco during the 1960s and 70s, at that time when cartoons were prohibited and confiscated. One of his published cartoons led to his detention, and he was banned from drawing for nearly two decades. Throughout these painful experiences, Lmhadi never ceased to be a remarkable creative soul, and he never renounced his belief in art and his message.
Fibda
ALBA

The pioneer illustration and comics branch of the School of Graphic Arts at Alba was launched in two stages, between 1997 and 2000. A special track was first offered to Master’s students willing to deepen their know-how and complete a comic-book diploma. This option then developed into a comprehensive program launched in 2000, with the first graduates receiving their diplomas in 2003. Since then, Alba has issued 103 Bachelor of Arts degrees in Illustration and Bande Dessinée (Comics), and 47 Masters degrees. The School, to date, remains the only institution in the region that offers a complete program in these two disciplines.

The program allows students to develop the discipline’s technical know-how, to handle digital and traditional tools, and to master the narrative and graphic codes of comic strips. Most importantly, the program aims at developing curiosity, critical thinking, research, and a reflexive and analytical approach of the world.

Teachers at the School, which have grown in number over the years, are talented, passionate and in fields that complement each other. Foreign artists and educators are regularly invited to give lectures and lead workshops, and offer masterclasses as part of the program. Students also benefit from various partnerships and affiliations signed with prestigious schools such as ENSAD, École Estienne, Les Gobelins, and Université de Bordeaux in France, or HEAD in Switzerland.

Globally, students work on projects related to the different applications of illustration: publishing, press, advertising, and comic strips, as well as scenography and character design. Masters students also collaborate with other branches at Alba, in particular Animation and Multimedia. Work is always interactive, even when done online.

This wide range of learning objectives allows students to acquire the souplesse – flexibility and versatility they will need in their professional integration. Our program itself is interdisciplinary and agile; it evolves and adapts to the changing needs of the professional reality. Alba Illustration graduates leave the school with the necessary experience and skills to assimilate into all the fields their degree and their discipline is linked to.

alba.edu.lb

6th Mahmoud Kahil Award 2021 Finalists

Editorial Cartoon

  • Rashad Al Samei | Yemen
  • Bernard Haje | Lebanon

Graphic Novel

  • Noemie Honein | Lebanon
  • Hazem Kamal | Egypt

Comics

  • Ghadi Ghosn | Lebanon
  • Elia Tawil | Lebanon

Graphic Illustration

  • Zeinab Ben Haouala | Tunisia
  • Othman Selmi | Tunisia

Children’s Book Illustration

  • Diala Zada | Syria
  • Omar Lafi | Jordan

Meet the Jury

John Jennings is a Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California at Riverside. Jennings is co-editor of the Eisner Award-winning collection The Blacker the Ink: Constructions of the Black Identity in Comics and Sequential Art. he is also a 2016 Nasir Jones Hip Hop Studies Fellow with the Hutchins Center at Harvard University. Jennings’ current projects include the horror anthology Box of Bones, the coffee table book Black Comix Returns (with Damian Duffy), and the Eisner-winning, Bram Stoker Award-winning, New York Times best-selling graphic novel adaptation of Octavia Butler’s classic dark fantasy novel Kindred. Duffy and Jennings recently released their graphic novelization of Octavia Bulter’s prescient dystopian novel Parable of the Sower (Abrams ComicArts). Jennings is also the founder and curator of the ABRAMS Megascope line of graphic novels.
Mathieu Diez could have had a career in the finance industry. However, after years devoted to financing other people’s projects, it was time to take care of his own. The first one was the “Café du bout du monde,” a cultural café located at the well-known Croix Rousse hill, in Lyon’s French city. It is the place where Mathieu met many comic artists and started to manage cultural projects with a passion that had not left him since childhood: the art of comics. A few years later, these projects became a festival defined as sequential art that could meet many other forms of art and audiences. In ten years, Lyon BD Festival (Lyon Comics Festival) has established itself as one of the most innovative comic art festivals in Europe with comic artists invited to participate in a live drawing, concerts, shows, and performances taking place in museums, operas, and theaters throughout the city.
Jordanian cartoonist well known as Abu Mahjoob. He is one of the most famous cartoonists in the Arab world and has extensive experience in many Arabic and international newspapers and websites. He has published many books, most notably his cartoon collection book “Al-Mahjoob” in two parts. Emad received many awards and is considered one of the pioneering digital painters in the Arabic region. He has produced animated films and much satirical content prepared for social networking platforms. He heads the Society of Cartoonists in Jordan and is a member of several cartoon societies.
Olivier Kugler studied visual communication in Germany and illustration at the School of Visual Arts in New York. He is a reportage illustrator based in London and has won many awards, including the Association of Illustrators (AOI) Gold Award in 2004 and 2008. He was the winner of the V&A Illustration Award in 2011 and the AOI World Illustration Awards in 2015. In June 2018, he won the Jury Prize of the European Design Awards and in November 2018, he won the Prix du Carnet de Voyage International and the Coup de Coeur Médecins Sans Frontières at the Rendez-vous du Carnet de Voyage.
Renowned Lebanese comics artist, critic, and researcher, Jad is a Comics pioneer in the Arab world and a critical reference on the subject. He published the region’s first graphic novel for adults entitled “Carnival” and the first in-depth study on the history of comics in the Arab world. He has won several awards, and two of his works, “A Thousand and One Nights” and “Scheherazade,” are part of the permanent collection at Le musée de la Bande dessinée (the international comics museum) in Angoulême, France.

6th Annual Mahmoud Kahil Award Book

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