Facts &
Figures

Arab
Countries

15

Number of
Submissions

370

Female
Participation

42%

7th Mahmoud Kahil
Award Winners

March 2022

Editorial Cartoons

Raafat Al Khatib | Jordan

Alkhatib is a political cartoonist and satirist from Jordan currently living in the US. His work experience spans over a decade of professional publishing on platforms like Al Jazeera, Al Hudood Network, and The Cartoon Movement. He is an active member in Cartooning for Peace. Alkhatib is a political cartoonist and satirist from Jordan currently living in the US. His work experience spans over a decade of professional publishing on platforms like Al Jazeera, Al Hudood Network, and The Cartoon Movement. He is an active member in Cartooning for Peace.

@rafaatcartoons

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Graphic Novels

Barrack Rima | Lebanon

Born in 1972, in Tripoli, Lebanon, Barrack Rima lives in Brussels. She is a comics artist and a film maker, and a member of Samandal Comics Association (Beirut).Alkhatib is a political cartoonist and satirist from Jordan currently living in the US. His work experience spans over a decade of professional publishing on platforms like Al Jazeera, Al Hudood Network, and The Cartoon Movement. He is an active member in Cartooning for Peace.Alkhatib is a political cartoonist and satirist from Jordan currently living in the US. His work experience spans over a decade of professional publishing on platforms like Al Jazeera, Al Hudood Network, and The Cartoon Movement. He is an active member in Cartooning for Peace.

barrackrima.com

Comics

Mohamad Salah | Egypt

A Cairo-born and based comic book artist with a knack for social commentary and science-fiction. He graduated with honors in 2005 from the faculty of fine arts, Helwan University, Painting department.

@abusalah

Graphic Illustration

Karen Keyrouz | Lebanon

Karen Keyrouz is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice is a “va-et-vient” between drawing, comics and filming. She launched her first graphic Novel “Flux et Reflux” (2018) with the Académie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts, where she earned her master’s degree (2015).

karenkeyrouz.com

Chilldren’s Book Illustration

Baraa Al Awoor | Palestine

Born and based in Gaza, Alawoor earned her bachelor degree in English teaching language in 2015. She worked as a freelancer on illustrating children’s books and outreach material.

behance/baraaawoor

Mka 2021 Winners  Mka 2023 Winners

ALI MANDALAWI

Mandalawi is one of the most outstanding caricaturists in Iraq and the Arab World. He is also a books and magazines illustrator, a graphic designer, and a writer. He studied at the Institute of Fine Arts at Baghdad University in 1979 from which he obtained his BA degree in 1986. His love for colored pens and paper began when he was only seven years old. Inspired by the green river-lands of his childhood, the landscape infused his art with joyful colors. He explains that he draws his color palette from the mountains, lakes, and villages of Kurdistan.

SKEFKEF COLLECTIVE

“Skef kef” aims to encourage the production of comics, and to promote their accessibility across the Maghreb. In June 2013, Salah Maloulli gathered a group of Moroccan artists, including Mahdi el Anasi (from the Brain Oil Factory collective), Mohamad el Ballawi (Rebel Spirit), and Husni Mokhales (poet and playwright). Later on, other artists joined and contributed to this initiative, most notably Ayoub Abid, Salaheddin Basti, and Mohamad Rahmo. Read more

7th Mahmoud Kahil
Award 2022 Finalists

Editorial Cartoon
Bernard Haje | Lebanon
Graphic Novel
HONORARY MENTION Deena Mohamed | Egypt
Where to Marie| Lebanon
Comics
Lena Merhej | Lebanon
Farid Nagy Nasry | Egypt
Graphic Illustration
Aliaa Abou Khaddour | Syria
Sarah Saroufim | Lebanon
Children’s Book Illustration
Hanane Kai | Lebanon
Omar Lafi | Jordan

Meet the Jury


  • Julie Tait

    UK


  • Noha Hobaib

    Tunisia


  • Mohamad ElSeht

    Egypt


  • Haitham ElSeht

    Egypt


  • George Khoury

    Lebanon

Julie Tait is the Founder Director of the United Kingdom’s Lakes International Comic Art Festival. This festival is recognized as one of the leading comic art events in the world, with more than 27 international partnerships and an array of commissions, spanning its nine years of existence. Tait has a long and rich experience in establishing and running festivals. From developing and working on book, film and television festivals, to multi-art form and South Asian performing arts festivals. In 2008, she won a commission from the London 2012 Olympics to create and deliver a large-scale outdoor arts program during the four years leading up to 2012. Having been originally trained as a musician, she also enjoys exploring new cultures and the outdoors, and has a particular love for comedy in all its guises.
comicartfestival.com
Noha Habaieb is an illustrator working between Doha and Tunis. She is one of the founders of the LAB619 collective, a Tunisian comic magazine launched in 2013. Habaieb also co-organizes and takes part in artistic residencies around migration, identity and borders. In 2017, she co-founded Atelier Glibett, an illustration studio based in Tunis.
@nohahabaeib
Mohamed Elseht is a comic book artist and cultural manager, and is one of the Egyptian twin duo (Twins Cartoon). He studied at the Animation Department at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Minia University, in Egypt. For over 10 years, Mohamed has taught the art of comics at various workshops and festivals around Egypt and the world. As a program officer and cultural consultant of the Sultan foundation, he worked on the historic, and recently restored, Maq‘ad of Sultan Qaitbey in the cemeteries of old Cairo. He also organizes various cultural activities (training courses, workshops, performances, exhibitions, and medical convoys) to engage children and young-adults in civic work, awareness campaigns relating to local heritage and history. Elseht is a co-founder of the Cairo Comix International Festival and Garage Comics Magazine. The Garage collective was introduced to the Arab comics scene in 2015. It has since grown into a safe haven for artists and writers who retain their creative freedom and challenge the Egyptian and Arab public with new perspectives.
@twinscartoon
Haitham Elseht is a comic book artist and lecturer, and is one of the Egyptian twin duo (Twins Cartoon). An avid reader of comic books from a young age, he enrolled in the Animation Department at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the Minia University, in Egypt. Having graduated in 2008, he was inspired by the cosmopolitan city of Cairo, characterized by its rich visual identity, culture, and various urban spaces. As an independent artist and cultural actor, he was preoccupied by the censorship and harsh regulations of the visual art market (comics especially) taking place in the Arab world during the past decade. In 2014, Elseht started the Kawkab Elrasameen initiative, which has now grown into a large community of almost 2000 active members. This community caters to independent young artists. It organizes indoor and outdoor artistic gatherings across the streets of Egypt and various spots around the world. Visual art and comics workshops are also organized for advanced, underground, and amateur artists. Elseht is also a co-founder of Cairo Comix International Festival.
@twinscartoon
George Khoury is a renowned Lebanese comics artist and critic. He has published several comic albums (graphic novels) and series in daily newspapers since the 1980s and received several awards. He authored several articles and essays on the history of comics in the Arab world, and continues to write critically on comics from the region. He has been head of the Animation Department at Future Television since its launch in 1993, and teaches at the Lebanese American University in Beirut.
@georgekhouryjad