Arab Comics: 90 Years of Popular Visual Culture
Comic books have a rich history in the Middle East.
For close to a century, Arab artists have created comics to reflect on the social and political happenings of their times. In the panels of Arab comics, we find illustrations and stories that creatively engage the British occupation of Egypt, the question of Palestine, the tide of pan-Arabism, authoritarian regimes in Iraq and Syria, commercialization in the Gulf, Civil War in Lebanon, uprisings across the region, and beyond.
Arab Comics: 90 Years of Popular Visual Culture is a traveling exhibition that explores the question of what, if anything, is distinctly “Arab” about this popular visual medium through three threads of original and translated comics in Arab countries, spanning from 1920s until today.
