Inside The World of Lebanese Comics with Rawand Issa

Comics artist Rawand Issa joins us to talk about her book Inside the Giant Fish (trans. Amy Chiniara, Maamoul Press); her path from journalism to graphic art; artist groups and collectives across the region; the “new school of Arab comics,” and the challenges of making a living as a comics artist. We also talk about a few other Lebanese graphic novels, particularly Lamia Ziadé’s My Port of Beirut, translated to English by Emma Ramadan, and Lena Merhej’s I Think We’ll Be Calmer in the Next War.

Show Notes:

You can find several of Rawand’s books available from Maamoul Press: http://maamoulpress.com. 

Also read Rawand’s “Being Illegal is Unbearable at The Nib, her  ماذا نفعل في مواجهة استمرار العنف ضد النساء؟ at Jeem and her untitled work in Chime.

And if you missed it, there’s a discussion with Rawand and translator Amy Chiniara about Inside the Giant Fish at ArabLit.

Samandal magazine is on Instagram (@samandalcomics), and you can find them at samandal-comics.org.

You can buy copies of the magazine Corniche at the Sharjah Art Foundation website.

Lab619 (@lab619), Skefkef (@skefkefmag/), and Fanzeen Comics (@fanzeencomics/) are on Instagram, while TokTok has a website, toktokmag.com.

Rawand Issa (@rawand.issa_) and Amy Chiniara (@amychiniara) are both on Instagram, too.

Lamia Ziadé’s My Port of Beirut, translated to English by Emma Ramadan, from Pluto Press

Lena Merhej’s We Will Be Calmer in the Next War is available online.

Please support BULAQ! You can donate to our fundraiser for the 2023 season at donorbox.org/support-bulaq.

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