AK Comics publish comics about "Middle Eastern Heroes" in Arabic and English. Here’s an article about them:
”It’s actually a dream I’ve had since childhood," said Kandeel, a 38-year-old economics professor at Cairo University who started the company in 2003. ”I grew up with DC Comics," referring to the publisher of such cultural icons as Superman and Batman.
Kandeel said that growing up, many of his idols were comic-book heroes and he felt that the Middle East also needed these kinds of positive role models in these tense times.
The four characters created by Kandeel were described in the initial editions as the first Arab superheroes, but he says he since modified the concept.
”They are not meant to be Arab per se; they are supposed to be Middle Eastern — it’s a little bit of a sensitive issue," Kandeel said, hinting that he didn’t want to get into a conversation about political turmoil in the region.
Turmoil in the Middle East is a thing of the past in a future inhabited by the superheroes. It is a region at relative peace, though still threatened by terrorists and other forces of extremism.
”The whole concept goes back to the issue of a large, peaceful Middle East. That’s a vision I’ve had all my life, and I think it’s possible," said Kandeel, adding that he kept the religious and ethnic background of the characters in the books vague.
But in some cases, the symbols are obvious, such as the Jerusalem-like City of All Faiths defended by Jalila in which Muslims, Christians, and Jews live in harmony. It is menaced by the terrorist United Liberation Front and the Army of Zios.
The introduction to Jalila’s story describes these two evil forces as ”still clinging to their extreme views, both wanting to solely control the City of All Faiths."
Kandeel concedes that Zios could be seen as a shortened form of Zionist. ”It was not meant to be anything so obvious or so crystal, but maybe that’s what they had in mind," he said, adding that the identities of the adversaries were not his idea.
Although no major marketing or advertising has been done, the comic books have been selling well in Egypt.
The English on the site is a bit stilted, but the art looks good. Maybe my dad can pick up some.
[ link via comics worth reading]
Update: via Kinnblog, I found another article which has some more details (as well as some of the same blocks pasted from the press release, I suspect). In particular, they explain why the art looks so good:
The artwork is outsourced to a studio in Brazil. "We don’t have the
technical know-how, which is the creation of the panels and captions and how
they should look," said al-Nashar, but the company has artists in training
and hopes to centralize all production in Egypt soon.