comics portfolio
a selection of sequential artwork across the years for various projects.
(2022)
“I was a pro soccer player. I was tricked into going to Qatar to work construction.”
Offside, for Insider
Illustrated the story of Abdul-Azeez Sulaiman, a Ghanian football player who was tricked into working construction at the 2022 World Cup. Adapted by Anthony del Col based on interviews with Abdul Azeez Sulaiman, pencils and inks by Deena Mohamed, colors by Lynette Wong, letters by Taylor Esposito, edited by Walter Hickey, art directed by Josh Adams. Commissioned by and published on Insider.com
The comic is intended to be viewed on a phone, webtoon-style, and therefore the pages are in a long, scrolling format.
page samples
(2022)
Cairo, for Villa Albertine
I was asked to create a short comic about Cairo for a magazine launched by Villa Albertine, the artist residency program of the French embassy in the United States. You can read the full comic here if you click the link below.
(2015-2023)
Shubeik Lubeik is my primary comics project - an award-winning, bilingual graphic novel trilogy about wishes, first released in Arabic, with the English translation released as a collected volume from Pantheon (US) and Granta (UK) in Jan 2023.
Shubeik Lubeik is illustrated in black and white, with a color introduction for each part. This was primarily to make it as easy to mass-produce as possible for print in Egypt, but the solid black shading also became an integral part of the storytelling. A lot of the stylistic choices were made to pay homage to the legacy of Egyptian comics (which exists!) in exaggerated facial features and expressions, combined with my own style.
It also plays fast and loose with layout - frequently using splash pages without any panels for emphasis and metaphors, and employing Arabic calligraphy to its fullest potential both for lettering and for illustration. For example, the genies in this novel are formed out of Arabic calligraphy that spells out the phrase a genie is asking, such as “What is your heart’s greatest desire?”
color page samples
b&w page samples
splash pages (double- page spreads)
(2018)
Consent Campaign, for Harassmap
This was a series of situational comics created to translate and introduce the concept of “consent” in various contexts in collaboration with Harassmap. Since the campaign was primarily for distribution on social media it was created as a series of short strips, each highlighting a different aspect of consent, at first as simple metaphors and then in literal situations. It was illustrated with simplicity & humor to balance the seriousness of the topic, and in bright colors to attract attention on screens.
comic samples
(2013-?)
Qahera is a bilingual webcomic begun in 2013. As a webcomic that was primarily created to address social issues and prioritises content over form, it was subject to a variety of stylistic changes as my art style grew and developed, but is always recognisable by its greyscale aesthetic.
The greyscale is also used as a visual motif: the protagonist in shades of grey, the antagonists frequently in black and white. Qahera is where I first learned to create comics and as such has been a very experimental journey. It is always vertically oriented to satisfy webcomic formats, and usually constrained to a maximum of 10 pages per comic. It is currently on hiatus, though never over.
page samples
(2019)
What Factors Make You Feel Insecure?
for the Center for Applied Human Rights
Illustrations based on responses to the questions "What factors make you feel insecure?" and "What factors make you feel secure?" from interviews with human rights defenders at risk in Egypt. The research project 'Navigating Risk, Managing Security, and Receiving Support' was led by Dr Alice Nah at the Centre for Applied Human Rights, University of York.
These comics in particular were created to reflect the jarring and unsettling tone of the responses, using uncomfortable colors and jagged lines for the questions about insecurity. They were also created to be read with vertical scrolling on screens. Please view the project page for the full reading experience.
comic samples
Conversational Comics
Short sketchy comics on various topics, some commissioned and some reflective, usually posted to my social media. Click through to read the full comic.
2021. a short comic about translating my own work, shared in Arab Lit & ArabLit Quarterly’s special self-translation section.
2021. a short comic for Arte about the difficulties of being a female, egyptian comics artist.