If You’re in Beirut…

First: Comics and video artist Barrack Rima will be giving a public lecture on comics this Tuesday at 5pm at the Lebanese American University (LAU) in LRC 21. From the event description:

The art of Comics is a meeting point between drawing and writing, at least. Just like cinema, for example, is a crossroad between image and sound. But what makes Comics unique and different from all other forms? I’ll try through this lecture to introduce Comics as a specific language.

Then, I’ll be talking about how the Comics character evolved from a stereotyped character to a human one. I’ll analyze the evolution of the language which became a personal form of expression with author viewpoint dealing with sophisticated issues.

For the narrative construction, of course there is no one method, I’ll mainly explain the one I work with, which is related to my workshop proposal to LAU students. This method combines a strong starting point – synopsis – and a big amount of improvisation, with a concern about placing the narrative construction in a modern viewpoint.

Second: The launch of Mubtada wa Khabar will be this Friday, April 16 at 6 p.m.

Mubtada wa Khabar (subject and predicate) is a new website that will serve as a clearinghouse for the Arabic publishing industry. According to project co-coordinator Yasmina Jraissati, quoted on the site: “The idea is to make the Arabic book industry more transparent.”

You can see the proposed interface here.