Friday Finds: Translation of Climate-change Comic ‘8 Minutes’

Last week, The Offing published a short comic-story by Mohamed Saleh, translated by Elisabeth Jaquette, and an interview with the two of them:

The piece, which won the Swedish Institute Alexandria’s “Facing the Climate,” art competition in November last year, was inspired by that city’s failing infrastructure.

“The progression of the crisis and how people just adapted to its consequences, along with all the lightheartedness that came along was my main inspiration,” Saleh said. “You need to check out the photos for yourself; in a few years ‘8 Minutes’ won’t seem that fictional.”

Indeed, part of the comic’s charm are how it’s tied in to contemporary life, where a beautiful scene in real life is “just like a screen saver.”

Jaquette also lists some comics-translations she’s been involved with, including her current project — The Apartment in Bab el-Louk — and “The Dump” and “Stop Shehata.” She adds: “Oum Cartoon, by the way, is an excellent resource for anyone interested in following the Arabic comics scene, and Ganzeer’s The Solar Grid (written in English) is the comic I’m most pumped for at the moment.”

Go see the comic and interview at The Offing.