Friday Finds: Watch Two Talks About Cartoonists, in Egypt and Libya

In the last ten days, there have been two big talks about comics and cartoonists, one by Libyan poet-translator-media mogul-doctor-blogger Ghazi Gheblawi, in London, and the other by author-artist-scholar-blogger Jonathan Guyer at Harvard:

At London’s P21 Gallery, Gheblawi traced the history of satirical cartoons and their popular consumption by Libyans living in Libya and abroad. Gheblawi spoke about how lampooning comics of artists such as Mohamed Zwawi and Hassan Dhaimish — produced under Gaddafi — played a significant role in telling Libyan stories. Now, he says, they serve as important archives about an under-documented era.

Meanwhile, according to The Crimson:

Guyer began his lecture with the question that guided him through his studies: “What is the importance of this Arab comic movement?” He argued that comics are windows to the current social and political situation of the Middle East. He began to substantiate this thesis with a stylized cartoon drawing of Cairo by cartoonist Shennawy from the Cairo publication “Tok Tok.”

You can watch the whole lecture online: