Middle East: A Middle East cast of socio-political comic characters is born, writes Nuala Haughey
Holy Hieroglyphics Batman! An Egyptian comic strip series of Arab superheroes is bent on world domination! Well, not quite, but global circulation would be nice.
Welcome to Cairo-based AK Comics whose cast of caped crusaders include Zein (the Last Pharaoh) on a mission to resurrect the ancient civilisation of his fathers, and Jalila (the raven-haired Saviour of the City of All Faiths) who keeps the peace between two forces vying for control of the holy place.
With their respectable day jobs, supernatural strengths and indefatigable devotion to battling crime and fighting evil, these action idols offer readers a Middle Eastern alternative to the all-American superheroes like Batman and Spiderman of Marvel and DC Comics.
The glossy comic characters came to life two years ago, published by a Cairo-based company determined to show that this troubled region can produce its own heroic role models.
"This is a turbulent area. Kids here know about wars here, occupation there," explains Marwan El-Nasher (30), the mild-mannered managing director of AK Comics who grew up reading about the adventures of Spiderman from the Marvel Comics stable.
"We feel the Middle East is in need of superheroes that people can relate to, to have a sense of strength and pride and optimism. Eventually these characters will become global and will provide something positive and more compelling, more interesting about the Middle East. The words Middle East and hero don't usually come together in the same sentence."
From a first edition issued in February 2004 which sold 300 copies, monthly sales of the Arabic and English-language versions combined now reach some 15,000, with readers mostly boys aged between nine to 15.
The comics are sold predominantly in the Middle East, and Egypt Air recently began purchasing 5,000 issues monthly in both languages to distribute to children on its flights. Zein and Jalila recently scored a domestic success by displacing Spiderman from the wrappers of Cadbury-Adam's Blox bubble gum in Egypt. According to El-Nasher, AK Comics is aiming for global distribution next spring, focusing on North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. The company also plans to introduce 25 new heroes and villains and to move into animation for Arab satellite TV channels.
While AK Comics's have a distinctly Arab flavour, the absence of any comic strip tradition in the Middle East forced the company to outsource the artwork to studios in Brazil and America.
However, the culture gap between Rio and Cairo meant that the female do-gooders, Jalila and Aya (the Princess of Darkness), had a tad too much pumped-up cleavage and exposed midriff for local consumption. While the racy costumes didn't cause many problems for Egyptian readers, issues featuring the curvaceous super heroines are not sold in Saudi Arabia where dress codes for women are a long way from lycra jumpsuits.
Sex is a taboo subject for the comic strip, with no romantic encounters on the horizon for the superheroes. Nor is any reference made to the religion or race of any of the characters. "We don't want to imply that one religion is better than another," says El-Nasher.
Following the tradition of western comic strips, the lives of the Arab superheroes touch on current events and modern politics, albeit more obliquely than DC Comics which, in 1944, had a cover depicting Superman throttling Hitler.
Three of AK Comic's four superheroes (Zein, Jalila and Aya) exist in a futuristic Middle East, a post-apocalyptic world recovering from the "55-Year War" between unnamed superpowers.
Sara Kareem (25) is AK Comic's English editor, and her task is to translate Arabic text into words such as "crashshsh, grawwwrrrr and klang". She says her work allows her to vent anger about the current state of the Middle East, especially the oppression of women.
"I have a vision of how we see the Middle East in the future . . . We don't like what's going on and we want to make lots of changes. We can't do it in reality because it's very difficult so we are trying to do it through comics," she says.