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Completed

ok this might be a little late, but the comic was completed last sunday and previewed at the gallery opening my dear friend ahmed shaltout is working on a cover for it other than the one I did, and then that PDF would go to print at a real printing shop that would get me 500 copies of what it would be when published (indie publishing)

Ed I'll be sending you a copy to pimp around publishers in the us (vertigo and the like if you can) bear in mind it would be in color, I have done it in bw now to reduce printing cost but on publishing I want to do it in color if you want samples of my colored work ask me about it.

Naje you still need to see a copy of it.

Bad Betengan

Here's a nice diversion to watch, Ahmed Safi an Epic comedian in his musical debut bad betengan



Enjoy

The last days

Ok so here are the chronicling of the last days

As the deadline to print comes close I realize how fickle time can be it wastes away and disapears into the nothingness with other deadlines closer I really don't want to d anything else but ink nonstop till tom night but it doesn't seem like that is going to happen
I have to write a 2000 word paper about shinto relegion and work on some english I just hope the printers are flexible with that deadline either way I'm hauling ass isA

Editing the story has been a success though my editors/proof readers did a great job editing I had a major problem with my ending bu thanks to mojadidi and ahmed naje that got fixed real good

Naje also did an awsome job fixing the arabic version now it actually sounds like a proper literary piece with good language my brain got lost while writing it bilingually really also great many thanks to azoul for pimping the book out on twitter and same gs to rams and ali nasser
Also adham el khorazaty, the rougster and mohamed samir for their work in reading the early versions and everyone else for cheering me on
Francesc ruiz had great input to it too and I'm just ecstatic about the whole thing.
Just one last push and this baby will come out and breathe life isA everything will be fine but for now the water just broke and I'm enduring the last 2 days of contractions but at least it's crowning
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Progress Report

ok Here's the skinny on what's going on, 40 pages pencilled looking allot better than I thought they would be, Script written out in word document and sent over to editors, (both arabic and english) awaiting editors results isA they won't butcher it much I should start seeing stuff by tonight.
till then I will be inking, postponed the printers deadline to monday gonna try and pull an all nighter all day all nighter from tonight till monday isA it will only mean i'll recieve the books thursday night which will be fine since I'm installing on a daily basis so it won't be much of a problem come installation next thursday.

isA inking won't be that much of a time consumer, I'm prolly skipping school tom all over, since I lost allot of time over the weekend socializing, meeting the editors and going to an open mic night with the hopes of performing (which never fell through but still had a great time)

anyway now I'm meeting one of the proffessors of my grad project course to dicuss the book and afterwards meeting the great Francesc Ruiz also to talk about it, get some pointers from a proffessional artist doing neaqrly exactly what I'm doing atm, Putting comics in an art gallery, his work is awesome you should google him or something. he's a great guy very nice and called my work "very special" so I'm enthused atm hopefully this one comes out great (I'm skeptic about the whole B/W thing my strength lies in colour) either way the story is shaping up nicely I hope the editors point out enough plot holes for me to fix in time before I go do the lettering on monday isA.

anyway we're trying to trend it on twitter so people would know about it more so if you are a fan of the tweets try and trend #elshaterhassan and publicize my comic, release date which is may 16th 7:30 at the AUC sharjah gallery new cairo.

aight Warman out

Here we go

Ok so the basic plot was complete now I've written down what goes on in every page hopefully by the end of tonight I'll have the layout sketches done isA so I can get on with pencilling over the weekend isA

Wish me luck
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld

Artist statement Edited and translated

El Shater Hassan (Hassan the Cunning)

A tale of morality, El Shater Hassan is a modern day adaptation of the original bedtime story made popular by moms, grandmas and maids for ages. The story is that of the perpetual protagonist who fights the forces of supernatural evil and saves the damsel in distress, followed through with a heavy handed moral of the story. It is not the superficial “just give him a blackberry and an iPod” adaptation but more of an homage to the tale through a new original tale that fits within our modern society. It tackles elements of moral choices and what pushes man to do one choice over the other within extreme situations. This story is more of an experiment of morality, the characters being lab rats. They are thrown within the story and observed for reaction. Through this I reflect on their moral choices and form a conclusion, and hopefully so will the reader.

This work is divided into form and content. Yet the selection of form in terms of medium and treatment of subject matter here is in itself a conscious choice selected to emphasize a certain point.

Comics, Graphic novels, Manga in Japan, Bande Dessinée in France and Fumetti in Italy is that form, this medium of sequential art that is placed (usually) in narrative form, accompanied most of the time with textual elements. This form is a marriage between art and literature, transcending both yet viewed by society as less. It has so much potential yet it is seen always as the underdog, hence the choice of using it for my project.

Through this work I try and offer two points of views to the audience. The first is that comics can be treated as a literary medium for adults, and the second is what moral choices would one make in certain situations and the latter is better elaborated in the tale of El shatter Hassan.

الشاطر حسن لمروان  إمام

هذه قصة عن المبادئ. قصة الشاطر حسن المشهورة  التي تقص  على الأطفال منذ قديم الأزل. قصة البطل الهمام  الذي يحارب قوى الشرالخيالية من الغيلان والشياطين لكي ينقذ محبوبته في قصة تعلم القارئ أو المستمع مبدأ يفيده في الحياة. هذه القصة هي معالجة حديثة لذلك التراث. وهي ليست بالمعالجة السطحية بل تتوغل في العمق لتري القارئ نبذة من مجتمعنا الحالي. وتعالج القصة ايضا الاختيارات التي يتخذها المرء في المواقف الصعبة. فهي تجربة في المبادئ, وشخصياتها هم فئران التجارب. وضعوا بالقصة في مواقف تقتضي منهم ان يتخذوا قرارات تدل على مبادئهم.ومن خلال تلك القرارات يرى القارئ كيف تتحول مبادئ الأفراد في المواقف المختلفة.   

هذا العمل  ينقسم إلى مضمون و هيئة . وإختيار هيأته هنا  ينبع من إختيار واعي لمحاولة توضيح فكرة معينة.

القصص المصورة, التي يطلق عليها اسم مانجا  في اليابان  وباند  دسيني  في فرنسا وفومتي  في اطاليا , هي  المحيط المستخدم في تقديم القصة هنا. فهذا  المحيط أو الهيئة المستخدمة هنا هي إجتماع بين الفن والأدب. ولكن يارا مجتمعنا أن القصص المصورة اقل من الإثنين. ولهذا اخترت تلك الهيئة لمشروعي لكي أوضح للناس أهمية هذا المحيط الفني.

ومن خلال هذا العمل أحاول ان أوضح وجهتين للنظر, الأولى هي ان القصص المصورة هي نوع من الأدب  المتطور الذي قد يوجه  إلى  البالغين وليس فقط الأطفال . الاخر هو  ان الانسان حين مواجهته لموقف صعبة قد يتخذ اختيارات  مضادة  لمبادئه  لمجرد انه استسلم  لغرازاهه الطبيعية.