The international comics festival CairoComix will become the first comics festival in Egypt and its biggest comics event yet on Sept. 30 when it held at the Greek Campus in Downtown Cairo.
The four-day festival, which ends on Oct. 3, will include the Shamareekh comics exhibition which will display the works of both professional and amateur artists from the Arab world.
The festival's management left the door open for any artist from the Arab world to apply for the opportunity to be included until Sept. 20. At the exhibition, some of the works will be selected to be displayed at an Arab comics exhibition in Europe.
"Send us your work before Sept. 20 and come attend the events of the International CairoComix Festival with us"
In addition, the festival includes a competition for which six awards will be given in the categories of Best Published Graphic Novel, Best Short Comics Story, Best Printed Magazine, Best Press Comic Strip, Best Digital Comics Series, and Best Project in Progress.
The festival, whose sponsors include the French Institute in Egypt and the American University in Cairo , will also include the 3Al-Sotooh event, a series of meetings that will gather comic artists from across the Arab world, and a cosplay event on Oct. 2.
CairoComix was founded by three Egyptian comic artists, Mohammed Shennawy, Magdy El-Shafee and Twins Cartoon. Shennawy founded the comics magazine TokTok in 2011 with four other artists and was selected for the Jeunes Talents exhibition in Angouleme, France, in 2009.
El-Shafee won the best African comics (Afro-Mediterranean) with Author Wael Saad in 2007 and founded the comics magazine El-Doshma, while Mohammed and Haytham Ra'fat of Twins Cartoon founded drawing series Kawkab Elrasameen and the comics magazine Garage.
With this initiative, their goals are to "put more lights over the Comics industry in Arabia," "promote the growth of visual entertainment," and create an environment that fosters "the development of an Arabic Comics ecosystem," according to the festival's official website .
Tickets for CairoComix are available online on eventtus.com and can also be bought at the door.