GeoQuiz: Comic book countries
It’s rare that you hear public radio talk about Middle Eastern countries that exist only in the world of DC Comics, but that’s what was in one of PRI’s The World’s GeoQuizzes earlier this month.
For today’s Geo Quiz we’re looking for a country – with a twist. The country we’re looking for belongs in a list that includes these other states.
Tropidor is a country in Central America – it was the subject of illegal U.S. Government arms trading many years ago.
Kooey Kooey Kooey is an island in the South Pacific, in case you didn’t know.
Ah, yes, Pokolistan. Pokolistan is a former Soviet republic. It used to be a military dictatorship ruled by General Zod. And General Zod, you might recall, was killed by… Superman.
It goes on to talk about home-grown Middle Eastern superhero comics:
Of all the places in the world that needs a hero, Lebanon is probably high atop the list. After an Israeli invasion in 2006, and a 15 year civil war before that, much of the country has been wracked by war. So in many ways, just as the United States had Superman and Captain America in the 1950s, Lebanon now has Malaak.
“Malaak is basically the Lebanese superhero, super heroine I should say, as we never had one in Lebanon.�
28-year-old Lebanese artist Joumana Medlej created Malaak — a new online and printed action comic.
“Actually we’ve never had an action comic in Lebanon. She was born of the situation where everybody was starting to wish we had some kind of superhero to come and fix things once and for all.â€?
Medlej says Malaak — whose name means angel in Arabic — fights against supernatural and evil beings — known as “jinn” — that are creating a war in this fictitious representation of Lebanon.
“She definitely has powers, but she’s discovering them as the story goes. So we don’t know the extent of them. But so far she can generate some kind of energy that destroys the jinn that are responsible for the war.â€?
While Malaak is clearly drawing from elements of Lebanon’s recent past, another comic has a much newer take on a significantly older story — Islam. “The 99” is a comic with wide distribution throughout the Muslim world. It’s almost like a religious version of the Justice League. Naif Al-Mutawa is the CEO of the Teshkeel Media Group in Kuwait, which publishes “The 99”. He explains that the name refers to the 99 attributes that Muslims believe come together in Allah — and which in turn give Allah power.
“Things like generosity and strength and wisdom and foresight and mercy. And dozens of others that unfortunately are not used today to describe Islam in the media. So, the idea, very simply is a series of heros, each of which embodies one of these traits. And they need to work in a team of three to solve a problem.�
Al-Mutawa says part of the reason comics haven’t taken off in the Middle East before is government censorship, which restricted what could and couldn’t be published.
Joumana Medlej’s a pretty good artist, if the sample shown is any indication. I could definitely see a stateside publisher taking a chance on Malaak. I’d certainly want to try an issue.
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First rate find, Ringo! The comics are good, the language lessons are interesting (notes at the bottom of the pages explaining the Leb slang phrases) and the story is compelling. If a U.S. publisher were to pick them up, they do OK.
All of the first comic is available here: http://tinyurl.com/37jttg
The ongoing postings of the second begins here: http://tinyurl.com/2jqa4a
Her Blog announces add’l pages as they are ready and posted: http://tinyurl.com/2rucjd
Up to page 15 already.
Go Malaak! Down with the Junns!
Comment by Mozzbi — February 27, 2008 @ 12:25