AUB Arts Club Holds Lebanese Comic Book Exhibit

Facing the camera, left to right: President Waterbury and Henry Matthews touring the exhibit

Henry Matthews, a painter and writer and the deputy editor at the Office of Information and Public Relations, discovered the magic of visual arts when his mother first gave him an issue of Bissat El Rih (The Flying Carpet), an Arabic comic book for children. On the cover, he saw Aladdin riding a winged horse against a sky of dark blue. The sense of magic and enchantment that the book cover created in him as a child has accompanied Matthews all his life, instigating a lifelong impulse that led him to build up a humongous collection of comic books from all over the world.

Selected by Matthews according to their sentimental value and aesthetic appeal, a selection of the comic books was recently showcased in an exhibition held in West Hall from May 21 to 28 by the AUB Arts Club. All the favorite comics of Lebanese children were there, among them Bissat Al Reeh, Dunya Al Ahdath (World of Children), Al Foursan (The Knights), As Sahm Az Zahabee (The Golden Arrow), and Ibn Battuta (Ibn Battuta's Adventures).

Also featured in the collection were other popular comics, like Bonanza, Awdat Tarzan (Tarzan's Return), Al Abtal (The Heroes), and Al Barq (Lightning). These books, which were translated from French and English, starred European comic adventure heroes and Walt Disney characters, like Tarzan, Rin Tin Tin, Sinbad, James Bond, Superman, and Batman.

To illustrate the history of Lebanese comic books and the changing perspectives towards comic strips in general, a panel discussion was held on May 24 in West Hall. The speakers were Ameen Rihani and Henry Matthews. Rihani, a professional writer, professor, and the author of fourteen books, detailed the history of Dunya Al Ahdath, whose publication was launched in 1955 by his mother, Laurine Rihani, but was later discontinued in 1972. This comic magazine, which was the first in Lebanon and the second in the Arab world after the Egyptian Sindibad (Sinbad), featured the work of prominent writers and graphic artists of children's literature.

Matthews presented an overview of the history of comics in both Lebanon and the Western world from the time American newspapers started publishing comic strips in the early twentieth century. Commenting on the change in attitudes towards comics from contempt to appreciation, he lamented the current state of Lebanese comic book production. He proposed incorporating comics in school curricula, arguing that their ability to communicate moral messages to youngsters can perhaps prove more effective than direct moralistic rhetoric.

Matthews hoped the exhibit would serve as a reminder of Lebanon's position in the 1960s as a hub of children's literature production, saying that its own comic strips were mostly produced locally and not borrowed from imported translated scripts. The Lebanese comic book legacy, he concluded, needs to be preserved, so that "today's children can also enjoy what for many of us was once a pleasure out of this world."