Mohamed Al Zawawi

By LatAm ARTE

Mohamed Zwawi, considered the father of Libyan cartoons, comics and animation, was born in the suburbs of Benghazi in 1936. He began his career as an illustrator in the audiovisual department of “The American Fourth Station” and then went on to work with the Ministry of News and Guidance of Libya. In 1963 he joined the magazine “Al-Idha'a” in Tripoli, where he published the first cartoon of him. He eventually became journalistic director of the magazine “Al-Mar'a” and continued to publish in various print media, including the daily “Al-Thawra” and the weekly magazine “Al-Usboo' Assiaasi”, and helped create animated television series until his death in 2011. Mohamed Al-Zawawi was a pioneer of Libyan cartoons, whose comic observations of daily life have appeared in magazines and newspapers such as “at-Tawra” and “Al Amal”. The artist has received much praise in the Arab world and is considered the father of Libyan cartoons, comics and animation. He is also known as Mohamed Zwawi or Muhammad az-Zuwawi. Al-Zawawi was also a pioneer in the local animation industry. In the early 1980s, Libyan national television asked him to make a cartoon series. One of them was “Hajj Nakad,” on which he worked in cooperation with a UK studio, and another was the 45-minute film “Joha's Diary,” which was largely produced in Japan. Like his comics, his animation projects also critically addressed Libyan society. The artist died on Sunday, June 5, 2011 in Tripoli, the capital of Libya.

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