I prefer “illustrated cultural narratives with a pinch of humour and a light dusting of politics” over “comics”, but “comics” is just easier to say.

For over one year, I held myself back from sharing my cultural narratives (based on events in the Middle East and their relations toward one another) for fear of offending the wrong people. However, that was in the past. Now that I’ve stopped thinking so detrimentally, I can finally deliver on my promise—to share this project with the world, learn from my mistakes, and improve.

On this page, I share 28 out of my 33 characters in simple PNG presentation. I plan to dedicate a paragraph for each character to explain how I chose the name, their cultural clothing, and why I developed their facial features the way I did. Soon after that, I will create an interactive map that allows users to hover their mouse over a designated region of the MENA, and full details of the character that represents that region/nation/ethnic group will be prompted on the screen. Finally, if you wish to see all the comics I have published so far, click on the ‘COMICS’ link under ‘CATEGORIES’ which can be found along the side-bar. Slowly, but surely, I will introduce about 2 new characters per episode as I create more cultural narrative comics in the days to come.

Let’s play a game. Each of the characters below have their names scribbled in the language of their cultural background. Their clothing and features will clue you in on what their ethnicity/nationality is. See how many of these characters’ backgrounds you can identify!