Petit Bulletin LYON - Animations Lyon: Comic strip - Kamal Hakim & Mohamad Kraytem, ​​two Lebanese authors in residence in Lyon - article published by Vincent Raymond

You are in residence in Lyon thanks to the NAFAS program of the French Institute. Have you applied? Kamal Hakim: We were selected, but I admit I don't know the official backstage. We got together, and that's it. Do you have something to add?

Mohamad Kraytem: For me, I just got up in the morning, I checked my emails, I was very surprised because I didn't expect it. It was the time of confinement, in November; I was almost depressed, working in Beirut, living my routine. It just made me very happy.

When you arrived, what did you find most inspiring from a graphic point of view in the geometry and geography of Lyon? KH: It starts with the architecture: just the pretext of the traboules. Already, you are entering the history of the traboules. For a Lebanese, you say to yourself: it's all about sneaking around for us. There are plenty of stories to tell. Drawing parallels with our history And then, the geography is interesting because it is a mixture of hills and rivers; it also reminds us of Bled.

MK: You can ski and go to the beach

KH: That's the slogan! (laughs) Otherwise, we arrived in a city where everything is still confined, so we are waiting for the deconfinement to be able to discover the traffic jams, play pétanque.

MK: Me, it doesn't bother me that it's confined: the city is already very, very beautiful, very active and lively with the confinement. So I don't see what is confined apart from cafes and restaurants. There is activity everywhere: on the Place de l'Opéra, with people skating, dancing, demonstrating

KH: In terms of architecture, what fascinated me was the color palette. The Italian merchants of the Middle Ages passed by there. Suddenly, it feels like being in Florence. Then, we have the more classic style, specific to French history without it sounding too Parisian Haussmann. There is also the fact that we live in Vieux-Lyon, in a building from the Middle Ages which is super modern. It's interesting to have a spiral staircase to get in and to have a button to lower the blinds automatically, to have a smart oven, a smart coffee maker It's a bit like Japan! And since it's a non-smoking area, we both sit at the window and we see all the life, the people, the customs, the stories scroll through this beautiful neighborhood below our home... The funniest thing is is that when we left Beirut, we all received messages like: “enjoy civilization! And there, on the first evening, we saw a completely wiped guy taking out his penis to pee everywhere So, civilization (laughs)

We do everything together like an old couple

Did you have a preconceived image of what this residence could be like?KH: Yes, I had friends in residence in Angoulême, I know what does it look like. In Lyon, it's a little different because it's not THE city like Angoulême which has a whole infrastructure where you can meet and work directly with artists. There, I find myself locked up with another Lebanese (smile) and suddenly, we are in competition: every morning we do our work out, we work, we do everything together like an old couple

In this routine, how are your days going? Is there a work obligation? KH: It's pretty free time. Now, there is the publication that we have to release for the Lyon BD festival; otherwise, we each came with a personal project that we hope to be able to defend during the professional day of the Festival, where we will have the opportunity to meet publishers. The goal is to come up with at least ten well-finished boards. Have a text to read, clear, which allows us to discuss and start something. But you, Mo, I believe you have a well-done comic that will be published very soon, right?

MK: Yeah And on top of that, I also have side boards, projects, ideas. I still have written and visualized ideas, and stuff that I even started during the first lockdown, last April, and couldn't finish because all of Beirut was reopened. I put these projects aside in my drawer; it will be a great opportunity to present them to publishers.

What does the publishing world look like in Lebanon right now? KH: I'll make it simple for you. Economically, it's not possible today: the world of books has collapsed, because there was the devaluation of the Lebanese pound which means that a book today is unaffordable. Afterwards ? We'll see. So, it's even more a question we ask ourselves. We are necessarily obliged to go abroad, it simplifies things.

MK: To date, I have only ever worked with two publishers in Lebanon: the first for a small book in 2016 as part of a competition open to any student or artist, Lebanese or Arab. The second project was an Egyptian publisher based in Angoulême who had contacted me on Facebook by chance. This kind of thing never happens to anyone in life: artists rack their brains to find publishing contracts or to show a project capable of convincing a publishing house that there are what to turn the small wheel of the economy (laughs) There, it happened to me like that; so, I said: “okay well yes if you do the layout and if you print the book”. So I never asked myself the question and I never asked publishers. I think it's the same everywhere in the world: you just have to present a project to a publisher, ask them what they can give you in return and that's how it goes

Have Lebanese publishers published Lebanese authors because they had success abroad? KH: There was Tamyras, which closed. We had a few publishing houses that had embarked on the comic strip adventure, not many. Samandal, a kind of platform now annual when it was quarterly. Plan B, too, they had tried self-publishing. But above all, I believe that the notion of artists' rights in Lebanon is quite limited. There is no market. Especially French-speaking comics: it's really a small French-speaking elitist minority who will read the classics.

Beyond comics by French-speaking authors, is there a particular appetite among the Lebanese public for comics? MK: Readers are present, but it's a small percentage. Especially because most of the population is interested in something else today.

KH: Yes, but with Instagram and social media, I think people like the drawn format. This is where comics have enormous potential because it is becoming more democratic. Now, it's true that, also culturally, we tend to depreciate comics. But, where I contradict myself, everyone has read a little bit of comics: when you look, you realize that all the people who are behind the big museums in Beirut like comics. Have their classics at home. Collect Unlike here where the elites despised comics. I think geography determines a lot of things. And Beirut is really the periphery of Europe, we work to catch up and compare ourselves to others (laughs).

I imagine that you knew each other well before doing this residency and that you liked each other? KH: Both of you, I think we have a deep respect for each other's work. And there are plenty of pretty funny things that bring us together, like the fact that our girlfriends are both French and find themselves today in Beirut organizing dinners to talk about us. And we are here, in Lyon (laughs). There is a very cute touch to see that they get along well and that we find ourselves here cooking for each other. We knew each other before but I think our residence precipitated their friendship. So, we created a group on WhatsApp: the four of us meet, we have the daily gags There is a dynamic of humor which is quite nice

Would it crystallize in a common artistic project? KH: Yes, yes! Already, there is an exchange taking place. And the fact that we respect each other is cool. In the evening, we do exercises and sketches together It's already the beginnings of something.

MK: We make salad together. And it already has an artistic, gastronomic side. We experiment with many ingredients

KH: and we send the pictures to our girlfriends to see if it's approved. Or not. All in flavors

Draughtsman and storyboarder in an agency, Mohamad Kraytem notably participated in the collective It will remain between us (Alifbata) like his eldest brother Kamal Hakim who, after studying political science at AUB and then animation at Sherdian College in Ontario signed among others Le Temps des grenades (Lebanese Academy of Fine Arts).