Join Goerge Khoury (Jad) and Paul Gravett for a conversation about comics and culture.
George Khoury (JAD) is an artist, author, critic and educator based in Beirut, Lebanon.
Considered as a pioneer of the art of comics in the Arab world, he publishes the first graphic novels for adult readers in the region (‘Carnaval’ and ‘Freud’, 1981/82). His work is soon discovered by the ‘International Festival of Comics’ in France and acquired as part of the collection of the Comics Museum in Angoulême (Musée de la Bande Dessinée).
Jad’s art and animations have earned him several awards and honors including the ‘Gracia’ award for lifetime achievement from Lucca Comics&Animation Festival (Italy, 2014) and more recently the Mahmoud Kahil award for lifetime achievement (Lebanon, 2019).
He acts as director of the animation department at the Future Television Network for over 27 years and lectures in various institutions including the Lebanese American University in Beirut. Jad is also co-founder of the ‘Lebanese Syndicate of Professional Graphic Designers, Illustrators and Animators’. He is the author of the ‘History of Arabic Comics’ in addition to several essays and articles related to comics and animation.