Sketch-a-war

Meanwhile in Gaza; Man: Where'd you put the candles? Woman: I fed them to the children.

Cartoons are rarely serious, and that’s exactly what Mazen Kerbaj counts on. While officials ignore his work, Kerbaj is busy fighting through the funny papers.

So, I’m looking at your portfolio here and you, umm, do everything…

[Laughs] I define myself more as a musician than a cartoonist. It’s very strange, outside of Lebanon I was known more for the music, and here I’m known for the drawings. In Lebanon I get comments like: ‘Stop this shitty music that you try to do and concentrate on your drawing.’ They’re both natural ways of expression to me.

And you create just as much music?

Totally, we have an association and a yearly festival. It’s called Irtijal, and it’s hardcore experimental music, really different from anything you’ll see around here. But I’m still known more for my cartoons.

I’ve heard some stories about your more controversial strips…

I’ve published everywhere, but usually I publish two or three before I end up fighting with the editors. I think it’s the incompatibility of humor; there’s an old generation that cannot accept what we have to offer. I hear things like: ‘Our readership won’t accept this kind of drawing.’ But I’m part of your readership as well, and I’d like to see something like this.

So you and the censor offices are on a first-name basis?

I never get censored politically. I’m not interested in political cartoons and very rarely dabble in them. Understandably you can’t talk about spring picnics when there’s a war outside your window, but I’m more focused on social issues, and maybe I’m a bit harsh at that.

What about your earlier stuff? Where’d it all start?

I’ve been drawing for a long time but I launched with L’Orient Express, and I did a series of social criticism strips that I hate today. I mean it’s bad cartoons today. But then it was in French and today I’m drawing them in Arabic.

Better?

I can make fun of more people, yes. I don’t have a specific target when I draw; Lebanon gives you so much material to work with, very rich material. I also draw some experimental comics that I self-publish, and I sell maybe 200 of those, tops, on a very small scale. I have a small readership with those –so small that I know them all. These days I draw the back page of Al Akhbar every Friday, all in the good tradition of social criticism. But I’m craving something new. I have three or four projects and I don’t know where to start. My tiny readership awaits.

I wouldn’t call the readership of your last book tiny…

The people who bought my book about Israel gave me this fake fame during the Israeli war. It didn’t mean anything really. The blog readership went up to the thousands, and the book was released in France and sold thousands of copies which, to me, is quite astonishing considering the readership I’m used to. I’m really happy that so many people read it, especially because it helped show what was happening here, but I know the interest was more a product of the war and not my own talent. I could have surfed on that wave and moved on to the civil war.

Didn’t like the fame?

It says nothing to me; this selling, or making money, it means nothing. There are standard formats for making comics and I want to fight them. I want to be the guy that creates a new wave of comics, that’s the most important thing to me, rather than the guy who sells a lot. I want to be able to speak my mind. The relationship I have with Al Akhbar right now is a good one for instance, we’ve been working together for two years and I haven’t been censored once.

That does sound good. How’d you manage that?

I got a call from the cultural editor before the war – a very important point that – and he told me about a new newspaper. I asked him if it’s affiliated to anyone politically and he said it’s independent but leftist and so will be counted politically anyway. I told him that I need to be able to insult anyone because I’m against everyone politically and cannot work otherwise. His reply was that he’ll never censor me unless the government censors me. I haven’t been censored yet, believe it or not.

Even by the government?

We fortunately live in a country that still thinks that cartoons are for kids. They wouldn’t censor comics, I think. I remember in January 2007 there was a fight between two political parties in Jal el Dib and I went down to take some pictures. People came and shouted at me and wanted to stop me from taking photos. So I took my notebook out and starting drawing. A guy comes at me and shouts: ‘What are you doing?’ I said: ‘I’m drawing, can’t you see?’ He moved along. The drawing went on to be printed on magazine covers and it was much worse than any picture could’ve been. But after all, who’s afraid of an artist?

I’m starting to be. So what’s your favorite place in Lebanon?

Difficult to say. My place, I think, wherever it might be. I spend a lot of time in my house and I go out very little these days. I’m kind of a hermit now. I just draw and make music at home. Beirut is a mother that you hate and love at the same time.