The 2nd Saudi Arabia Comic Con. Marvel’s Black Panther to open the newly legalized Saudi cinema. Kalimat sets up a comics imprint. The Arab Renaissance embraces comics

The Middle East Film and Comic Con (MEFCC) is underway in Dubai, and the Arabic-language  children’s publishing house Kalimat is set to release the first of its graphic titles, Antara, part of  series first unveiled at the Sharjah IBF 2017 and again at the Paris book fair earlier this year.

Among the star attractions at the MEFCC will be Jenna Coleman, best known for her role in Doctor Who, and Ezra Miler, best known as The Flash.

The MEFCC comes just weeks after the very successful 2^nd Saudi Arabia Comic Con and just before Saudi Arabia celebrates the re-legalisation of cinema in the country with Marvel’s The Black Panther movie, the first film to be shown in public in over thirty years.
And it’s to be followed by, wait for it… Avengers: Infinity War.

The cinema ban was peculiar to Saudi Arabia, and legalisation opens up a market of 30 million previously denied access to films, many of which of course drive the publishing industry.
In January Bookwitty reported from the Angoulême International Comics Festival on the “vibrant and diverse” world of Arab comics.
For more on the current Middle East Film and Comic Con, which regularly attracts around 60,000 visitors, see here, here and here.