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Africa · Country

32 artists 24 comics

Algeria.

World
Comics

القصص المصورة

Algeria

1964

القصص المصورةbande dessinée

In short

Algerian comics history centres on M'Quidech, the first Algerian comics magazine, launched in February 1969 by Mohamed Aram, Ahmed Haroun, Maz and Slim and published in French by the state publisher SNED until 1973.

Slim's Bouzid and the albums of Brahim Guerroui and Sid Ali Melouah carried the scene through the 1970s and 1980s, before the civil war of the 1990s killed or exiled many cartoonists. Since 2008 the Algiers International Comics Festival and a young wave of manga-style comics known as DZ manga have brought the scene back.

Algeria in numbers · 01 • 04

32

24

1964

2010s

Artists

Artists from Algeria in the archive.

Comics from Algeria in the archive.

Bouzid, the earliest comic from Algeria in the archive.

The decade when the most new comics from Algeria began.

القصص المصورة

bande dessinée · Comics from Algeria

History

Algeria in 4 chapters

  1. 1964

    to 1973

    Chapter 01

    Bouzid and M'Quidech

    Slim created the characters Bouzid, Zina and Gatt M'digouti in 1964 and 1967, and Mohamed Aram drew Naâr, une sirène à Sidi Ferruch in Algérie-Actualité in 1967, called the country's first comics serial. M'Quidech, the first Algerian comics magazine, began in February 1969 and ran in French until 1973.

  2. 1974

    to 1989

    Chapter 02

    State publishers and albums

    Through the state publishers SNED and ENAL, authors produced albums such as Brahim Guerroui's Merouane et le cheval enchanté (1978 to 1985) and Sid Ali Melouah's La Cité interdite (1982, printed in 40,000 copies). An Arabic edition of M'Quidech ran from 1978 to 1982, and in 1982 Guerroui and Melouah both won Caran d'Ache prizes at the Lucca comics salon.

  3. 1990

    to 1999

    Chapter 03

    Satire and the civil war

    After the political opening of 1988, the satirical paper El Manchar (1990 to 1991) gave cartoonists such as Daïffa and Gyps a platform. During the civil war of the 1990s cartoonists were targeted: Brahim Guerroui was murdered in Algiers in 1995, and Redouane Assari, Lounis Dahmani and Karim Mahfouf (Gyps) moved to France.

  4. 2000

    to today

    Chapter 04

    Festival and DZ manga

    After years of near silence, the Algiers International Comics Festival began in 2008; before it, the last comics exhibition in Algeria had been held in 1986. Publishers such as Dalimen, Lazhari Labter and Z-Link, and manga-style magazines such as Laabstore and El Bendir, helped a new generation, while press cartoonists such as Nime (jailed over drawings in 2019) and Ghilas Aïnouche (sentenced in his absence in 2022) have faced prosecution.

Essentials

The comics to know

Essentials

The people to know

Artists

More artists from Algeria

All 32 artists
Comics

More comics from Algeria

All 24 comics