CAIRO--He has gone after a brief illness, but he has left us his life on paper. But this legacy that the Egyptian cartoonist and graphic designer Mohie el-Labbad has left behind is anything but brief. Labbad first displayed his artistic talents at an early age. El-Labbad passed away earlier this month to the grief of his disciples and fans. By the age of 16, he was already a professional artist. When he joined the Faculty of Fine Arts, it was something scandalous for a family of rural origins; as he once said: "My parents didn't support me in this step, but neither did they hinder me." After graduating in 1963, el-Labbad worked as a cartoonist for two local weekly magazines, Sabah el-Kheir and Rose el-Youssef, besides having his works published in different periodicals, magazines and newspapers in Arab countries. El-Labbad was also an accomplished book cover designer, mostly known for using Islamic figures and Arab folkloric art. He won several local and international awards for his book illustrations. They include a prize from the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1994. In the mid-1960s, he worked as a graphic designer and manager of several graphic houses, as well as helping to found a number of publishing houses specialising in children's books, in both Egypt and Lebanon. He did the graphic designs for a lot of works translated into many languages like Spanish, English, French, Italian, German and Japanese. He also won a lot of Arab and international awards and participated in many international cartoon exhibitions. One of his most popular works is a series entitled Nazr (Sight), an encyclopaedia for plastic arts, graphics and cartoons worldwide. This series has been described by artist Esmut Dawsatshi, as "a unique, exceptional book that deserves a whole shelf in the library of any home". But his greatest work was Kashkoul el-Rassam (The Artist's Notebook), for which he won the Golden Apple at the Bratislava International Biennale for Children's Books. The book was chosen as one of the best 10 Arabic children's books. He also wrote 30 Questions, Languages without Words, T-Shirt, The Story of a Book and many other works. El-Labbad thanked late Egyptian cartoonist Bikar for his getting involved in children's books, because he helped him land a job in Dar el- Maa'ref. He considered Bikar to be the pioneer of art books for children in Egypt, as he published two wonderful works that will be of inestimable value to future generations. Despite his many achievements, el-Labbad considered himself to be a big loser with the media, stressing that he had established himself as an artist, cartoonist, book designer and more. Artist Helmi el-Touni agrees that el-Labbad didn't get the appreciation that he deserved, especially in his country, pushing him to seek appreciation in Europe. "The lack of appreciation for Mohie, a unique artist, made him feel rejected in his own country," says el-Touni, who attributes this to el-Labbad's mental illness. "I do not know what can be done to honour Mohie. Perhaps a college or other educational institution for book designers could be established and named after him. We need such an institution in a country with over 80 million citizens." In the last few years of his life, el-Labbad stopped working on designing book covers. But there was an exception, when the great writer Ibrahim Aslan persuaded him to design the cover for the first edition of the novel Pink Night, published by Sharqiyat, and then Asafeer el-Nil (Birds of the Nile), published by the General Authority for Cultural Palaces. When Aslan signed a contract with Al-Shourouk publishing house for publishing all his works, including previous ones and his last one, Two Rooms and a Hall, el-Labbad had stopped book cover designing, but Aslan asked the house to offer him the design work. El-Labbad accepted enthusiastically and refused to take a penny for doing the work from Aslan. Ironically, this was el-Labbad's last-ever assignment and Aslan wrote no more books. The narrator Saeed el-Kafrawi, who knew el- Labbad for many years, describes him as a loving and caring person, very open to others' ideas and opinions. For el-Kafrawi, el-Labbad was a rarity, someone who was able to establish a new school of caricature and photography. "Mohie's cartoons were very tasteful. They were instinctive, surprising people with their deeper meanings. "This man belonged to a generation of artists who tried to make their nation happy through and he paid the price after the defeat of June 1967," he says. "But because of his marvellous works, we feel that he's still with us. May he rest in peace."
