A thick read, I picked up this urban fantasy title as part of trying to read more books from the middle east for reasons I hope are pretty obvious. My goal is to post in the comments a list of my reviews so far in this TBR.

Content notes for loss of limbs, smoking, imprisonment, harm to children/death of children, spousal abuse, and needles.

Leaning into the fact that it was originally written in Arabic, much like most manga these days Shubeik Lubeik is read (even in this English edition) from right to left.

Keywords that came to mind reading this volume: speculative, urban fantasy, alternative presents, philosophy, family, and education.

Looking at their website's about page, Mohamed was inspired to write this comic by their undergraduate thesis that involved them researching the history of Egyptian comics. They've also been working for a while on a superhero webcomic titled Qahera that definitely sounded very interesting.

Flipping through the artwork, I was really impressed with the carefully curated variety of color selection and styles. Every choice building up the story more and more until it basically jumped off the page. Another one of those comics that is a bit of a master class on visual communication honestly. Mohamed also integrates a large selection of infographs that build up the story in some very creative ways.

The writing was also super interesting and unlike anything else I had really read before (as far as my poor muddled brain can remember anyway lol). Practically an undergraduate thesis on wishes honestly. aka a deeply thought out speculative look at what the world might look like if wishes were real. Taking into consideration the implications of class, disability, gender, sexuality and race. We watch as international treaties and local laws develop around wishes and we follow a number of characters who end up being criminalized in relation to wishes. A very philosophical comic, Mohamed also seamlessly integrates characters speaking a number of different languages; religion of the Islamic and Christian variety were highlighted in ways I don't usually expect in my comics consumption and must grapple with the implications of wishes; Shubeik Lubeik features a wide variety of grumpy but endearing elder characters. Which was also nice.

Wrapping things up, I would rate this book five out of five stars and generally highly recommend. Despite how grimly the story gets at point I will say I was pretty amused by how things wrapped up at the end.