PRESENTATION OF THE PROJECT
The illustrated Without being a logbook, let alone a diary, it nevertheless reflects a personal reading of current events. It is therefore intended as a testimony.
From the alphabet, I adopt the principle of sober, concise and punchy. However, far from simplifying the facts, my alphabet book seeks to shed more light on them. Its graphic structure reduced to the essential and the (alphabetical) order displayed are a way to better apprehend the general chaos. The rather rudimentary and deliberately "naive" drawing retains all its potential as a starting point for critical and constructive reflection. At the level of colors, my alphabet is inspired by the palette of old children's books. There is nostalgia in this bias because it is for me the end of an era. But it is also a question of brightening up a gloomy and increasingly anxious daily life; the colorful images appear to breathe a little freshness and good humor into the reader.
If it is true that I first intended my covid-19 primer to my compatriots, it has found success beyond the Tunisian borders. Over the course of its publications, it has become an open window on the world because, from now on, the world shares the same concerns and priorities.
OTHMAN SELMI BIOGRAPHY
Othman Selmi is a Tunisian comic book author/illustrator and graphic designer. A graduate of the Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Tunis, he began his career in advertising and as a press cartoonist, a universe that is found in his drawings. Illustrations with simple lines, bright colors, committed texts always full of humor and irony, Othman makes his voice heard through his pencil strokes and his pen, redrawing his native Tunisia in complete freedom. Artistic director and creative director, the artist advocates teamwork by multiplying artistic collaborations.
