Mickey Mouse In Egypt !

When The Golden Age of Comic Books bloomed, comics received international widespread fame especially in Egypt. When it comes to humor Egyptians are impossible; there humor is like laughing gas, and they were actually very successful to create a nice combination of their cracking humor and the simply marvelous foreign art of comics.One of the most famous comics in Egypt is definitely Mickey Mouse. In 1958 Mickey Mouse was introduced to the Arab world through another comic book called “Sameer”. Mickey Mouse became so popular in Egypt that he got a comic book with his name, the comic is actually an Arabic counterpart of Donald Duck comics but with Mickey’s name instead. Mickey’s comics in Egypt are licensed by Disney and were published since 1959 by “Dar Al-Hilal” and they were a big hit, but unfortunately Dar Al-Hilal stopped the publication in 2003 because of problems with Disney, luckily the comics were re-released by “Nahdat Masr” in 2004 and the first issues were sold out in less than 8 hours.

The first Mickey appearance on the cover of “Sameer”

Sameer introducing Mickey:

Mickey appearances in Sameer:

Mickey gets his own comic book:

The first ever Mickey comic book by Dar Al-Hilal, 1959

Evolution of Mickey’s logo over the years:

A special monthly edition of Mickey called “Super Mickey” :

First “Super Mickey” Issue

Evolution of Super Mickey’s logo over the years:

Pocket Mickey

First Pocket Mickey issue

Mickey’s Re-release:

The first Mickey issue by Nahdat Masr, 2004

Here’s a funny one-pager from Dar Al-Hilal’s Mickey:

In my next post I will focus on other Arabic language publications.