An Egyptian researcher works on an ambitious project to collect and document the cartoons published in Arabic and foreign newspapers, periodicals and books in Egypt from 1878 to today, but after completing his first stage he faces financial and logistical obstacles that threaten the whole project with stalemate.

The project, which began in 2012, is due to researcher Abdullah Al-Sawy, who led him by accident to research and investigate the history of caricatures in Egypt and to highlight his pioneers, who were foreigners who came to Egypt and lived there and became naturalized to chronicle the most prominent political, social and economic events of the 19th and 20th centuries.

"As I was preparing for a master's degree in the subject of caricature and political movement in Egypt, I saw very important and rare material about the beginnings of caricatures in Egypt, but unfortunately they were neglected and vulnerable," said El-Sawy, 35.

"From here I was born with the idea of ​​keeping the cartoon archive and the biography of its owners digitally, and I was busy with the project until I did not complete the master's thesis." "For me, caricature is not a drawing or a joke, but it is a reliable document in the history of an event or a specific period of time."

The first phase of the seven-year project covers the period from 1878, when the magazine Abounzara Zarka appeared to Jacob Sinou, through the Egyptian liberal era until the 1952 revolution. It included the works of a group of cartoonists such as Juan Santis, Mohammed Abdel-Moneim Rakha, Zahidi El-Adawi, Hussein Bicar and Ahmed Toukan from Egypt.

"The cartoons, periodicals and magazines issued during this period were a top priority for the project, especially since many of the institutions that were issuing them no longer exist today, and the remaining copies are rare," he said.

Despite the collection of some 100,000 cartoons in the first stage, with the support of the Egyptian Cartoon Society, the National Library and Archives, and the families of some cartoon artists, press institutions, monasteries and art schools, funding and lack of staff remain the most threatening threat to the future of the cartoon project. "There is no real funding for the project, and I am working on it so far alone. But to continue the rest of the stages and digitize about two million cartoons, I need about 15 researchers and financial support of at least five or six million pounds," he said. "It may not be a big budget for the institutions or official bodies to complete a project of this value, but for me as a researcher is a huge number that I can not collect." "Perhaps more difficult to get funding for the project is that the art of caricatures is an ardent art that always guides the criticisms of negatives, so it does not interest the big institutions."

«Two rockets .. the unknown beginnings»

On the sidelines of the project, the launch and signing ceremony of "Two Missiles: The Unknown Beginnings," which highlights the Armenian cartoonist Alexander Rassan (1898-1977), who lived in Egypt for almost half a century, was held at the Book and Documentation House.

The book, published in Arabic and English with the support of the Cairo Charitable Society of Armenia, traces the biography of two rockets since birth in Ardanodj village of Batum province, one of the administrative regions of the Transcaucasian region of the Russian Empire at that time, through its transfer to Austria to study the arts. 1924 until his death in 1977.

The book also monitors the journey of his work in Egypt, which included newspapers and magazines, Arab and foreign, including Rose Al-Youssef, «Kashkool» and «Echo of the East» and «Cry» and «another hour» and «News Today», and also exposed to four books issued by two missiles Cartoons.

The book includes rare photographs of two missiles in his childhood and years of study in Vienna, as well as rare footage of him in Egypt before the pyramids and Cairo, in addition to a large collection of portraits and caricatures.

The book is written by Abdullah Al-Sawy and translated into English by Suad Fattim. Most of his material goes back to the notes written by two missiles in 1974 entitled "How did I come to Egypt?" The book is accompanied by a rare copy of the first and second edition of the weekly newspaper Al-Jadida, which was founded in 1924 by Abdelkader Al-Shennawi, who brought two missiles from Austria specially for the newspaper.

The first phase of the project covers the period from 1878 when the magazine "Abounzara Zarqa" appeared until the 1952 revolution.