Libya -one of the most famous cartoonists in the Arab world; the Libyan artist, Mohamed Al-Zawawi, died Sunday 5th of June 2011 at age 75. He considered to be the father of Libyan comics, cartoon, and animation since 60s.

Born in Benghazi 1936, 1,050 kms east of Tripoli,Al-Zawawi, who founded his own satirical arts school with a reputation that has spread beyond the borders of his country, was endowed with great abilities and great talent for satirical ideas about the contemporary socio-political issues.

Many Libyan and Arab artists and satirists were trained at his school, and Libyans described Al-Zawawi as an artist who has touched their daily concerns.

The deceased began his artistic career in 1963, working as a director and cartoonist in the Art de la Radio magazine in Tripoli, where he published his first drawings.He had an extremely lively and accomplished cartooning style, which he passed onto various students and future cartoonists at a satirical arts school he founded in Tripoli. He was well-regarded in the region and published outside of Libya given various opportunities. He engendered to express a common man's position in his editorial work.

The first steps towards animation in Libya were made by Al-Zawawi, who was asked by the national Libyan TV in the beginning of 1980s to make a series of animated episodes. One episode named "Hajj Nakad" on which he worked with the collaboration of a studio in England, and another 45 minutes film "Joha's Diary" which he finished in Japan. The episodes in a critical manner discussed the Libyan society.

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