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Today I accidentally came across yet another Persian-inspired animation project. The Fire of Love is a 2D animation series based on Rumi's poems. The project (apparently initiated by the London Academy of Iranian Studies) has a small website with a section that looks like a preliminary proposal/pitch for the series, as well as a nice little test movie. The animation looks disney-esque, and I do like the character models.
This is definitely a project I will be closely following with great interest.

My original goal in setting up the Project 300 website was to create an outlet to showcase the work of emerging Iranian artists (with a special focus on illustrators and comic artists), and to provide some unique coverage on exciting events happening in the Persian artist community.

To help update the site more often and keep it alive, I am looking for people who may be interested in contributing to this blog by submitting posts. If you think you may be interested, please leave me a comment or email me at submit@300themovie.info, and I will give you more details.

The website of the Shahnameh animated project has recently been updated with new concept art. There is not much other indication about which stage they are at or when the project would be released, but the two new big illustrations are absolutely stunning, and the fact that they are updating the site gives some indication that the project is alive.

Aside: I have tried to contact people at Cyrus production in the past to interview them about the project, but I've had no response from them.

Sahar Ajami is a Tehran-based cartoonist/illustrator. She graduated from the Tehran Art University in Theatre stage design, and started drawing illustrations from 1999. I really like the simplicity and pureness of her work. Of particular interest to me is her fashion and post-card illustrations. I have seen a lot of illustrators using this style, but somehow Sahar's usage of this style is still fresh and inviting. You can also check out her blogs in blogspot, and blogfa.

Hamid recently sent us a new digital painting titled "Rostam the Persian Legend". I think it's one of the most solid Rostam illos I've seen to date.

I have been extremely lazy in publishing this. Hassan Nozadian, an original contributor to the project 300 gallery told me about his ambitious graphic novel project a few months ago. He also sent me these cool samples to share with you.

Hassan has an MA in industrial design and is currently the art director in a newly established animation company Zagros Film, in Shiraz, Iran.

Here is a bit more about the comic project from Hassan himself:

It is a legendary epic based on a short story we (me and my frien Mojtaba Nik-akhlagh, himself a screenplay writer) wrote together some years ago. last year we decided to make a persian comic-book based on that old short story written by ourselves because we really did believe in it

The legend (so we called it "Hargezian" in farsi or "Neverians" in English) is about grey heroes (if I can say so, that means who weren't so bad or so good) in such a long times ago and so far that no myths and history can remember it. It sounds like never such these things happened and never such those men existed and no one like those people and heroes lived ever after. Or even maybe this title indicates in ever-lasting (eternal) existence of our characters during the time. That's why we called it Hargezian (Neverians), and that's why we applied some Persian motifs or themes into drawings and characters and locations names but didn't mention a specific historical age.

Hassan goes on to say that as classic comic book fans, he and his friends always wondered why there aren't any comics in Iran. That's why they decided to create this very cinematic graphic novel.

The story is now written and the preliminary sketches and character designs have been finished. Hassan is now working on the pencils and the inking. He is also going to do the colouring himself. It looks like they have also found a publisher and if everything goes well the graphic novel should be complete by the end of next summer. It is going to be about 90 pages.

I'm really glad that Hassan and Mojtaba are doing this. Doing all artwork (Pencil, Inking, Colouring) by one person is an extremely daunting task and I admire Hassan for tackling this. I certainly look forward to seeing the finished result. If this graphic novel is published, it's certainly going to be the first graphic novel of its kind published in Iran.

Please find below the announcement for the new round of UNESCO-Aschberg Bursaries for Artists Programme for 2009. The programme consists of a global network of bursaries for international residencies. This year it is focusing on visual arts, creative writing and music, so please pass the information to anybody who may be interested.

Among the UNESCO-Aschberg Bursaries for Artists Programme, the 18th Street Art Center (Santa Monica, CA, USA) is offering a fully funded artist residency in visual arts to an Iranian artist for 2009.
For information on application procedure and requirements please visit their site.

This is a great opportunity for Iranian artists, especially those inside Iran, to showcase their art outside of the country and we strongly urge all artists to apply for this.

I just came across this news yesterday, while looking for inspiration on combining Persian calligraphy with animal shapes. The news itself is a couple of years old: back in 2006, an illustrated book of 10 Hafez poems had won the British Book Design & Production Awards in the literary category, thanks to the beautiful work of a talented British-Iranian artist Jila Peacock.

I can't wait to see the book for myself (I couldn't find it on amazon.ca), but judging from the snapshots I saw online and on Peacock's website the design is pretty stunning. Peacock has used the words in each poem (written in curvy and organic calligraphic style) to create outlines of shapes that symbolize the poem itself ; a deer, a lion, a peacock. This is no doubt a laborious task, but the results are beautiful and I'm glad that Peacock's efforts were recognized and rewarded.

You can see more of these shapes, as well as other artwork by Jila Peacock by visiting her website.

Incidentally, the same calligraphic series have been a subject of an animated film called "Tonge of the Hidden". I could only find this short clip of it online. Imagine peacock's creatures come to life on screen, a fantasia-esque series of moving pictures. I wish we could see more of this online, it seems to be very interesting. The director by the way is David Anderson.

If you are in Rhode Island, you can catch the film this Saturday at the Rhode Islan Film Festival.

As many other Persians, the first comic book I ever read (in my case, the first book) was a "Tintin" by the great Belgian artist "Herge". It was very interesting for me to notice a "Miniature" painting in one of the pages of "King Ottokars Sceptre". Later I read an article that even compared the characters in the book with Iranian king and his royal guard.
Also another icon of French-Belgian comic book arena, who explored the Persian culture was Jacques Martin. Martin collaborated with Herge on his Tintin Journal. Alix was hero of Martin's stories. In "Les Voyages d'Alix: Persepolis", Alix explores Apadana, the Hall of a Hundred Columns, Naghsheh Rostam and Pasargardae and many other splendid locations that are recreated by Jacques Martin. We are invited to discover what if felt like to live at the time of King Darius and Xerxes not only amongst the nobility but amongst the inhabitants of the great city.

Top: The Legendary Hergé and Jacques Martin creator of Alix collaborated for the Journal de Tintin a weekly magazine. Bottom: The Alix Album by Jacques Martin introduces life in Persepolis.

Gilles Chaillet worked with Martin on Alix before creating his own hero Vasco a medieval knight of the Middle Ages. Two of his adventures are set in Persia at the time of Bahram Gur when Persia and the Byzantine Empire were rivals. Poussière D'Ispahan aka Sands of Ispahan and Les Chiens de Bahram Ghur aka The Dogs of Bahram Gur.

In these books, Gilles Chaillet offers us magnificent and precise reconstructions of the splendid medieval towns of Shiraz and Isfahan. The life and customs, religious and political intrigues and mindset of that distant era come to life.

There might be a reason for this influence of Persian art and history on French comics. In 1873, Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar first modern Persian monarch to visit Europe. After that French Kings, President, diplomats, writers, historians and voyagers traveled to Persia and vice versa.

And the last artist, but not least, is the Persian-French Marjane Satrapi and her Persepolis comics that are explored thoroughly in this blog.

[images and some extracts courtesy of Darius Kadivar, for a more in depth look at Persian influences on French comic books see his great article here]

Editor's Note: Arash is a new contributor to Project 300. He is a computer engineer and he writes from Vancouver. Among his interests, comics probably outrank the rest, which include movies and miniature paintings.