Sharjah Book Fair: 'Comic relief' to carnival of books

In all the comforting predictability of the Sharjah International Book Fair - same kind of exhibits, same kind of books, same nature of the crowds, and the same kind of school students dominating the weekdays - one new addition is the arrival of the comic cave (different from comic con). Visitors to Dubai's outlet mall would be familiar with the space.
But watch out for it in Hall 1 of the Sharjah Expo Centre. You'll see Captain America as you close in on the large-ish stall space of Comic Cave, with selections from DC comics, and Marvel on display.
As day one was getting started, even before the official opening, the comic cave was beginning to draw in the curious. A school boy, leaving his classmates waiting, had walked up to ask Yasmin Al Najjar, general manager of Comic Cave, "Is this a book or a game"?
Al Najjar told Khaleej Times: "Comic cave has more than 15,000 books, more than 8,000 collectible figures." But at the fair, "We have 10 different publishers from the west, and at least 3 major publishers of Manga comics all in English," she said.
The graphic novels available are cheaper than at bookshops outside. We spotted a hardback of Joe Sacco's "Footnotes in Gaza" for Dh130. There are cheaper paperbacks, too. Black and white art of "The Water Welder" by Jeff Lemire at Dh85, and Guy Delisle's "Shenzhen - A travelogue from China" priced Dh69. You can even wrangle a 10 per cent discount.
In Hall 5, The University Bookshop, Sharjah has lowered prices of Tintin comics from the retails Dh45 to the book fair price, Dh30. They're also proud to be selling the new, 10th part of "Diary of a Wimpy Kid Old School." Wednesday was also the global release date of the book.
Board games and educational toys, and learning aids have a huge draw at the book fair. Often the school going crowds gather not over bookcases, but at the colourful exhibits at, say, stall number Y11, in Hall 1 - at the 'I like to learn Foundation of Educational Aids' from Saudi Arabia in Hall 1.
Similarly, in hall 4, young children are easier engaged in a play thing that teaches Arabic letters, rather than, reference books of Islamic Architecture, also readily available at the fair. Kinokuniya, the Singapore-chain, with its massive outlet in Dubai Mall, had books on 25 per cent off .
For Dh75, in Hall 5, young readers can discover L. Ron Hubbard in the form of book plus audio CD. The audio CD of say, "The Carnival of Death", employs multi caste performances - so lots of voices reading out the words, a number of background sounds, music and affects. But also it engages the readers/ listeners in what Mitch Breuer, of Galaxy Press, calls 'Theatre of the mind'.
On being asked if he feels anything has changed, Breuer says, not much. On Breuer's wish list though is "more publishers from the US".
On the other hand, Saudi Arabia has about 44 publishers, and India has at least 68. Australia, China, Russia, Canada - about one publisher each. Other better countries represented from the Middle East are Turkey, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Egypt, Syria, Morocco, etc. But home turf is clearly the most prominently celebrated, with well over 150 publishers from the UAE.
nivriti@khaleejtimes.com

Visitors are busy discovering new Books in a book stall during the opening day of Shajrah international Book fair 2015 at expo center in Sharjah on Wednesday .