Written by Simone Vos
An escape route, harbour or shelter; this time, Wobby is rooted in escapism. In #43, we search not only for a safe physical and emotional space, but a safe haven where thoughts are free to wander, imagination offers protection, and new realities can emerge. Raman Djafari (DE), Joseph Callioni (FR), and Karen Keyrouz (LB/FR) made new work for this issue and talk about their work.
In uncertain times, we search for ways to loosen our grip without fully rejecting it. Dreams, fantasy, and the unconscious become alternative paths. The irrational, the mysterious, and the inexplicable give no solution, but they do offer space. Surrealism, coincidence, and unexpected associations create connections that feel meaningful, even when they are not logical. This magazine moves within that in-between space: between threat and imagination, between chaos and shelter, between reality and dream. A temporary harbour in uncertain times.
Raman Djafari for Wobby #43
Raman Djafari for Wobby #43
Vulnerability
For Raman Djafari, the theme of ‘safe space’ was an interesting one. “There are a lot of ways to think about this theme. I was interested in creating an atmosphere of being both protected and hidden at the same time. While drawing the cover artwork I was exploring a feeling of vulnerability and the search for comfort. I often draw flowers and other motifs from nature and wanted to depict them as a protective entity for the vulnerable human body. In this illustration, the person is cared for by nature in a way”, they state.
“The inspiration for my work comes from many places. The life that I live, my friends, our conversations and of course visual art, literature and music. I’m also a filmmaker, so I tend to watch a lot of movies too. Depending on the type of assignment, my process can look vastly different. Sometimes an image just appears in my mind, and I try to capture it in a sketch. When working alone, I enjoy the process of exploring the theme through drawing, often not knowing where I will end up.
I also like working with a team and having a more regulated production structure, for example when I work as a director, like I do for my next animated short film. Communication is the most important thing in this situation. Everyone has to carry the same vision and work towards the same shared idea. For me the different processes of these mediums are really fulfilling, and I enjoy being able to jump between drawing and filmmaking.”
Joseph Callioni for Wobby #43
Joseph Callioni for Wobby #43
Ruins in work
The projects that Joseph Callioni mostly works on allow him to build ruined-world landscapes. “My work is shaped by science fiction, more through literature and cinema than through comics, and by certain places I have lived in. I grew up in a caretaker’s apartment located in the heart of a university campus in the southern suburbs of Paris”, he states. “The campus itself was rather old; the buildings dated back several decades and were dilapidated, overgrown with ivy. The architecture was highly unusual, nothing like a place designed for everyday life. One could just as easily have imagined oneself among the ruins of a former brutalist base.”
“During my years at art school, I worked night shifts as a seasonal employee for a fish wholesaler in the port of Lorient. I experienced the life of the harbour from the inside: semi-abandoned warehouses illuminated by artificial lights, that peculiar atmosphere that exists when the rest of the city is asleep. It was a small industrial port with many derelict sites that gave off a melancholy mood. Some places almost felt like an abandoned world.
The image I created for Wobby is infused with these memories, but also with certain literary influences. I have always been fascinated by the world of H.P. Lovecraft, especially The Shadow over Innsmouth and its semi-aquatic characters.
For the image I created around the theme of the harbour, I had in mind—much as in my comics—a kind of silent world, a landscape after the departure of humankind, where ruins remain and are gradually colonized by the first stirrings of other forms of life.”
Karen Keyrouz for Wobby #43
Karen Keyrouz for Wobby #43
Questioning the idea of escapism
Karen Keyrouz thought a lot about the comic for Wobby #43, but she made it quite quickly. “I immediately knew that I wanted to make something that questioned the idea of escapism. I come from a place where being able to escape is not as we imagine. You can’t run away from a place as easily as that.”
Karen fled from Lebanon to France in 2022, and her comic is about how she feels about the people who remained there. “The eyes in the comic look at the sky, and together with the text, they form one story. I didn’t want to make the comic too heavy, and I couldn’t fit all my ideas in four pages. For me, it’s not difficult to draw and talk about my personal life, but I don’t want to make it about me. It’s not about my own feelings. It’s a bigger theme, a collective feeling that touches way more people, that I would like to describe in my work.
Besides my commissions and personal work, I’m part of Samandal Comics. Together, we also make comic anthologies and have open calls for comic books and solo books. I’m also working on a book that will be available from October 2026 with Arbitraire, a French publisher. And I’m interested in working with new techniques and bringing narrations into bigger spaces. Big format paintings- that’s what I’m working on now.”