''Gold Ring'' ( ar, سوار الذهب, Siwari Al-Dhahab; ja, ゴールド・リング ''Gōrudo Ringu'') is a comic written by

Qais Sedki Qais Sedki ( ar, قيس صدقي) is an Emirati children's author. The first volume of his Arabic comic ''Gold Ring'' won the Sheikh Zayed Book Award for Children's Literature in the year 2010. Sedki left his IT job to pursue a career in comic ...

of the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

and drawn by

Akira Himekawa is the pen name of a duo of female Japanese comic book artists.Neild, Barry." CNN. September 10, 2010. Retrieved on September 10, 2010. When writing original works, the pen name is spelled as The artists have worked together since 1991 and have ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

.Good, Oliver.
Gold Ring: the UAE's first manga

Archive
. '' The National''. July 20, 2009. Retrieved on September 10, 2010. The series is the UAE's first

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

.Neild, Barry.
Japanese manga heroes join fight to save Arabic culture

.

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by the M ...

. September 10, 2010. Retrieved on September 10, 2010. The comic is printed in Arabic; an English version is available through mail order.Thompson, Jason.
Siwari Al-Dhahab: Sharing the Arabic-Japanese Manga Love in Gold Ring
." '' Comixology''. Thursday October 14, 2010. Retrieved on March 23, 2011. When Sedki founded

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...

-based publishing house, Pageflip, he wrote that he wanted to fight the perception that Classical Arabic, associated with schoolwork, was "boring." To help form his comic, Sedki approached a female duo of comic book artists known under the pen name Akira Himekawa and asked for consultation on how to best express the manga style. The Himekawa duo became the artists of the books. ''Gold Ring'' was awarded the 2010 Sheikh Zayed Book Award for children's literature. Volume 2 of ''Gold Ring'' was released on March 1, 2012. The English version of Volume 1 was scheduled for release on the following day. In June 2014, Japanese animation studio,

Gainax Gainax Co., Ltd. (stylized as GAINAX; ja, 株式会社ガイナックス, Hepburn romanization, Hepburn: ) is a Japanese anime studio famous for productions such as ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'', ''Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise, Roya ...

announced they would be developing an anime based on the comic.

Creation and conception

Sedki became interested in Japan as a child. His first time traveling to Japan was in 2001. He chose Japanese illustrators so the illustration style would reflect that back in Japan. The women under the pen name Akira Himekawa did not travel to the United Arab Emirates during the creation of ''Gold Ring''. The women used photographs of the United Arab Emirates as references. Shogakukan Square chose the translator, located in Japan, who served as the intermediary between the writer and the artists. Sedki used his brother in law Hassan as the model of the character Hassan; Sedki stated that many readers felt that Hassan looked like him.

Story

The story revolves around Sultan, an Arab boy who watches the Gold Ring

falconry Falconry is the hunting of wild animals in their natural state and habitat by means of a trained bird of prey. Small animals are hunted; squirrels and rabbits often fall prey to these birds. Two traditional terms are used to describe a person ...

competition with his friend Ziyad. At the competition they find a caged falcon. Sultan convinces his friend to release the falcon into the wild. The next morning, the falcon is at Sultan's doorstep. Sultan calls the bird "Majd" and trains her for an upcoming falconry competition. According to the ''

Gulf News ''Gulf News'' is a daily English language newspaper published from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It was first launched in 1978, and is currently distributed throughout the UAE and also in other Persian Gulf Countries. Its online edition was launch ...

'', the story is set in the UAE.

Release

Sedki held a book signing for Volume 2 at

Kinokuniya is a Japanese bookstore chain operated by , founded in 1927, with its first store located in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. Its name translates to "Bookstore of Kii Province". The company has its headquarters in Meguro, Tokyo. One of the company's g ...

Dubai. He attempted to get a ''

Guinness Book of World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

'' record for the largest number of books signed during a single event; at the time that record was 1,951. He got 451 books signed.

References

External links

Pageflip Publishing

Pageflip Publishing

Gold Ring

Interview with Qais Sedki (Part 1)
- Sail Magazine
Interview with Qais Sedki (Part 2)
- Sail Magazine * {{cite web, url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzoNqDmLUeM, title=Video: Illustrators of the Golden Ring in Abu Dhabi, newspaper= The National, date=2017-06-28, via=

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

* Thompson, Jason.
Siwari Al-Dhahab: Sharing the Arabic-Japanese Manga Love in Gold Ring
" '' Comixology''. October 14, 2010. Arts in the United Arab Emirates Manga series