Mana Neyestani
Mana Neyestani (; born 29 May 1973) is an Iranian cartoonist, illustrator, and comic book creator. His work appears internationally in economic, intellectual, political and cultural magazines. He is particularly known for his work for reformist papers in Iran and Persian language websites Radio Zamaneh, , and IranWire. He is also well-known because of his cartoons about Iranian presidential election, 2009. He is the 2010 recipient of the Cartoonists Rights Network International Award for Courage in Editorial Cartooning. He lives in France. Early life. Mana was born in Tehran, to an Iranian Azerbaijani family. His father Manouchehr Neyestani (1936  - 1981) was a well-known Iranian poet from Kerman and his mother is from Tehran. Touka Neyestani a fellow cartoonist as well is Mana's older brother. Mana has a master's degree in Architecture from the University of Tehran. Career. Mana began his professional cartooning career in 1989, and started drawing editorial cartoons in 1998, for "Zan". During 1998-2000, he drew a large number of cartoons for various reformist newspapers, such as "Asr-e Azadegan", "Sobhe Emrooz", "Mosharekat", "Azad", "Neshat" (as a freelancer), and "Aftab-e Emrooz" (as a staff cartoonist). Mana also did many illustrations for kids  magazines during his career including Doost magazine. He was in charge of the kids section of the nationwide published newspaper "Iran" for many years. His cartoons are published regularly on the website of Iranian exile media Radio Zamaneh, as well as and IranWire. Books. Mana Neyestani has authored several books, mostly graphic novels. "The Adventures of Mr Ka" is his most famous comic book series, and consists of four books, all in Persian. Other books include: Controversy. Riots erupted by ethnic Azerbaijanis in Iran when they took offense to a Neyestani cartoon published in the children's section of the  12 May 2006 supplement of "Iran", a government-run newspaper. The cartoon depicted a cockroach responding in Azerbaijani. Neyestani, along with Mehrdad Ghasemfar, the editor-in-chief of "Iran", were arrested by government officials and the newspaper was closed down following the riots. Neyestani and the editor of the paper ended up in solitary confinement in Tehran's Evin prison under conditions the cartoonist described as "Kafkaesque." Three months later, Neyestani was given a temporary prison leave and used it to flee the country with his wife. He finally ended up in exile in France where he published a graphic  novel titled "An Iranian Metamorphosis", about his time in prison. He clarified the use of the word that was interpreted as from the Azerbaijani language as slang in the Persian language and that he did not want to offend anyone with his cartoon.