Habibi is also Thompson’s exploration of Islam. Dodola and Zam’s plight mirrors the lives of a handful of significant biblical characters from both the Quran and the Bible. Thompson does a noble job in showing us how similar are the teachings of Christianity and Islam. There are beautifully drawn dissertations on the meaning and form of Arabic script.

Thompson’s penmanship is superb. Habibi has received much praise – not to mention some hefty endorsements on the cover. Thompson is a master of visual storytelling, and often you feel you are watching animation, such is the flow and pacing of his panels. But while his skill is first-rate, Thompson is not in Tezuka’s league when it comes to balancing storytelling, insight, humour, and horror. Tezuka’s soft porn was pitched perfectly to titillate. But in Habibi, Thompson’s excessive, overt, and violently indulgent depictions of rape, naked women throughout, and heavy doses of suspect ‘Orientalism’ ruin this book. Similarly, the novel’s subtle shift in time, from barbaric ancient times to the present day, is problematic.

Habibi is already being dubbed a towering achievement in the canon of drawn literature, but readers should not let the spellbinding artwork or Thompson’s attempt to create a work of major cultural significance get in the way of making a clear-headed judgement about it. Habibi is a flawed masterpiece.