The Dearborn Cartoonist Closing Out Her Bestselling Huda F Series With a Love Story

Humraha News

The Dearborn-raised cartoonist who turned life as a visibly Muslim woman into a bestselling comic is closing out her Huda F series this month, and she is doing it with a love story.

Humraha News is our weekly spotlight on good news from the Muslim community. A culture of good news, one story at a time.

If you have ever laughed at a four panel comic about an auntie, a hijab pin or a stranger asking "aren't you hot in that," you have probably read Huda Fahmy. The creator of the webcomic and 2018 book Yes, I'm Hot in This grew up in Dearborn, Michigan, studied English at the University of Michigan, taught middle and high school English for eight years, and started drawing her own life after her older sister told her the stories were too good to keep in the family group chat.

On October 20, Dial Books publishes Huda F Would Love You?, the final graphic novel in her Huda F series, which began with Huda F Are You? and followed a teenage Huda through high school in Dearborn. The finale picks up the summer after graduation. Huda assembles what the publisher calls "a butt-kicking girl power squad of new friends" and devises a plan to get the aunties to introduce her to eligible sons. Caught between friends and heart, gender roles and ambitions, she learns that her happily ever after might require changing herself, or changing her expectations.

Reviewers got early copies, and Kirkus gave the book a starred review, writing that Fahmy "excels at treating serious topics with light comedic touch" and praising "a spirited ending worthy of an encore." On September 29, MuslimMatters published a podcast conversation with Fahmy about the story's inspiration, her advice for aspiring Muslim graphic novelists, and the elephant in the room: the titles of each book in the series.

"Fahmy excels at treating serious topics with light comedic touch."Kirkus Reviews, starred review of Huda F Would Love You?

Why this is good news to us: Fahmy has spent eight years proving that a hijabi protagonist can carry a mainstream series on a major publisher's list, and that the funniest version of our lives is also the truest one. She now lives in Houston with her husband Gehad and their children, and still draws the comics that made her famous. The next generation of Muslim kids gets to grow up with a heroine who looks like them, worries like them, and is funny on purpose.

Raising readers at home? Try our guides to raising confident Muslim kids in America and the man building a "Sesame Street" for Muslim kids. And if a cartoonist can put a name on a cover, you can put one on a hoodie: our personalized collection prints their name in Arabic and ships free in the U.S.