Spaceboy Nigeria

Abraham Akusu is finally there. At the dire straits plains, where all drivers compete in their 300th race on the circuit. Not many people get this far, and those who do, often don’t live to tell the tale, or simply disappear after the final course, the Pluton Volta. This is why on the Tekkon 800 world tournament circuit, the 300th is usually referred to as ‘The last race’. Abraham drives a junk train, and is the best junk train racer in the near galaxy. He is the only junk train driver to make it to the 300th, competing against craft a lot more advanced than one might like to compare it to. The odds are against him…but he is still in the race.

About fifty years in the future, a Nigerian archaeological team unwittingly triggers a series of events that could bring about the destruction of all life on the planet. There is only one thing that can stop this from happening, the Rio. A highy advanced piece of weaponry that can only be piloted by the first human it interfaces with. In addition to this, a messenger from another alien race, called the Heuriso offer to aid humanity with their advanced science and what little knowledge they have of the Trials that we have unwittingly unleashed on ourselves.

Cue lots of political wrangling, fears, and various intrigues and problems await the hero Joseph as he bears the fate of the world on his shoulders while also keeping tabs on what the American and other countries’ governments are doing.

From L-R: Icon, The Astonishing X-Men, Batman, Spiderman, Superman

This is an opinion piece and does not reflect on anybody else affiliated with Spaceboy Nigeria other than myself, Yegwa Ukpo.  Always wanted to write that.

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a love-hate relationship with superhero comic books. As much as I both dislike and dismiss most of the output of the major publishers – DC, Image Comics and Marvel – I do like titles like Alan Moore’s Tom Strong (ABC Comics via DC/Wildstorm), Grant Morrison’s All-Star Superman (DC Comics) and Brian Michael Bendis’ initial run on Daredevil (Marvel). The superhero comic has the advantage of history and nostalgia. Writers can bring back villains and heroes thought long dead into a story and utilise them in a fresh way (see Jason Todd’s revival as Red Hood in the pages of Batman) or answer questions long asked by fans (why is Iron Man Thor’s equal? Spoiler: He isn’t), but at the same time, so much of what defines a superhero I believe is tied up in the culture in which they arose to prominence. My belief is that Nigeria does not possess the right environment to support the bog-standard superhero.

America as a nation is one with lots of layers and a rich history. What it lacks though is ‘ancient’ history. I am no historian or sociologist, but it does seem to me that as a result of being the ‘new world’ the only option open to America as a nation was to create its myths and legends. We all know by now the exploits of cowboys, heavily romanticised by authors writing fictionalised accounts of heroes and villains. There are also characters like John Henry and John Bunyan? All these one could argue seemed like the predecessors of the modern superhero. Larger than life characters bound to action by a code all of their own.

It also ties in with the notion of the America that most people want to believe exists. That despite the rampant violence, and corruption, there exist people that do believe in the values that America as a nation was founded upon. Of course, we could now go in deeper into how this particular idealistic notion of a superhero has evolved and changed over the decades, but that’s not the purpose of this article of mine.

My issue is with the presence of Nigerian superheroes. There have been a few superheroes here and there. From Powerman and Captain Africa to our more recent Kinetic, Siege and the upcoming Omoboy. I also remember developing a whole slew of homegrown superheroes when I was still in secondary school, but now that I look back, I do not even know where to begin. How are these characters relevant to our society? In America, there are all sorts of reference points from which superheroes can sprout from. They have nuclear and genetic research, conspiracy theories related to aliens, experimentation on humans and secret world rulers. They have advanced technology, secret government funded organisations and Einstein’s brain. How couldn’t a superhero arise from such a cultural soup? In Nigeria, we have oil, rampant corruption throughout all strata of our society, a high level of illiteracy, pollution, secret societies, juju/jazz, spirits, animism and inconsistent folklore and legend with which to work with.

Now, even if all our heroes are magical, we would still need to jump the hurdle of explaining why they wear spandex under our hot sun and what was in it for them fighting crime.

I believe that if we were to follow the American model wholeheartedly, I doubt that we as creators would be able to truly reach a new audience of comic book readers and lovers, nor would we be able to truly explore what it is that makes us unique as a country with our myriad cultures and histories. All we would be doing is telling stories that while interesting and even great, would not necessarily reflect us as a people. Nigeria is a complex society, and we should not be ashamed of exploring the society that we are currently living in. A superhero emerging from a society like Nigeria I believe would be either a child, insane, part of a comedy series, or has another agenda that we are not aware of. That’s my opinion anyway. I guess I could just be a bit jaded or too cynical.

I have a couple of pages from my script for the other title I am personally working on titled Killing Days which I mentioned in this post before.

Have a look and let me know what you all think.

Pages 1 - 2

Pages 3 - 4

Pages 5 - 6

Pages 6 - 7

Just added the page and gallery for Pilot. Do check it out.

I am hoping to have more artwork added to the CELLS: Lagos Underground page and the Black Widow page soon.

I am currently blogging from the 2nd Comic Publishers Forum. We are currently waiting for other people to arrive, but we have Ayo (of Comic Panel), Amadi of Blackhorse Comics (creators of the upcoming Sheba’s Song), and our host for the day, Sewedo. It should be a lot of fun actually, and I was tempted to liveblog it, but changed my mind for two reasons – 1, not sure about how many of you that visit the website would benefit from me liveblogging this, and 2, since I am participating, it would be quite tough to liveblog and discuss/pay attention at the same time.

So once this is over, will do a post about it.

Look forward to it.

The whole crew sans moi

Ok, first things first, the meeting was LOOONG! I got there at about 11.35 or so and left at past 5pm. Much thanks to Sewedo and Ayo Elegba (of Comic Panel Magazine) for hosting and moderating the discussion for the entire duration. Honestly, you guys have energy .

We were at the CORA office on Bode Thomas St. in Surulere and were kindly hosted by Sewedo (whose surname I am sure I will be able to add at some point later), head of Revolution Media. There was quite a sizeable turnout, and I for one met a lot of people that I didn’t know and hadn’t even heard of.

There was Wisdom Omo who just finished printing his company’s debut comic title, Guardian X. I am not sure I can talk about it in any detail yet, so I will just leave it at that. Do look forward to it though!

Peter Amadi who came on behalf of his company, Richard Peters Production. Their own title is still in production and is called Sheba’s Song.

There were also people from House of Treasure (a religious comic publisher) and Prex Limited, the publishers of KABOOM. They were Yemi and Hanson respectively.

Panaramic Entertainment, IC Studios, Crasher Comics, Revolution Media were also represented and Ayodele Arigbabu was also there.

*Gratuitous fan shot ALERT!* Alex Maleev draws Matt Murdock kicking some serious @$$!

Before everybody got there I had a stimulating discussion with Sewedo and Peter about comic book artists and writers. I was extremely chuffed to find someone else who dug Neal Adams, Kelley Jones, Brian Bolland, Joe Quesada, Alex Maleev, Mike Mignola, Moëbius, John Cassaday, Travis Charest, Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Garth Ennis, Warren Ellis and Neil Gaiman and could discuss their work in such an in-depth manner and if for nothing else, the meet was a success for me just because of that!

Fortunately, there was more to it than that. We brought up the problems facing both current and aspiring publishers in the country including the issue of finding skilled, professional artists, the quality of printing, distribution, consistency (both of distribution and of quality), support from sponsors and advertisers, lack of government support and lots of other issues both great and small.

There was a lot of heated debate over issues like whether or not we should be wary about portraying adult content, and how we should go about distribution and drumming up publicity for our nascent industry.

Ayo Elegba also brought up the initiative that he is working on with Ibrahim Ganiyu of IC Studios called UCPN – United Comics People of Nigeria and how we could contribute to it and how it could work.

That also brought up some more debate with some questioning whether it should be part of a potential publishing association we could set up and others advocating for it to be a separate body (like yours truly).

We didn’t just complain and speculate though! We also agreed that those of us with more robust studios (IC Studios and Revolution Media) would have more workshops for aspiring comic artists, with IC Studios about to launch theirs next month, and Revolution Media aiming for the end of April/May, adding a comics program to their Visual Asylum program.

Anyway, I am working on putting the minutes I took into something a bit more presentable and I will probably put that up here as soon as I am done, but I hope that I was able to give you guys an idea of what went down.

The one thing that stuck with me as I left the meeting was how enthusiastic and optimistic everybody is. Despite all the setbacks and disappointments that this country can and indeed does throw at one, the fire to deliver something to entertain, educate and fascinate via unique marriage of words and pictures that is the comic book medium, still burnt brightly in everybody down to a man.

We are hoping to meet again next month and I am looking forward to that. By then, we should be able to make a lot more concrete decisions in terms of moving forward.

If you are a hopeful publisher in the country and want to participate, you can call or sms Ayo on 08039657506, or just send me an email and I will hook you up with Ayo of Comic Panel as well.

Coconut Island

A couple of friends of mine, one of them the creator and artist of Canary Seven, are working on an animated series called Coconut Island here in Lagos. From what I understand, it is going to be a series of short (about 5 minutes) animated clips strung together to make a show. So like Dexter’s Lab, Powerpuff Girls and a lot of Cartoon Network properties.

They have a clip online already, and I have included it below along with the description from their website.

Coconut Island is a fun, happy place where Tuyo and his friends live happily…except whenever Koko the mad economist tries to come up with another insane, money making scheme for the Island. Join them on their adventures as they come to a screen near you soon

Well, fresh off showing you guys the trailer for Coconut Island, here’s a trailer for another upcoming animated project. This one is done in 3D and is called The O Twins. The trailer is below, and you can check out their website here for a little bit more information as it seems it is still under construction.

I have been meaning to post this, but kept forgetting.

Anyway, Comicpanel is having a comic book workshop, aimed at educating people on the hows and the whats of making comic books.

From their press release on their facebook page -

BOOK YOUR SEATS NOW AND GET A DISCOUNT

COMICPANEL PRESENTS A ONE DAY BASIC CERTIFICATE WORKSHOP WITH THE THEME:
TRANSFORM YOUR
IDEAS INTO COMICS.
FOR ILLUSTRATORS, WRITER, DIGITAL COLORIST,GRAPHIC ARTISTS, PUBLISHERS AND PROSPECTS WITH COMIC IDEAS.
DATE: 22ND OF AUGUST
VENUE: EXCELLENCE HOTEL, OGBA
TIME: 8:30AM
FEE: N3000 BEFORE THE 7TH OF AUGUST.
N5000 AFTERWARDS.
(ALL PAYMENTS TO BE MADE IN THE NAME OF MUSTRADSEED COMMUNICATION. GTBANK ACCOUNT 243-222398-110.

BENEFITS INCLUDE: WORKSHOP MANUAL, ATTENDANCE CERTIFICATE, FULL INTERACTIVE AND PRACTICAL LECTURES, EMPLOYMENT

OPPORTUNITIES, AND OPPORTUNITY TO BUY BOTH LOCAL AND FOREIGN COMIC BOOKS AND ALSO MEET WITH CELEBRITIES WHO LOVE

COMIC BOOKS.

You can find out more information on their facebook page.

I am hoping that I will be able to be there myself so if I make it, hope to see you there!