Marvel and DC Comics are all about cinematic universes, but in portraying the real world comics tend to be more geographically constrained. (Seriously, New York, stop hogging heroes.) Thankfully, startups are stepping up. Across Africa, artists and writers are creating heroes who speak to their own experience.
Take Comic Republic1, based in Lagos, Nigeria2, which has made waves with its Guardian Prime series, about an African superhero. The Pack, by Caribbean-born illustrator Paul Louise-Julie, takes inspiration from Egyptian history. South Africa's Kwezi, created by Loyiso Mkize, is a millennial hero who spends as much time tweeting as saving the day. And Supa Strikas, a football series also from South Africa, prints 1.4m copies in 16 countries, and is also an animated series.
The reasons for the new boom are two-fold: firstly, the mainstream comic industry's lack of diversity. Representation has improved in recent years, but it's still limited - and hasn't converted onto the big screen3. And secondly, social media combined with crowdfunding has made it easy to reach fans around the world. For example: when artist Roye Okupe wants to fund a new episode of his Afrofuturist graphic novel E.X.O., he does it on Kickstarter. And with a continent of stories to be told and an audience to match, traditional publishers might want to take note.
\1. The Pack by Paul Louise-Julie \2. Kwezi by Loyiso Mkize \3. Dungeon Quest by Joe Daly \4. E.X.O. - Part One by Roye Okupe \5. Guardian Prime by Comic Republic
"There was the need to create superheroes that look like people I see around, everyday people, Africans like me," says Comic Republic founder Jide Martin
Lagos holds its own annual Comic-Con; Kenya held its first NAICCON in 2015
Black Panther, introduced in Captain America: Civil War, will finally get a standalone film in 2017
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
