James C. Lewis's famous Yoruba African Orishas photo shoot.
I love that this was done, especially since most renderings of orixás/loas are either symbolic or totally committed to syncretism with, say, Catholicism. That said, I almost wish that the strangeness of specificity of photography could been channeled into something more purposeful.
The African superhero universe continues to widen with the emergence of a comic book series from South Africa. Kwezi, which means “star” in Xhosa and Zulu, is the brainchild of Loyiso Mkize, a designer and fine artist who got his start in comics as an illustrator for the long-running Supa Strikas soccer series. Mkize describes Kwezi as “a coming of age story about finding one’s heritage.”
Read more at okayplayer, including a link to the first issue.
E.X.O. - The Legend of Wale Williams is a forthcoming graphic novel trilogy centering on a young Nigerian named Wale Williams who returns home to investigate his inventor father’s disappearance in a country overrun with corrupt leaders and robotic exoskeletal drones known as DREDS. Set a decade in the future in the Lagos Island-inspired Lagoon City, part one of the superhero series sees Wale inheriting a Nanosuit which gives him superhuman abilities that he uses to protect the city from The C.R.E.E.D, a radical extremist organization that aims to eradicate Lagoon City’s “myopic government.”
The graphic novel will be released first (this summer). While there are very early plans in motion for the animation, there is no set release date as of yet.
Read more at okayplayer.