The world of comic books is dominated by stories from the West. Two South African brothers are helping reshape that narrative with a central character inspired by the iconic hero.



Nelson Mandela had his own following at the recent Comic Con Africa convention at the end of September in Johannesburg.



At the center of all the organized chaos at the event at the
Gallagher Convention Centre attended by 71,000 visitors over four days was a
comic book bearing the late South African president’s name created by brothers
Phemelo, 28, and Omphile Dibodu, 25.



The comic book, Young Nelson, features an African superhero,
for readers in the continent and beyond.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="819" height="1024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/69712219_2127595184208556_1696296882583633920_n-819x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-42302" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/69712219_2127595184208556_1696296882583633920_n-819x1024.jpg 819w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/69712219_2127595184208556_1696296882583633920_n-300x375.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/69712219_2127595184208556_1696296882583633920_n-600x750.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/69712219_2127595184208556_1696296882583633920_n-240x300.jpg 240w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/69712219_2127595184208556_1696296882583633920_n-768x960.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/69712219_2127595184208556_1696296882583633920_n-1229x1536.jpg 1229w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/69712219_2127595184208556_1696296882583633920_n.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 819px) 100vw, 819px" /></figure>



Co-founders of Rainbow Nations Comics, a black-owned comic book and publishing company established in 2018, the Dibodu brothers were born and bred in Rustenburg, known as ‘platinum city’, in South Africa’s North West province. 



Far from their hometown, the duo were in the big city for
the event, showcasing their creations to an adept audience – people dressed as
superheroes, cyborgs and zombies – who crowded around their stand and were as
colorful as the comic books they were thumbing through. 



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“Wow, that looks cool, who is Young Nelson?” asked a curious
bystander.



Phemelo was ready with his answers even as his brother
assisted with more queries.&nbsp; 



“Young Nelson is a proudly South African black comic book inspired by the late Nelson Mandela,” responded Phemelo.



In front of him, on the table, a large poster of Young Nelson, featuring a young black male with the South African flag over his shoulders and a gold-colored map of Africa emblazoned on his shirt.



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This day saw the launch of the very first issue of Young Nelson titled An Act of Kindness, for R20 ($1.3) a copy.



Phemelo, the writer, and Omphile, the illustrator, say they
were inspired by Mandela and some of their own life experiences growing up.



“I think I wanted to pay tribute to the old man in a way
that it would hopefully inspire others to look at him in the way that many
South Africans see him,” says Phemelo to FORBES AFRICA.



In the story, ‘Young Nelson’ gets his nickname when he volunteers at a local boxing gym. The people watching him witness his skills and ability to solve problems, so they equate him to the young Mandela, who was famously a boxer in his youth.



“[The lead character] doesn’t like the nickname at first but
once he sees the significance of it and his heroics, how they are taken up by
the community to represent who they are, he takes the name and rolls with it
and that’s his superhero name going forward with the series,” Phemelo explains.



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Young Nelson’s real name in the comic is actually ‘Thabo Mo
Afrika’, inspired by South African president Thabo Mbeki, who succeeded
Mandela.



“ ‘Mo Afrika’ is a generic surname [which] translated into
English is ‘an African’. So I wanted to see every African seeing themselves in
Young Nelson,” Phemelo adds.



The young writer’s plan is to take his product to bigger markets, but for now, the African comic industry is a tough market to capture for lack of any funding.



“Imagine getting paid for what you are doing. That would [make a] big difference. Once people realize that their art can be compensated, more of us will actually start creating content the world would want to start reading,” he says. 



Bill Masuku, a speaker at the Comic Con event and who is
also a digital artist, shares the same sentiments.



“In Zimbabwe, where I am from, it is pretty grassroots.
Everyone is self-publishing and if you don’t really have a passion for it, the
book won’t come out,” says Masuku, who has been a part of the African comic
industry for over three years. He is the founder of Enigma Comix Africa, and
creator of Razor-Man and Captain South Africa. 



“As much as new creatives are coming out every day, what
really makes the comic book industry is distribution. And seeing that [Young
Nelson] has such widespread potential really makes me hopeful for where we are
going,” says Masuku.



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For comic books to thrive on the continent, they need a big
financial push from publishers, distributors or investors, unlike any other
medium.



The Dibodu brothers were fortunate to have been sponsored by
the Rustenburg Herald, a weekly local newspaper in Rustenburg.



“The problem with creating by yourself is that you can only
create at a certain rate and you do burn out. So you find people who have been
making comics who have three or four issues out and it’s easy to forget about
them as a consumer,” he adds.



Globally, platforms like Weekly Shōnen Jump in Japan make it
easy for Japanese creatives to publish their work as the comic book and manga
industry is thriving there, making it one of the best-selling magazines. Weekly
Shōnen Jump has sold over 7.5 billion copies since 1968.



But the African comic industry has a long way to go.



Kugali, a digital platform founded by three entrepreneurs
and friends from Nigeria and Uganda, is designed to help people find and share
the best African narratives and comics. It is an entertainment company that
focuses on telling stories inspired by Africans, offering much-needed exposure
to young creatives such as Masuku and the Dibodu brothers. For now, the
reception the Dibodus are receiving give them some hope.



“It’s been awesome and inspirational. I didn’t know people
felt the same way as me. It’s amazing when people are [reading] the story of
the character and people are saying ‘you know what, that’s what we need’,” says
Phemelo. At the end of Comic Con, they managed to sell over 300 copies of Young
Nelson.



“People are catching onto the culture. I think it might even
grow bigger than the American industry only because I think we are a very
artistic community… Whether you look at the hieroglyphics in Egypt or the cave
paintings by the bushmen in South Africa, we draw,” he says.



He also plans to sell his comics to local book stores in the country.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="1018" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Young-Nelson-Poster-1024x1018.png" alt="" class="wp-image-42306" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Young-Nelson-Poster-1024x1018.png 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Young-Nelson-Poster-300x298.png 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Young-Nelson-Poster-100x100.png 100w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Young-Nelson-Poster-600x597.png 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Young-Nelson-Poster-150x150.png 150w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Young-Nelson-Poster-768x764.png 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Young-Nelson-Poster-1536x1527.png 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Young-Nelson-Poster-80x80.png 80w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Young-Nelson-Poster.png 1920w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



The team is currently working on their next creation – a
black African female superhero called Imbokodo.



“We are looking for new creators we can partner with and
create our own justice league, our own Avengers, to actually have young kids in
South Africa look at their heroes the same way Americans look at their heroes
in the Comic Cons to come.” 



Young Nelson is a refreshing reminder that not all heroes wear capes.

RNC – Phemelo Dibodu (left) and Omphile Dibodu (right)

Colors For Mandela

Jason Masters is part of the African talent taking the comic book industry by the scruff of the neck.
“Twitter was certainly instrumental in me getting to work with Warren Ellis, one of my all-time favorite writers. Out of the blue, a couple of years back, I decided I’d push my luck and mail him; just to say I was a huge fan and really appreciated his work. That and, of course, I made it abundantly clear that I’d love to work with him in any capacity someday. He was very gracious in the way he batted my email advances away. Warren is always busy, when you’re as prolific as him people are constantly trying to convert his creations into capital, often in a very obtuse form of Hollywood alchemy.”
“So, of course my feelings weren’t hurt, it was the most ridiculous of longshots anyway. Sometime later I had just completed a comic commission for a friend of one of his most notable anarchic creations, Spider Jerusalem. Never one to miss an opportunity I tweeted the picture out tagging him in the post. That re-started the conversation of possibly working together. We chatted a bit via email about what sort of book we might do and then a few days later he sent me an email asking what I thought of James Bond.”
Masters loved James Bond. He thought Warren would be hinting at doing a Bondesque comic book. It turned out that Warren was working with Dynamite Entertainment in the process of launching the first James Bond comic in over 20 years.
“It’s part astonishing that I got to do this, and petrifying. Once the wave of joy that accompanied the idea of being in charge of all the visual aspects of 007 passed, I was left with paralyzing dread. It was a huge responsibility. Never mind just James Bond, but the M, Q or Miss Moneypenny I designed might not fit the narrative that the staunch Bond fans have. Thankfully, it was well received and the work Warren and I did has opened the doors for other Bond books,” says Masters.
The series was launched in 2015 and won acclaim.  The company has also published adaptations of franchises like RoboCop, A Game of Thrones and Sherlock Holmes.
Reinvigorating the secret agent is the biggest gig for Masters’ career.  Not bad for a man who worked as an art director for an advertising agency a few years ago.
“I’m still waiting for a pinch of either glitz or glam to be sprinkled into my life, but I get to draw and tell stories for a living. That’s way better than most,” says Masters.
Many comic fans in South Africa consider Masters a homegrown hero. One of them is Mahdi Abrahams, owner of Readers Den, a comic book store in Cape Town.
“Jason is one of the few South African artists who has landed gigs with international publishers and had the opportunity to work on high profile characters such as James Bond and Batman.”
Abrahams says Masters got his break in the international scene long before his tweet.
“[He] has managed to acquire regular work from big international publishers,” says Mahdi.
Masters is now one of the few Africans to have brought characters to life on paper, like the X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy, Batman and Wolverine.
“There are ridiculous talents in this country, the only thing holding most of them back is actually making product. Not a lot of idealistic young artists realize the amount of work that goes into just doing one 22-page story. It can get discouraging working on something for weeks on end in your own time and not have a completed story to show for it. We need more people to just finish those original stories and share them with the world. Almost 100 percent of the artists I know that have done that have gone on to bigger and better ventures,” says Masters.
Someone who has kept a keen eye on Masters’ work is Moray Rhoda. Known as the godfather of South Africa comic books, this 47-year-old design lecturer has been fighting for more than a quarter of century promoting African talent.
“Jason has grown a lot over the past few years. I think what sets him and Sean Izaakse (another international comic artist) apart is their dedication and love for comics and the craft of creating comics. They aren’t just artists, they are full collaborators when they get involved in projects – they always add to and improve on every script they are given. Jason is definitely an inspiration to anyone who’s ever met him – not just the artists and writers, but to people in general: the passion for his work is infectious,” says Rhoda.
While he may spend his days drawing superheroes that lead extra-ordinary lives, Masters prefers the quieter side of life in Johannesburg. His day starts in a very homely way by making breakfast for his wife and seeing his daughter off to school before being consumed by the world of the fantasy in comic books.
“Honestly, 264 comic book pages later, it’s still quite unreal for me,” says Masters.
The man with a license to draw because of a tweet.

Tag: Comic book

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Colors For Mandela

From Illustrator To International Man Of Mystery