Nigerian comics artist promotes African superheroes

Feb 29, 2016 A Nigerian entrepreneur, Jide Martins, recently took to comics in a bid to tell stories that will impact positively on young Africans.

Martins’ company, Comic Republic, went on to create an ensemble known as “African Avengers”, featuring super-heroes who fight for a better Nigeria.

“The comic industry is lucrative all over the world. Comic sales in major countries sell in billions. It’s actually a billion dollar industry but in Nigeria, it is noble and that is because we didn’t grow up, our parents were not such to bring us into comics but right now, Nigerians are accepting comics, comic characters. You know, the top grossing movies in our cinemas are of comic heroes. Nigerians are increasingly watching series and television programmes that have comic individuals in them.”

Akintoba Kalejaiye the content director of Comic Republic added that apart from entertaining, the superheroes are also meant to educate and inspire young readers.

“There are no proper Africa popular superheroes. There are a myriad of creators but popular African superheroes, we don’t have those and you must understand that in passing our own message across that remains one of the subsets of our goal, of making sure that the African way of life, the African disposition that people outside of Africa and even people within Africa who need to be reminded, will, you know, our message will reach them,”

Victor Ukomadu, a fan of the African comics, said:

“I enjoy reading both African and foreign comic books but I think I enjoy African more because we now have comics like the Guardian Prime which can help improve Nigeria to be a better country,”