Distorted (The Nemesis) was one tiring long journey that has taken courage, determination and persistence. The art of writing and drawing have always been more of an hobby than a profession for me. I am a lawyer by training, but by passion a writer and artist. l started writing the script for the comic book- Distorted during my fourth year on campus.
I see myself as a child of two worlds--the literary world of books and the artistic world of comics. My role models when it comes to fiction include- Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Wole Soyinka and Ted Dekker while in the world of comics, 'Marvel Comics' remain my favourite; their graphics and concepts are inspiring. Spiderman happens to be the 'Marvel hero' that fascinates me the most. I cannot forget Peter Parker's (Spiderman) favourite statement- with great power comes great responsibility. That's deep!
Being nurtured by these two worlds of art, I did not have it in mind to produce a comic book for children even though comics in the Nigerian environment is mostly associated with children. My idea was to blend the two worlds of fiction and art together so perfectly; and to use the product as a tool to transmit the right values to shape the mindset of the society.
The title 'Distorted' means- life is one distorted puzzle without the god factor. I wanted to make a comic book any youth or adult could read and learn from. That was how the journey of Distorted began. After I finished writing the script of the first edition of the comic book, I gave it to the pastor of my local church who was youth-friendly. He went through it, loved the story and encouraged me to take a step further by taking it to the press. The maiden edition of the comic book titled- Distorted (The Genesis) went to the press afterwards. The comic was well accepted, attracting rave reviews. However, it was not much of a success in terms of distribution and sales. One of the reasons being that the quality of the print was not good enough due to insufficient fund. Also, I did not take time to study the industry and understand how it worked. I was just a greenhorn who wanted to get my work out there. I learnt my lessons.
It took another challenging five years to get the second edition of the comic published. You would wonder why? I'd been pre-occupied with my legal practice and lost touch with fine art to some extent, so I had to engage the services an illustrator. I'm more of a writer now. The search for an illustrator back then was consider tiring, perhaps because comics is not common in this environment. It took years before I got one who gave me what I wanted in terms of professionalism. I actually had the comic redrawn four times by four different persons before I got what I wanted. I also had the cover page redrawn several times too. I've actually lost count of that.
Apart from the challenge of funding, I had to contend with another challenge, which was that of getting a publisher. The first publisher I approached rejected my work on the ground that comics were for children and a comic book for youths and adults was alien to the Nigerian environment.
After much persistent search, though I was tempted to give up at some point, I came across Magic Wand Publishing, an innovative publishing house with a broad view to literary works. They were able to see through my vision and considered it a novel idea. We entered into an agreement that gave birth to the second edition of the comic.
Distorted (The Nemesis) is set to redefine the face of comic book in Nigeria and beyond. Though not without challenges which at every point in time stares me in the eyes, I believe every challenge is a stepping stone to greater heights of excellence.
The comic Distorted is distributed across Nigeria by Magazine Circulation Nigeria Ltd, and available in major book stores. Every year, the Garden City Literary Festival has writing workshops for budding writers.
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