“Africa Telling Her Stories By the Voice of Africans”: An Exclusive Interview with Vortex Comics

With the ever increasing number of Black comics being offered to readers, an African publishing company aims to share its culture and create a new generation of readers. Meet Vortex. I had the opportunity to interview Somto Ajuluchukwu, Creative Director and CEO of Vortex Comics, to discuss Black heroes, African culture, and the future of publishing. Black Nerd Problems: Vortex Comics is fairly new to the comics’ space and is joining the wave of media coming out of Nigeria. What was the idea behind creating Vortex, and what kind of stories do you want to tell? Somto: Vortex was born from a deep love of culture and arts; it also originated from a thirst to express African lifestyles and tradition, developing community and expression like an arts company but with the growth and scale potential of a technology company. With our focus on digital arts and animation we have crossed a fine plane between these two worlds. In much simpler terms, I remember waking up at 2:30 am, not as a kid, but as grown man to continue the story of Batman and Robin: “The Wonder Boy,” written by Frank Miller. I was most drawn to the expression of lifestyle and social circles and realized how important media is as a tool for re-branding Africa and exporting our culture, and I realized what this wild imagination I had was meant for. The hurdle was which stories do we tell, and how do we express these stories not just as comic books or cartoons, but as defining milestones in the lives of this young gener…