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The recently concluded Nairobi Comic Con hosted the 4th preliminaries of the Annecy Animation du Monde for the second year running. The East Africa region produced another round of great animation talent for the continental finals at Animation du Monde 2020 at DISCOP Johannesburg in November. Out of 10 shortlisted projects (from Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Ghana), the 3 below made it
Kofi Ofosu, aka Braku Star, is a freelance character designer and concept artist from Ghana. Other than designing characters, Kofi loves to imagine and build worlds. Kofi is one of the artists who worked on the award-winning Lake of Tears along with Alfred Achiampong and Setor Fiadzigbey. Kofi has an IP in the works called
Simangaliso Sibaya Simanga is a freelance concept artist and character designer from Soweto, South Africa. He studied at The Animation School, South Africa. Simangaliso Sibaya together with Ntsako Terence Tako Maluleke, Tomoya Imai and Peter Ramsey led a drawing workshop at the Isivivana Centre during Cape Town International Animation Festival 2019. From a profile on
A fascinating but tiresome reaction we get at Squid Mag when we introduce people to animation from Africa is often utter shock and disbelief that there are people on the continent actively telling stories through the medium. The inaugural Accra Animation Film Festival, which held at Basecamp Initiative from July 27 – August 2, 2019,
The Nairobi Comic-Con 2019 kicked off last weekend at the Sarit Centre in Nairobi, Kenya. While we couldn’t be there, the photos and videos from the official NAICCON channels provide us with loads of thrills and feels we can’t enjoy alone. Nairobi Comic-Con has successfully held six events, with over 6000 enthusiastic artists, illustrators, comic
Malcolm Carter Wopé is a freelance concept artist, illustrator, art director and 2D animator based in Cape Town, South Africa. Malcolm boasts an impressive portfolio that runs across animation, indie video games and comics. Wopé is currently the lead artist responsible for the design direction of the upcoming Netflix animated series, Mama K’s Super 4.
Venus Bambisa is a freelance illustrator, concept artist, graphic designer and motion graphic animator from South Africa. Her character designs are from another planet and include some of the coolest elements of sci-fi and fantasy. You can see her influence on Kolanut Productions’ Red Origins comic on which she was tasked with character designs, illustrations
The first edition of the Accra Animation Film Festival (AAFFia) recently wrapped after shining a spotlight on African animation as well as hosting the third leg of the Pan-African Animation du Monde preliminary rounds. With each passing round of the competition, creators and animators have delivered higher and higher quality work, and yet only three will progress to the
We’re starting off Bahari Blue with the incredible character designs of Ghanaian illustrator Alfred Achiampong. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, Alfred’s character designs are a world library. His soothing pastel colours, clean lines and funky characters – original and fan art – are a delight to behold. Enjoy. See more of
Picture this, a fully accessible database of comics, video games, animation, studios, geek events and much more from Africa right at your fingertips for free! That’s what we’re building over at database.squidmag.ink. Codenamed “Project Bahari”, the database is us essentially picking up where the Kugali database left off. Bahari is Swahili for the ocean, and
