We love comics and graphic novel here at Catalyst! One of our earliest releases was Shaka Rising, a graphic novel exploring the life of a legendary Zulu king. We followed that up with a sequel—King Shaka—and a historical graphic novel in translation, Madame Livingstone. 2022 brings another, this time a graphic history, All RIse. That’s why we couldn’t be more excited for this #ReadingAfrica Week Comics/Graphic Novels panel.
This event featured a great group of artists, writers, and translators, and most importantly, they are all people who love the medium:
Bill Masuku (author/illustrator Captain South Africa), Ivanka Hahnenberger (translator Madame Livingstone), Richard Conyngham (author All Rise: Resistance and Rebellion in South Africa), and Salim Busuru (Creative Director of Avandu Studio), moderated by KaDi Yao Tay, founder and editor of Squid Magazine.
Here’s more info about the panelists, and where you can support their work. Also check out our list on Bookshop.org, which features more great illustrated stories!
Bill Masuku
Bill Masuku is an African comic book artist and writer born in Harare, Zimbabwe. He is the creator of comic books Razor-Man, Welcome to Dead World, and Captain South Africa. In the urban fantasy genre, he is the author of the Misfortunism series. His artwork has appeared in galleries around southern Africa and he has been a guest speaker at events such as MCM London Comic Con, FanCon Cape Town, Comic Con Africa, and Harare Literature Festival. Bill is the founder of Enigma Comix Africa (a Zimbabwean comics publisher) and is currently a story artist for Kugali Media.
Ivanka Hahnenberger
Translator Ivanka Hahnenberger is a Franco-American citizen who has led an international career in business management, finance, film, television and digital production. In 2007 she bought a brand licensing company VIP which she transformed into VIP BRANDS, a comics agency, translation and consulting company. As an agency they represent world English rights for German, French and African comics publishers. As a consultancy they organize world comics events. Hahnenberger translates comics and much more from French and German into English. She has translated Blue is the Warmest Colour by Julie Maroh, An Olympic Dream by Reinhard Kleist, and Catherine’s War by Julia Billet, illustrated by Claire Fauvel, which was named a Batchelder Award Honor Book, amongst other books, including our recent release Madame Livingstone, written by Christophe Cassiau-Haurie and illustrated by Barly Baruti.
Richard Conyngham
Richard Conyngham is the author, creative director and researcher behind All Rise: Resistance and Rebellion in South Africa. He is a Pietermaritzburg-born writer who lives in Mexico City. After graduating from the universities of Cape Town and Cambridge, he worked for South African civil-society organizations Equal Education, The Bookery, and Ndifuna Ukwazi, the London publisher Slightly Foxed, and the edtech organization MakeTomorrow. In 2016, Richard collaborated with the Trantraal Brothers to create Safety, Justice and People’s Power, an illustrated companion to the O’Regan-Pikoli Commission of Inquiry into policing in Khayelitsha.
Salim Busuru
Salim Busuru is a digital artist based in Nairobi, Kenya, with a focus on illustration, animation, and games design. He is a founding member and Creative Director of Avandu Studio in Nairobi, a collective of comic artists and illustrators in Kenya telling African narratives through visual art. Avandu is the creative studio behind the comics Rovik, Beasts from Venus, and Dunamis.
KaDi Yao Tay
KaDi Yao Tay is a culture writer and the co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of Squid Mag, a news site for all things comics, animation, video games, and digital art in Africa. He is involved in the Accra Animation Film Festival and writes for a number of local youth culture sites in Ghana.
