One of the things I love to do when I’m not working on JEMBER or HAWI is to talk to other comic creators. I love listening to their journey. Everyone’s path is different so there is always an opportunity to learn something new.
Earlier this year, I met a comic book artist and writer from Zimbabwe by the name of Bill Masuku. I was originally going to write an article reviewing his awesome comic Captain South Africa but decided to interview him instead because I really wanted everyone to get to know him.
Check it out!
Tell us about yourself. Who are you? Your works and how long you’ve been in this industry?
My name is Bill Masuku, I’m a comic book artist and writer from Zimbabwe. I’ve been in the industry since about 2016, grateful to the local event organizers in my home town of Harare for setting up opportunities for new creators to test out their work.
I debuted with ‘Razor-Man‘, a supernatural fantasy that explores a secret southern African society in masks that have been in control of the country for centuries. My more-popular-at-the-moment self published comic is ‘Captain South Africa‘, which is a deconstruction and reinvention of the super-powered genre which asks the question: what does a modern-day superhero look like?
I have a few shorts out, most notably ‘Welcome to Dead World‘ a six-page post-apocalyptic afrofuturistic teaser for a massive anthology I’d like to make one day. As from my own works I have worked in various capacities on other titles. For Kugali’s ‘Nani’ comic, which was serialized weekly on their website, I worked on the inks and lettering. I did the inks and colors for a special preview comic on the ‘Scorpio‘ comic that had a successful #1 launch on Kickstarter (the KS for issue 2 is on now I believe). I worked as a writer on for a Zimbabwean series for the comics ‘Golden Tiger vs Shark Finn‘ as well as ‘Fyr Rush‘.
What were the inspiration behind your stories?
Most of the time I’m filling a gap between what I really like in storytelling, and things that I’d like to see that haven’t before. I love manga but have never seen a Shonen that’s based on African cultures, spirituality or martial arts. I love superhero comics but I had rarely seen the industrialization of said powers.
Sometimes it’s simpler than that and I’m inspired by people I meet. By people’s clothing. By places. By really specific scientific terminology, after getting lost down a Wikipedia black hole of information.
Where were you when you first thought of your ideas?
In general I’m usually in the shower when words turn to ideas, and then ideas into stories. There’s something dis-connective about showering that makes me feel like all the thoughts from the day start to come together and agree on something amazing.
What do you consider to be the biggest obstacles in the African Comic Industry?
Yooo, how much time you got?!
I have had several answers to this, support, sponsorship, partnerships and collaboration. But I think they are all really summed up under the heading “Belief”. No one believes that it can happen. No one believes that Africans can tell stories, let alone their own. Africans don’t even believe in Africans. I have had so many people walk past my tables at conventions and laugh at Captain South Africa, and then pause with a look of sudden shock that there’s a book, and the protagonist is a woman. Talking to other creators their experience is similar. Well before you are asking someone to buy a comic, you are asking to buy into a concept they thought impossible.
One of the reasons I’m grateful for conventions is that it brings together people who are actively seeking out the content and may not know where or what they are looking for.
Worst advice you were given?
“Quit drawing and focus on the writing.” That stung, it still stings. But I need it as a reminder to keep going where there is no road for me.
If you could choose one mentor in the entire comic industry, who would it be and why?
Why are you doing this to me, hahahah!
I was actually battling it out between creators in my head to figure out what to say. Between Brian M Bendis, Jorge Jimmenez, Dan Slott, Eiichro Oda.
The person that I would want to study under and learn their process, their scope and even emulate them better is:
Johnathan Hickman, seriously House of X and Powers of X were beautiful.
How can people find you and your work?
I’ve mostly unified my social media so that you can find me and my art @billmasukuart
I have a website where you can follow me with less noise: billmasuku.com
And just comics exclusively: @enigmacomix and enigmacomix.com
