(CNN)"I wasn't born a hero. I had to become one."
The
year is 2025, the prosperous Lagoon City has been overrun by alarming
skeletal drones and corrupt politicians. It bares little resemblance to
the hometown Wale Williams left five years before. But the young
Nigerian has bigger problems -- his estranged but brilliant inventor
father has disappeared. His pursuit of a parent will lead him to a
nanosuit his father built, which provides him with superhuman abilities and a destiny to protect the city he loves.
nanosuit his father built, which provides him with superhuman abilities and a destiny to protect the city he loves.
"E.X.O: The Legend of Wale Williams" is
the fast-paced, afro-futuristic graphic novel from Roye Okupe. A
software and web developer by day and graphic designer by night, the
passionate Nigerian has spent the last several years trying to bring his
dream of a homegrown hero to life.
Okupe
was born and raised in Nigeria but relocated to Washington D.C. at age
17 to study computer science at George Washington College. It was in the
United States -- the home of Marvel and DC Comics -- that the young
creative's passion for cartoons and animations really developed.
"I
grew up on the popular (comics) back home, like Superman, Batman,
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers, and I just fell in love with
the concept of a superhero," Okupe tells CNN. "I've always been drawn
to them and I think the main reason is that there is so much negativity
in our world."
A homegrown hero is born
When
Okupe finished college, he decided it was time to insert more diversity
into the superhero world. By 2012 he founded Youneek Studios and Wale
Williams and his alter-ego "E.X.O." were born.
Okupe
says: "I wanted people from around the world to relate to Wale just the
same way that I grew up relating to Peter Parker and Spiderman --
because he had issues in high school, and he had issues getting girls
while trying to balance superhero powers.
"The
reason we are drawn to superheroes isn't necessary because of the color
of their skin or where they are from but because of their backgrounds,
their motivations and what they fight for. Creating a superhero from
Nigeria, it was very important for me that I didn't just make it where I
would alienate anybody who wasn't from the country."
The
original concept was for an animated cartoon, so he developed a
seven-minute trailer to showcase his work. But after a year of shopping
it to distributors and producers, Okupe was out of luck.
"A
lot of people were afraid about taking a risk with a character that was
from Africa because there was no fanbase to prove that this is going to
work. I had people tell me, 'you have a nice product. You might wanna
change some of the characters around...'
"I
would say 'I respect your opinion but the reason why I do this is I
grew up in Nigeria and I want to give the country a superhero. I don't
want to have to compromise what the vision was to make a quick buck."
A platform for other artists
Refusing
to let this be a nail in the coffin for E.X.O., Okupe decided to change
tack. He turned the animation into a trailer for a graphic novel and
collaborate with artists back home to help him color the world of Lagoon
City and bring the graphic novel to life. He enlisted Ayodele Elegba as editor along with artist Sunkanmi Akinboye, Godwin Akpan (who designed the cover art) and Raphael Kazeem on colors.
"We
have such a wealth of talent who are not getting the exposure they
deserve. Most of the time when you hear news about Nigeria, it's mostly
negative things. I'm trying to show a different side of Africa that
people are not regularly exposed to.
"When
I decided to make E.X.O, I wanted to make a character that was very
intertwined with technology because that is a big thing in Africa. The
tech industry is going through an economic moment -- I really wanted to
shine a light on that and say 'we are doing great things in Africa.
There are tons of people in Africa and it's really time that people pay
attention to Nigeria and Africa as a whole.'"
Several
months on, and the book is almost ready. The team are making final
tweaks to artwork so now Okupe had to find financing for publishing.
Wanting to also show that there could be a huge fan community for a
product like "E.X.O," the resourceful designer decided to crowdfund the project.
"I
had already paid the money for the artwork. All that was left was to
raise money for printing so the goal was to get $3,500 to print 500
books.
"We hit that target in about
two days and for the rest of the Kickstarter campaign we got $10,000. It
was then that I knew this was the right path. Any failure I felt before
-- not getting the animation, getting rejected by so many distributors
and producers, people telling me my idea is not going to work -- it
finally justified the fact I never quit on myself."
The graphic novel is set to be the first in a trilogy with a tentative release date in August.
"I
want that if I put my book beside a Spiderman or a Batman or Superman, I
don't want it to be like 'oh yeah, that one is from Africa.' We can
also do something of great quality and put it out there for the world to
see."
Read the first chapter of "E.X.O: The Legend of Wale Williams" below.
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