Destruction. Animation background without characters, from ‘THE TOWER’ (Dir. Mats Grorud), an animated feature film I art directed. Since its premiere less than a year ago, the film has shown in 85 film festivals and over 200 events. Amongst others, we won the jury prize in Lisbon last month, and the Liv Ullmann Peace Prize in Chicago. 

As TUMBLR is on its way to the grave (nudity and personal expressions here were important for body positivity)... Here are the last news of 2018, and the last ones for a while.

FILM: The Tower, a film I art directed and worked on as author was launched in the Summer, and participated in the international film festivals in Cairo, Busan, Chicago, Annecy, Marrakesh, amongst many others. The film will be shown on Scandinavian television in 2019.

COMICS: I made it public that I won’t be making any more comics. It’s a process that has become way too filled with hassles. I attempted creating a short story for the Norwegian Blokk Forlag, but I ended up pulling out. The experience cemented the feeling that I had moved on from comics. HOWEVER, I’ll continue making stories, and there are two huge stories in the drawer (one of them almost complete) which will possibly never see the light of day. AFRICAN COMICS: In 2019 I’ll be involved in curating an exhibition of African comics in Mozambique, which I’m committed to promoting and helping out with. I’m passionate about Tanzanian comics especially, and there’s enough material there to put together a thick anthology.

THE FUTURE:  I’m working on film scripts together with the director of The Tower, Mats Grorud. We’re forming a production company for our projects. What I enjoy about working in film is that it’s a synergetic thing, where everything needs to be working together, including with others. And there’s the possibility for integrating an audio world, which I  enjoy very much.

Celebrating Lincoln’s birthday today, here’s my work again for The New Yorker, for an article on George Saunder’s new book ‘Lincoln in The Bardo’, which deals with the death of his son Willie, lost in the Tibetan bardo.

“Newspapers of the time reported that Lincoln had returned to the crypt several times to hold his son’s body.”

My new book is out!!!

LANTERNS OF NEDZU is the story with an original musical score which will soon be released on nedzu.com. The score was composed by longtime collaborator, producer and FRIEND: Tiago Correia-Paulo.

The Story OKOYE is a crab wrangler who’s very attached to his fighting crab. One evening, they win the Nedzu crab championship, but on the way home OKOYE becomes fascinated by a riddle he reads on a paper lantern floating down a small stream near Nedzu village. The love riddle leads him meet a young woman named EFE but it angers his fighting crab who abandons them, jealous of the attention it doesn’t earn from OKOYE that evening. After a brief romance, the crab begins impersonating EFE for OKOYE — who believes that the crab is, in fact, EFE. OKOYE will need the help of his allies. You’ll need to read the story to see how that will happen.

A F R I C A N   C O M I C S

I guest-edited this ALL-AFRICAN-COMICS newspaper for KUTI KUTI comics, together with Jonah Sack and Tommi Musturi. An exploration of contemporary African comics with 16 artists from 7 countries. Read it digitally or GET A COPY BEFORE IT’S SOLD OUT  — srsly! — it’s gonna go fast and it won’t come again.

A R T I S T S :

Koffi Roger N’Guessan (Ivory Coast), Mongo Sisé (Democratic Republic of the Congo / DRC), Philip Ndunguru (Tanzania), Jonah Sack (South Africa), Ree Treweek (South Africa), KIF/Luntu Vumazonke (South Africa), Michael Maqungo (South Africa), Sérgio Zimba (Mozambique), Lorcan White (South Africa), Mogorosi Motshumi (South Africa), Jimga Jimoh Ganiyu (Nigeria), Sunday Ngakama & Sanna Hukkanen (Tanzania/Finland), Theophil R. Mnyavanu (Tanzania), Nicko Odinyo (Kenya), Joanne Bloch (South Africa).

Featuring articles by: Sean O’Toole and Christophe Cassiau.

Design: Pauliina Mäkelä. Editor-in-chief: Tommi Musturi. Edited by: Rui Tenreiro and Jonah Sack. Cover design: Sérgio Zimba and Tommi Musturi.

• AUGUST NEWS • My new story is finally done! The first book versions of Lanterns of Nedzu will be in Norwegian and Swedish, out in September. For online orders, the publisher will include an English translation sheet. The story has an original musical score, downloadable from Nedzu.Com, by Tiago Correia-Paulo.