The number of casualties remains unknown is that many women and children were injured. As he is demanding an apology from the u. A. E. Off to the country band female chin is eons from landing in the gulf states and once Airlines Flights were barred from tennessee in response you are right up to date with all our top stories the news continues after the stream more news and often now i will see you very soon. We understand the differences and the similarities of cultures across the world. So many times when you call. Ill just bring you the news and Current Affairs that matter to. Aljazeera. Hi emily could be. Welcome to the stream live on aljazeera and now you to move over marvel theres a slew of african comic book creators showing the world what an african superhero looks like. A major first for marvel the comic book powerhouse is introducing its first ever nigerian superhero the name is and goes the understory is written and created by Award Winning author cora four but as some know marvel is a bit late to the game but the past few years africans have been creating their own comics inspired by the world around them its a trend thats becoming a booming business so how do their stories differ from those told in western comics and why is that so important here to discuss that we have paul movies you lease c. E. O. Of my this monkey and creator of the pack and you say to africa inspired comic books in Lagos Nigeria today martin a comic creator and c. E. O. Of comic republic in cape town south africa so in hes a creator and illustrator of the quezon comic series and in harare zimbabwe Eugene Ramirez hes a multimedia media designer and creator of. Welcome everyone to this day take a look at my laptop here i pulled up lagos comic call dot com youre just back from comiccon in Lagos Nigeria what is the comic scene like in the here you describe it for our audience. You know its very very engaging and very interesting you know since we came in to see about four years ago we had just about two comic houses and at that point in time comical probably of course like the leading comic household right now we have to still like. You know its really interesting that people i mean like the comiccon was full we had a convention which was a comic con that convention was full of people who are now its just crazy it was packed we had fans we had people signing buying stuff we had you know costly competition where we had close to fifteen percent print it was really cool so the vibe is really heavy right now so you of course werent just there as a fan of comics you were also there as a creator pulled up on my screen here this is a guardian pry tell us about your creation what makes this character tick. Mostly because hes a representation of what human beings should be you know i grew up here its like superman for example and i thought you know i used to base most of my decision on what superman do and i thought why dont i create an icon that you know people that my skin and my clothes would appreciate and one that would inspire the world generally which is why these them feet hes only as strong as he believes he is going to be as fast as he believes and most importantly he looks african so its all four of you are comic creators and we want to talk about your work paul weve got some praise for your work here take a look at my screen tweeted in your hansei is a breathtaking experience for the reader instantly immersed within that gorgeous work and storytelling now paul i have to admit this morning i was just getting out reading your comic its just i just got cold and i love preparing for the show thank you can you tell me about the world with your hands what is it that you created you hansei was a bit of. A very quick idea actually like oh ive always loved star wars ever since i was a little boy and that wasnt my original my my original foray into the world actually started with another series called the pack and i did a whole lot of research for that trying to create a mythical african fantasy scape but then afterwards because of that the scope of the project was so large i wondered why i ever get to explore all the other parts of my imagination and theres always a little kid inside me always wanted to be in a spaceship or or fly so i did so one day i decided to make a poster which is the first course of your hansei to see a friend like it and it went viral within minutes and it showed me this is something that we should they should try to do so i buckle down a few months after theyre all whole story for it and she wants out of the first issue dropped and its just been spreading like wildfire people are crazy about it people really enjoy seeing this. Futuristic world that captivates the fantasy that has every every pillar necessary from him for more specifically space opera which is the star wars but more importantly having every detail every element every alien race every club every piece of clothing one hundred percent sourced from african aesthetic sources now thats a very very large undertaking to do that because. Unlike some people of when they try to. They try to envision a futuristic version of africa they look at for the they seem to forget sometimes of fascinating is still has is a most part of many different influences. As a result of postpone wisdom is quite fascinating what theyve done by mixing those influences but if you truly want to have something thats one hundred percent african if you go to the source of africa take those these preclude the civilizations of the golden age of africa you know the then empire of the oil in part of the mandate kingdoms. And newbie and you have to understand what makes them tick aesthetically. To break down what makes these cultures tick to break down what so that inspires your work today which is that were living in this modern age people of course still have interests you know you mentioned and paul mentioned the main characters of your creations and theyre good guys so i want to talk about the villains because that is really everyones favorite character that they love to hate eugene lets talk about villains how do you see them and how are your villains different than ones we might see in the west and western comics in marvel or d. C. Comics. Thats a great question. That ive tried to incorporate in. My comics. And. Example not. Found within the human. Type. Of explored that. You know you need to affix and given them title for example i have a comic book. With a villain is actual. Whole system is embodied in the system which carries out a form of oppression psychologically enormously and you know the way i looked at it it was a way of giving a type of mindset. A figure so that people can challenge it will address it or what kind of things. Overwhelm african. Economic hardship unemployment or whatever and in some cases i do have believe that people on the cover can get to believe in the back morgan and shed. Like to hit that idea and. Metaphor for many things. Neo colonialism for example and why they did not do the things that you see every day so your they will in is a hit man or hit woman who represents colonialism shes a metaphor for it in the same way that both of the characters are women and theyre both metaphor or african countries and countries that might have interests in africa apart from the action and you know the dynamic combat and all of those things. Metaphorical figures that maybe more mature would pick up on the younger readers can get Something Interesting out of it by looking at a. Character design on that. But i guess is that a place and. Then to give them. That or give it to the. Right so i want to get in this conversation lisa youre in south africa i want to ask you about the role of self publishing we got this tweet from colleen media take a look at says why have these comics increased so much and on the african continent media said short answer the internet this generation has the tools to create and self publish comics instead of waiting for big publishers can you talk about how has self publishing revolutionized the industry for you. Well of course when it actually speaks to it its access right so people are able to access you know materialism as you posted on facebook or instagram that was definitely the case for us back in two thousand and fourteen when much rest so im just the comic book crazy. Free comic book day comic convention here in cape town. I think what what was important about it is that the character is nineteen years old hes a city based in johannesburg or gold city as we know it and because of that the point of departure is the fact that hes a cool kid right and hes South African definitely african and has those traits but also lives in the twenty First Century and obviously has those question. We use that that device and and use how he could actually migrate from the comic book to to to social media and exist big and what he started doing was realizing the capacity that we had with the internet the fact that we could reach so many thousands of people and then started obviously engaging celebrities as well so he could he would have engaged clips with celebrities here in south africa that only we would know and understand you dont understand the twenty understand the nuance and then the music and the culture in south africa and that helped us win over the particularly the local demographic here in south africa but as the property grew it was much easier to to today and have people like you know stop communicating with with african create as and start to see what good doing and seeing those parallels as well i think its it is its assisted us in in reidy marketing our work very aggressively and reedy curbing that issue of access to all stories no College South african or african stories as well because i wouldnt you know i and i quickly think something about are there and if you think i dont first of all you finish up after. I had today. You know. The concept of bugs things are really interesting im going to think youre trying to become a public not just objects of playing villains ice people bar also our situations and problems so for example we had a comic book where superhero was trying to fly to the us to solve a problem and then in nigeria and who had been who had migrated and become a us citizen and now superpowers have to stop him and me theyre going to then get a visa visa and so he couldnt come its just its easy to get a visa now very out of some very very real and true to life exactly he wasnt a bad guy who was doing his job. He was doing his job and so that made him a bad guy but comic boy he naturally wasnt a bad guy after their loved one just because they do bad things. That dont exactly work for africa and you know the worst thing is that after this i kind of stories will so it doesnt have to be somebody like the joker or somebody like you know but you know basically things that are so regular africans they actually take a completely different approach and of course the villains. Actually dont write villains or heroes of. Both of my series of packing i prefer using the approach of three dimensional characters where there is. The creator of game of thrones when no one no evil person just wakes up in the morning and says i want to cover the world in darkness and spread my evil many and theres no one who thinks like that anyone who is evil actually does not see themselves as evil they have their own albeit twisted ideology or the reason behind it and the same thing as the heroes too i mean the hero that thinks that hes the best give to the world is probably pretty egotistical and actually ironically my end is actually more in line with what a villain would think than actual hero hero just does what needs to be done and as humans many times we find ourselves in situations that we just have to rise to the occasion we have to overcome that so my character is worse of your hansei do not start off as heroes at all your answer is actually hes a thief and hes completely morally ambiguous and. To his the the other interesting character that you meet right off the bat is the assassin kane oh. My wife cant. Do this actually her so you see that thats actually. The exact opposite personality of cain is i like in your hearts into the personality of him of a monkey love monkey theres animal themselves what they always loved about them is this this this cheeky cleverness they have they know theyre smarter than. But the one in the puppets area so i dont say has the arrogance which is nice like one thing you want to see within a hero but the thing that makes him the entire guinness the source of the protagonist of the of the series is how hes thrust in the middle but through selfishness he starts into the middle of this intergalactic conflict and trying to make through with it now whether or not he will rise to the occasion and overcome Something Like that with. So speaking of characters modeled after people you know so i know that you model the character out of someone you know i want to show a trailer for a series that you made for your character. Everyone take a look. So tell us about the kudos to your branding here and youre so on brand here and letting everyone know about your talents and where he came from. Well i should answer that is do thousand and thirteen ive been thinking about this process project for a while i didnt come up with a name yet but i just knew that i wanted to create as i frickin stupid you know story right and you know all the material has been you know the thinking was there and motivation definitely was there but not the direction really it was only after i asked my younger cousin c. P. A. Shout out to him hes into his big at the moment and he was in the trick at the time that is the twelfth grade. And i often like this generally what would you do if you had superpowers and you know his answer was absolutely amazing into that to get it straight you know it and get as many followers on twitter and get some girls now i think ive got more up if he. Does a little bit swag it was all about being the cool guy it was all selfserving the met was the point of departure for crazy it was to just start up the start of the story as an anti superhero again im speaking to a much Younger Group of people to my comic book i just wanted to to address that the fact that you can you know if you you can be human its ok to start a human but with with you know as you grow and you understand the responsibilities that you have to you cant manage to reel to two you do it you have to pick and you start realizing that theres a lot of play with it and the superhero who are elmo and the no human being realm and dispense that story is that type of story its a story off of becoming if you will right of passage if you will and it ties in very nicely with the type of culture that we have here as well youll notice that crazy has got three companions the nia coy and know how and those are characters that are well theres a new color to the muscle to culture and the quezon culture native to south africa and that also has a very good know it took advantage of the device because i also wanted to. So the big coach is imposing this. Truth and then john edwards it was. Visually speaking you can listen to the speech and section in the internalizing. Change it make it to to a fifteen year old and it does. What im hearing its all of you all are bringing something to the table that wasnt necessarily bare but that said youre going up against powerhouses youre going up against marble youre going up against d. C. Comics take a look at my screen here this is luke cage recently on netflix this is a marvel character africanamerican character based in harlem in new york we also got this tweet referencing another marvel character this is Rafael Griffiths on twitter he says i hope its africans we wont jump on the black panther bandwagon but create an authentic industry like the japanese did with manga so for those of you who arent comic heads marvel introduced the first black superhero the black panther to mainstream comics in one thousand nine hundred nineteen sixty six excuse me his kingdom is well conned and its a futuristic land of tech and its never been invaded by colonialist so take a look at the trailer for this movie coming out next year. Or. Are. Old. Or. Crazy trailer eugene what do you make of it what you make of the depictions of african and africanamerican characters. Well i really appreciate would be. Appreciated. Attempts at depicting african. And i have to you know take my head off that. Theyll all be. Something that i wouldnt then the movie the war with black panther media but i think that a bit of trouble with pick now you know what language you use i invented i mean without it did i have any problem with that and to. Me it was actually soso so there is the other problem that i have a problem with it. I have. No idea if you have. All of them finished i mean im totally impressed you know african acknowledged. That every other country or. Territory have managed to figure out i appreciate one african but. Im terrific and gated and able to manipulate what element that people can because one credit or not go on. Frank but for mental aptitude and i think thats lacking in Mainstream Media a long time however i dont think its a perfect. Example of what an african you know could be or is. For now that of my. Luck that. The biggest problem here i think is the way that they were they went about it though i feel that if youre going to depict a futuristic afro Futurist Society then you have to apply the same rules that you would in creating ause card for instance so they did for thor which is what it was very simply is creating a fictional advance society based off of a nother other preexisting ancient society and making it read on the screen as believable as authentic the problem i have with the black panther is the this ignorance in the west towards what africa is so theyre used to seeing africa in a primitive sort of light so the problem with that is that many people in the west have a hard to fathom in what a futuristic African Society would look like because it was never given a chance to evolve on its own to that point so the problem i have of the black person you see is that yes it looks good to western eyes because i think africa seems off and it seems exotic to them so they have no reason to question the authenticity but when you study african you study the exact same things the. Concept art created because the creators for thor which i want to go the same ones behind the black panther will be disappointed on that is that they set the bar pretty pretty low i mean if you look at the trailer again i mean its also they cherry pick the different parts of africa without actually even creating any any real conceptual work behind it you know in the Film Industry is a whole industry of the conception of c