YouNeek Studios: Enter the YouNeek YouNiverse
YouNeek Studios, based by Dwayne McDuffie nominee Roye Okupe, includes a YouNiverse of superheroes based mostly on African tales by African creators, influenced by African historical past, mythology, politics, and extra. Darkish Horse Comics is proud to companion with YouNeek Studios to share the YouNeek YouNiverse with a worldwide viewers. Extra particulars right here.
From YouNeek Studios founder Roye Okupe:
“As a creator, I spend a variety of my time reflecting on characters, world-building, plot, enterprise concepts, and many others. However come February, yearly, I do my finest to dive deeper into what I think about a extra significant type of reflection: Black Historical past.
Usually, my reflection begins with the query: what does Black Historical past imply to somebody like me who was born and raised in Nigeria for the primary half of their life after which, for the opposite half, grew up in america? Most of the time, the reply to that query is Legacy and Excellence.
I’m a product of many who got here earlier than me and paved the way in which in order that I can thrive in my craft as a author (Legacy). Due to that, I am motivated each single day of the 12 months by one purpose: to create essentially the most genuine and compelling characters and worlds ever seen in comics through my tales—Iyanu, Malika, E.X.O., WindMaker, and many others.—(Excellence).
With these two tenets, I hope to honor the sacrifice of the real-life superheroes who got here earlier than me.”
Developing subsequent: Iyanu: Youngster of Surprise Quantity 3 will proceed the favored story of Iyanu and her new companions as they attempt to save Yorubaland from an historic curse. Particulars and pre-order information right here.
Iyanu will quickly be an animated collection on HBO Max/Cartoon Community, overseen by Black-owned animation studio LionForge Animation. Extra particulars right here.
Extra YouNeek Studios titles now obtainable:
Malika: Warrior Queen Quantity 1
Roye Okupe, Chima Kalu, Raphael Kazeem, Spoof Animation, Godwin Akpan
Malika: Warrior Queen Quantity 2
Roye Okupe, Sunkanmi Akinboye, Etubi Onucheyo, Toyin “Morby” Ajetunmobi, Spoof Animation
Iyanu: Youngster of Surprise Quantity 1
Roye Okupe, Godwin Akpan
Iyanu: Youngster of Surprise Quantity 2
Roye Okupe, Godwin Akpan
*Winner of the 2022 Nommo Award for Finest Graphic Novel*
E.X.O.: The Legend of Wale Williams Quantity 1
Roye Okupe, Sunkanmi Akinboye, Raphael Kazeem, Godwin Akpan
E.X.O.: The Legend of Wale Williams Quantity 2
Roye Okupe, Sunkanmi Akinboye, Etubi Onucheyo, Tarella Pablo, Spoof Animation, Godwin Akpan
WindMaker Quantity 1
Roye Okupe, Sunkanmi Akinboye, Toyin “Morby” Ajetunmobi, Godwin Akpan
WindMaker Quantity 2, arriving March 2023
Roye Okupe, Sunkanmi Akinboye, Toyin “Morby” Ajetunmobi, Spoof Animation
All YouNeek books are advised for ages 12-14 and up.
Discover a full studying information to the YouNeek YouNiverse of associated titles right here!
Extra Advisable Studying
Adora and the Distance
Marc Bernardin, Ariela Kristantina, Bryan Valenza, Bernardo Brice
Winner of the Dwayne McDuffie Award for Range in Comics!
Adora and the Distance is a younger grownup fantasy graphic novel following the epic adventures of Adora, a courageous younger Black girl who lives in a fantastical world with underground pirates, ghosts, and a mysterious pressure known as “the Distance” which threatens to destroy it all–and solely Adora can cease it.
Written by Marc Bernardin, the award-winning tv author/producer on Star Trek: Picard, Crucial Position: The Legend of Vox Machina, Masters of the Universe: Revelations, Citadel Rock, and extra; illustrated by Ariela Kristantina (Mata Hari). Initially launched digitally on ComiXology Originals and now obtainable in print from Darkish Horse Books.
The story is a tribute to Bernardin’s personal daughter and her journey with autism. He needed to jot down a narrative that anybody might get pleasure from, and in addition: “I did not wish to inform a narrative about these of us who love their autistic buddies or members of the family. As a substitute, I needed to attempt to think about the story a kind of youngsters could possibly be telling about themselves, concerning the adventures they’re taking inside their very own thoughts.”
“It is a quest story, before everything… it is simply that the terrain our characters are traversing has fairly a bit happening underneath the floor.” –Bernardin
Obtainable now wherever books and comics are bought, Adora and the Distance is really useful for ages 14+.
Tephlon Funk!
Stephane Metayer, Nicolas Protected, David Tako
Stephane Metayer groups up with Darkish Horse Books to convey his well-liked self-published comedian, Tephlon Funk!, to comedian outlets! With artwork by David Tako and Nicolas Protected, this coming-of-age story masterfully weaves collectively inspiration from 90s NYC road tradition, anime, and hip-hop.
For the reason that loss of life of her mother and father, 14-year-old Inez Jozlyn cannot catch a break. Nonetheless, she’s decided to make a greater life for herself. After Gabriel, a mysterious classmate helps her out of a troublesome spot, she finds herself in the course of a drug battle. Alongside together with her unusual new good friend, Inez will work with a younger feminine cop with a robust sense of justice and a sword-wielding bartender to assist cease the brand new drug from spreading all through New York.
“Tephlon Funk isn’t simply well-liked, it’s dope.”–Complicated
LaGuardia
By Nnedi Okorafor, Tana Ford, Sal Cipriano
Hugo and Eisner Award-Winner
“LaGuardia is exclusive, playful, heartbreaking, empowering and stuffed with hope for the longer term. The knowledge Okorafor imparts in every panel pushes again in opposition to the darkest urges of our human nature and creates an area that lets us all reside.”
—John Jennings (The Blacker the Ink, Octavia Butler’s Kindred graphic novel)
Written by Nnedi Okorafor, Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy Award winner (Who Fears Loss of life, Binti, Akata) and illustrated by Tana Ford (Silk, Duck!), with colours by Sal Cipriano, LaGuardia received the 2020 Eisner Award for Finest Graphic Album – Reprint, and the Hugo Award for Finest Graphic Story or Comedian.
In 2022, Darkish Horse and Berger Books current a brand new Deluxe Version celebrating this award-winning comedian, full of extras together with a chapter of Dr. Okorafor’s script, a brand new cowl and never-before-seen artwork from Ford, an intensive course of artwork part, and extra. LaGuardia can be obtainable in an ordinary paperback version.
Set in another world the place aliens have come to Earth and built-in with society, LaGuardia revolves round a pregnant Nigerian-American physician, Future Nwafor Chukwuebuka, who has simply returned to NYC underneath mysterious situations through LaGuardia Worldwide and Interstellar Airport.
There, she and her sentient, plant-based alien good friend grow to be a part of a rising inhabitants of principally African and shape-shifting alien immigrants, battling in opposition to interrogation, discrimination and journey bans, as they attempt to make it in a brand new land. Because the start of her youngster nears, Future begins to alter. What secret is she hiding?
LaGuardia is recommended for ages 16+.
Incognegro: A Graphic Thriller and
Incognegro: Renaissance
Mat Johnson, Warren Pleece
“A gifted author of each fiction and inventive non-fiction, Johnson’s publications have established him as an essential new voice within the African-American custom.” —Walter Mosley
A part of editor Karen Berger’s imprint at Darkish Horse, Berger Books, Darkish Horse presents a tenth anniversary version (2018) of Mat Johnson and Warren Pleece’s excellent unique graphic novel Incognegro: A Graphic Thriller. That is adopted by an unique prequel collection, Incognegro: Renaissance.
Incognegro: A Graphic Thriller follows Zane Pinchback, a reporter despatched to analyze the arrest of his personal brother, charged with the brutal homicide of a white girl in Mississippi. With a lynch mob already swarming, Zane, whose pores and skin coloration is mild sufficient that he can cross for white, should keep “incognegro” lengthy sufficient to uncover the reality behind the homicide to save lots of his brother and himself.
Suspenseful, unsettling and related, Incognegro is a tense graphic novel of shifting identities, forbidden passions, and secrets and techniques that run far deeper than pores and skin coloration. Steered for ages 14+.
Within the prequel collection, Incognegro: Renaissance, a Black author is discovered useless at a scandalous interracial celebration in Nineteen Twenties New York and Harlem’s cub reporter Zane Pinchback is the one one decided to unravel the homicide. Zane should go “incognegro” for the primary time–using his mild look to cross as a white man–to discover the true killer.
A page-turning thriller of racial divide, Incognegro: Renaissance explores segregation, secrets and techniques, and self-image as our race-bending protagonist penetrates a world the place he feels stranger than ever earlier than.
Incognegro: Renaissance is recommended for ages 18+.
Crema
Johnnie Christmas, Dante Luiz, Ryan Ferrier, Atla Hrafney
“This ebook is a love letter to like swathed within the richest taste possible. And one which enchants and haunts you with the style of espresso throughout it.” –Comedian Watch
#1 New York Instances bestselling cartoonist Johnnie Christmas and Prism Award-nominee Dante Luiz current a haunted story of affection, ghosts, and occasional beans. The ComiXology Authentic digital graphic novel Crema is now obtainable in print for the primary time, really useful for ages 16+.
Esme, a barista, feels invisible, like a ghost. When Esme drinks an excessive amount of espresso, she truly sees ghosts. Yara, the elegant inheritor to a espresso plantation, is all the time seen, however solely has eyes for Esme. Their world is turned the other way up when the ghost of an old-world nobleman begs Esme to take his letter from New York Metropolis to a haunted espresso farm in Brazil, to reunite him together with his misplaced love of a century in the past, bringing sinister tidings of unrequited love.
The story touches on the advanced relationships between agriculture and business, American-Brazilian commerce, and impartial and company businesses–told by the connection of Esme, Yara, and occasional. As Christmas says, “The one approach to a much less haunted future is to make peace with the ghosts of the previous.”
“I am buzzing with pleasure that Crema is coming to print on this fantastic new version,” says Christmas. “I can not wait to lastly maintain it in my hand, with an Americano within the different (ample crema after all). Two darkish, candy treats to lift the spirit and heat the center.”
Delver Volumes 1 and a pair of
MK Reed, C. Spike Trotman, Clive Hawken
From Iron Circus Comics founder C. Spike Trotman and Eisner-nominated author MK Reed, illustrated by Clive Hawken, Delver is an unique action-adventure story. First offered digitally as a part of ComiXology Originals, now Delver is collected in paperback volumes, obtainable wherever comics and books are bought. Advisable for ages 12+.
When the door to a residing dungeon surfaces within the tiny hamlet of Oddgoat, village lady Temerity Aster has two decisions: abandon the one house she’s ever recognized to carpet baggers and sellswords, or carve out a spot for herself and her household within the new and harmful world of delving.
Co-writer Trotman says, “[Delver is] a fantasy journey for people who cherished Terry Pratchett’s self-described unimaginative’ method to world-building; an insistence on asking questions, wating to know why and the way issues labored the way in which they did. In my case, Delver is my reply to ‘The place are all these deserted, treasure-laden dungeons coming from, anyway? And what occurs if you unload all that loot within the tiny hamlet down the street?’ It is for followers of Crucial Position, Ursula Ok. LeGuin novels, and The Journey Zone.”
Delver Quantity 2 is now obtainable at comedian outlets, and can arrive at bookstores/wherever books are bought in March 2023!
