The aim of Velocity is to promote South African and Australian artists and writers and to show the world that we have an abundance of local talent that is on an international scale. The book is published by Moray Rhoda (SA) and Neville Howard (Oz) and they launched issue 1 at Grahamstown Arts Festival 2011. The book was well-received and they hope to  build on that by producing two books a year in future.

Cover art by Daniël Hugo - a SA exclusive.

Issue 2 features art by a host of great artists but on the SA side including Daniël Hugo, Keda Gomes, Ray Cassiem, Malcolm Wope and Lynton Levengood.

The project is completely self-funded and it’s more a matter of building exposure than massive sales. The comic is available at specialty comic shops Reader’s Den and Outer Limits, also at Clarke’s Books, online comic store Dark Carnival and can also be bought from our website www.gaining-velocity.com

Cover by Daniël Hugo is a SA exclusive.

Only students with some degree of drawing ability will be selected to be part of this FREE CARTOONING WORKSHOP because we are focusing on the process of cartooning. We will select 20 students through a ten day practical journey of self discovery where they will learn to unlock their story telling brain through practicing the methods taught in this workshop. Students will learn to use your sketch books and pens as tools for self expression. Throughout each exercise students will learn, though self discovery, the balance between pictures & words. This workshop is for the student/practicing creative who wants to learn the language of cartooning and its process.

Students will do various exercises leading up to a final 4 page comic which students will create the opportunity of publishing a workshop special edition comic zine. The comic will be put together with the help of students and launched at the end of the workshop at the exhibition. Students will also have the opportunity to exhibit their work from the workshop at Greatmore studios gallery. Details to be announced

Duration: 10 days
Workshop date: 14-25 May 2012
Time:10:00-14:00
Where: Greatmore Studios, Cape Town
Cost: Free
Deadline for entry: 9th May 2012

Email Greatmore no more than ten black n white drawings showcasing your cartooning work. Please make sure your attachment is no larger than 5mb. Accompany this with a motivational letter explaining why you want to take part in this cartooning workshop.
Email: info@greatmoreart.org or more info call: +27(0)21 447 9699

Click to see more preview artwork.

External Links:

Novels:
Zoo City (2010)
Moxyland (2008)

Comics:
All The Pretty Ponies, Strange Adventures, #1 Vertigo, 2011
Fairest: The Hidden Kingdom (Fables spin-off), Vertigo, September 2012

TV/Film:
Glitterboys & Ganglands (Director, documentary with SeaMonster and Okuhle 2011)
Mouk (contract writer Millimages 2011)
Florrie’s Dragons (contract writer, Wish Films for Disney UK, 2011)
Z-News Pilot (Writer, Both Worlds & Clockwork Zoo 2010)
The South African Story with Desmond Tutu (writer Clockwork Zoo 2011)
URBO: The Adventures of Pax Afrika (Head writer 2006-2009 SABC3)

Awards:

• Zoo City won the 2011 Arthur C Clarke Award and the 2010 Kitschies Red Tentacle. It’s been short-listed for the World Fantasy Award,  Best Novel for the British Science Fiction Association awards, the University of Johannesburg Prize and the M-Net Literary Awards and long-listed for the Dublin IMPACC Award and the Sunday Times Fiction Prize.
• Moxyland was long-listed for the Sunday Times prize 2009
• Maverick: Extraordinary Women From South Africa’s Past was long-listed for the Alan Paton award 2006
• Named one of the Mail & Guardian’s Top 200 Young South Africans and featured in the M&G’s Book of Women
• BookSA Author of the Year 2010

External Links:
Website: www.laurenbeukes.com
Twitter: @laurenbeukes
Blog: http://laurenbeukes.bookslive.co.za/blog
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2310410/

News:
Willingham Picks The Fairest for Fables Spin-Off  – Comic Book Resources
DC Blog: Shelly Bong on Fairest
Strange Adventures Q&A on the DC Blog

Click on the images below to purchase the books.

I studied Graphic Design at NNMU. My work as an illustrator started shortly afterward as a restaurant chalkboard illustrator. Thereafter I started illustrating features for local newspapers and then national magazines. I worked at a post production company as an animation appy for 2 years without pay to prove my dedication to no-one in particular. I then worked for a comic book company doing pencils inks and coloring. After these 2 stints I started freelancing for Ad agencies around 2004.

My work has been published in most major national magazines, a fair number of international ones, appeared on TV, billboards, all over the web, record stands and anywhere you could imagine a picture appearing including the back of a toilet door.

I love what I do.

External Links:
Website
Blog

We believe that this story, could help bridge the divide between people. At its core, it speaks to humanity’s common source and our interconnectedness to the cosmos, nature, each other and ourselves. It is a reservoir of profound ancient African knowledge and wisdom, that, had we not intervened, would’ve vanished into obscurity.

Indaba, My Children, was written by Credo Mutwa, the High Witchdoctor of the Zulus in 1964. He belongs to an ancient chain of knowledge-keepers whose duty it is to pass the profound knowledge of the ancestors down to their firstborn son. When his son was murdered, and thus the link in the chain of knowledge had been broken, he was determined not to let this profound ancient wisdom die with him, and so he wrote Indaba, My Children. In so doing, he broke his sacred oath and betrayed his lineage, becoming a traitor to his people.

Indaba, My Children, like its author, has long since vanished into obscurity, yet has been hailed as one of the top ten most iconic African Books ever written.

ABOUT US

Mark McKeown was born in Pietermaritzburg in 1981. From an early age, he has always been passionate about storytelling; African Myth, Legend and Lore being the source of his inspiration. He has a Diploma in Entertainment Technology and a Degree in Motion Picture Medium. He has written and directed a number of plays, short films and features. He has also built stage sets for amateur and professional theatre productions, the most notable being The Train Driver and The Bird Watchers, both written and directed by Athol Fugard. He has however, always aspired to be a writer and director of comic art. It was only recently that he began work on the adaptation of the iconic African book – Indaba, My Children, into a Graphic Novel Trilogy. An undertaking which in total has taken him seven years to achieve.

Andre Human, the comic artist, was the final piece in this puzzle. He was born in George in 1987, and from a young age, has always had aspirations to be a comic artist. Andre possesses an unique insight and skill that has made him a highly sought-after illustrator in the industry. He has a Diploma in Graphic Design, and has worked as a conceptual artist and storyboarder on many Hollywood films – Judge Dredd 3D, The Scorpion King 3 and The Last House On The Left, to name but a few. With dramatic and vivid detail, Andre has painstakingly brought MA, its ancient world, and its larger-than life characters back to life. There is no doubt that Andre’s artistry and flare, rivals even the most accomplished of comic artists at work in the world today.

Mark and Andre are both based in Cape Town, and work from their abandoned-psyche-ward-cum-comic-studio. They have been working on MA, the first of three Graphic Novels in The Tree Of Life Trilogy, since March 2011.

MA is expected to hit the shelves in June 2012.

External Links:

Facebook

From the Golden Age of Comics to present day, there have been many reprint and original comic books produced in South Africa. This blog is a useful online resource for collectors worldwide

About creator of the site, George van der Riet:
I have 30 years experience in collecting. My main interest is Superhero Comic Books. I wrote articles for Comics News & Comix Collector (South African fanzines) in the 1990′s. I trained as a Medical Doctor at Stellenbosch, and work as a General Practitioner.

Submissions welcome!

Website:

South African Comic Books

We will move into the following Sunday with a braai starting at around 2pm

Entry places are still available- call Nadia on 072 241 0001

First prize – R1000.00 + DIGITAL & PRINTED COPY OF THEIR COMIC FOR A PUBLISHER

Second prize – R600.00

Third prize – R400.00
GEP comics:
http://www.gep-comic.com/v1/?cat=4

Facebook: Centre for Comic Illustration and Book art:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Centre-for-Comic-Illustrative-and-Book-Arts/73653742247

CCIBA:
http://www.cciba.sun.ac.za/

VANSA
http://www.vansa.co.za/regions/western-cape/news/24-hour-comics-day-at-hoodwinx-creative-space-in-woodstock

I fondly remember my first humble contribution being published in Andy Mason’s Mamba Comix. Shortly thereafter l continued to self-publish my work after churning out piles of self-depreciation under the title ‘Sick Comix Mini theatre’ – which I continue to use to this day.
I then attended Durban University of Technology in the hopes of pursuing a career in Graphic Design, leaving two years later, for The Centre for Fine Art, Animation and Design which allowed me to concentrate on my stronger areas – such as cartooning and the practical, hands on side of the arts; graduating at the end of 2010 with The Platinum Award for Comic Book Artist of The Year, The Gold Award for Illustrator of the Year and The Award for Cartoonist of the Year.

I have illustrated for Mahala online as well as their print publication and, in recent months co-edited and been a regular contributor in the comic book ‘Free Beer’, alongside good friend and fellow cartoonist Warren Raysdorf.
The best part of it all is I draw pictures for a living.

Published Works
Mamba Comix #2 – ‘Sick Comix presents Deadly Cartoons’ p.12-15
Mamba Comix #3 – ‘Little Oinker Boy’ p.63
‘Amnesia’ p.64
‘Biff and Rick’ p.65
‘The Pigs That Loved the Mud’ p.66
‘Why is Everything Unfair?’ p.67
Mamba Comix #4 – ‘Figlio di Gotta’ p.38 & 39
Mamba Comix #5 – ‘Sketchbook pages’ p.4
All Published by Artworks Communications, editor Andy mason

Mahala #3 – ‘Amy’ p.78 & 79
Published and edited by Andy Davis

Free beer #1 – Cover Art
‘Flop’ p.2
‘Black Diamonds in the Rough’ p.4 & 5
Free Beer #2 – ‘The Kaya’ p.1
‘The Pub’ p.2, 3 & 5
‘So, You Wanna Make Out?’ p.9
Back Cover Art
Free beer #3 – ‘The legend of the Creepster’ p.2
‘Creepola’ p.8 & 9
Free Beer #4 – ‘ Stick to Comics, the Money Will Come’ p.1
‘Adult Dependent’ p.2 – 5
‘Randolph’ p.9
Free Beer #5 – ‘Parked In’ p.3
‘The Continuance of Reposition’ p.6 – 9
Free Beer #6 – Intoduction Page
‘Screw Love’ p. 3
‘Urine Trouble’ – p.7 -9 (with Luke Molver)
‘Randolph’ – p.12
‘Pipe Dreams with Roger Young’ p.19 (with Warren Raysdorf)
‘Visitations’ p.23
Published by Free Beer Comics co-edited by Alastair Laird and Warren Raysdorf
*Contributions continue although this record is to date Sep ‘11

External Links:
Sick Comix Mini Theatre
Twitter
Free Beer Comics
Facebook

At last! My stories are available as an e-book from both Amazon and Smashwords. Here is the cover (I still get such a thrill seeing it on the Amazon web site!):

And here is the book description:

Strange Neighbours is a collection of ten illustrated fantasy short stories set in Cape Town, South Africa.

Meet a hitch hiking troll with a taste for pepper-spray and a homeless witch with a trolley full of secrets.  Discover a book hoarding mermaid and a fridge full of frogs. And learn how to greet a witch – politely, of course. These stories describe encounters with every-day magic, where strange neighbours live in the flat next door or under the manhole cover you step on every day.