A team of young Malawians is giving local storytellers a platform to showcase their creativity and earn from their work through digital comics.
The platform Cultural Comics owned by Lumbani Mumba, Yankho Newa and Terence Matandika was launched last year.
Mumba said they have been inspired to create their comics by Manga – Japanese comic books and graphic novels as well as American comic franchises such as Marvel and DC Comics.
“In Malawi, artists usually put down their talents in favour of being able to pay their bills. So, through Cultural Comics, we wanted to incentivise artists ever so slightly, to pick up their pencils, pens and brushes and showcase their skills,” he said.
The platform currently features the work of eight artists and writers.
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Among the upcoming releases are new chapters from popular fantasy and science-fiction titles such as Fine Wine, Ashes of Addis, Eyes, and The Insignificants.
With the emergence of illustrations and stories generated using Artificial Intelligence (AI), Mumba acknowledges both its opportunities and challenges for comic creators, especially concerns over the end product’s lack of originality.
He added that Cultural Comics currently do not permit AI-generated comics on its platform.
“Our policy is that we do not allow comics made with AI on our platform.
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We want to provide a platform for human comic creators to showcase their works and earn an income from the comics they produce with their blood, sweat and tears,” Mumba said.
For the near future, Cultural Comics has plans to expand beyond digital comics and venture into physical comics later this year. The team is also developing Cultural Animations, a venture aimed at creating animated adaptations of comic stories.
“Comics have the natural potential of being animated and so we have Cultural Animations that we are also developing to be able to meet the eventual need for animated adaptations of comics.
Beyond that, we feel like the potential is limitless,” Mumba said.
