Nguniverse Studios, founded by South African award-winning actor, director, and producer Thabo Rametsi and corporate finance strategist Thabiso Mabanna, has joined forces with Dark Horse Comics to tell a beautiful African visual tale of fierce, independent female warriors.
Their new comic series, Imbokodo, is a thrilling Afrofuturistic adventure featuring the greatest warriors in Ndawo. Written by Thabo Rametsi and Thabiso Mabanna, illustrated and coloured by Katlego Motaung, and with logo art by Gil Lazcano, Imbokodo is set in the land of the pyramid sun, Ndawo, where a single step for the Badimu (Gods) is a thousand Muntu (human) lifetimes.
Dark Horse Comics, the publishing partner for Imbokodo was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson, with the aim to create a welcoming space for comics professionals. Known for integrity and innovation, Dark Horse has grown from humble beginnings into an industry giant. It publishes works by modern masters like Yoshitaka Amano, Margaret Atwood, and Brian Michael Bendis, and sets the standard for quality licensed comics and collectibles, featuring properties such as Star Wars, Stranger Things, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Minecraft, The Legend of Zelda, Dragon Age, James Cameron’s Avatar, Game of Thrones, Mass Effect, The Witcher, and Halo.
And in the words of writers Thabo Rametsi and Thabiso Mabana, “Imbokodo is a love letter to African history, at its heart, it is a detective story about love of family and the brutality of war. But the story and the world created represent so much more as it shows Africa as it truly is – bold, thriving, innovative and at the forefront of the world’s greatest stories. With the help of exciting South African comic book illustrator Katlego Motaung aka DeadKatBarks we look to honour the great warrior women of Africa – the likes of Nandi, Nzinga, Modjadji, Llinga, Amina, Nehanda and many other great warrior queens like the women who raised us. These books and films will pay homage to our majestic ancestry and immortalize African mythology and history as it should be.”
In the comic series, a war breaks out among the Badimu, casting a darkness over Ndawo. A darkness, that would birth genocide and war among the Muntu. And now a thousand years later—Ndawo remains divided into several Empires. As the brutal war reaches a bloody crescendo numerous young girls mysteriously go missing from their villages in the empire of Monomotapa, leaving behind only a trail of carnage in their wake.
Queen Nyameka of Monomotapa commands the greatest warriors in all of Ndawo, the Imbokodo, to investigate the missing girls when a nameless woman whose sister has also gone missings fights to secure her place amongst the Imbokodo to find her.
“I think some of my illustrative tastes for an African dark fantasy setting may have found a home,” says artist Katlego Motaung.
Imbokodo #1 (of 4) will arrive in comic shops on October 16, 2024, and is available for pre-order, at your local comic shop for $3.99.
Bongi Sikelo 