CHIBOK- An exclusive interview with creator Eucharia Wanogho

COMIC REPUBLIC is one of those firms that has improved and stretched the limits of African Ninth Art over the years. It was featured on CNN many years ago as a key African Start-Up. Recently, our attention was drawn to one of their works: a comic called Chibok. It has a different concept from what we normally see out there in the Nigerian comic space. We were so intrigued by it that we sought out the creator to have a chat with us. So here it is, Webcitizens!

Welcome Eucharia to an interview with Teambooktu. Before we go straight into Chibok, I would like to know a bit more about Eucharia Wanogho and how she got into the comic business.

Thanks for having me. Well, I was introduced to the comic business by a friend. He’s currently the general manager of Comic Republic. I started as an intern and to be honest, when I first joined, I really had no clue. I mean, I’d heard about comics way before and I was always a fan of animation on shows like Disney, Marvel, Transformers… But at the time, I didn’t know that they were adaptations from comic books! It was later I got to know that there were people who came together, created these stories in form of art before they became what we all love to watch through animation.

I’ve been an artist for a long time, as far back as I can remember. Maybe when I was 12 or 13 years old? Yeah, so when I met Michael who introduced me to the company I’d just come out of NYSC (National Youth Service Corps) and was wondering what my next step was going to be.

At the time, I was in the fashion industry and used to take freelance skits and the like. He told me they took in interns twice a year and whether I was interested because he thought my work was great. I said, Okay, this is a new field. Why not? Let me try. So I joined Comic Republic as an intern. I was basically learning how to colour comics when I joined and that was how I became a comic colourist. I’ve been colouring comics since 2019 and have been in the company since then; later my role began to expand. So right now I’m the Head of Projects & Procurement but I still colour as well. So yeah, that’s been my journey so far.

Regarding Chibok, Mr. Jide Martin (the founder of Comic Republic) has always said if you have any ideas for a story, please pitch it to us as he’d prefer to entertain ideas from the in-house team first before going outside. The rest is history.

Interesting stuff! I’m curious… being a relatively new field for you, was it difficult to adjust or were you able to easily key in with the creative team?

I’d say they were quite welcoming and patient in putting me through. So I had a couple of months where we read, reviewed, and talked about our comic books so I got knowledge from there. A gradual process. I learnt a lot and enjoyed myself and also coloured the stories. They won’t force their particular style on you because every artist is different. They want you to imagine it in your own style of course, using the principle of art and lighting effects. That’s why if you see our comics, you see different concepts of art. Not just one style.

In your career as a colourist, did you have to learn various graphic software then choose your favourite?

Yes. Like I said, when I joined Comic Republic, I hadn’t coloured a comic before. I hadn’t set up myself in the digital art space at the time. That made things easier for me because I was open. I was not fixated on a specific software. So I was introduced to Photoshop at the time. Photoshop has so many compartments to it. It could work with any software. So I liked Photoshop and from there you just basically upscale. there are so many learning curves to it. You just need to find one what suits your style and it’s my favourite software even though I use another one currently.

Chibok has brought a relatively new dimension to Comic Republic. I suspect it’s because you’re coming from a non-comic background and a non-superhero angle. The superhero genre is quite dominant in the comic space, especially among the youth. I won’t say it’s saturated. But you came up with something different -based on a sad event in Nigeria’s recent history: the abduction of 275 Chibok schoolgirls by Boko Haram back in 2014. Many have still not been found. Weaving a tale of fiction around it. That’s what drew our attention. It reminded us of Her Name is Amina -a short story we featured that also caught our readers’ attention a while back. Did you also get a strong reaction from your readers?

Yeah. Like we had questions like why are you telling the story, a story of pain and tragedy, etcetera. But the truth is Chibok (the incident) is always going to be spoken about. One way or the other. So why not tell the story from our own point of view? And it’s not that we are trying to say this is what exactly happened in Chibok- just that we are drawing the world’s attention to it. If you look around, in the US for example, they still talk about 911 and make stories around it. I wasn’t going to call it Chibok initially but I later felt calling it that would draw more people to the story.

But my personal interest in Chibok is my love for femme fatales. I want to tell a story about strong female characters. Someone who challenges societal norms, who faces adversities, is powerful- not in a superhero sense- but in her own self based on the tragedy she has been through and came out stronger. I feel if I go into it too much, I will give the story away but that’s the vision. So I like femme fatales and strong female characters and put these in a fictional story with reference to a real one which we still don’t know the end of. Still up for interpretation.

Wanna check out the comic?

Read here

Okay, most people are familiar with what happened at Chibok but could you tell us about Chibok the comic series?

This is a story about the kidnapping of young girls from a secondary school in Chibok, Borno State. It is a story about survival and a fight for freedom. You’re going to see lot of struggle. A story about two girls, Hauwa and Fatima, and how they survived the kidnapping… or not. A story of hope. No spoilers here (laughs).

Regarding what you said earlier, I noticed a lot of strong female characters in lead roles in comics made by Comic Republic. I don’t know if you had any influence in that. The comic Ireti for example. Of recent, there’s been a rise in amazons and heroines (or sheroes) not only in comics, but in movies and other media. A female Black Panther for example, Atomic Blonde, Jessica Jones, Moana etc. There’s this drive for young females to see idols in their own image as main characters and not just side-kicks and weak defenceless individuals. I see that Comic Republic has also caught the buzz. No longer just the dominant male hero . Was that a conscious decision or just coincidental?

I can’t speak for Comic Republic but I can speak for the ones l’ve been doing. So I think we want to broaden our audience. And the reason why women haven’t been keying into the comic industry is because they haven’t been seeing people like themselves in the books. I think the only one I had seen growing up was Wonder Woman. I think if I had seen more female superheroes, I would have said Okay, this is not a boy’s show. So there was a need for representation.

When I started at Comic Republic, we were only two girls at the time. So there was a need because we have a global audience now and we can’t just focus on only one part of the story. A story being told from one perspective is going to miss a lot of things. But when you bring various perspectives- male, female, children’s- you kind of tell a better, more balanced story. One that resonates with your country, society, and more demographics.

Are there other genres that Comic Republic handles besides the superhero in order to appeal to other audiences? Because you’ll agree with me that the Ninth Art is rather broad.

That’s the path we are also looking towards. Truth is if we had started with those stories from the outset we really wouldn’t have gotten this far. Now we are in a space where we can tell stories the way we want to- our own stories- because we now have the audience. Take Chibok for example, if it had come out four years ago we probably wouldn’t have gotten many readers.

A valid point! This has been awesome. Thanks for your time and looking forward to reading more Chibok.

It’s been a pleasure! Stay tuned for more!