Well, I am a retired Comics producer.

Photo comics were very popular when I was growing up as a kid in the 70s.
We had Sadness and Joy and Spear and they were bestsellers.

I made some fortune from producing comics in the 1980s and ended up working for the Johns Hopkins University's Population Communication Services (JHU/PCS) and other international organizations. And my comics were even exhibited at the World Picture Books fairs in Japan. My "Captain Santana" was reviewed in the rested West Africa news magazine. But, I stopped making comics when I became an adult. A young man who admired my works is now one of the best comic book illustrators in Nigeria. His name is Chime.

Seun, making photo comics is as challenging as making movies.
The foreign investors who wanted to produce the animated versions of my "Captain Santana" later gave up. The rest is history.

Can you scan some of your lovely comics and post them here? Thanks so much! Post, post, post!

Seun,
I don't have any of my drawings here.
We are talking of 20 to 26 years ago!
Spare me.

Orikinla:

Seun,
I don't have any of my drawings here.
We are talking of 20 to 26 years ago!
Spare me.

anyhow. i think they'll be great

[s]So what have we now gained from the post?[/s] Sorry o, I was just thinking o. Don't mind me o.

i can't believe seun's saying 'o'lol.

MY PHOTO COMIC E-BOOK WOULD SOON BE ON THE INTERNET FOR ALL TO READ, WATCH OUT GUYS.

kool@ ray

We're eagerly waiting. Care to share the story with us under fiction?

Seun,
If you want to publish comics, please think twice. Because you will need miracles to sell enough comics in Nigeria to make enough to continue publishing, lest you give up.

The best Nigerian comics "Ijapa" were produced by one brilliant young man and he died and today nobody remembers him. And the best in 3D Animation Yole of Mindvision who was already meeting with us to develop animated cartoons died prematurely. And I am still mourning and missing him.

We were the Nigerian children who read books and comics with great pleasure. The children of today don't enjoy reading. And even the teens who go to cyber cafes, go there to read and watch porn sites and play games and look for Internet penpals to beg for money or try their luck in Internet scams for beginners. Most of our children are wasting away and their parents and government have no development plans to save them before it is too late.

Harry Potter is an international bestseller. But not in Nigeria. Even Helen Oyeyemi's "Icarus Girl" is celebrated in the UK and even the Italian edition is popular. But the novel is not making headlines in Nigeria. Only some hundreds of copies have been sold so far.

The only bestseller we have in Nigeria is the City People social gossip newspaper. It even sells more than our official church magazine, the Redemption Light of the Redeemed Christian Church of God(RCCG). Because, most Nigerians are the worst hypocrites I have ever seen since I was born. Because how can the official monthly magazine of the largest church in Nigeria be selling only between 10,000 and 20,000 copies while the City People social gossip
newspaper sells over 100,000 weekly? And most of the readers claim to be "Christians"? And most of the popular American Christian books in Nigeria are being pirated by those who claim to be "Christians" in Nigeria.

Ask anyone who grew up in the late 70s and early 80s in Nigeria about Pop and Superman comics and Andy Akman produced Captain Africa and I was producing Captain Santana for the Kiddies Times magazine. In 1983  I sold the bulk of my comics to the publishers of the Kiddies Times magazine and to another magazine called Vona. But all the magazine packed up.

If you want comics to sell in Nigeria, you have to be ready for social sensitization and mobilization of the children in Nigeria on the merits of the kind of comics you want to produce for their education and entertainment. Remember that Nigerian parents don't approve comics for their children.

Something has gone wrong with the psyche of Nigerians when the evil genius IBB took over power in 1984 and the reasoning of Nigerians bacame warped. Erroneous and ambiguous. We have misplaced our values and our priorities in Nigeria.

The popular Macmillian's Pacesetter series and the Longman's Drumbeat series collapsed. Only WAEC saved the African Writers Series from extinction.

Look at the shappy state of books published for children in Nigeria and compare them to the beautiful and colourful books published for children in developed countries. I don't pray for my children to read Nigerian books for children. Because, the writers are not well educated in literature for children and the publishers don't know that children's books must be in larger fonts, naturalistic illustrations and in full colour to capture the anxious and curious eyes of the children in their formative years.

Orikinla, you've made good points. Thanks so much for contributing your knowledge.

UPDATE: I remember Captain Africa by Andy Akman. It may have sold if he printed it out.

@Orikinla
Your points are well made although your exaggerations could be attributed to the passion with which you wrote.
I do not know your bif with City People, a paper I will never buy with my money though; but to compare the sales of a national ‘gossip’ magazine with your official church magazine, the Redemption Light is taking comparison too far. How did you get the statistics that RCCG is the largest church in Nigeria in the first place? Perhaps you meant largest Pentecostal Church. Be that as it may, I agree with you that a lot people including Nigerians could be very hypocritical, but not when it concerns how they spend their money. My observation is that people buy church magazine as an extension of their faith and not necessary for the quality of the materials therein, this in itself is somehow hypocritical if you will agree.

When the Tabloid newspaper ‘The Sun’ came out people never gave it a chance but with perseverance and well researched consistency and quality they were able to go from weekly to daily in a very short time. This was at a time when newspapers were dying for lack of sales and this one moved to be among the highest circulating newspapers

I think that anyone starting a photo comic with exceptional quality, after having done a good business development plan is bound to succeed. I think the youths and their parents can still be bought over by a very good work; afterall it took the crowing of Agbani as miss world to get parents to now sponsor their children to beauty pageants which was not the case before.

@Kajad,
I worked for our Redemption Light magazine in the office of the GO and my sister in-law worked for the City People.

The RCCG is the largest church in Nigeria.

I have to contribute my suggestions realistically from my previous experience.
From my first post I mentioned that photo-comics sold out in the 70s and early 80s in Nigeria. Even the Yoruba photo-comic Atoka was a bestseller.

Yes, Nigerians don't read many comics a lot at the moment. The real question is why.

I heard that people used to buy Papa Ajasco and Super Story comics but they moved to TV production. Could that be the real reason? Maybe the resourceful people who used to produce marketable comics are now into movies?

The advantage of printed materials over movies is that you can read them anywhere - in a molue bus, on a queue, during a boring conference or lecture, or while waiting for an appointment - with or without NEPA!

If I had an artist as good and consistent as Andy Akman, I wouldn't even consider photo-comics. iice:thanks!

Seun,
my protege is better than Andy Akman.

Andy's characters look alike and they look stiff.

My protege is still in Lagos and works for the Christ Embassy church.

If you can pay him well, I will tell him to contact you. He is also computer literate and knows about animation.

I sold about 20 comic books of original stories to a publisher who promised to pay me N4,000 in 1983 and only paid me N400. And she has not even published them to date.
Nigerian publishers are not serious.

My protege's name is Chime Olile and he has developed different characters. He is versatile.

He joined a group and they published their Imperial Creations. I saw some copies when I visited Lagos last February.

@Orikinla
Pardon me to disagree with your assertion that RCCG is the largest church in Nigeria when you do not have statistical evidence. Talk is free!

@Seun
If you want to go into photo comic production I think you should first study your target audience. Remember _{‘controversy’} I mean extra ordinary story sales. Good Humour tingled with some love and violence sales. What will stand out your comic will be slightly different form what moral theorist will commend, but then, you want to sale don’t you?

Papa Ajasco or Ikebe Super as it was known in comic move to TV production to celebrate their success as a comic. I personally think that photo comic is more difficult than TV production though the later is more cost intensive.

Start with a story that has the capacity of change to reflect any controversial ‘current’ issue of interest to your target audience. Remember, target a niche of the market and move up from there.

I personally think that photo comic is more difficult than TV production though the later is more cost intensive.

Photocomics are a bit easier. Your 'actors' (models) don't have to know how to speak English, as long as they look good. You can add amazing special effects with just Photoshop. Pictures take seconds to snap.

If you can pay him well, I will tell him to contact you.

Wow, that's interesting. Some friends and I are developing a comic script from a story at the moment. How much do you think Mr. Chime Olile will charge for, say, a 24 page black and white comic (upfront payment)?

Seun,
I cannot speak about fees on his behalf. But I can tell you that he is not greedy.

I will get his GSM number and send it to you.

The guy is very good. And I mean as good as those artists in the US and Japan.

Seun:

Photocomics are a bit easier. Your 'actors' (models) don't have to know how to speak English, as long as they look good. You can add amazing special effects with just Photoshop. Pictures take seconds to snap.

I did not mean it in the technicalities of what is to be done, besides if you have the money you can pay a director and let him improvise.

What I meant was to sale and make it acceptable to your audience, comic is more difficult than a movie. Some people can watch any movie showing on TV no matter the type but its not so with reading. People only read what they find interesting.

You are right. One will need need a really good story.

Orinkinla: thanks a million. I wonder if any Nairaland member here can also draw consistently.

Attached to this post is another photo-comic sample for your enjoyment! It's in black and white and looks quite ok when I print it. This is the format I'll use to tell my story. Do you like it?

really funny

Funny?
me i think the dog is biting the other one.
make una look the picture very well.

You may call me "Professor".

Miss Kitty Universe 2006.

"Who are you staring at, stalker?"

("They think I'm pretty. Yay!"

My first "echi" comic.

"No, this is not porn, it's art"

Caption: porn is evil.

cool photo comics.
that's pornart