Creating a Graphic Novel : Art – Food – Photography

A previous Kickstarter (Nyobi) has been successfully funded! At the time of the Kickstarter, I was provided the pitch version to review as the comic was still being worked on. Now that the Kickstarter is done, I am excited to see the Nyobi rewards been shipped out, Nyobi selling out in local comic stores and even appearances in upcoming conventions.

Nyobi is definitely progressing from strength to strength. (Larry has already mentioned to keep a watch out for more news on Nyobi #2!) The full copy of Nyobi has been provided to me and I was looking forward to reading the whole story.

Cover :

Nyobi Review
Larry crafts an interesting human interest story. The titular character Nyobi isn’t the main focus, it follows the depressing story of Lucas as he bullied and victimised by his school peers. There is a gradual build up as the reader sees Lucas’s day go from bad to worse.

I really enjoyed this story telling which is refreshing from standard superhero fare. With no supervillians or save the world (city) agendas, the human element came shining through. More of a backstory of Nyobi will probably be covered in future issues (it’s covered in a fact sheet at the end but would live to see it drawn out!) however it does not detract from the story.

I’ve liked Coates’s artwork on Psychosis and he does a great job here to find the story. The grey tones (rather the colours) suit this story a lot better. There is a fantastic splash page (No spoilers!) of Nyobi near the end of the story which is great. The panelling is very standard and I would love to see Coates experiment with different panel shapes or angles to create different sequential visuals.

Should I check it out?
I have read through a lot of various “indie” comics and most unfortunately fall into the standard revenge (“You killed my brother/sister/mother so I must now . . .”) or the superhero team to save the world. It’s something that’s different and well written by Higgins and pencilled by Coates. Definitely worth checking out!