By: Ajadi Sodiq
Comic Con Ibadan (CCI), a non-profit initiative specialized in promoting arts and comics, on Saturday, 25th March 2023 organized a free comic convention in Ibadan, to further its mission of propagating the African creative industry. The event which was held at New Culture Studio, Mokola metropolis in Ibadan kicked off at 10 am, featuring activities like PES 2, face painting, art exhibition, music, games, and a master class.
The event features Penawd, a prominent spoken word artist who has gone across Nigeria to perform his spoken word skills, he performed one of his favorite spoken words titled “Dream” which obviously thrilled the audience after various gestures of excitement from the audience.
Speaking with Indy Press, convener of Comic Con Ibadan and a graduate of Philosophy UI, Adedayo Erivic revealed that the event was aimed at uniting artistic and content creators, while also making the industry lucrative.
“I’ve always loved comics and I usually believe there can be an audience performing in Nigeria, especially in Ibadan. The goal is to connect lovers of artistic and creative content with the creators. We are trying to build a marketing of comics in Ibadan, I’m excited about making this happen because it’s a hard task to organize something like this in Ibadan”.
At the event, Samuel Adekanmi (Jakuta) was awarded Letterer of the Year; SIP (Magic Carpet Studio) won the Animation of the Year award; Limitless Studio won the Animation studio of the year; Amadioha 2 of the Comic Republic won Comic Book of the Year award, while Tobi Ayegbusi (Jakuta) emerged the Comic Book Writer of the Year 2023, among many others.
Discussing with Tobi Ayegbusi, a student of Geology Federal University of Oye-Ekiti, he expressed his gratitude to readers for his works and also gave encouragement to people who struggle with loving comics.
“For me to have won this shows my work (Jakuta) has spoken for me. To me, comic book is life. Art is life, communication is art. We can’t have life without communication even God is an artiste (The Greatest artiste). So when you’re able to tell stories with these arts, it’s like a dynamic combination because people learn through arts, stories and can express their emotions through it”.
