African Artist Makes His Superhero Dreams Come True

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Even as a child growing up in Nigeria, Roye Okupe knew he wanted to create comic books, not necessarily because of the colorful action and adventure contained in the pages of his favorite periodicals, but because he was always drawn to what the superheroes in the comics stood for.

“That’s really what I identified with,” Okupe said in an interview with Color Magazine. “The characters in the comic books all stood for something and were willing to fight for what they believed in. I was too young to make the connection that these superheroes didn’t look like me or didn’t come from Africa like I did; the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles didn’t look like anybody else in the world, but they had a strong sense of family and for what was right and what was wrong. Those were the stories that I wanted to tell.”

Founder of a Marilyn-based advertising and branding agency called Roye Productions, as well as of YouNeek studios (a “hub for “YouNeek” and creative character-based storytelling and entertainment”), Okupe is now on the threshold of making his childhood dreams a reality with the creation of his own original superhero sage, E.X.O. – The Legend of Wale Williams is a superhero story about redemption, set in a futuristic 2025 Africa.

“The lack of diversity in comic books is very obvious to anyone who looks at the genre,” Okupe said. “Given where I was born and my heritage, it was natural for me to create a superhero from Africa, and I’m extremely proud that Wale represents my culture. However, I didn’t make him a hero of color solely as a reaction to the lack of diversity in the industry as it exists today; above all, he still needed to represent those ethics and values I admired from the very start in my favorite superheroes. The fact that African American kids reading the stories will have someone to identify with because he looks like them is something I’m very proud of, too.”

So, what is E.X.O. – The Legend of Wale Williams all about? Here is Okupe’s official synopsis for the series: Lagoon City, Nigeria 2025. Tricked into returning home to Nigeria after a five year absence, an impetuous young man named Wale (pronounced Wah-leh) Williams embarks on a journey to investigate his father’s mysterious disappearance. His only clue is a cryptic Nanosuit left behind for him by his father, a suit which grants superhuman abilities. As he comes to understand the suit’s powers, Wale realizes he must restore hope to the city by preventing catastrophic attacks from the sociopathic extremist, Oniku.

The next question, naturally is where can you get a copy of E.X.O.? For that answer, you’re going to have to be a little patient and, should you be so inclined, a little philanthropic. In order to keep complete creative control over the project, Okupe is funding the publication of the first E.X.O. graphic novel through a kickstarter campaign (http://kck.st/1FcjXoG).  The graphic novel will be broken into two parts. Part one, which is 130 pages, is already halfway completed (with fully colored pages with lettering) and is set for release August 2015. You can read the first chapter for FREE on his website. There is also a short animated film about E.X.O. that not only fills in the details of the story, but is a great look at what the future of the series will look like in full animation it if becomes as popular as Okupe believes it can.

“This is my dream project,” he said. “The dream of that little boy reading about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and believing he could tell a story like theirs, too.”