Papers by Tessa Pijnaker
Africa in Words , 2018
This is the second of a series of posts on African superheroes, guest edited by Tessa Pijnaker, P... more This is the second of a series of posts on African superheroes, guest edited by Tessa Pijnaker, PhD student in African Studies and Anthropology at the University of Birmingham. In this post, Tessa builds from her introduction to the series, 'What is an African Superhero?', taking a historical perspective, tracing the development of African superheroes over the 1970s and 1980s. Look out for more in this AiW series on African superheroes over coming months.
Africa in Words , 2022
This sixth post in the series is based on an interview conducted with comics’ artist George Norma... more This sixth post in the series is based on an interview conducted with comics’ artist George Norman Sylvester in Accra, Ghana, in the Spring of 2019.
Previous blog posts in this series explored the production of African superhero comics in the 1970s and 1980s and the 2000s and 2010s. Until now, a lack of available data led people to believe that African comic book production had a lull in the 1990s. George Sylvester’s work proves the situation was more complex.
Born in the 1960s, Sylvester initially followed the footsteps of his mother and after completing senior high school, joined the civil service in 1983. Ten years later, he realised that he needed to pursue what he considered his passion in life: he quit the civil service and went to study ‘art on the job’ with a friend who was a graphic designer. In the 1990s, Sylvester started working on Kwaku Ananse and Captain Pepsodent comics, in the hopes of kickstarting a comic book industry in Africa from Ghana. Unfortunately, for reasons similar to those faced by comic book creators in the 2000s and 2010s, his dreams never came to fruition.
In their conversation below, Tessa opens up some of the reasons why, also touching on contemporary comics reading cultures, drawing, inking and other production processes, as well as other industry strategies, and the HIV/AIDS comic Sylvester made in the early 2000s…
Africa in Words , 2018
This is the first of a series of posts on African superheroes, guest edited by Tessa Pijnaker, Ph... more This is the first of a series of posts on African superheroes, guest edited by Tessa Pijnaker, PhD student in African Studies and Anthropology at the University of Birmingham. In this first post she introduces us to African superheroes and the scope of this series. Look out for more on African superheroes on AiW over coming months.
Talks by Tessa Pijnaker
The (re)presentation of ‘fantasy’: African heritage and middle-class formation in Accra, Ghana
Book Reviews by Tessa Pijnaker
Social Anthropology/Anthropologie Sociale, 2024
Uploads
Papers by Tessa Pijnaker
Previous blog posts in this series explored the production of African superhero comics in the 1970s and 1980s and the 2000s and 2010s. Until now, a lack of available data led people to believe that African comic book production had a lull in the 1990s. George Sylvester’s work proves the situation was more complex.
Born in the 1960s, Sylvester initially followed the footsteps of his mother and after completing senior high school, joined the civil service in 1983. Ten years later, he realised that he needed to pursue what he considered his passion in life: he quit the civil service and went to study ‘art on the job’ with a friend who was a graphic designer. In the 1990s, Sylvester started working on Kwaku Ananse and Captain Pepsodent comics, in the hopes of kickstarting a comic book industry in Africa from Ghana. Unfortunately, for reasons similar to those faced by comic book creators in the 2000s and 2010s, his dreams never came to fruition.
In their conversation below, Tessa opens up some of the reasons why, also touching on contemporary comics reading cultures, drawing, inking and other production processes, as well as other industry strategies, and the HIV/AIDS comic Sylvester made in the early 2000s…
Talks by Tessa Pijnaker
Book Reviews by Tessa Pijnaker
Previous blog posts in this series explored the production of African superhero comics in the 1970s and 1980s and the 2000s and 2010s. Until now, a lack of available data led people to believe that African comic book production had a lull in the 1990s. George Sylvester’s work proves the situation was more complex.
Born in the 1960s, Sylvester initially followed the footsteps of his mother and after completing senior high school, joined the civil service in 1983. Ten years later, he realised that he needed to pursue what he considered his passion in life: he quit the civil service and went to study ‘art on the job’ with a friend who was a graphic designer. In the 1990s, Sylvester started working on Kwaku Ananse and Captain Pepsodent comics, in the hopes of kickstarting a comic book industry in Africa from Ghana. Unfortunately, for reasons similar to those faced by comic book creators in the 2000s and 2010s, his dreams never came to fruition.
In their conversation below, Tessa opens up some of the reasons why, also touching on contemporary comics reading cultures, drawing, inking and other production processes, as well as other industry strategies, and the HIV/AIDS comic Sylvester made in the early 2000s…