• Published July 18, 2016

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At ICON 2016, I had the pleasure to meet Nas Who, one of the creators behind SECTOR – a comic book created and published in South Africa by Nas and his co-creators: Ben Rausch, Moray Rhoda, Daniël Hugo, Diorgo Jonkers , Michael Smith and Ian Wishart. It’s always great to meet comic book creators, so I took the opportunity while there, to interview him. I hope that this will give you some insight into the comic and the man responsible for the creation of Sector Comics.

Nas Who – SECTOR Comics

What got you interested in making your own comic?

I’ve always wanted to make comics, and since there isn’t a publisher in South Africa currently making comics, I got in touch with a guy named Moray Rhoda, in Cape Town, and he had pitched something similar to a bunch of creators down there, to make an anthology series for the S.A market

How did you meet with the other guys and were you friends to start with?

I knew Ben when I was younger. I’d see him once a year at events now and again and he seemed like an interesting guy. I dropped him a message on Facebook asking him whether he knew any anyone in Cape Town and dropped him the pitch for the idea. As it turns out, we had the same ideas about the world and our approach to comics, but we never knew this since we never had a chance to speak about this to kind of stuff before. It helps to work with someone you get along with and we do support each other. Like, would you like to work with someone you don’t get along with? You can, but would you want to?

How successful has your comic been?

We are not dealing with the direct market as we are mostly at conventions like this one (ICON), people are interested in the stories and a lot of the customers are repeat customers, so when I go to conventions people come up to me and they ask about the comics.

Panels from the second chapter of “Red air” – illustrated by Ben Rausch

What is the format of the book and how big is the team working on it?

Sector contains 3 chapters per issue. Each chapter is 6 pages long. We have the following stories: “Red air” by Nas Who and Ben Rausch, “Uncharted Waters” by Moray Rhoda and Daniël Hugo and “An illustrated Guide to The End Of The World” by Diorgo Jonkers , Michael Smith and Ian Wishart

In terms of the artwork, what are your main influences?

Different creators have different styles. Like, Daniël has his own style, and Michael is influenced by superhero work and Ben is into what I’m also into which is more punk comics and has a bit of a Japanese manga style. I don’t think that each of us is consciously trying to make it work in a certain way.

cover artwork for SECTOR comics by Daniël Hugo

Is there an editorial mandate in terms of the work?

No, You are free to produce an outline of your work so long as it doesn’t waffle. I would like to make an on-going comic. But up front, I want to make a story with an ending so I can pull off an ending. I wanted to make a 6-page comic, starting with issue 1 which had no dialogue, then when I see that I can cap it off at 80 pages, maybe then I’ll do a comic with 120 pages.

I know it’s an obvious question, but do you want to expand to other countries?

I’m doing it for the passion, also I want people to see my work . I want to expand to other countries, but the probable end goal is to each produce a 6-page story per issue, then a full trade paperback and pitch those. I want to make it as an idea that looks after itself. I would like it to be a platform for local creators to get their ideas out.

And lastly, I know it’s a bit of a cliché to ask this question, but what would you say to aspiring comic book creators out there who will be reading this, since you have made your dream to create your own comic come true?

Making your dream a reality is never enough. You need to self-motivate and surround yourself with people to motivate you. No one will do you any favours. You may think you suck, which you probably do, but you need to work. I look at my early work on “Red Air” and I would have done things differently had I done it now. Just keep working, producing finished work and setting yourself reasonable goals, like doing 1 page with 3 panels, then going onto 2 pages and so on. Before you know it you’ll have a finished graphic novel.

Cover art for issues # 1-3 by Daniël Hugo, Michael Smith and Ben Rausch

I will post my reviews of the first 3 issues of SECTOR in the next few days.

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Metal Pangolin

His arms are heavy, knees weak, eyes are straining, ‘cause he’s been reading comics from DC, Marvel, Image etc. more than even he can name them. He’s nerdy, but on the surface he looks calm and ready, to review comics, and lets not all forget that, when he writes stuff, it makes people laugh out loud, in real life, he almost never opens his mouth , so watch out....

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Article Tags: Nas Who · Sector Comics · South African Comic Book

Article Categories: Comic Book Feature