The Ethiopian-Founded comic book Company gathers together 24 African Creators from across the Continent in a thrilling new anthology.
Beserat Debebe is no stranger to taking his biggest dreams and making them come true. He founded ETAN COMICS in 2018 and January in this year he celebrated 7 Years in the business of bringing African Fantasy and Superheroes to audiences around the world. Debebe who was born in Addis Ababa came to the U.S. in 2004, and has achieved feats like creating the first range of Ethiopian Comics through JEMBER, which was short-listed for Best Graphic Novel at the Nommo Awards, and Hawi, which gave life to Ethiopia’s first female comic superhero.
His latest venture is something, he tells us, he’s been wanting to do ever since founding ETAN.
“My goal with the company has always been to make it at the centre of Black excellence and the best place to find empowering stories that celebrates African history and culture”, he says. His latest project that embodies this ethos? A Pan-African Comic book anthology embodies this ethos.
Titled Long Distance, the anthology features the works of more than 24 Trail-blaizing African Creators from Ethiopia, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and more, across ten stories.
It’s in keeping with everything Debebe’s comics book Company stands for. “Etan comics is all about making sure that Black Kids can dive into awesome stories that make them feel amazing about themselves. We want to make that the new normal. We are tired of Stories that makes Africans seem helpless, violent or uneducated”, he says. He believes stepping up and filling the void is a vital part of the work they do. “In this Era of books bans, we want to play our part in empowering Black kids by curating fun and educational anthologies like Long Distance”.
In the past, Debebe’s has had great successes using the platform of Kickstarter to get his project off the ground, and so he turned to it once again for Long Distance, setting up a Kickstarter that was fully funded within a day by over 300day one backers. “Kickstarter continues to be the lifeblood of independent comic book publishers”, he says. “Even mainstream brands are publishing their books throughout there nowadays”.
The platform continues to be a useful tool for Debebe because it connects Etan Comics directly with its “Most Passionate Fans”. And he adds that it allows Etan Comics to give them the very best version of their product. The way he sees it, it’s mutually beneficial. “Independent Creators don’t have to Sacrifice their vision or give up their creative freedom or deal with the industry gatekeepers when they publish through Kickstarter”, he adds “we will certainly continue to use it. All Comic Creators should”.
The Kickstarter’s success can be attributed to Etan Comics is tapping into the creative desire for Authentic African Comics Book’s stories. “This anthology features incredible talents”, says Debebe. “Just to mention a few, this book features the debut comic book story by Booker-prize short-listed author Maaza Mengiste. It features a great story by the grandson of Emperor Haille Selassie, Prince Joel Makonnen. It features a foreword by New York Times bestselling authors and Head Of Disney’s New Imprint, Freedom Fire, Kwame Mbalia, and a cover by the artist of Black Panther and Spider-Man: across the Spider-Verse, Sanford Greene”.
The anthology also showcases exciting stories come from women including Ethiopian American writer Mengiste delivers yet another untold story about African Women in history. While Nigeria’s Cassandra’s Mark takes readers to the Palace Of Dreams in Nigerian mythology. “There’s so much awesomeness packed into this book, it’s hard to pick which to even talk about”, says Debebe. If he had to describe it though he’d go with “the African Version Of Love, Death And Robots made by Pan-African dream team!”.
Beyond just creating a must-have offering for readers, Long Distance is also a project that started with the aim of creating authentic friendships amongst like-minded creative from all over Africa. “Our goal wasn’t just to make a great book”, says Debebe. “We wanted to support each other beyond that. This naturally led to the most organic, intimate and significant work we’ve made to date”.
As far as African Comics go, Debebe has been in play long enough to know this isn’t a simple release, but the beginning of something more to come. “It’s a game changer for Comics specifically”, And the best part? “It’s available in stunning deluxe hardcover. That is every collector’s dream. The roaring success of a Kickstarter is a testament to the quality of the book, and the hard work everyone put into make this anthology like nothing we’ve ever seen before, “STORIES TO LIFE IN “LONG DISTANCE”
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