MEMBERS & VISITORS
7 QUESTIONS THAT MUST BE ASKED ABOUT THE SERIES
7 QUESTIONS THAT MUST BE ASKED ABOUT THE GRAPHIC NOVEL SERIES
1. What is the world that the characters inhabit?
I use images of people that look a little bit different, like a girl that has a bald head. She shaved her head because she is someone that is dealing with cancer. Naturally, our eyes even just subconsciously gravitate towards these things. That’s important to get a lot of readers’ attention. Many traditional clothing or hair styles of global Africans are unusual to the wider world. This exposure to grand and beautiful differences is key to resurfacing arrays of hidden truths as well as acclimating readers to expect the unexpected, in any form.
The dialogue in my novels is deliberately direct and not subtle. That way, children can understand, but also people who don’t speak English can understand. Characters move through both the ongoing travails of exploited and impoverished Third World nations as well as the downward spiraling moral, economic, political, and social decline of the western world that has yet to reconcile with its past history. In their own ways, each character is growing toward first-rate technological development. Their mindsets are of passionate adherence to development of Africa’s people within the boundaries of humane, respectful, and just treatment of all of humanity. Theirs is a world, let’s call it New Earth, where meritocracy matters and a background of wealth, power, and influence are not overriding determinants of future success.
Always in the background lingers these questions readers will come to understand:
What will the wider world be like if Africa’s overall ascensions are even more spectacular and frictionless than China’s?
Who will be the enemies of Africa’s rise??
Will fear, jealousies, tribalism, rivalries, rejection, and ego dismantle progress?
Will fame and wealth be roadblocks to healthy relationships?
What are the most desired attributes of a long sought after New Earth?
What new inventions will best support the New Earth?
Are unseen worlds and characters causing change and disruption or success?
Can the New Earth be peacefully layered upon a New World Order and its agendas?
What is the primary characteristic shared by all of these 12 young apprentices and their masters/mentors?
Is there true separation between the spirit forces of animals, plants, and inanimate matter?
What are the true limits of the mind?
2. Do the graphic novels have themes that matter?
A) African people ARE going to come together in stages and build their own beautiful & productive world free from destructive external influences from the past. They will be aided by keen insight into the mistakes that enslavers and colonizers made when they created their prosperous civilizations based upon whopping lies and the exploitation of EVERYTHING; earth, people, military, greed, fake science, religion.
B) What are the goals of this new breed of African inventors? Through many avenues they tap into that untapped greatness of their ancestry which had lain dormant for hundreds of years. Through discovery, perseverance, imagination, and sheer fun they pull those within their spheres of influence into a broadly accepted greatness mindset. The end result? A new foundation for Africa’s push for a New Earth. Artists, influencers, engineers, scientists, teachers join together for the New Earth civilization which overlays the morbid and crumbling civilization of their previous oppressors. And wouldn’t that be wonderful?
C) A theme that millions of people find compelling across narrative arcs is as follows: In trying times — say, a quest for a freed slave to buy the freedom of his beloved but enslaved wife from a recalcitrant and miraculously amoral slaveholder — people want to see villains reformed or eliminated and lessons delivered. No ambiguity, no debates. A common narrative arc involves a bully mocking the protagonist for being poor, ugly, or having acne; then a twist of fate strikes the bully with poverty, a deforming accident, or pimples. Everything turns out just right.
D) Invention School graphic novels will focus on “universal truths”. This is what will allow for exceptionally broad appeal and the building of a massive audience. What better way to get at understanding these truths than to look at proverbs created by Africans themselves? Equally, ponder these proverbs and sayings “World Wide Wisdom“.
The secret sauce at the core of this global rebuilding thrust is in the meditations taking place in the quiet mountain hideaway of an ancient seer (oracle) on the slopes of Mount Kenya. Her calendar age will astound you. She remains hidden to all but very few eyes. Her calls to new action are guided by her dreams. The right moments to act are guided according to the ancient calendar she knows and follows. In African cultures, there were people who had dreams foretelling the coming of events, these people were revered and believed to be prophets or seers. In society, seers or prophets held the position of steering the community into the future. The seer can catch beautiful visions as well as nightmares. By embodying different Kenyan dialects the seer is guided by the ancestors. At a critical historical tipping point she points out the need to find 12 perfect youth who must be recruited to carry out the tasks of building a new earth that is devoid of greed and brutality through their inventions. This remarkably old seer describes to Kim and Kate how the Africa of her dream world would look and she shares which rules to observe when visiting the unseen world of dreams.
3. Why do we want to read every new Invention School graphic novel? What new and ingenious invention is one or a grouping of these kids gonna’ make? Even if its crazy or impractical, is it entertaining and/or fun?
This concept supports a recurring cycle of something new in the next chapter with 12 chapters per book. As well, each book will explore the small and large consequences of each invention now and in the future. Our technical masters at Invention School are experts at what they do so the results and outcomes will always be interesting and fluid.
4. What is the genre of the show?
Magic, fantasy, comedy, action, sci-fi, drama, growing up…
5. What books are like mine that audiences have seen before?
Narrowly, Black Panther.
6. What is the question that torments the hero forever that will/may never be resolved? What is the unsolvable dilemma?
Both Kim and Kate secretly wonder if they’re wasting their time and that of their young protégé’s. Will the intellectual property thieves take the ideas of these ingenious kids and make tons of money and/or use their clever ideas against the whole pan-African movement and its efforts to move into African prosperity? Greed and envy and jealousy are innate human characteristics that never go away so the struggle to protect and prosper from these advances made through inventions is ongoing.
7. What is the hero’s big core wound?
Is the teaching and mentorship of these young geniuses going to result in inventors who genuinely act in ways that promote African development or are they picking up the cultural message that being personally rich and powerful should be their dream even if it means being low down and tricky as they move their inventions into the market place? You’ve heard that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
The story books that are selling and that work are strongly authentic, organic, and unpredictable. Invention School stories will hold strong emotional content that attaches organically to the audience. Audiences and execs want content that is absolutely original and captivating and entirely unpredictable. This will keep audiences coming back for more and more. As a writer I have to be willing to be rejected by being my authentic self and speaking with a voice that is confident and fearless.
Prof. Oku Singer
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