Here’s my chat with Kelvin Nyeusi Mawazo about his series Black Sun.

Born and raised in Toronto, Kelvin uses the skills he’s acquired as a photographer, front-end web developer and a college instructor to not only digitally illustrate his books but to also teach others how to do the same via his YouTube channel. He’s a lover of science fiction, lo-fi instrumental hip hop and zombie movies. As for his comic book series, set in the fantasy realm of Alkebulan, Black Sun is the story of a group of unlikely heroes who must band together to reclaim their homeland from a mysterious, invading alien armada.

Kelvin and I met at the 2018 Toronto Comic Arts Festival. Although it was his first time attending as an exhibitor, he explained the reason for being there: “It highlights creators who might now otherwise be published.”

He talked about his current work Black Sun – The Longest Night – Book 3 Visions and what’s next in the storyline.

Kelvin talked about his influences as a comic book creator including Chris Claremont’s run on the X-Men, Frank Miller’s the Dark Knight, and Erica Alexander’s Concrete Park.

Kelvin also talked about make3dcomics.com where he offers detailed tutorials for comic book creators. He explained how various digital tools such as DAZ Studio, Photoshop and Comic Life helped him to create the Black Sun series.

As a comic book creator, Kelvin believes that image creation is more about emotion than content. He said: “The story is always goings to be more important that the art. Your art is good enough — doesn’t have to be the best — to create the emotion in the reader.”

To help him in the creation process, he’s a fan of lo-fi instrumental hip hop: “It’s instrumental but it still has a beat and it’s down tempo so you can just zone out and just reach that spot in your mind where you’re most creative and just do whatever it is that you need to do.”

You can discover more about Kelvin on Twitter at @blacksuncomics and online at blacksuncomics.com

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