Ordinary Superheroes

Ordinary Superheroes is a new Cape Town based comic created by a team of writers and artists including Ziphozakhe Hlobo, Nicole Leonards, Lena Posch, Xolisa Tamarana and Pacifique King. The comic aims to reveal everyday acts of heroism for young African readers. The first comic in the series, which is planned as a bi-annual release, Khazimla’s Adventures superheroes This is no high-shine, sleek design, graphic novel. Instead, the comic is low-cost, produced in an aesthetic more suited to Khayelitsha than to the oversaturated streets of Gotham City. The comic is bilingual, written in Xhosa and English and the Xhosa content is unapologetically not glossed for English readers. This is an important intervention by comic writers in the region (compare for example Loyiso Mkize whose Kwezi series is written entirely for English audiences). If the comic aims to show the ordinary superhero in the everyday it does so in a linguistic mix that is equally of and for readers in Khayelitsha (of whom over 90% are Xhosa speakers).

Listen to an interview with Ziphozakhe Hlobo to hear more about the project.