KasiWash pages

Here are some KasiWash pages by Ryan Carolisen and coloured by Andrew Cramer

Unicity #5 & #6

Here are some pages from the latest issues of Unicity

Mzansi Beats pages

Check out some of David Blaine's Mzansi pages.
Colours by Mahlon Haupt

Laduma!

What's a SA comic without soccer eh? Here's a scene from issue 4 of Unicity...

Issue 3 out now!

Unicity Easter Eggs!!

So... did you spot them? Every issue of Unicity has a few easter eggs lying about, waiting for the eagle eyed reader to spot. Some may be releatively easy some not so much...

Haha, one more thing about them eggs - there a few LOST fans here in the office so watch out for the numbers too!!
(like the winning Lotto numbers in the Pyke Gang easter egg!)

Here are the easter eggs from issue 1 of Unicity.

ISSUE 2 coming this month!

Here is the cover for Issue 2!

Mshana Taxis hit the roads!

Hi all,

Just to keep you updated. The Mshana taxis will be appearing around Gauteng in the coming week.
This is a list of the areas in which they will operate.

I’ve also attached some pictures. For those in Gauteng – I hope you see them!

Regards
Zanne


Germiston 5 (covering Katlehong / Thokoza)
Soshanguve 5
Baragwanath 5
Noord Street 5 (covering Empire Road)
Randburg 1
Alexandra 2
Midrand 2

MSHANA Website goes live!

The Mshana website is up and running! Check it out, there's loads of info on all our characters and stories!

MSHANA WEBSITE

Mshana Magazine Video!

Press release for launch issue!

YOUNG UPSTART CHALLENGES CONVENTION AT MEDIA24

In this age of BEE and MTV, Black South African youths are left to find their own way to a future with plenty of opportunities but no guarantees. This is exactly when a comic book superhero flies in and offers these Generation Newers guidance through the maze of fake bling and quasi role models.

Beat Comics, a division of Media 24 Family Magazines, is proud to introduce Mshana magazine. It’s an informative publication that is somewhat of a hybrid, very much like these 16-24 year old urban youths. Mshana is packed with: entertainment and fun stuff such as trends, profiles of rising and established South African music artists and CD reviews; collectable posters and lyrics (remember when your adolescent bedroom looked like your fantasies were displayed on the walls?); insights into topical issues such as train surfing and initiation; real-life inspiration; life skills and career information that your everyday majita needs to know; and 40 pages of comics as authentically South African as Voetsek! Readers will love the action, drama and crime-ridden realities of inner city life, as seen through the eyes of a young newspaper reporter in Unicity, share in the dream of becoming a super kwaito group in Mzansi Beats, laugh at the highs and lows of owning a car wash business in Kasiwash - all enthusiastically served up by Mzansi’s most talented writers and artists.

At only R6.95 and with an initial print run of 60 000, Mshana is set to become the hottest monthly magazine property in South Africa. Look out for this innovative magazine due on shelves around the country, including selected spaza shops in Gauteng, by Thursday February 22nd.

Issued by: Mpho Nkomonde

On Behalf of: Beat Comics (Media24 Family Magazines)

"Stick em up...!"

Here is a scene from Mzansi Beats' second issue. Who is this guy with the piece and what is he doing with Bonisa? Guess you'll just have to check out issue 2 eh...? :)

Concept sketches

Ryan Carolisen will be handling pencilling duties on one of our stories "Kasi Wash". Here are some of his character concept sketches!

Street Beat

A very cool by-product of Ryan's tag stencil!
I'll probably use this later for something... ;)
A.

Tagged!!

We recently had our year-end function and Ryan thought it would be cool to tag our shirts with the logo. Mahlon was one of our lucky tag-rats and recieved a sweet spray-on logo.

In defense of Moray's paycheck

In case anyone wonders what I do at Beat Comics, I thought I'd give you a for instance of what some of my job entails using an actual example from one of the stories we're working on. So it's a deleted scene...

Before the script even gets to page illustration stage, Eddie Maluleke (the editor) triple checks everything from dialogue to plot structure and scene transitions. I then check page to page and panel to panel (as well as structure) and the script might go backwards and forwards a few times until we're all happy.

Karl Mostert - the penciler - then does thumbnails of all the pages which we discuss and then he proceeds to do pencil layouts.

Excerpt from the script by Wayne Robbins:

FRAME FOUR
SCENE
Close on the getaway driver – gangster 3 – as he takes a bullet.
GANGSTER 3
Yaahhh!
GANGSTER 2
Sbu’s hit!

Karl's initial illustration (BEFORE) had the driver and passenger swapped (most likely a result of doing to many american comic book submissions). It's my job to pick up such anachronisms and get changes done to correct it.

In the AFTER version: Karl swapped the characters. I also asked Karl to add in a section of the steering wheel to just ensure that the reader is absolutely clear that it's the driver that got shot. In addition - bullet time is slowed down so that the reader can see that the bullets are coming from behind. All this might not be necessary as the preceding and following panals on the page clarify the action, but I'd rather not have the readers lose their "suspension of disbelief" at all.



Mike Crafford inks from the pencils and Andrew Cramer ads colour and lighting effects -and I get to interfere with every process along the way, which is why I am still smiling.



END

Thanks,
M.

Scenes from Crime Reporter/ 'Unicity'

Here are some sneek peeks at the Crime Reporter/ 'Unicity' story.

What have the duo discovered? You'll have to wait and see...!



Who is this nasty character!?



What are Ayanda and Neo up to...?

Scenes from Mzansi Beats.

Here is a sneek peek at some Mzansi Beats artwork. Stix has some rough encounters on his path to fame.

Mzansi Beats!

The popular group are back, new and improved! Here are Stix and Bonisa...
Pencils: David Blaine
Inks: Ryan Carolisen
Colours: Mahlon Haupt

Some character designs...

Here are two characters from the crime reporter story...
Pencils: Karl Mostert
Inks: Michael Crafford
Colours: Andrew Cramer