Waanda Comics

Black knight bloodline is a prequel to black knight that focuses on the childhood of prince Said. A harsh and difficult existence of an orphan living in a world filled with African mysticism and culture. He struggles to solve his identity crises, break the foundations of false stereotypes and reconcile his family.

This is the plot of the new african manga that we offer you. Written by Mengnjo Mark Kernyuy, a 26-year-old Cameroonian author from North West Cameroon. It has been published since July 7, 2020 at Masterminds comics.

What is Black knight: Bloodline about?

Shaka a tyrannic king obsessed with gettting all what the gods had denied him, rapes the oracle Khadija, his childhood love when she denies to be his queen. Unknown to shaka, he leaves Khadija with child whom she hides his existence. She raises the child alone but fate seperates them when slave hunters cross their paths and she is forced to send her son to the kingdom of Nkeng where the child, Said is taken into an orphanage.  Sahel a griot guides him through life as Said joins the army to figth in a war aimed to reconquer the lands invaded by the forces of Shaka. disgusted by the bloodshed and waste of lives, he turns himself into an assassin winning battles before the army of nkeng could even act. In one of his assaults he finds the slave hunters and find out his mom is still alive. He  abandons his campaign and goes to save her from a foreign land where she works as a slave. he finds her and discovers the truth about his existence and returns with a resolve to end the war once and for all. He faces shaka in a duel. Beating him and the princess Raina, he reconciles the kingdoms under the watchful eyes of the council of elders. Kings chosen by the different kingdoms to watch over the peace of the land and trade with foreign countries while he wanders seeking knowledge around the world. Existing only as a shadow known as the black knight.

How is the scenario special?

Black knight though typical of manga is set in an african fantasy world with main focus on a rich african culture and traditions.  A sad and tragic underdog story of an orphan boy, fighting to survive in a world full of discrimination, falsehood, slavery and war.

Unlike other shonen mangas where the protanists goal is clearly defined, Said forges goals from experiences and circumstances. From a stoic and naif childhood and teen age life to a proactive individual as a youth. “Sensei’s” (the Master) don’t use touching words here either.

Inspired by Manga style, but not that much…?

“As a manga fan, my style is inspired by the japanese manga style” said the author“.

In fact, Pages are in black and white, semi realistic characters. The inking is light and shadows are only slightly shown. Most of the drawing is done traditionally. First with a Hb pencil then inked with a ball point pen. The  inked pages are then scanned and edited (adjustment of visual quality, adding tones, bubbles,lettering and resizing) on medibang phone app.

Though a manga, black knight contains no Japanese calligraphy and is read like a comic (right to left) rather than left to right like in typical manga. Nor do the characters wear kimono or carry katana’s due to the story taking inspiration from african culture rather than Japanese culture. However the indepth story is typical of a shonen jump quest adventure. With monsters, fantastic beasts, deities and pantheons and extroadinary abilities, a hero with a sacred destiny and holding up his adventure with friends and lot of determination.

What is the technique used to adjust the script and the author’s unique style?

“Given i do  both the script and drawing sometimes, script and panels sometimes do not match. a panel that may have been planned as a wide shot may appear as a medium short in other to use less time in drawing it. The script to me is like a compass to guide me through the journey but the real details only come to live when its adapted to a scene. Causing me to draw less or more pages than originally planned. It also gives room for changes to make the paneling more fluent and the story more dynamic  without destroying the main idea” said the author.

The early chapters of black knight serve a manga style of paneling while the latest adapt western comic type paneling feautures. This eases the narration and revelation of details so even if many speech bubbles are involved in a particular page it will not cover lots of details like in the ealier chapters and readers can access both the scenes and speech without struggling to figure out too much whats going on the page.

“Honestly, I am still working on my art style but black knight adapts more of a manga art style with light shadows and more panels per page than a western comic style with less panels more details and more shadows. So its nothing out of the ordinary”.

With this afro shonen about quest of power, love and identity, Waanda Comics launches a collection of projects for the English-speaking public. Original content in English but also translations from French into English for the satisfaction of our readers.

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