Avonome as most people in the industry would know has been under the table for quite some time now far back as since the re-emergence of the Nigerian comic industry and for a while, the creator and owner of the character, popular Artist Stanley Obende didn't let the cat out of the bag concerning any plans on the red tattooed heroine. Hence, keeping everyone on speculations whether the character would ever have its own stand-alone story or it’s just a mere play on the imaginary flare of the artist.
On December 2014, the artist announced the release of the character and her own story and a partnership with fast rising comic company, COMIC REPUBLIC to set the awaited comic title in motion and at last, Avonome is finally here! And COMIC REPUBLIC newly signed writer Xavier Ighorodje is handling the story end of things.
The title was released on the 15th of January as promised and released on the COMIC REPUBLIC website, and was gladly embraced by both fans and non-fans.
Avonome #1 is the story of a girl called Hilda Avonomemi Moses who lived in the ancient village of Etunor in Edo state. After a short disappearance, she reappears in a cemetery in the current time with no knowledge of where she had been as she began to discover herself along with her mysterious powers. In this story, the writer introduces us to the character in an uncanny way as we get to see a bleeding and almost dead Avonome with a shiny emerald sword piercing and pinning her to the ground. We also get to see the story through the heroine’s dying eyes as the writer employed a subjective method to takes us through the 5 page story intro with Avonome on the rooftops of a cathedral with an angel of which the writer made little or no introduction and her weird cartoonish looking spirit pet called Hisnabek. We can conclude that they are tracking a spirit creature of the unknown that has made its way to Yaba, Lagos via portals from the spirit world.
The Angel gives Avonome some ‘strict’ instructions concerning this unearthly foe she is about to encounter. We also see a manifestation of Avonome’s powers of time travel and her ability to see spirits, as it would seem that our supernatural heroine is still struggling with her mystic gifts. The writer goes further to intensify the breeding climax with a cliffhanger as we she is being wrapped by a serpentine creature that seems to be of importance to her quest. The Artist has assured that there’s still more to be seen of the dark heroine as we are all keeping our fingers crossed towards the further unfolding of this title.
Avonome is definitely a good read. The writer weaved a suspenseful story albeit we think there was a lot unsaid leaving the reader asking for more even as the story ends abruptly. The sudden jump into the story at hand also may not be too appropriate for a first issue especially when fans for so long have been asking about the AVONOME character and what she stands for. At the end of this issue, many questions where yet un answered and more questions where created for the reader. The art was fantastic though there were some pages that could have gotten a better attention from the artist for a short-paged comic title. One would have expected to see more poster type art work considering the length of time (8 years) that this book has been in planning. And besides many have seen other comic books the creator has drawn and wonders why as much effort was not put into this. The colours where not overtly fantastic as there was more use of flat colours and empty backgrounds making the whole piece loose the depth that the story intended it to carry. The colourist should have increased the contrast on the outline so that his colours could have popped out more. He actually began well but only for the first 2 pages of the comic. However there were several strokes of brilliance like when the image of the cathedral could be seen in the eyes of Avonome while she is about to pass out. Brilliant!
The lettering and general graphics of the comic book was very good and more comic books in these parts should borrow a leaf or two from Avonome.
On a whole Avonome is a comic concept that has depth and is poised to deliver with time on its story. It’s a good read and generally good on the eyes. This is the very first issue and with the team at hand, it can only get better from here
Avonome is created and penciled by Stanley Obende.
Writer: Xavier Ighorodje.
Colours: Etubi Onucheyo.
Avonome is published by Comic Republic media
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