STRIKA VISITATIONS

Strikaland has received some very interesting guests lately…

The MBA Playoffs

They came one day and were gone the next.

They took our business stats and put it into context.

So what happened to the UCT MBA 2011 candidates?

On the 24^th of June they presented their findings on Strika’s business plan:

The team – Anton ‘Stompneus’ Meiring, LJ ‘The Coach’ Collyey, Yvonne ‘Shaka Skaka’ Marie Band, Cassim 'The Abacus’ Rawat, Eran ‘Supporter’ Brill, Andrew ‘The Machine’ Minnaar – put on an impressive performance, in keeping with Strika’s major theme of sportsmanship.

Overall, they agreed, we have a bright future ahead of us. In terms of our work-flow and production process (i.e. how we work together as a team) their findings showed that we’re a well organized unit and a pretty harmonious bunch in general. In fact, Strika’s peeps are without doubt one of the company’s major assets.

With our successful comic publication and the animation series underway, the sky truly is the limit for us.

Like we didn’t know that already ;-)

Woodstock Obamarama!

Then there was the day Woodstock stood still as the US first lady paid the kitchen a visit. Okay, so it wasn’t really our kitchen, more like The Kitchen. Karen Dudley’s Kitchen to be precise.

Our local deli of delish delights hosted Michelle Obama and her entourage for an impromptu lunch during her tour of Africa.

Karen Dudley told Channel24, “Altogether, there were about 20 people that arrived for lunch and we didn't chase any of our customers inside the venue away. But unfortunately no outside clients were allowed to come inside during the 40 minutes Mrs Obama enjoyed a meal here.”

Here’s a pic from www.globalmontreal.com showing Karen and the Obama clan having a good time:

Of course, some patrons left of their own free will. Here’s a snap of our very own Bruce deciding he’d rather mingle with the secret agent men:

Guess he just had to… Legg it!

Media Queens

From schmoozing with the schmodels to conquering the Career Times, our Strika ladies know how to make their mark in media.

Above: Sham Dharsey, looking oh so profesh!

Below: Yandi Marubelela, keeping it real in Cosmo.

The Dynamic Duo

By now, most of us are aware that Chris Beukes (Supa Tigers art director) and Willem Samual (Supa Strikas art director) have created an awesome comic book together. Nagapie/Yesterhart is a combo comic, so Chris’ cover and story start on one side and Willem’s is on the flipside. Big up to our bros for making it happen. But how did they make it happen? StrikaBlog investigates…

SB: When did you guys decide to do this joint project?

W&C: We were invited earlier this year by Co/Mix (comixart.wordpress.com), a newly formed comic book artist and creator collective, associated with the CCIBA (www.cciba.sun.ac.za) Comic symposium we attended last year. Guys like Pete Woo are part of this group so he probably put in a word for us.

SB: Why did you and Willem decide to go this one together?

W&C: Mutual motivation. It helps if you have someone else who can push you and motivate you. We had similar agendas in terms of the type of stories we want to tell and comics we want to make. We were also a bit gatvol of the whole arty side of the independent comic community so we wanted to just pull off some good old fashion pulp entertainment.

SB: Nice. Can we expect more? Is this the first of a series?

W&C: You can definitely expect more comics from us - not sure in what format. Chris is in the new Velocity publication - so check that out. This is early days and we're very much still figuring out what kind of things and narratives we want to explore. The idea of a futuristic dark superhero comic might sound good in your head, but the actual making and creating of it is very different. In the end - it will also become "a job" you have to do and there has to be more to it in order to keep you motivated. But yes. We'll do more stuff. How, what and when, we don't know. At the moment I'm glad for having it finished.

SB: So this is your first independent publication?

W&C: It's the most professional independent print we’ve done. We’re used to cheap photocopied comics. But we only printed a 100 of Napagie/Ysterhart. At the moment it's kind of a "test". See if it goes down well and sells. Then we might think of doing another run.

SB: I hear the combo comic is making its way to the Grahamstown Fest. Any expectations?

W&C: Who knows. Sucks not being there. But it's hopefully some exposure for us to the very small local comic community. But there are some big names like Zapiro, Rico, Anton Kannemeyer and artists from France, Belgium and Switzerland like Eric Kriek, Jacques de Lousta and JP Kalonji who are also exhibiting. So it's very cool to be part of it and hopefully someone will take notice because we really think we have something that's of a good standard.

We felt that at the CCIBA symposium last year that there was quite a negative perception of Strika Entertainment and the corporate side of our work. I think we're out on a mission to represent a bit. I think this company is producing this country's best comics at the moment and is creating a massive audience of comic readers. Strika injection into this field is huge and I feel I owe allot to this company in honing my comic skills and yeah... it's really nice to show off I guess.

SB: What advice can you give others who want to go indie and tell their own stories?

W&C: Make sure you have a story to tell that will keep you motivated to do the work - because it's all self motivated. And start small. Your own ideas can be so big that you struggle to get anything done. And you will have to work hard. If you have never done a one page story then don't dream of doing a 60 page graphic novel. Dream of doing a one page story and getting it published. Then you can plan for a two pager. And so on...

Don’t miss ChrisB’s work on Supa Tigers 67 and Willem’s work on Supa Strikas 107, coming soon. Also, check out more of their stuff here:

http://razor-rabbit.deviantart.com/gallery/

http://willemsamuel.blogspot.com/