Afua Richardson is an African-Native American artist. She did covers for five issues of Marvel's '' World of Wakanda'' and art for a short story backup in the first issue. Her comic, ''Genius'', with writers Marc Bernardin and Adam Freeman won Top Cow's 2008 Pilot Season. She illustrated a Langston Hughes poem in 2014 for NPR's ''Black History Month'', and did variant covers for several comic book titles including ''All Star Batman'' for DC comics, ''Attack on Titan'' for Kodansha, ''Mad Max'' for Vertigo, as well as covers/variant covers for ''X-Men '92'', ''Totally Awesome Hulk'', ''Shuri'', and ''Captain America and the Mighty Avengers'' at Marvel Comics. She was one of a small group of African American women artists who were employed by the "big two" comic publishers at the time she entered the industry.

Biography

Richardson was raised in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. From a family of scientists, she studied classical

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

from age nine. As a flautist, she performed with ensembles at

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

and on ''

Soul Train ''Soul Train'' is an American musical variety television show. After airing locally on WCIU-TV in Chicago, Illinois, for a year, it aired in syndication from October 2, 1971, to March 25, 2006. In its 35-year history, the show primarily featu ...

''. She also performed with Sheila E. and

Parliament-Funkadelic Parliament-Funkadelic (abbreviated as P-Funk) is an American musical collective, music collective of rotating musicians headed by George Clinton (funk musician), George Clinton, primarily consisting of the funk bands Parliament (band), Parliame ...

. She was a

backup singer A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

, a

beatboxer Beatboxing (also, and sometimes, called beat boxing) is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of mimicking drum machines (usually a TR-808), using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice.

, a background dancer on ''

MTV Jams Black Entertainment Television (BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting Black American audiences. It is the flagship channel of the BET Media Group, a subsidiary of Paramount Global's CBS Entertainment Group. Originally launched as ...

'' and appeared in an

off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

show with

Melvin Van Peebles Melvin Van Peebles (born Melvin Peebles; August 21, 1932 – September 21, 2021) was an American actor, filmmaker, writer, and composer. He worked as an active filmmaker into the early 2020s. His feature film debut, ''The Story of a Three-Day Pa ...

. She is part of the musical collective Future Soul Society, and recorded with Alexa Edmonds Lima under the name 'Afua & Alexa'. Richardson is a self-trained artist. She was a member of the now defunct

Ormes Society The Ormes Society is an online group that promotes black women who work in the comic book industry. The organization is named after Jackie Ormes, a pioneering African-American comic artist. History The Ormes Society was founded in 2007 by artis ...

, which promoted African-American women in the comics industry. For the comic book series, ''Genius'' (2007), she worked with writers Marc Bernardin and Adam Freeman to tell the story through the voice of a black woman, Destiny Ajaye. Richardson's experience of being a minority in the United States influenced her work. In ''Genius,'' she draws violent acts in a way that is both "matter-of-fact and highly stylized," according to

ComicsAlliance ComicsAlliance is an American website dedicated to covering the comic book industry as well as comic-related media, and is owned by Townsquare Media. The site has been nominated for multiple awards including a 2015 Eisner Award win in the categ ...

. She portrays Ajaye's thought processes and David Brothers called it "instantly understandable and worthy of poring over."

Awards

In 2011, Richardson received the Nina Simone Award for Artistic Achievement as one of the few African-American women comic book artists to work for the leading publishers in the field.

Bibliography

Interior art

* '' World of Wakanda'' #1 (2017) (backup short story)

Top Cow

* ''Genius'' (2007)

Cover work

DC

* ''

Warren Ellis Warren Girard Ellis (born 16 February 1968) is an English comic book writer, novelist, and screenwriter. He is best known as the co-creator of several original comics series, including ''Transmetropolitan'' (1997–2002), ''Global Frequency'' ...

WildStorm Wildstorm Productions (stylized as WildStorm) is an American comic book imprint. Originally founded as an independent company established by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi to publish through Image Comics, Wildstorm became a publishing imprint of DC C ...

'' #2 – Variant (2017) * ''All Star Batman #1'' – Variant (2016)

Marvel

* '' Captain Marvel'' #4 – Variant (2016) * '' Totally Awesome Hulk'' #2 – Variant (2016) * '' X-Men '92'' #1 – Variant (2016) * '' Captain America and the Mighty Avengers'' #14 – Variant (2015) * '' World of Wakanda'' #1–#5 (2017)

Image

* ''Black Magick'' #3 – Variant (2016)

Other art

* ''Attack on Titan Anthology'' – Pinup (2016) * ''Mad Max Fury Road Artist Book'' – Two-Page Spread (2016) * ''The Negro Speaks of Rivers'' – Illustrations of the Langston Hughes Poem set to Narration for NPR (2014)

References

External links

*
Richardson on Tumblr

NC Comicon Interview 2016

Atlanta Geek Scene Interview 2016

The Negro Speaks of Rivers 2014
{{DEFAULTSORT:Richardson, Afua 21st-century American artists 21st-century American women artists African-American musicians American flautists DC Comics people Living people Marvel Comics people 1980 births 21st-century African-American artists 20th-century African-American artists Artists from New York City