Team Celflux to the rescue

Okira is a young adult from the world of Newgenisia, a land made up of six realms, each with their own people, traits and prejudices.

The land had been ravaged by war for a thousand years until peace was brokered by a group called The Keepers, led by the high councillor. When the high councillor decides to subjugate the world, Okira must bring together a team of super-powered individuals from the various realms to oppose them. She has the ability to manipulate substances down to a molecular level and uses her powers to heal others. Though her abilities make her extremely powerful they also drain her physically.

Celflux was co-created by Everard McBain Jr and his wife Dixie Ann Archer-McBain.

“I have always been infatuated with drawing, Bain says in his bio. He wrote about falling in love with comic books in the 1980s and was inspired to create his own crude comics to entertain his schoolmates.

“I always tell the story of how I was often scolded in school - by my father and my teachers - for drawing cartoon characters in my school exercise books. Super Friends, Space Ghost, The Herculoids were some of my favourites. They saw it as idleness and time wasting. My mother was the one, in her wisdom, who for my birthday gave me a gift of a sketch pad and a Flintstones colouring book, and instructed me to exercise my creativity in those rather than my school books.

Thus began my graphic design career.” Creating comics became just a dream which he shelved to earn a living. But the dream would get new life in 2013 when he and his wife, who shares his passion for cartoons and anime, found themselves watching a lot of it.

“I suppose this is what reawakened the comic book creator in me. Those dreams so long laid dormant began to resurface. I once again felt excitement about creating stories and characters. Before long my wife and I were toying with the idea.” He noted that he now had the technology, the Internet and the means to create a comic. Despite the fact that he was not a professional comic book artist and neither of them w e r e w r i t - ers they were inspired by self-publ i s h i n g p l a t - f o r m s .

T h e y looked at a lot of tutorials and read a lot of articles and continue to do so as they improve their craft.

Searching for source material McBain “dug up” old books he had created all those years ago with the crude drawings and started working on building characters based off of those early designs. “My wife and I did a great deal of brainstorming and worked on the story. We’ve jumped headlong into it and haven’t looked back since. It has all been an exciting experience of learning and discovery,” he tells Sunday Newsday.

“She’s the boss,” he offered with a smile, pointing out that in the covers of both issues of their comic her name comes first. He said that while he does most of the “heavy lifting” including the artwork, lettering and animation, none of it would be possible without his wife. He bounce ideas off of her, she gives him story ideas and helps with decisions. When he pulls his all-nighters “she is right there with me.” Archer-McBain’s bio tells of her love for reading novels, a habit from her mother.

“We didn’t have much when I was growing up, but I remember my mother always reclining with a good book. So from a very early age, I would follow her lead and read novels and I still do up to this day. I’ve lost count of how many books I have read over the years.” She never really read comic books growing up, explaining that while she did not have anything against them she never had the opportunity to read them as she did with novels. She works in the accounts field and admits, “I never considered myself a writer or thought about writing my own stories until I met my husband.” “We both shared a love for cartoons, anime, and movies. All that movie watching opened my mind to the possibilities of creating my own stories. When Everard shared with me the characters that have been with him since he was a child, I actually got attached to them and quickly saw them as personalities who had stories we could tell.

It was a whole new world and it was a lot of fun learning and discovering,” she tells Sunday Newsday.

McBain said the character Okira has been with him since 1997, and when he and his wife decided to publish a comic book he “polished the character”.

He explained that her personality is loosely based on strong female individuals he has had privilege of having in his life, namely his mother, sister and his wife. His mother never finished school but had a lot common sense and faced challenges she thought she would never be able to overcome them.

He recalled that when he was “scribbling in exercise books” his mother, instead of scolding him, tried to “fan the flame of creativity she saw in me.” “I had the pleasure and privilege of having a strong black woman in my life.” Okira, also a strong woman, faces the challenges to her world, family and loved ones without knowing if she would be able to overcome them.

McBain said the message they want to communicate is that the only way to overcome obstacles is if each of us, despite our differences, issues and baggage, work together. He explained that the characters are inspired by the local Spiritual Baptist community, the Maasai tribe of Kenya and ancient Egypt. Okira wears an Egyptian ankh.

She is able to boost the powers of her five teammates: Ahoteh, a martial artist with agility and speed; Samantha, who can fly and turn her body into an impenetrable, crystal-like substance; Stephen who is a tech wizard and cyborg; Raymond (McBain’s personal favourite as he is based on some of his own personality) who can communicate with machines and use the parts of one machine to create another; and Shandrita, a hot tempered, reserved individual who can generate fire.

The villains are the high councillor, imperial commander Genocyde, special forces commander Indigo and ruthless princess Sarah. The couple published the first issue of Celflux in October 30, 2014, through a company called CreateSpace and it was made available on Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and Comixology and DriveThruComics. Their second issue was published May 21, 2015.

The genesis of the Celflux animated film came when McBain’s decided to create a trailer to market the comic. He wanted an 80s style trailer modeled after cartoons he watched growing up - Thundercats, Silverhawks and Transformers.

But when he contacted US companies for quotations for a 30-second trailer the cost was “astronomical.” He then wondered if he could make the trailer himself.

The self-taught artist became a self-taught animator, teaching himself with videos on YouTube.

He posted the trailer online and “people really liked it.” It caught the attention of Camille Selvon-Abrahams, festival director of local animation festival Animae Caribe, and she invited them to set up a table at the festivals 2016 edition.

“We really appreciated that and got the opportunity introduce the characters.” McBain said people were impressed that it had been done by one person. He then considered the possibility of an animated short and discussed with his wife applying the same principles he had used for the trailer for something longer.

He went online and on a forum for voice actors was able to put together a team of 12 people, most based in the US and a couple from the UK. He explained that they were impressed with the project and wanted to be a part of it. With the cast and original music score from Belgium-born composer Gwena?l Mario Grisi, they produced a teaser and then a full trailer on May 26 for the planned animated short, Celflux The Secret Weapon. McBain did the sound effects, sound mixing and editing and the process, which he described as “a task” took five months.

When FilmTT general manager Nneka Luke announced a call for people interested in receiving grants for local films, they jumped at the opportunity. They submitted Celflux and Luke was impressed with the project and they received a grant.

McBain recalled that a representative from CreativeTT , parent company of FilmTT , said they were excited to see something like Celflux and were surprised that it had not only been done by locals but by just a husband and wife team.

“We thank Selvon-Abrahams, who got the ball rolling and our name out there, and Luke and her team for taking a chance on us and investing in the project.” For the animated short they are aiming at 15-20 minutes and they plan to release it in December, likely on a video on demand or streaming service.

On the future of Celflux, he said they have material for more comics down the road. And if someone told him they wanted to make it into an animated series, “I would not complain.” He described it as a “labour of love” and it was moving to know that people would see it and think it is worth investing time, energy and money into it.

For more information on Celflux check visit celflux.com or their Facebook page.