The Four Color Media Monitor

Here's an article on Business Insider's South African site covering the subject of a non-profit business developing some comic trading cards with superheroic imagery on them:

They may not be faster than a speeding bullet, or more powerful than a locomotive, or able to jump tall buildings in a single leap but these South African researchers are superheroes in the world of science – and certainly deserving of a spot in the limelight.

This was one of the driving factors that motivated mild-mannered Justin Yarrow, founder of Durban based science education non-profit CodeMakers, to 'transform' them into superhero trading cards that are spreading like wildfire across South African schools and the internet.

"When you ask kids to name a scientist, they almost always say Einstein… fundamentally the idea is that kids see scientists as old and white. Frankly it limits people's imaginations, when they don't know how cool science really is. They don't have an image of what a real scientist looks like," said Yarrow.

If this were coming from US sources working for conglomerates, it'd be far more heavily politicized. But, there is a valid point that scientific figures aren't just limited to the US, and can be found in many places across south Africa as well, and also Europe, Asia and south America. Something US publishers for comics and cards don't emphasize seriously in all their bubble mentality. I'll wish the publishers of these trading cards good luck in marketing them, and a non-profit can have what it takes to do a better emphasis on these ideas, though I'd still remind everyone that science fiction shouldn't be limited to just superhero imagery.

Labels: Africa, sales, science, technology