Comic Artist Frank Odoi Killed in a Road Accident

Information just reaching our newsrooms is that one of Africa’s most prominent comic artists, Kenya-based Ghanaian Frank Odoi was killed in a road accident.

According to a Nation Media Group Executive Editor Charles Onyango-Obbo, Frank Odoi was killed in a road accident on Saturday 21st April 2012, and his family only received the news about two days later. The accident took place on Nairobi’s busy Jogoo Road as the bus he was in veered off the road to avoid a bicycle. Two other people died in the accident, with over 25 other passengers being injured.

Frank Odoi was one of Africa’s leading comics artists. He was born in Western Ghana in, but moved to Nairobi in the late 1970s. His work has been published across Kenya, Uganda, Ghana and Tanzania, including one of his most popular recent works, the epic animation series ‘Ako-Khan’ that used to appear in a local daily for a long period of time.

When asked in an interview with Kimani wa Wanjiru what inspired him to come up with Ako-Khan, Odoi said:

‘I read the Superman, Batman and other super hero stories as a child. The power of the western superhero is derived from scientific sources and thus easily explainable. So I created Akokhan, an African superhero, whose power sources are unexplainable. Call it magic, but then when you breath life into fantasy, it stops being magic… bringing fantasy and African roots-religion together gave me Akokhan.’

Odoi has also illustrated several public education comics for various development agencies with some of his most famous work including the ‘Golgoti’ series, which appeared in newspapers in Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda. He was also featured on BBC Radio and BBC Focus on Africa Magazine.

President Moi also handed Odoi a ‘Best Cartoonist Award’ in the early 2000s.