Afua Richardson

Afua Richardson [Pronounced Uh-FOO-wah] is an American illustrator best known for her work on the Eisner winning series Black Panther World of Wakanda. Other works include Xmen 92, All-Star Batman, and HBO's Lovecraft Country directed by Misha Green and Produced by JJ Abrams and Jordan Peele. In addition to being an illustrator, Afua is a singer/ Songwriter, Musician and voice actor, and mentor to many aspiring artists. She is the creator of her upcoming series Aquarius the Book of Mer.

Her father, William Edward Richardson is a decorated Military officer, physicist, and teacher. His support was essential to her work ethic and sticktoitiveness in difficult times. She attended Laguardia High School for the Performing Arts, participating in an undergrad program at Julliard. In the spirit of The Nina Simone award she received for artistic excellence, she has been aptly called a Jane of All Trades.

Afua played with various groups across many different genres of music. at 17 she joined an all-female hip-hop crew; ' The Anomalies' as a human beat-box artist, at 21 an R&B soul duo ScarletBlue. at 23 she toured as a background singer and session vocalist and in 2016 released an album an eclectic soul trio Waking Astronomer. She's shared stages with Shelia E, Parliment Funkadelic, opening for Alicia keys, Raphael Sadiq and appearing on Soul train singing background for artist Urban Mystic.

In 2008 Afua was cast in Sir Melvin Van Peebles in his Broadway show, Brer Soul [renamed An Unmitigated Truth] as an actor, vocalist and flute player where she transformed into 6 different main roles in a single night. All the while carrying a sketchbook and honing her craft as an illustrator, not having a computer of her own to work from, and getting office jobs just to use photoshop during lunch breaks to learn.

Although she was a self-taught illustrator she began creating comics professionally under the alias 'Lakota Sioux' in 2004. After being featured in the Eisner award-winning Anthology series '24 Seven' by Ivan Brandon and various other contributors, In 2006, her cover for Jim Bott's " Half Dead" horror series debuted her Marvel career. Today, Afua is known for her vivid colors, striking characters and non-traditional representations of [super] humanity.