




































CHAPTER  17: 
CREATIVE PROCESSES AND TECHNIQUES 

IN A NEW GRAPHIC LITERATURE ON THE 

NIGERIA/BIAFRA WAR 
 

Contributed by  

Chidiebere Onwuekwe and Chu Krydz Ikwuemesi 

 

INTRODUCTION 

Between 2016 and 2023, Chidiebere Onwuekwe embarked on his 

doctoral journey in the Nsukka Art School. He pursued a PhD in 

Fine Art and Design which is a new programme in the school. 

Apart from the dissertation report, the findings of his reseach 

birthed a one hundred and forty-page graphic novel on the 

Nigeria/Biafra conflict. The work focused on Achuzia’s exploits as 

a Biafran Militia and Army officer. Soon after the approval his 

research topic entitled “A graphic novel of Joseph Achuzia’s 

Exploits in Nigeria/Biafra War, 1967 to 1970, and with the 

approval of his supervisor, he embarked on his first field trip to the 

War Museum in Umuahia where he did an achiaval research. He 

went into a stretching literature review on the conflict. Again, 

Onwuekwe conducted oral interviews on selected survivors of the 

War. With these endeavours successfully completed, he 

redeployed  the data in the studio and worked on comic script, 

forming a storyline for the work. 

 The main problem of the research arose as a result of a lack 

of attention to making print and electronic graphic literature of 

Nigeria/Biafra niches by Nigerian comic book Artists, and that 

Achuzia’s exploits have never been considered to be recreated as a 

Graphic literature (Onwuekwe, 2023:4). This is so because most 



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Nigerian artists focus mainly on African Superheroes that do not 

differ much from western comic heroes. 

 For data and fact gathering, the scholar used literature 

review, oral interview and filed trip to War museum in umuahia. 

During ideation and concept development, he studied war-niche 

movies, war photos from online archives and made preliminary 

sketches according to the story. The processes went as follows: 

pencilling, colouring with Manga Studio application, Page layout 

design (Onwuekwe, 2023:44) 

 At the end of the research, a one hundred and forty-page 

colour booklet was produced after a rigorous procedure. The work 

titled “Hannibal of theSun Country” is the first graphic novel of 

Nigeria/Biafra War niche. 

Thus, this chapter identifies and discusses of the various 

creative processes applied by the the artist in arriving at a full 

colour graphic novel at the end of  his programme. 

 

Purpose of  the Study 

 This study focuses on identifying various creative process 

used in making the first Graphic Novel on Nigeria/Biafra 

Conflict. 

 

 The identified processes will be arranged such that they 

can be replicated by other scholars. 

 

About the Book 

Onwuekwe and Uka (2023:26) describe the work in full detail:  

The project is a graphic novel, and it typically looks like a 

comic book, but it is longer and more substantial work, with a 

more intricate and involving storyline. The work is titled 

“Achuzia: Surviving  Federal Onslaught”. The Front Matter 

has a cover page, copyright, foreword and table of contents, 

the body matter contains 9 chapters. The end matter is just a 



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leaf with an epilogue.  Every chapter has a sub-heading and a 

picture that follows it. The novel combines elements of 

traditional literature with sequential art, using images and text, 

including figures of sound, to tell the story. The format of a 

graphic novel can vary, but this work includes multiple panels 

on each page, with a minimum of two, and one panel on rare 

occasions. with text and dialogue incorporated into the panels 

themselves or in captions below them. The artworks have been 

rendered to have sharp tonal contrasts between the mid-tone 

and shades.  

The title of the work was changed from “Achuzia: Surviving the 

Federal Onslaught” to “Hannibal of the Rising Sun”. Culled from 

the encomium of the work, the following extract gives a brief 

description of the work: 
“In the heart of Nigeria's darkest hour, a hero emerged from 

the ashes of war. This work is a gripping graphic novel that 

transports you to the tumultuous landscape and sections of the 

Biafra War, a conflict that tore a nation apart. Colonel Joe 

Achuzia, a symbol of unwavering resistance, takes centre stage 

in this epic tale of courage, and survival. 

As Nigeria plunges into chaos and violence, follow Achuzia 

and a cast of unforgettable characters as they navigate the 

treacherous terrain of war, forging bonds, making sacrifices, 

and finding hope in the most unlikely of places.Through 

vividly illustrated pages and a compelling narrative, Hannibal 

of the Sun Country immerses you in the harsh realities of a war-

torn nation, where every decision carries life-or-death 

consequences. This graphic novel is more than a historical 

account; it's a tribute to the resilience of the Biafran people and 

a reminder that in the face of adversity, ordinary individuals 

can become extraordinary heroes.” 

 

This brief summary has given a hint to what any curious 

reader would expect on perusing through the pages of the work. 



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Describing the features and content of the work, Onwuekwe (2023) 

in his First Critic Session, writes on  the content of the work thus: 

 

Identified Design Processes in the Novel 

a. Ideation and Concept development: Ideation is a crucial 

phase in the creative process as it lays the foundation for the final 

artwork or design. Ideation also involves exploring various visual 

concepts, themes, and artistic techniques. Artists may experiment 

with different materials, styles, colours, compositions, and subjects 

to develop their ideas. A combination of the resources from a field 

trip, literature review and oral interviews aided in the study of the 

settings and time of occurrence of the conflict. Again, further 

studies were carried out on architectural style, civilian vehicles, 

apparel, hairstyle, camouflage patterns of officers on both sides, 

weapons, food, furniture, gadgets, and the environment, among 

others. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Fig 1: ideation and preliminary sketches:  

The researcher’s work process 



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. 

 

Fig 2: Scanned pencil sketch Source: The researcher’s work process 

 

b. Digital Inking: Digital inking allows artists to delineate  

using digital drawing tablets, styluses, and specialized software 

which reflects on the screen of the computer  or tablet. It offers 

various advantages, such as the ability to easily correct mistakes, 

manipulate line thickness, and work in a non-destructive manner. 

All sketches were scanned and saved as JPEGs.   

 

Pencil lines are traced using ball pens of varying points. Then, the 

pencil marks are erased before scanning. For the digital procedure, 

the pencil marks are scanned and traced with the graphic tablet on 

Manga Studio 5. 

 



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Fig 2:  Detailed digital inking on Manga studio 5 from scanned drawings. 

Source: the researcher’s work process 

c. Digital Colouring: In the 1990s, with the application of 

computer technology, digital painting art was born, its full use of 

computer science and technology perfected painting art to a new 

realm, as the darling of the new era, covering many industries such 

as film, packaging, advertising, comics, animation, games, the 

Internet and so on. Digital painting art is not only a simple change 

in the traditional art of painting but also the perfect fusion of 

science and technology and the representative of the development 

of space, larger than we cannot imagine (Cui, 2017 p 1430).  

 

Working on digital interfaces, there are many software packages 

for digital art. The best among them are Adobe Photoshop and 

Adobe Illustrator. Manga Studio 5 is also proficient. Others are 

Corel Painter, Clip Studio Paint, Paint Tool, etc.  According to 

Samah, Putih and Hussin (2016: 59)  



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The application of digital colouring technique allows the 

artist to create brush strokes on the surface of another 

image. The image source can also be blurred. The 

background painting can be manipulated to obtain a more 

artistic effect. This technique allows the paintings to be 

constructed in layers. Painting special effects such as 

various brushes, a colour mixture between layers and 

strokes joining are also possible. Blending is used to 

simulate the colour in varying degrees of opacity. 

Such creativity and technique was used to render colours on the 

panels in layers. One of the most importeant effects used was  the 

gradient shade effect which allows the flow of one colour into 

another. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Plate 1: The gradient shade effect was used to create a smooth flow and to 

depict depth and aerial perspective. Source: Screenshot from researcher’s work 

process 

 



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285 

 

Note that the gradient effect was applied mainly on the background 

layer to shade large expanse of spaces. What follows next is the 

selective filling using the magic wand and the paint bucket tools. 

The Magic Wand Tool is a feature commonly found in graphic 

design and image editing software, such as Adobe Photoshop. It is 

a selection tool that allows users to quickly and automatically select 

areas of an image based on colour similarity (Shadid, 2023), or 

even an enclosed space such as a line drawing. Once an enclosed 

space is selected, it is easy to further render that portion alone with 

digital inks and brushes such as seen below: 

 

 
Plate 2: A paint bucket tool was used to fill ink-enclosed areas occasionally,  

and brush tools were used to paint the darker tones and faded shrubs.  

Source: Screenshot from researcher’s work process 

 

 

 



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Design of Camouflage Patterns  

During the Civil War, fighters on both sides wore varying 

camouflage patterns. The reason was to identify the foe on the 

battlefield. While the Biafran side wore lighter green khaki with 

circular patterns of dark green and brown,  the Nigerian side wore 

a darker khaki with striped dark green and brown patterns. 

However, only officers of the regular Biafran army, starting from 

the lieutenant, wore the camouflage pattern. It is not the case all the 

time as there was a scarcity of uniforms during the War, and efforts 

were made to manufacture them locally. In an interview with 

Njelita (2020), he affirmed that certain artists of Nsukka Art School 

championed the dyeing of camouflaged uniforms with his crew in 

Orlu province.  In the Nigerian Army, Commando units in all 

divisions wore camouflage patterns. This was so because there was 

a sufficient supply of arms and uniforms by both Britain and Russia 

during the War. 

 

 
 

Plate 3: Note that the camouflage patterns on Biafran and Nigerian sides are 

not the same. Source: google.com 

 



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Plate 4: The camouflage design was done on Photoshop application through 

layering and tracing, then saved as a PSD file. Source: Researcher’s work 

process 

 

Plate 5: The PSD file was opened on Manga Studio, dragged and dropped on 

the spot where it was needed. Source: Researcher’s work process. 

 

 



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Plate 6: With the auto selection still tool active, a pen tool was used to shade 

the body, adding tonal value to it Source: Researcher’s work process. 

 

Design and fixture of Insignias 

Whether it is called a logo, badge, marker, banner, coat of arms, or 

insignia, it is a visible design which represents a phenomenon, a 

country, an idea, a society, or an organization. Insignias come with 

beliefs and ideologies. For example, the Christian insignia is the 

Crucifix. The Red Cross is noted by the red equal-armed cross on 

a white background. For nearly 150 years, the emblem of the Red 

Cross against a white background has served as an internationally 

recognized symbol and the visible expression of the neutral 

assistance and protection to which the wounded and sick are 

entitled in times of armed conflict (ICRC, 2020). During the 

Nigerian Civil War, both sides had a national coat of arms, and the 

Military on both sides had differing military badges, and different 

flag patches representing various units. It was easy to identify one 

another on the battlefield at the beginning of the War. Images of 

the insignias were not sketched but downloaded and modified on 

Photoshop, and fixed in places where necessary on the panels. 



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Plate 7: Placed side by side is the Biafran and Nigerian coat of arms, fixed on  

the caps of high-ranking officers with horps leaves, especially during 

ceremonies. Source: Google images 

 

 
 

Plate 8: Shaded illustration of a Biafran officer giving an order for his men to 

retreat. As a high-ranking officer, the insignias must be present. Source: 

Screenshot from the researcher’s work process. 



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 Plate 9: The badges and rank insignia were cropped, filtered with 

effects, scaled and skewed to fit the given space. Source: Screenshot from the 

researcher’s work process. 

 

Speech Balloons, Narrative Captions, and Sound Effects 

Speech balloons and thought bubbles are graphical outlines used to 

present characters’ speeches and thoughts as the pictures unfold in 

two-dimensional space. Cohn (2013:1) opines that speech balloons 

and thought bubbles are among the most recognizable visual signs 

of the visual language used in comics and that the enclosed graphic 

containers provide a way in which text and image can interface 

with each other. Integration of texts with images makes the work 

whole and meaningful. Below, steps undertaken to form befitting 

speech balloons are explained hereunder. The shapes of the 

balloons and narrative boxes are drawn according to the positions 

of the images in the boxes.  

 The importance of lettering in narrative art such as comics 

and graphic novels can no longer be over-emphasized as it forms 

the dialogues within the panels. It is also the letters that position 

the readers in an omnipresent point of view, in the sense that 



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readers see or hear things before they happen, by way of reading 

the letters within the pages. 

 It is preferable to create custom speech balloon tools using 

the vector shape tools on CorelDraw. This allows for more 

flexibility and handling in rigid spaces. Shape tools were required 

to create the balloon, and the pointers were created with the shape 

tool. Once the nodes are closed, it becomes a completely 

modifiable vector shape. 

 

Plate 10:   Clicking of points to draw vector lines. Source: Screenshot from 

researcher’s work process 

 

Plate 11: New vector pointer shape created on CorelDraw layout using the 

‘shape tool”. Source: Screenshot from researcher’s work process 

 



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Plate 12:  The two shapes joined eventually to form a new one.  

Source: Screenshot from researcher’s work process. 

 

 
 

Plate 13:  Cover Art by Chidiebere Onwuekwe, 2023 

 

 



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Plate 14:  Page 47 and 51 of the book with all the narrative features. 

 Chidiebere Onwuekwe, 2023 

 

Summary 

This chapter described the creative processes applied in birthing a 

graphic novel on Nigeria/Biafra conflict entitled “Hannibal of the 

Rising Sun”. It started with Ideation and concept development 

where the weapons, apparels, buildings and vehicles used at that 

time were tudied via sketches. The next step was the digitization of 

the pencil line via tracing on a new layer. Following was adding of 

colours; from gradient shade, fills to detailed brush and ink 

shading. The study hinted on the importance of paint bucket and 

magic wand tools in color renderings. Again, the study explain the 

process of fixture of insignias on caps and uniforms of soldiers on 

both sides. Finally, the study narrated the steps applied making of 



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custom speech balloons and narrative boxes for the panels, using 

the CorelDraw vector application. 

 

Questions 

 What are the various creative steps used in birthing the 

Graphic novel entitled Hannibal of the Rising Sun? 

 What are the following tools used for: Magic Wand tool 

and Paint Bucket tool 

 Explain the process of creating camoflage textures on flat 

uniforms using Photoshop 

 

References 

Onwuekwe, C. O. (2023), A Graphic Novel on Joseph Achuzia’s 

Exploits in Nigerian/Biafran War, from 1967 to 1970. A 

PhD Dissertation Submitted to the Department of Fine and 

Applied Arts, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. 

Onwuekwe, C. O. (2023), Hannibal of the Rising Sun. Awka: 

Netizens Print Media 

Onwuekwe and Uka (2023:23), ‘One-nigeria’ or secession? A 

conflict of Ideologies in a new Graphic Novel of the 

Nigeria-Biafra Struggle (1967-1970). Journal of Fine Arts, 

Vol..No..Illnois: SRYAHWA Publications 

Cui, J. (2017), Research on Digital Painting Art and Its 

Diversified Performance. 3rd International Conference on 

Economics, Social Science, Arts, Education and 

Management Engineering. Advances in Social Science, 

Education and Humanities Research, volume 119. Paris: 

Atlantis Press 

Shadid, Y. (2023). What is a magic wand tool? 

https://medium.com/@y.shahid08/what-is-a-magic-wand-

tool-69f97837a669. Assessed November 26, 2023 

 

Samah, A.A., Putih , A.T., & Hussin, Z. (2016). Digital Tools: 

Enhancing Painting Skills among Malaysian Secondary 



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295 

 

School Students. TOJET: The Turkish Online Journal of 

Educational Technology – July 2016, volume 15 issue 3 

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1106372.pdf. Assessed 

October 16, 2023 

Cohn, N. (2013). Beyond word balloons and thought bubbles: The 

integration of text and image. Semiotica. 2013(197): 35-

63. 


