Iyanu: Child of Wonder (2022)

Iyanu, Child of Wonder 🇳🇬

So, Cartoon Network & HBO Max just greenlit a new Nigerian show today!!

I’m really excited about this. I’m happy that the entertainment industry is starting to showcase & are developing more black centric stories with African mythology. It’s been needed for a LONG time.

“Iyanu: Child of Wonder, is a superhero tale set in the magical kingdom of Yorubaland, which draws from Nigerian culture & mythology. Iyanu, a teenage orphan who spends her days studying Yoruba history and ancient arts. One day, responding to danger, she unknowingly triggers her divine powers, that had not been seen since the Age of Wonders. With newly discovered superpowers, Iyanu joins forces with two other teenagers as they embark on a remarkable journey to discover the truth about the evil lurking in her homeland. Throughout her adventure, she’ll uncover the truth about her past, her parents, and her ultimate destiny to save the world. The series is created by Roye Okupe.”

I’m getting a vibe that it’s gonna be more kid-friendly, but will have serious storyline. I’m thinking something like Kipo & The Age of Wonderbeasts meets Avatar: The Last Airbender, but with African mythology & an entirely unique story. YESSSS I CAN’T WAIT!! Definitely gonna read the books now.

Link: “More Black Lead Fantasy Sci-Fi Shows & Movies”

Update: SERIES COMING IN 2024

What’s up book buddies?

I can't believe it's February already. Time is just zooming by these days! How are the books coming along?

What's everyone reading this month?

I somehow suckered myself into reading two books and an audiobook this month. Actually, I should have finished one book last month, but I didn’t. 🫣

Currently reading/listening:

📖 A Game of Fates- Hades Saga (yes, I still haven’t finished it but I’m workin it!)

📖 Iyanu Child of Wonder vol 1 (it’s a Nigerian graphic novel!)

🎧 Spare by Prince Harry (it’s an emotional book. I’ve had to take several breaks after some chapters.)

You will have my thoughts on them soon. Hope you’re enjoying your current book too! Happy Reading!

OXOX

Sincerely,

Veronica

Lion Forge Entertainment heads to Virtuous Con with an exclusive first look at 'Iyanu' Animated Series

Lion Forge Entertainment heads to Virtuous Con with an exclusive first look at 'Iyanu' Animated Series #virtuouscon #animation

Virtuous Con, the premier online convention celebrating independent Black creators, proudly announces a captivating panel discussion called “The Magic of Iyanu: The Creation of an Animated Series” centered around the highly anticipated animated series, Iyanu. Sponsored by the Academy Award-winning production studio Lion Forge Entertainment, this exclusive event offers attendees an inside look…

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Supa Team 4 Spoiler-Filled Review

Supa Team 4 is a computer-generated superhero action-comedy series. Malenga Mulendema is the series creator and co-executive producer. Trigger Fish Animation Studios, known for the recent animated series Kiya and the Kimoja Heroes and Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire, and various television specials and films. Reprinted from Pop Culture Maniacs and Wayback Machine. This was the forty-fifth article I…

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Uncovering the Secrets of Yorubaland with the Creators of ‘Iyanu’

Uncovering Secrets with the Creators of ‘Iyanu’ #Iyanu @lionforge @LionForgeDave

In 2023, the world will meet Iyanu! Based on the acclaimed Dark Horse graphic novel, Iyanu: Child of Wonder, HBO Max is teaming with Lion Forge Animation to bring the world its first Nigerian/Yoruban inspired animated fantasy epic series. And The Nerds of Color was able to get an exclusive look with creators, David Steward II and Saxton Moore. (more…)

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Is your favorite cartoon partially animated in North Korea?

For almost a decade, Nick Roy has been scanning North Korea’s tiny internet presence, spotting new websites coming online and providing a glimpse of the Hermit Kingdoms’ digital life. However, at the end of last year, the cybersecurity researcher and DPRK blogger stumbled across something new: signs North Koreans are working on major international TV shows.

In December, Roy discovered a misconfigured cloud server on a North Korean IP address containing thousands of animation files. Included in the cache were animation cells, videos, and notes discussing the work, plus changes that needed to be made to ongoing projects. Some images appeared to be from an Amazon Prime Video superhero show and an upcoming Max (aka HBO Max) children’s anime.

The findings and security lapse—detailed in a report by the Stimson Center think tank's North Korea–focused 38 North Project, which helped analyze the findings along with Google-owned security firm Mandiant—provide a glimpse at how North Korea can use skilled IT and tech workers to raise funds for its heavily sanctioned regime. It also comes as US officials increasingly warn about North Korean IT workers infiltrating companies and their outsourcing.

North Korea’s internet is a small—and fragile—space. The repressive nation only has 1,024 IP addresses and around 30 websites that connect to the global internet. While there is a limited internal intranet, only a few thousand of the country’s 26 million people can get on the internet. When they do, it’s highly controlled: These select few North Koreans can use the internet for an hour at a time and have a person sitting next to them approving their use every five minutes.

When Roy discovered the exposed cloud server, it was being updated on a daily basis. Martyn Williams, a senior fellow on the 38 North Project who helped analyze the contents of the server, says the server likely allowed work to be sent to and from North Korean animators. The server itself is still live, but it mysteriously stopped being used at the end of February. While there is a login page, its contents can be accessed without a username and password. “I found the login page after I found all the exposed files,” Roy says.

Inside, the files contained editing comments and instructions in Chinese which were translated to Korean, the researchers write in their report. “For a lot of the animation files, we would find things like spreadsheets with details of the workflow,” Williams says. A sample of the files shared with WIRED show detailed anime images and video clips, with notes for the authors and date stamps on various files. In one instance, the report says, an animator was “asked to improve the shape of the character’s head.”

Based on the documents and drawings, the researchers were able to identify some of the shows and projects the North Koreans were working on. Some of the projects included work from season 3 of the Amazon show Invincible, which is produced by California-based Skybound Entertainment. There were also documents linked to Max and Cartoon Network show Iyanu: Child of Wonder, produced by YouNeek Studios, as well as files from a Japanese anime series and an animation studio in Japan.

Some file names gave away clues about the series and episode numbers. There were also files and projects the researchers could not identify—including a “bunch of files” with videos of horses and a Russian book on horses, Williams says.

Sanctions placed upon the North Korean regime, for its ongoing human rights abuses and nuclear warfare programs, prohibit US companies from working with DPRK companies or individuals. However, the researchers say it is highly unlikely that any companies involved would have a clue about North Korean animators working on the shows, and there is nothing suggesting the companies violated any sanctions or other laws. “It is likely that the contracting arrangement was several steps downstream from the major producers,” the report says.

Spokespeople for Amazon and Max spokesperson declined to comment for this story. YouNeek Studios did not respond to a request for comment.

“We do not work with North Korean companies, or Chinese companies on Invincible, or any affiliated entities, and have no knowledge of any North Korean or Chinese companies working on Invincible,” a spokesperson for Skybound Entertainment says. “We take any claims very seriously and have commenced an investigation into this.” In a post on X, the company characterized the findings as “unconfirmed” and said it is working with authorities to investigate.

Williams says it is possible that a front company in China is used to help disguise the activity and involvement of North Koreans. The researchers were able to analyze connections to the exposed server and, despite most having their location masked by a VPN, spotted access from Spain and three Chinese cities. “All three cities are known to have many North Korean–operated businesses and are main centers for North Korea’s IT workers who live overseas,” the report says.

While Williams says the researchers did not find any identifiable names of North Korean organizations buried in the files, the country has a well-established animation company called April 26 Animation Studio, which is also known as SEK Studio. Originally set up in the 1950s, the studio has worked on hundreds of international TV shows and movies.

However, in recent years, the US Treasury Department has sanctioned SEK Studios, individuals linked to it, and various “front companies” that it says are used to “work for foreign customers.” Many of these have links to China, according to the sanctions. “SEK Studio has utilized an assortment of front companies to evade sanctions targeting the government of the DPRK and to deceive international financial institutions,” a statement issued as part of the sanctions in 2021 says.

The main aim of these efforts, says Michael Barnhart, a North Korea researcher at Mandiant, is to raise money for the North Korean regime. The country’s hackers and scammers have stolen and extorted billions of dollars to help fund its military ambitions in recent years, including from huge cryptocurrency heists. In early 2022, the FBI issued a 16-page alert warning companies that remote North Korean freelance IT workers were infiltrating businesses to earn money they could funnel back home.

“The volume is much higher than we were expecting,” Barnhart says of North Korea’s IT workers. They are constantly changing their tactics to avoid being caught, he says. “We had one not too long ago, where during the interview, the person’s mouth was just off-frame. You could tell that someone in the background was speaking on their behalf.” Technically, Barnhart says, companies should verify their remote workers’ devices and make sure that there is no remote software connecting to a company laptop or network. Businesses should also put extra efforts at the hiring stage by training HR staff to detect possible IT workers.

However, he says, increasingly there is a greater crossover between North Korean IT workers and individuals who are members of known hacking groups or classified as advanced persistent threats (APTs). “The more we focus on IT workers, the more we’re starting to see APT operators and efforts blending in with those,” he says. “This might be the most quick learning-on-your-feet, nimble nation-state that I've ever seen.”

北朝鮮が管理していたとみられるクラウドストレージサーバから、米国、日本などのアニメ作品に関係するファイルが見つかった問題で、名前の挙がっていた日米のアニメ制作会社などが今週、相次いで関与を否定する声明を出した。 　問題のサーバから自社のレイアウト用紙が見つかった北海道のアニメ制作会社・エカチエピルカは、レイアウト用紙が下請け企業から流出したと推測。「弊社からは過去に発注をしたこともなく、当該事実は一切ない」という。「弊社のレイアウト用紙が許可なく勝手に使われており、描かれた絵や作品とは無関係」。 　米国のアニメ制作会社・Skybound Entertainmentも「当社は北朝鮮の企業やその関連団体とは協力しておらず、当社のアニメーションに北朝鮮企業が取り組んでいることについては全く知らない」という。今後、徹底的な内部調査を行う方針だ。 　7月から放送予定のアニメ「魔導具師ダリヤはうつむかない」製作委員会も「製作委員会および制作スタジオも把握していない情報」として調査を進める考え。併せて、ファンに対して公式Xアカウントなどによる情報発信をこれまで通り続ける方針を示している。 　問題のクラウドストレージサーバからは、Skyboundの「Invincible」（インビンシブル ～無敵のヒーロー～）や、米Lion Forge Entertainmentの「Iyanu: Child of Wonder」、そして「魔導具師ダリヤはうつむかない」に関連するファイルなどが見つかった。一部には中国語による編集コメントや指示がハングルの翻訳と共に入っており、北朝鮮のアニメスタジオが下請けとして作業を行っていた疑惑が浮上している。

「全く知らない」「勝手に使われた」──日米のアニメ制作会社が相次ぎ声明 北朝鮮のサーバから関連ファイルが見つかった問題で

Iyanu - Child of Wonder Vol 1 & 2 Trailer

I'm gonna assume you've already heard about this, but take a look I'm pretty excited for it.

https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/iyanu-child-of-wonder-hbo-max-cartoon-network-1235313445/

👀

Iyanu: Child of Wonder Review

I discovered this graphic novel on the Libby App and was immediately taken away by the cover. One of my goals this year in reading, is to consume more comics and graphic novels. I was not disappointed with Iyanu Child of Wonder!

This comic book series starts with the introduction of Iyanu. A young girl living on the outskirts of a city named Elu. This city is protected by walls to keep the Corrupted out. A darkness that consumes animals and makes them violent towards humans. The Corrputed are spreading and the society within the walls of Elu are crumbling. Something must change and it seems like Iyanu is the answer. But, Iyanu is no ordinary girl. She kept away for a specific reason. No one must know of her special abilities. These abilities that legends says, comes from the Ancient Ones. If she is to be discovered, it could change the state of things.

5/5 Stars

I really enjoyed this comic series! I love finding comics that are different from our normal superhero ones. It's refreshing to change it up a bit. Iyanu was a great start for me to get back into comics again! Firstly, the vibrant colors reeled me in. The colors made me feel like I stepped into this world. I learned a lot interesting facts and notes about Yoruba culture and traditions. The author takes the time to explain the culture and share details about Yoruba traditions, and which parts of Africa they originated from. It was fascinating cause I knew nothing about Yoruba culture. My only takeaway was that the drawing did fall a little flat for me. But, it wasn't anything specific that took me away from the story. I really got invested towards the end. I couldn't put it down and was eager to know more once I finished. I think this a fun series, especially a series that you can introduce to your kids to. It's vivid, imaginative, compelling and fun! I'm looking forward to reading vol. 2!

What's everyone reading this month? Let me know! I curious to know what you like and I also love adding books to my list. It's never ending. Doesn't anyone have this problem or is it just me? Lol!

XOXO

Sincerely,

Veronica

https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/iyanu-child-of-wonder-hbo-max-cartoon-network-1235313445/amp/

Here’s the link to the article about the new show

Okay got it!

Iyanu's journey continues in Iyanu: Child of Wonder Volume 3

Iyanu's journey continues in Iyanu: Child of Wonder Volume 3 #comics #comicbooks

Dark Horse Books and YouNeek Studios present the next chapter in the tale of Iyanu in Iyanu: Child of Wonder Volume 3. Writer and head of YouNeek Studios, Roye Okupe is joined by artist Chima Kalu, colorist and cover artist Godwin Akpan, and letterer Spoof Animation to bring you this empowering tale inspired by African culture, history, and mythology.  Iyanu is soon to be an HBO Max/Cartoon…

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