almost Beta
Tafadzwa  Shumba cover
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Tafadzwa Shumba

Intermediate

Sequential Art
Comic Art

Tafadzwa Shumba, commonly known by the pen name T. S. ZOMBiE, is a comic/manga artist, storyboard artist and character designer from Zimbabwe. He's well known for his thriller manga series PARADOX.

Biography

Having started drawing from the tender age of 4, art has always been a big part of my life. I grew up on a lot of cartoons and anime, and as such, that's the kind of art I fell in love with. By the time I reached 7th grade I had developed an interest in sequential story telling. Being a huge fan of Dragonball at the time influenced me to make my very first comic, which was a DragonballZ fanfiction. When I proceeded to highschool i started creating my own characters and writing my own stories. That didnt go so well because I had the shiny new object syndrome, and I would keep creating new stories before I even finished the previous ones. 

By the time I was in my final year of High School, I had decided that I would pursue a career in the animation industry, which I had previously considered as a part time job. My parents didnt agree with this at first, and so they told me that if i was to do so then Im on my own financially. I wanted to go study at the Animation School in Cape Town, South Africa, but I could afford it. Art school is generally expensive for most Africans. After highschool I'd go on to get a job so that I could save up money and kickstart my career. In the two years I was employed(2017-2019) I taught myself sequential strorytelling via Youtube. During that time I was also writing what would become my first published comic. 

In January 2019 I quit my job to become a full time comic book artist. I started publishing my manga titled PARADOX on webtoon. I'd attend my first convention, the Fan Con Cape Town Comic Con, in April with the first physical floppies of PARADOX. Here I had the honour to meet and get advice from comic legends like Sana Takeda, Brian Stelfreeze and Warren Lou amongst others. It was then where I realised that thicker volumes are more sustainable than floppies, especially when you are self publishing. On the same year in September I'd go on to attend Comic Con Africa in Johannesburg with the first 10 chapter volume of PARADOX. At Comic Con Africa I met Sera Blue publishing, and I signed my very first contract as an artist. They were a novel publisher and I was supposed to adapt one of the novels into a graphic novel. In early 2020, when I had drawn half the graphic novel, covid19 struck and everything fell apart. In the end, all I did at Sera Blue was do some character designs for some of the authors' novels. 

2020 is a blur, we all want to forget about it. In early 2021 I would work on my first commisioned comic with an American author. This was a sci fi action titled Tarantula and it was a 3 issue run. I did all the character and environment design, as well as pencil and ink all the 3 issues. To date, Tarantula has been my favourite comic project. On the same year I also worked with Jed McPherson, a British award winning comic author, on a short story titled Clean. It was featured on the Canadian anthology Crime Pays, published by Altruist Comics. After enjoying our partnership, Jed and I went on to write another shot story together. 

In August 2021 I was one of the 22 out of 420 African artists selected to do a 6 week storyboard internship with Triggerfish Animation and Netflix. The biggest honour during our time there was being mentored by Nathan Stanton, who has storyboarded for Pixar (Monsters Inc, Toy Story, A bug's Life etc.) In early 2022 I was partnered with Writing West Midlands'  Annabel Brightling(UK), who is a tv writer, to do a comic that focused on global warming. It was part of a cultural exchange program between the UK and Zimbabwe supported by the British Council. This comic got me out of my comfort zone as I had been used to working on Horror/Thriller projects and it did the same for Annabel who was doing her first comic. We went on to speak at Universities about the comic, including the University of Stanfordshire. 

In September 2022 I attended Comic Con Africa again. This time I had the second 10 chapter volume of PARADOX published. I was also part of Zimbabwe's first Manga Anthology, Kalabash. My post apocalyptic short Haven was featured. it gunnered so much interest that i have started working on its one shot graphic novel. In December 2022 I worked with Karrie Fransman(UK) to storyboard and draw a motion comic for the NGO PositiveNegatives. Thats another project that was out of my comfort zone but I still enjoyed.  I worked on that project until February 2023. 

In April I illustrated a children's book and did character designs for a US client and it's not yet out. I also partnered with a friend and fellow artist to provide pencils and inks as well as assist with character designs for a short comic we did titled Rumour. It's featured in the Long Distance Anthology, which is an African anthology published by Etan Comics. The anthology got fully funded in 3 days on Kickstarter and its still ongoing, breaking stretch goals. I also published PARADOX Ultimate Part 1 in September, which serves the 3rd volume of  PARADOX. Part 2 will serve as the 4th and final voume of this comic that started my career.

 

Skills

Roles

  • Intermediate
  • Intermediate

Technical Skills

  • Advanced

Other Skills

  • Advanced

Work Experience

2022 – 2023

Storyboard art, Inker/Penciller

PositiveNegatives (Remote)
I did storyboards for a motion comic as well as the comic for an Inclusive Urban Infrastructure program with the NGO, that saw works from Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Somaliland.

2021 – 2022

Character Designer, Comic Inker/Penciller

Mperial LLC (Remote)
I was responsible for the character designs, layouts , pencils and inks of the comic book titled Tarantula. It is a 3 issue sci-fi action comic created by George Withers.

2022 – 2022

Character designer, Comic book inker/penciller

Comexposed(Kay Media Africa) (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe)
We worked in collaboration with UK's Writing West Midlands on a one shot comic. WWM was represented by writer Annabel Brightling.

2021 – 2021

Storyboard Art Intern

TriggerFish Animation (Remote)
I was one of 22 selected African artists out of 420, to participate in an internship with Triggerfish Animation and Netflix. We were mentored by Nathan Stanton(former Pixar)

2019 – 2021

Character Designer, Comic book inker/penciller

Sera Blue Publishing (Midrand, South Africa)
Sera Blue was a novel publishing house in South Africa. I was hired to do character designs for some novels as well as the adaptation of Ilse V. Rensburg's Blood Sipper into a graphic novel.