Bronze Faces #1
Written Shobo and Shof Coker, Illustrated by Alexandre Tefenkgi (Boom Studios, February 2025)
Synopsis
Soho, London. Childhood friends Timi, Sango, and Gbonka reunite on the eve of the British Museum’s historic purchase of the works of Timi’s father, the seminal Nigerian artist Adewale Balogun. Timi has been invited as a “guest of honor,” but what the Museum is heralding as a triumphant acquisition, the trio see as nothing short of brazen cultural theft. Emboldened by a night of drinking and shared outrage, they concoct a bold scheme… to steal back the artwork themselves!
One of the most popular criticisms of the comic book medium is that it’s cheap, fast and disposable. Like listening to Top 40 radio, most of what you hear is frivolous noise.
In the opening scenes of Shobo and Shof Coker’s Bronze Faces, they speak to this idea immediately.
The father, speaking to his son Timi, explains it this way:
“No. Music is ART. Every sound can carry meaning. To be more than noise, it needs to have heart, purpose. You must feel what you want to say.”
In this vein, Bronze Faces is not cheap, fast or disposable. It is not frivolous “noise” — it is ART.
Bronze Faces tells the story of three Nigerian childhood friends who decide to reclaim their history by robbing the British Museum of their collection of Benin bronze masks.
From the onset you can tell this is a very personal story for the Nigerian-born Coker brothers as well as their Eisner-award winning artist Alexandre Tefenkgi. In fact, there was never a moment I felt the three creators weren’t telling this story in concert.
Through the three protagonists—Timi, Shango, and Rose—we see three different ways of reclaiming cultural legacy. Timi embraces the arts, Rose dedicates herself to public service, and Shango focuses on personal wealth. These approaches reflect the real-life struggles of African expats grappling with identity and belonging. And as an African-American, I connected with these characters as well. Several scenes throughout the book felt nostalgic and familiar.
Beneath the action and intrigue, there are layers of sexual tension and identity politics you’d normally find in cinematic storytelling. It sounds like a lot, but the Cokers weave it all together beautifully, like a multi-layered song.
The book opens with a chaotic robbery in Soho, London, then seamlessly transitions to a childhood memory in Benin City, Nigeria. We’re then dropped into a London gallery, a scene that will remind readers of Michael B. Jordan’s powerful moment in Black Panther, where he reclaims his own legacy in a similar British museum —a theme that echoes throughout this book.
This is just the first issue of a six-part series, and already the story is evolving in several directions. Like the Benin masks they adopt, each character harbors hidden agendas, uncomfortable secrets, and simmering romantic tensions, setting the stage for a complex and compelling journey.
Bronze Faces debuts Wednesday, February 5. Available at your local comic shops and via Kindle.
