Conversations with Comic Artists: 3U93N3TH3K9 (K9)

3U93N3TH3K9 is a comic artist based in Kenya and the mind behind The Republic, Oaths and Ashes and Waba. We had the fantastical chance to speak with him about comics in general and, more specifically, the ideas that have come to shape his work.

In good old curious fashion, we addressed the elephant in the room first. “Why does my furniture float when I try to pronounce your pen name?” we asked in jest. “You’d think it’s a fantastical, long-lost spell, but that’s my name in leetspeak,” he said amid chuckles. “But you can call me K9, to avoid all the sorcery.”

As the conversation went on, it became apparent that K9 is not just the man but also the umbrella under which his comics sit: the brand, if you will.

Since we were already doing name checks, we pried into one of his many epithets, “creator of worlds.” He told us, enthusiastically, where it comes from and why it fits him as well as every other creative. He pointed us to Oppenheimer’s famous reflection on the Bhagavad Gita: 'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' Artists, K9 reflects, are the antithesis of this because they sit on the opposite end of the spectrum as creators of worlds, hence the epithet.

It wouldn’t be a conversation with a comic artist if we didn’t ask what makes the man, the artist. What makes him a comic artist? How did we get here?

K9's story is a story of the kid who took initiative, the one who loved the Saturday morning cartoons and the one who peeped the DC cartoons on KTN then and felt tugged at; hence, he yearned to create. He fondly remembers the beginning of it all. Drawing stick figure comics and, a little later, his matatu Need for Speed-style comics, which carry the echoes of his comics of today, where he juxtaposes the local with infinite worlds.

In his teens, he moved into the dark, the gritty and the edgy. He fondly remembers the first core group of his fans as well as the unsolicited fans who would help themselves to his stories and sketchbooks almost indefinitely.

This phase would later inform his current works, which are more philosophical, mature and grounded but still carry the dark undertones. The Republic and Oaths and Ashes are two such works, the latter an omake* of the former.

Speaking of his current work, we had to hear it straight from the lion’s mouth: what is The Republic, what informs it, what makes it tick, and what does he, as a writer, expect of it? With modesty, he laid it out for us. The Republic is a story first, he said, and a political one: a story of resistance and rebellion.

We pried further, since the slogan under the K9 brand carries the same core. “Dream and Defy,” he repeated heartily.

“Are you an anarchist?” we asked, curious. He smiled and pointed out that, in many ways, to be human is to always be in rebellion, even in the tiniest, microscopic ways. Look at the cellular level, he said: it is all about fighting against a dead universe, even though entropy ultimately wins.

It is this that informs his work: not just the creatures’ rebellion but reality itself, in all its grandness, beauty and misery. K9 hopes that in illuminating the world he can plant seeds of rebellion, of hopes and of dreams in his audience, and he believes in the power of comics as a medium for such a cause.

When working on comics, he is particular and conscious about the medium and its technical bits, such as panel sequencing and arrangement, all in service of the message as a whole. Despite this particularity, K9 is very open to the various forms of comics. He is comfortable with both digital and traditional forms and, in our estimation as faithful observers, can work in both of them with equal skill.

As we saw the wonderful conversation to a close, we asked for his two cents for our audience. To artists, he recommends breaks and taking it easy. Breaks are key, he believes, and can’t be separated from the artistic pursuit as a whole. To everyone, he encourages dreaming: dream of infinities, and defy the self-imposed and the external limits.

Find K9 on Instagram here.

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*omake - a Japanese word that translates to "extra", "bonus", or "addition"