My Name Is Hauwa And I Wrote A Comic Book

I'm also a beaurri

My name is Hauwa, I’m a writer and today, I’d be doing two things for the first time in my life.

I’d be sharing my image publicly on this platform and also putting my first book out for pre-order.

It’s interesting that I get to do these two things side by side and it is even more humbling that I get to do it here. To you, first.

You’ve subscribed and read the letters I put out, sometimes, you’ve dropped comments, liked and even shared. I cannot tell you how thankful and grateful I am for that.

So why did I choose to be anonymous and why am I coming out now?

The simplest answer is - I didn’t know who I was. I felt like I was under some type of pressure to look ‘happy’ and to perform for the internet and I hated it. It didn’t help that I was going through a breakup and I wasn’t my best self. So in 2017, I scrubbed the internet of my pictures and went under.

I eventually got over the breakup in 2018 but I didn’t feel ready to come out. I was struggling with my Master’s Degree. One nonsense lecturer was stressing my life. I was living in a foreign country. I didn’t have family members around. I still didn’t know who I was and the journey to finding myself felt easier without being under a microscope. So, from 2018 till 2022, I was content to be anonymous. It was easier.

However in 2022, things changed. I suddenly started seeing myself. My confidence came back and even though I was not itching to break my anonymity, the idea had started to form. By my birthday in June 2022, I already knew I wanted to stop being anonymous and I started to plan the reveal.

But jitters set in and I cancelled it.

Then, my mum started to disturb me. Everyday, she’d ask about the reveal, I’d tell her I wasn’t ready and the next thing I’d hear is “This is why you don’t have husband. Always hiding”

Now, I should let you know that I have dated a few men while being anonymous so this was not a problem. And the reason I am not married yet isn’t because I am anonymous but because Lagos men are mad. But she will not want to hear that one.

I didn’t listen and she didn’t let it go either until one day, she told me that working on a project side by side with the unveiling plans might help take my mind of it.

It worked.

I took her advice and went back to a project I had started on a while back which would eventually lead to the birth of  ‘Hauwa’s Mad House’

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If you remember, I talked about working on a project in my earlier newsletters and here it is. 

I’ve been working on this comic book for as long as I can remember because I wanted it to be perfect. I’ve never really sold anything before and since this was going to be my first, I needed it to be worth every naira spent.

In 2021, I worked and reworked the story several times but I was not satisfied, so I scrapped it. I didn’t visit the idea of the comic book until 2022 (after my mum’s advice) when I decided it was either I finished it or it finished me.

I did a lot of writing, editing, re-writing, sending to everyone I knew. Then, I started shuffling between illustrators. Some of them wanted to use price to injure me. Some told me to bring millions (someone told me to bring 3.8 million and I am not kidding). Some were just not up to my standard and others didn’t get the idea of Hauwa.

But I finally found ‘The One’. His work is visually stunning, as you can see below.

We started working on the book and the journey from ideation to completion has been rigorous but worth it and I couldn’t be happier with the results.

So for the first time, I’d like to introduce ‘Hauwa’s Mad House’.

‘Hauwa’s Mad House’ revolves around a chaotic young girl whose main purpose, in her world, is to complicate the lives of the people around her. The story opens with Hauwa as the main tenant in her grandfather’s house. Each tenant is fed up with Hauwa's antics but all their complaints only seem to fuel her further.

'Hauwa’s Mad House' is a stunning work of art that is funny, relatable and set in today’s Nigeria. The book will have you cackling at various stages due to the unhealthy amount of trouble Hauwa seems to get herself into. 

And of course, there is her partner in crime & boyfriend, Kabiru, who might just kill her out of frustration, if she doesn’t get to him first.

I cannot wait for the release of the comic book but you can pre-order it at a discounted rate here - https://selar.co/jn53

The book will be released and waiting in your email on the 22nd of April, 2023, I promise. 

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And certainly, it wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t end this letter with my pictures. Here they are -

First look at these ones before I send moreeee!!!!

Don’t look at fine babe and forget to pre-order my comic book o please. I’m kneeling down for you. - https://selar.co/jn53