Bronze Faces #[nn]

History

The project grew out of Shobo and Shof Coker's prior collaboration on New Masters (Image Comics, 2022), an Africanfuturist series that established their working relationship and their commitment to African-centered storytelling. According to Shobo in interviews, the original concept was straightforwardly a heist about young Nigerians stealing back the Benin Bronzes; co-creator Shof added the mythological layer — mapping the characters onto the Yoruba legend of Shango, Gbonka, and Timi — giving the series its deeper structural architecture. Artist Alexandre Tefenkgi, whose previous BOOM! Studios work included the Eisner and Harvey Award-winning The Good Asian, described the production process as unlike anything in his career: the team worked collaboratively 'as if crafting an animated feature,' with intensive research and character-design development before a single page was drawn. BOOM! Studios scheduled the first issue for February 5, 2025 — the opening week of Black History Month — a deliberate editorial choice, and solicited a collected trade paperback of all six issues for March 31, 2026.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Bronze Faces is a six-issue limited series published by BOOM! Studios, with issue #1 on sale February 5, 2025, and a trade paperback collecting all six issues (Bronze Faces #1–6) solicited for March 31, 2026.
• Written by Shobo (born in Lagos, Nigeria; narrative designer and creator of Buckhead and New Masters) and Shof Coker (Nigerian illustrator, animation director, and co-creator of New Masters at Image Comics in 2022), with art by Alexandre Tefenkgi (The Good Asian, Once Upon a Time at the End of the World), colors by Lee Loughridge, and letters by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.
• The story introduces three lead characters — Timi, Sango, and Gbonka — Nigerian expats in London who reunite when Timi's father's artwork is acquired by the British Museum, leading them to plan a heist; their names are drawn directly from Yoruba mythology, specifically the legend of the thunder deity Shango, his two warrior heroes Gbonka and Timi.
• The fictional heist escalates when the crew discovers 'The Register,' a document cataloguing dozens of colonial-era stolen artifacts, expanding their target to the Benin Bronzes — described in the series as nearly 1,500 works looted from the Kingdom of Benin — connecting the story to real ongoing global repatriation debates.
• Issue #1's main cover was illustrated by co-creator Shof; variant covers were contributed by Alexandre Tefenkgi, Dan Mora (Mighty Morphin Power Rangers), and Tula Lotay (Somna).
• Shof Coker's primary creative influences include Yoruba mythology, sculpture, and printmaking traditions from Southwestern Nigeria; he has also served as art director on the animated documentary Liyana (Amazon Prime) and as director/writer of the short film Moremi (Disney+).
• The series received a 2026 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award nomination, covering works published between January 1 and December 31, 2025.
• The series was timed to launch during Black History Month 2025 and was published under BOOM! Studios' main imprint alongside other creator-owned originals.