A few months ago, we wrote about the reaction to Comic Book Canon’s Greatest African Comics of All Time list, and what our own follow-up survey told us about the limits of trying to rank an industry this large, this dispersed, and this under-documented. We closed that piece by announcing TheAfrica100: a celebration, not a competition. This is how we intend to build it.
The Shape of the List
TheAfrica100 will present 100 notable comics and animation projects from across the continent, with representation drawn across Africa’s five regions: West, East, North, Central and Southern Africa. Every region will have a guaranteed minimum of 15 entries. Where a region cannot reach that minimum through nomination and review, the unfilled slots will be redistributed to other regions with a surplus of strong, well-supported entries. The list will be published in no particular order. There is no number one, and there will not be one.
Regional classification will be based primarily on where a project originates or is produced, while taking into account the creators and creative teams behind it. Where a project’s regional affiliation is genuinely cross-border or difficult to classify, TheACE’s editorial team will make that determination as part of its review.
Four Phases
The list will be built through four phases, with the first two running concurrently, from late August 2026 through to publication in January 2027.
Phase one: Creator nomination (late August to late September). We are hand-selecting a group of 25 to 50 creators from across the continent, with consideration given to regional representation, professional experience and the breadth of Africa’s comics and animation ecosystem. Each will be asked to put forward one project of their own, and up to five projects they did not work on, from their respective region.
Phase two: Event and brand nomination (running alongside phase one). We are approaching three to four major geek, comics and animation event organisers, platforms or brands in each region, asking each to suggest ten projects from their region worth celebrating.
Phase three: Reader nomination (October to November). Once creators and event organisers have contributed, we will invite them to share the call with their own audiences. Readers will be invited to nominate up to five comics or animation projects they love. This phase runs after the first two by design, so that the invitation reaches readers with the credibility and context of the creators and organisers who have already taken part.
Phase four: Aggregation and editorial review (December). This is where TheACE’s editorial team does the work of turning the three streams of nominations into a single, regionally balanced list.
Nominations are not votes, and a project will not be included simply because it receives the highest number of nominations. The nomination streams are intended to identify projects that merit consideration, while the final selection remains subject to editorial review and the methodology outlined below.
How Entries Will Be Prioritised
Two forms of judgement will shape the final list.
The first is straightforward: projects that are raised across multiple nomination streams, by creators, by event organisers, and by readers, are treated as a strong signal in their own right. Consistent recognition across different parts of the industry tells us something a single list or survey cannot. A defined portion of each region’s entries will be secured through this cross-source recognition, with the remainder determined through editorial review.
Creator and reader nominations are weighed both together and independently. A project with strong, independent reader support that creators did not put forward, or vice versa, will not be discounted simply for lacking cross-source overlap; each is considered on its own terms, since readers and creators do not always value the same things for the same reasons.
The remainder of each region’s list will be decided through TheACE’s own editorial review, weighing historical significance, cultural or industry influence, regional balance, and the range of formats, eras and audiences represented.
Editorial review will also consider factors such as longevity, innovation, influence and the significance of a project within its particular context. These considerations are not intended to produce a numerical ranking; they are there to help the editorial team make consistent decisions when determining which projects belong in the final 100.
As part of this review, TheACE’s editorial team will also cross-check each region’s nominated list against its own research, including award histories, critical and academic references, and projects with established historical significance. Where a project of clear historical or industry importance has not emerged through nomination, the editorial team may add it for consideration. This exists to guard against the same blind spot identified in our own earlier survey, where recent, widely discussed work crowded out titles of genuine historical weight.
This is also why we are deliberately giving weight to time. TheAfrica100 will give older and historically significant projects strong consideration, while still leaving room for recent work that has clearly earned its place.
What This List Is Not
It is not a ranking. It is not a claim that these are the “best” or “greatest” projects on the continent, a word we have already argued is the wrong one for where this industry currently stands. It is a wide, deliberately cast net: a record of what is being made, and what has been made, across Africa’s comics and animation industry, old and new, widely read and quietly influential alike.
We do not expect it to be perfect. We do expect the process to be transparent about how the list was built and honest about the limitations of trying to document an industry this large and dispersed.
As with any editorial selection, TheAfrica100 will involve judgement. Our aim is not to pretend otherwise, but to make those judgements through multiple sources, regional representation and a clearly defined editorial process.
TheAfrica100 is intended to cover projects created, produced or substantially developed within Africa’s comics and animation ecosystem, including projects with cross-border or diaspora connections where their relationship to the continent is significant. Eligibility and classification will ultimately be determined by TheACE’s editorial team.
What Happens Next
Nominations by creators and event organisers open shortly, running through to late September. Reader nominations follow in October. We will share how to take part for each of these groups, as each phase opens.
TheAfrica100 will be published in January 2027, as an e-magazine and in a limited physical print run.
Before publication, TheACE’s editorial team will verify the basic factual information surrounding selected projects, including their creators, origins and relevant historical context. Where an editor or contributor has a direct professional or financial relationship with a nominated project, they will not participate in the final editorial assessment of that project.
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AI Use at TheACE
TheACE uses artificial intelligence tools to support research, drafting and analysis across Africa’s creative industries. All content is verified, edited and approved by our human editorial team to ensure accuracy, clarity and responsible storytelling. AI assists our work; it does not replace human judgment.
