Zee BEE

Hello World!

This 2022 Interview we archive Zee bee, an African American Female Anime Artist

Zee Bee:

Give us a Bio: Who is Zee Bee?
• Well I’m Jamaican and Panamanian and label myself as an Afrolatina artist. I always grew up having a deep fascination with anime (thanks to my older cousin who is also an artist and anime lover himself). He put me onto a lot of different series and I was really drawn to all the different cool anime styles and stories there were out there. I can say that anime truly shaped my art styles. And as I grew, I dabbled a little bit in reading some manga but not really a lot. I’d say I’ve definitely watched more anime than read manga in my lifetime! But I decided to just give it a whirl in creating my own because I just always loved to tell stories in my youth as well as draw. So I figured why not put two of those amazing things together!

Tell us a Synopsis of your Anime Project?
• Ruby and Rosa’s world is quite the complicated one, especially since they accidentally end up in another one! But their original Earth is riddled with war between two specific races: Shadow Demons and Uciine. Initially both races lived in peace, but after discovering that Uciine people could unlock a lot of power potential in Shadow Demons, they quickly started killing them off and taking their Ucen Gems for themselves (which are 3 gems built within an Uciine’s chest that possesses various special powers). You can think of the Uciine as almost super evolved humans with unique powers. But long story short, some greedy, evil Shadow Demons who were clearly power-hungry decided to start this whole Shadow-Ucen war, which resulted in a lot of kids becoming orphans as their parents/families were killed off in the mayhem on both sides. That’s why SUVA (Shadow-Ucen Vessel Academy) was created. Essentially it’s a giant organization made for Shadow Demons who believe the killing off the Uciine is wrong and yearn to protect them. It’s a super large unit made to protect the rest of the surviving Uciine people and there they all fight together to stop more innocents from being savagely murdered. But that also comes with a price. Even though they’re all working together to protect one another, they’re not allowed to have any romantic relationships with each other (solely because a mixed offspring of both Uciine and Shadow Demon DNA could result in creating a very catastrophic being). So it is mandatory that all Shadow Demons and Uciine refrain from any type of relationship like that other than fighting partners and friendship. But that’s where Ruby and Rosa’s struggles start. They’re not allowed to be together romantically but they still try to keep it under wraps and make it work regardless. Also if you’re questioning “Well they’re lesbians and can’t create an offspring together anyway.” That’s where you’re wrong. In my world, they actually can because Shadow Demons (both male and female) can impregnate a partner. And no, the Shadow Demon women do not have “you know whats”. They have 100% female anatomy. Basically, if a Shadow Demon female is romantically involved with another Shadow Demon female, one of them can perform a powerful spell ritual on the other that mixes both of their DNA to impregnate their partner. So Ruby can do that as well. Rosa cannot though so only Ruby would be able to impregnate her in the future and not the other way around. But hey! I haven’t even gotten to that part in the series yet!

How hard is it to be taken serious as a Female African American artist breaking through in Anime?
I guess at first it was a challenge because I was originally just doing this for fun and would criticized on what kind of “technical” things I should do when making comics. But honestly, I just had a story to tell so I wanted to do it my own way without any rules. So I took the criticism but at the end of the day I still kept my way of making comics authentic to myself and how I wanted to make them.

How did you gain such a Huge Social Media Audience?
It just came from years of sharing my work publicly and interacting with my fans and other artists out there. I think as an artist it’s so important to interact instead of just simply sharing your work. Interactions build a stronger bond to your work so that’s why I always make sure to show other artists love and respond to all of my fans’ comments/messages.

What is your Target Audience?
Since my comic is heavily LGBT, my main audience would be LGBT and minorities, but I’d also say it’s a universal comic series that can be enjoyed by any and everyone so I don’t want to set any limitations to who can read it. I can say that my fans range from straight to LGBT and from several different ethnicities across the world.

What’s your publication goals?
The comic is strictly web-based for now but eventually I’d love to have it printed and sold in stores. I’d also love for it to be translated in many different languages since the series is embraced worldwide.

 

What inspires Zee Bee ; her Influences growing up as far as Artist and Books?
I was mostly inspired by anime because I enjoyed the art and stories. I didn’t read too many comics/manga growing up but that didn’t intimidate me from starting my own. I just pretty much went with the flow and learned different comic/manga techniques along the way. That’s how my art and series was able to really evolve over time.

 

What is your Dream?
My biggest dream is to have my series adapted into an anime series. I know it’s a big dream but I also know it’s not impossible (even if I have to animate it myself). That’s why I’ve also been working so hard to improve my animation skills.

Please give us a Sample of your Work?