PRIMED & READY
Few illustrators can create the quirky and unique comic strips that Markus “Effin” Prime creates. Born in Warren, Ohio, Prime quickly gained popularity with his comic strip Oh Nah. This strip has gained many notable fans, including Cree Summers and Estelle.
Prime is also known as a “Sharpie King” and creates works of art that focus on the female body. A quick glance at the young artist’s portfolio will reveal he prefers drawing curvy women with big hair. Prime has stated that the main focus of his work is to demonstrate that such women are both physically desirable, but are also fierce and resilient leaders.
People flock to Prime’s work for its sex-positive themes and its prominent inclusion of black characters. He gained additional fame when he released B.R.U.H or Black Renditions of Universal Heroes in 2016. The book offered viewers a unique look at what their favorite superheroes, anime characters, iconic cartoon characters would look like as black women. In the book’s preface, Prime states how he wishes to spur dialogue about women and people of color in various illustrated media.
Prime’s works have certainly wowed plenty of readers, with many praising his unique rendition of Sailor Moon characters as black women.
In interviews, Prime has discussed how first began drawing by recreating characters from the popular comic-strip Peanuts, except that he would them as black, like he is.
Prime’s first illustration for Oh Nah came about when he had hit a wall creatively. He states he was inspired while looking through various comics in his Instagram feed and decided to create one in his own style. Within a single day, the post had received a whopping 8000 likes. This development caught Prime off guard; however, he chose to continue making comics to see how far his artistic talents would take him.
After B.R.U.H gained widespread popularity, Prime’s illustration of the Disney princesses Pocahontas and Jasmine smoking hookah blew up online.
Prime loves hearing feedback on his work. He states he spends hours at a time reading through the various comments on each of his posts and enjoys seeing the arguments that ensure between his followers. He claims that 60% of his online audience are black women, and that they often email or message him with ideas or inspiration for new illustrations.
Markus currently has a whopping 275k followers on his Instagram, which is double the number of followers he had just a couple of years ago. The young artist is currently interested in creating Oh Nah coffee table books, and in eventually animating his comic-strip into an animated form.
When asked to describe his illustrations in Oh Nah to an audience that is unfamiliar with his work, Prime points out that he would refer to it as an “Adult Calvin and Hobbes style”.
