“In the early stages of collecting material on Mandela we researched what was available on about him and what was reaching young readers. Very little fresh info about Mandela in his autobiography, The Long Walk to Freedom [first published in 1995] or in the other authorized biographical works on him. There was more information available on him in the archives. We have found that most young people don’t really know much about Mandela, so we wanted to reach out to younger readers with comic books. The comics series was published by Umlando Wezithombe, which released 1 million copies each of a series of 8 periodical comic books [each comprised of 28-page chapters] that were distributed free to newspapers and schools. The book that Norton is publishing is essentially a compilation of the series along with some other content. The comics also offer information about Nelson Mandela that is not found in other sources on him.”

Nelson Mandela: The Authorized Comic Book