We were lucky to catch up with Ahzaun Booker recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Ahzaun, thanks for joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I think my Comic Book “Bound” is the most meaningful project I’ve worked on so far. Mostly because it stemmed from an idea that I had in High School! I originally created the first draft of the story for a Reflections project in English Class. I wanted my project to stand out against my other classmates so, I asked my teacher, Mrs.Kelley, if I could write my reflection as a screenplay. She pretty much encouraged me to do so! When I presented to the class, everyone seemed to enjoy it and, most of my peers wanted to know what happened next. Including my teacher! I didn’t have a clear answer at the time, but because of that, the story never left my 14-year-old mind. Fast Forward about 8 years and now I am working on making that dream of mine into a reality. The idea and the story of course went through many different phases and changes. However, through trial and error, and the help of the team I’ve assembled, we’ve come up with something solid that I think surpasses my original vision. I really hope readers will enjoy it as well! It means a lot to be able to share my story with more people. The whole thing has been this exciting, surreal, terrifying, learning experience, but I’m loving it all!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I do a lot! I’ve been acting since I could walk; I got the amazing opportunity to go to Orlando, Florida where I participated in a showcase for a company called Talent Inc. We got to perform our talents and acting skills in front of industry agents and at the end of it all, I was honored to walk away with an Award for “Overall Adult Actor,” as well as a few scholarships! Now, I’m expecting to start school at KD Conservatory in October so that I can get a degree in Acting. I really wanna sharpen my craft and eventually have the privilege to play my dream role: Miles Morales Spiderman.

I’ve also been doing music since around my Freshmen year in high school. It started as a surprise to the other members of my family who made music. They went by the tag: Alif3. One day, I filmed some videos of me rapping and posted them on a new Instagram page and tagged them. We did some challenges back and forth and they eventually found out it was me! Since then I’ve been making my own music going by the Rap Name, “ZauNB” and have gotten some surreal opportunities out of it. I got to perform a few different times at various venues, and I even got to perform on Tour with the famous rapper Joyner Lucas when they came to Dallas! It was crazy. Now I’ve got an EP coming out called, “ApocalyZe” that I hope everyone will enjoy. I rap with more focus on lyricism and try to make sure each song has substance. I want to make them about something. I feel like that’s less common now with current music so hopefully, I can give people something a little different. ZauNB is on Instagram and my music can be found on all platforms.

In college, I studied Graphic Design and even got the opportunity to work as a student Graphic Designer for school-wide programs and clubs. I gained a lot of good experience from that, which led me to start doing Freelance work! I’ve done logos for small businesses, podcasts, and even book covers! As a matter of fact, I created the Book Cover for Nitishia Freeman-Booker’s Book, “Soccer Mom” She may or may not have gotten the Family discount though. I’ll never tell! My Graphic Design work is what really made me want to give the Comic Book world a try and now, Issue #1 of Bound will be launching on Kickstarter this Summer! For Graphics Inquiries I am on Instagram @a.custom.design and for Updates on the Bound Comic, check out our Facebook page and the Instagram page (@b0und_official).

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I had to make a relatively significant pivot during this project. In the beginning, since “Bound” was an Idea I came up with on my own, I assumed I had to bring it to life on my own. I wrote it, I re-wrote it, and I wrote it again. I still wasn’t familiar with the flow of Comic stories so, I did some research and decided to hire what’s called a Panelist. This is essentially an editor for Comics. He took what was basically a Screen Play, and broke up the content into pages and panels. We worked together to place all of the story beats in the most compelling places while moving the narrative forward. I learned a lot from working with Chris despite his being from

Even after that, I was still drawing the entire book myself. I am an illustrator, however, I was unsatisfied with how the art was looking because I didn’t feel like my style matched the comic book feel I was going for. So, once again I decided to hire some help. I hired Thien to help with the page illustrations. Although I designed every Main Character you will see in the book, he was able to bring them to life through the comic in a way that I could not. His work, just like Chris’s took the project to a whole new level.

The pivot here is present in both instances. Both required me to look at this project differently. I had to consider the final project and be honest with myself about whether or not I would be happy with it if I forced myself to do everything. I needed to decide what was worth more to me; a project that was ok and done by only me, or a project that was done how I envisioned it with the help of people who cared to make it the best it could be. I learned through this experience that dropping your pride and asking for help was not inherently a bad thing. The project turned out way better as a result.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Throughout the project, we’ve gone through 2 different colorists. I won’t drop names or anything but it was difficult to find a colorist that was consistent with their work. The quality was always great but there were way too many errors. Meaning, that this object was the wrong color or a different color than in previous pages. We have a system in with I can let the team know what I need from them directly however, with the colorists, it was often a gamble on whether or not I would hear from them within the week.

Again, everyone I’ve brought on the project does great work. I just struggled to find someone who aligned with the timeliness I was looking for. Despite the inconveniences that come with switching artists, I made sure that progress continued on the project!   

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @b0und_official
• Facebook: Bound Comic
• Other: For other Illustration inquires: @a.custom.design For my music: @z4un_b

Image Credits
Bound Shoe Cover: Ahzaun Booker Bound Taxi Cover: Thien Nquyen Bound City Cover: Christopher Kondylis Bound Mask Sketches: Ahzaun Booker