Nigerian technologist and writer D. Ajayi is expanding his creative footprint beyond mythology and into the multiverse. Best known for his award-winning graphic novel O Kingdom Come, which fused Nigerian folklore with socio-political commentary, Ajayi is now spearheading an ambitious international collaboration titled Shattahs, a project he describes as a “multiversal onslaught”.
At the heart of Shattahs is an emphasis on scale and stylistic diversity. The project brings together a specialised team of 100 artists (23 as of this report) from more than 50 countries (9 as of this report), uniting writers, inkers, colourists, and designers in a single, harmonised narrative. The story follows a clandestine team of “Super Hunters” tasked with protecting the Harmonicverse, a multiversal system where creativity and culture are interconnected. In this world, the hunters’ primary mission is to neutralise the multiverse’s greatest threat: “Heroes”.
The concept, Ajayi explains, emerged from a long-standing fascination with science fiction and parallel universes, territory he had admired but never fully explored in his own work. “I’ve always loved science fiction,” he notes, “but oddly enough I’d never created anything in that space.” The idea of a team tasked with balancing the multiverse became the structural spine of the project.
Central to the project’s identity is “Mugen Art,” a visual philosophy built on the deliberate collision of contrasting art styles. Rather than enforcing aesthetic uniformity, Shattahs embraces “visual dissonance,” allowing traditionally clashing styles to coexist on the same page. Ajayi argues that this creates a unique emotional impact, where the narrative is driven not just by the script, but by the act of seeing different artistic visions interact.
The title itself reflects this thematic focus on balance. “Shattahs” is a palindrome, echoing the loops and symmetry inherent in multiversal storytelling. The mirrored structure of the word even allows the twin “t”s to function as a visual reticle; an emblem that reinforces the hunters’ role within the narrative.
For Ajayi, whose company Tell Our Own Tales has long championed African narratives, the collaborative scale of Shattahs is not incidental. It follows his 2024 “As Above So Below” initiative which he he facilitated in partnership with Comic Con Ibadan, drawing more than 50 submissions and awarding a $1,500 prize pool. That initiative reinforced his belief that meaningful industry impact lies not only in producing strong work, but in expanding participation.
By integrating contributors from dozens of countries, Shattahs challenges the tight stylistic branding and centralised authorship often seen in mainstream comics. Whether viewed as a meta-commentary on the indie scene or a large-scale artistic experiment, the project signals Ajayi’s continued commitment to redefining who gets to tell stories and how they are told.
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