Manuel Godoy is a force to be reckoned with in the world of graphic novels and comic books.  As the CEO of Black Sands Entertainment and the lead writer of the Black Sands series, he and his wife Geiszel, have created a successful brand with multiple projects centered on African history. He’s authored Kids 2 Kings and Sons of Nibiru. Currently, he’s working on Book 2 of Sons of Nibiru, issue 3 of Kids 2 Kings, and the first manga adaptation of Sons of Nibiru.

Black Sands: The Anime, a historic fan-owned anime based on the best-selling success of Black Sands, the Seven Kingdoms is his latest and most ambitious project yet. The acclaimed voiceover cast includes Debra Wilson, Michael Venom Page, and Eddie Griffin.

Raising money through Black Sands Anime WeFunder, the project has collected more than $1.3 Million. The deadline to invest is February 28.

BET.com spoke to Godoy about the creation of Black Sands and what sparked his creative vision.

“In 2016, I was working on a video game. I did a GoFund Me and it actually worked out pretty well too. The first video game was basically the Black Sand Series. But then I realized video games are way too expensive. I spent $20,000 to get it off the ground then I was like, Yeah, ‘I'm not finishing this game. It's gonna cost a lot more than this,’” Godoy explained. 

“So I pivoted and went into a comic book instead which is only like $5,000 through the first issue. I called that Kids 2 Kings. Eventually, it went back to the same name as Black Sands,” he continued. “I wanted to target a younger generation and follow them the way I saw modern-day anime happen.”

Godoy believes that comic books and graphic novels were the perfect launching pad to tell stories about ancient African culture and address a big void in the market.

“Even though I make comic books, I tend to be more political than most when it comes to my messaging and it's definitely worked out for us. Parents loved how we were getting kids to get content about their own history,” Godoy said. “That always butts heads with what's going on in America. So that's my thing and that's what we’ve been doing for seven years.”

Godoy also spoke about some of the challenges that Black creatives encounter in a space that’s dominated by white artists.

“I was not necessarily in the comic book space, per se, but I was in the Black novelist/ comic book space. I knew all of the Black comic book creators. When I went to an anime or a comic convention, I would always be placed around them,” he said. “That's the way they like doing things. They place all the black people together. So we always know each other.” 

“But you don't ever see a Black comic book section in a comic book shop so there's no real comic book connection between what Black people are doing in the comic space versus the entire industry as a whole. So I would say it's kind of more of an exclusive club.”

Over the years, the success of Black Sands has taught Godoy to serve his audience with the content that they love.

“The people who supported me financially were older audiences who were glad there was finally some good Black representation in Egypt and it was great content for their kids. They had a clear idea of why they're supporting me, so why should I go out of my way to try to fit in for people who are not supporting me?” he asked.

 “A lot of people have success with a certain demographic, and then they go and chase another demographic that doesn't even mess with them. So I decided to focus all my messaging on parenting, on history before slavery.”

With Black Sands: The Anime, Godoy always dreamed of making a film based off of his series. A non-negotiable for him was losing his voice in the creation of the film--a voice that his fans have grown accustomed to. 

“I think it was always inevitable that we get onto the big screen. The challenge was how much would I have to sacrifice to get there.  A lot of people sell their IPs, they sell their rights, and they have no creative control and the characters change. It's just, you know, so, so it's how much I'm going to lose in order to get to that point,” he said. “Also, I got lucky because Carl Reed recently left Lion Forge and he wanted to do his own thing.”

For the anime, Godoy has recruited a star-studded lineup to bring his stories to life on the big screen. He shared how he got them to buy into his vision

“Some of them was pure luck and connections from Carl Reed. It’s great to see that people are willing to put their reputations on the line because people don't want to be attached to something that's not going to come out. I think a lot of people really underestimate that,” Godoy explained.

“When somebody gets attached to something like this, their name, their identity and their brand, is all connected to it so it better come out, and it better be what they think that it's going to be,” he added.  “I think that's a really good thing for us to see other people putting their reputation on the line for Black Sands. I hope that we exceed everybody's expectations.”

Being independent and making his own decisions has been a hallmark of Godoy’s and the Black Sands success story. He shared that doing things his way has truly been worth the grind.

“When you’re independent and you don't have a board telling you how to spend your money you can be more aggressive on independent projects. We're about to hit $1.3 million raised through the fans. Not many movies get millions of dollars from fans just to make it,” Godoy said. “Not just Black people, but people in general.  We're doing that because we have control, and we know that we have a certain thing that we're going to make, and the fans know it, so they're not uncomfortable funding it.”

When asked what advice he had for emerging creatives, Godoy said to be authentic and accountable to your audience.

“I'm a principled guy, so I always have a paper trail of everything. I've always had financial audits for my company. Every time I raised capital, I accomplished that plus more. So I under promise so I can over deliver,” he said.  “Because of the consistency of delivering what people say they want from us, we can invest in other Black creators. So I made, 15-16, different titles from other creators. I funded them and let them make movie stories about Mansa Musa, Madagascar, and more.”

“It's not just we're funding it but we're mentoring them , and we try to get these stories out there,” he added. “I've been doing this for so long that people don't question what I'm doing anymore.” 

View all of the Black Sands Entertainment collections.