Justin Yarrow and Clyde Beech in conversation with Crystal-Leigh Clitheroe and Anna-Sophie Jürgens | Section: Visual Science Storytelling, Sequential Art & Illustrated Science Communication
Abstract: In this conversation, Dr Justin Yarrow and Clyde Beech discuss the SuperScientists project, which combines science communication and comic art to inspire and educate South Africans, especially schoolchildren. The project captures the public imagination by reimagining scientists as larger-than-life superhero characters through trading cards, comics, and animations. The creative vision uses superhero aesthetics to celebrate scientific achievements while making science approachable. SuperScientists bridge the gap between science and comics’ superhero culture, helping children see scientists as relatable heroes and inspiring scientific pursuits. The project shows how art and visual narrative can transform abstract scientific concepts into engaging stories for all ages.
Dr Justin Yarrow and Clyde Beech, welcome to the online journal w/k! Justin, you are a (Super) Science Communicator with a PhD in Cell Biology, researcher with multiple NGOs in public health and CodeMakers’ Founder and Director. You are the mastermind behind the SuperScientists project, a concept you turned into reality in 2019, where scientists are reimagined as comics-style superhero trading (collectible) cards created by established and emerging visual artists like Clyde Beech. These characters have since been incorporated into additional media like interactive colouring books, a museum exhibit, the comic, SUPERSCIENTISTS DIG IN! and its entertaining animated film adaptation. The project has been covered in South African newspapers such as Mail&Gaurdian and Sunday Tribune; and internationally in Business Insider, Science Magazine and at Falling Walls in 2020. In this article, we invite you to reflect on the power of comics superhero art to communicate science and excite the public imagination about science. We seek to better understand the artistic concept behind transforming these incredible scientists into dynamic and dazzling superheroes.
Justin: Thanks so much it’s great to share what we’re doing with you and the readers.
AFRICA’S SUPERSCIENCE HEROES
Justin, in previous interviews (see intro) you say you came up with the SuperScientists project as a way to make South African scientists more recognisable and relatable to South African children, and by extension celebrate local science in the greater society. Why did you choose the superhero comics aesthetic for this?
Justin: It was a culmination of factors. I was teaching young people creative coding and wanted them to learn about South African scientists. I printed and laminated pictures with descriptions to post in the classroom. It was a total failure – they paid no attention. They were more interested in making animations with characters from TV or their imagination. Around that time Black Panther was released and the response in South Africa was amazing. People were hyped to see an African mainstream Marvel character on the big screen. It was a moment of immense pride. Lastly, what scientists can do is truly like superpowers – cut and splice DNA, elucidate protein structures, image molecules inside cells, etc. I wanted to make characters that look like the superheroes young people know and get them into their hands through trading cards, not have them just be something they saw on a wall or screen.
You have worked with exceptional creative South African collaborators, most notably Clyde Beech, of the incredibly successful Supa Strikas! and Kwezi comics, but also artists like Curtis Bonhomme, Venus Bambisa and other creative enterprises like Hero in my Hood and The Hidden Hand Studios. How did these relationships begin? How have these collaborations influenced the artistic concept of the SuperScientists?
Justin: One great thing about this project is working with different artists and promoting their work. Curtis helped launch the project with the first characters, card designs and chibis. Venus brought his unique style to several characters while Hero in My Hood created an activity book we distributed to thousands and their playful style influenced the museum exhibit. Clyde’s character design and comics experience took us to the next level, with his characters making a social media splash and our comic let us tell a fictional story while sharing science. Our animation with The Hidden Hand Studios saw artists playing with the characters, giving them fluidity and bending camera angles to make a rollicking adventurous show. This project also connected us with writers now developing an animated series.
Clyde, you are a (Super) Comics Creator; were Lead Finishing Artist, Art Director and Comic Book Team Lead at Strika Entertainment; were long-running Lead Colourist for internationally-adored South African comic Supa Strikas; and you are Co-founder, Story and Visual Development team member, and Colourist of the comic Kwezi. You have collaborated on most of the 70+ illustrated SuperScientists from eight African countries and the USA to illustrate the extraordinary SuperScientists trading cards and the comic, SUPERSCIENTISTS DIG IN! You have done incredible work bringing the image and idea of the African comics hero to the rest of the world. How has working in the realm of science influenced your art and career?
Clyde: I’ve always had a deep fascination with science, and growing up, I was absolutely captivated by superhero comics. That passion for storytelling eventually led me to a career as a comic book artist. When the opportunity to work on SuperScientists came along, it felt like the perfect way to merge those lifelong interests into one project.
What excites me most about SuperScientists is the representation it brings to real-life scientists. It’s inspiring to think that kids who spend hours debating the pseudoscience they see in the media can also discover just how incredible and almost science-fiction-like real science can be. SuperScientists show them that real scientists are the superheroes of our world, tackling some of the most extraordinary challenges.
Clyde, working with scientists to reimagine them so vividly must be a fascinating experience at the intersection of art and science! How has this project changed your ideas of what science and research is? How have African scientists and their science influenced your own aesthetics of the “superhero” for the comic?
Clyde: Working on SuperScientists has been an eye-opening experience. I think a lot of people see science as this almost untouchable pursuit – something for geniuses, the brilliant few. But getting to know the scientists I’ve worked with, you realise that while they’re extraordinary in their achievements, they’re also just regular people. Often, they’ve been inspired by something that might seem small or insignificant to others. But through hard work and dedication, they’ve shaped knowledge that genuinely impacts and improves the world. Seeing them as real people, not just an unattainable ideal, makes it easier to imagine their superhero personas.
What drives them, their passion, their humanity, all of it comes through and inspires the way I bring their stories to life. Honestly, sometimes the reality of science is even more fascinating than the fiction I create, and more often than not, the fiction I dream up is directly inspired by the amazing work they do.
IMAGINEERING THE SUPERSCIENTISTS
Tell us about your process! From the creative reimagination of scientists and the symbolic transformation of their research into a superpower, let’s talk about how you bring them to life in a completely new format. First, Justin, you’ve mentioned that the featured scientists often come to you. What kinds of scientists are open to and excited about collaborations like this? What do you think attracts them?
Justin: For many people, it’s really cool. Draw me as a superhero? Make me look amazing and showcase my work to friends, family and the public? Absolutely, sign me up! In today’s social media age and science communication landscape, particularly among younger scientists, it’s a great promotion of what they do. It validates and recognises their scientific work when people don’t understand or hold negative stereotypes about scientists. Distributing cards and posters featuring their images to children gives them great pride. They recognise the value in changing perceptions of science and scientists. With the public’s response to COVID-19 and the climate crisis, scientists worry about trust in science eroding and that science education is lacking. They see SuperScientists as showcasing science’s importance while also helping address inequities in who has been allowed to pursue science in South Africa and globally.
Now you have a SuperScientist! How to transform them? In Dr Keniloe Molopyane’s – aka “Bones” – 2021 interview, it’s clear she thought about the symbolism in Bones’ look, the red hair, the trowel symbol, etc. Do you co-design the character’s look and outfit with the scientist? Who does the heavy lifting imagineering the iconography for their research superpower?
Justin: It’s a well-honed process now. I email them a questionnaire asking for photos and preferences on depiction, pose, costume colors, cape, hairstyle and symbols representing their science. Keneiloe wanted the white and yellow stripes of her excavation suit, and featuring a hominin skull made sense. Some have specific ideas, but we give Clyde artistic freedom to make it look amazing. Clyde then takes those ideas and runs with them; he has a great body of knowledge for characterisation and how to boil it all down. At the end of the day we want our scientists to be happy with the end result and be proud to share their image while also building a body of work that can be used in other media.
Clyde: Foremost, I always think about the “cool” factor. I want kids to look at these SuperScientists and think, “Wow, this is awesome!” At the same time, it’s important that the scientists themselves feel flattered by the artwork. I spend a lot of time ensuring the art truly resembles them, paying attention to real body types and staying true to life. I avoid exaggerated comic book anatomy or stylization, I try to find a balance between what’s flattering and what’s realistic.
I try to incorporate the scientist’s preferences in creative and sometimes unexpected ways. For their costumes, I look at their field of work—do they wear uniforms? What kind of gear, equipment, or accessories do they use? Then, I add a superhero twist to those elements. I often draw inspiration from the classic superhero aesthetics of Marvel and DC; think spandex, high boots and gloves; but I also keep elements unique to them. For instance, with Dr Keniloe Molopyane, aka “Bones,” I transformed her cave-exploration gear into a superhero-style outfit. I kept the reflective strips and colors of her PPE uniform but gave it that comic book flair.
This approach extends to the chest logos I design. I often use a “shield” shape, common in superhero designs, and incorporate imagery that reflects their field of expertise or discipline. My goal is to ensure the SuperScientist looks like a superhero while still looking like themselves, with designs that reflect their work and make them proud to show off their new persona.
Clyde, these exciting portraits feature a lot of narrative in a single frame. Has this project expanded your own ideas of what the symbols and signs of science look like in the public imagination? What are the challenges you experience when turning these abstract concepts into exquisite and dynamic visual metaphors?
Clyde: I’ve worked in animation and comic books for over 15 years now, and a big part of sequential visual storytelling is understanding symbolism and iconography. It’s about asking: what’s the simplest symbol or drawing I can create to convey an idea to a reader or viewer quickly and clearly? For example, I could render a photorealistic face, or I could draw a simple circle with two dots and a line beneath it, and either way, the viewer would recognise it as a face.
I apply this kind of thinking when designing the SuperScientists. The goal is to make the symbolism and iconography instantly recognisable while still being meaningful. That being said, sometimes the ideas aren’t straightforward, or the scientist has a particularly complex designation. In those cases, I get creative in how I distill all those ideas into one clean, dynamic illustration. It’s definitely a challenge, but it’s a rewarding one, especially when the final design resonates with the scientists and the audience alike.
Justin and Clyde, is there a specific type of knowledge that has emerged from the artistic dimension of the science-art connection these collaborations represent? How would you define it?
Justin: If you were to see the characters that we’ve made and didn’t know they were real people, you’d think they were awesome illustrations and wonder what fictional world these superheroes are from. They would slot into an existing trope. What makes SuperScientists unique is that we’re depicting real, contemporary people; that these people really have abilities that 100 or 50 years ago were not thought possible; and we’re depicting everyday scientists, not Einstein, Marie Curie, etc. It’s the combination of mythic power with the fact that anyone can study to be a scientist. In a world where trust in institutions and leaders has been eroded, there is still trust in science and scientists and we’re trying to show why that should be the case. It really is art – visual storytelling, fictionalisation, imagination – meets science – scientific abilities, new knowledge, the people that do the work.
Clyde: We try to create a unique kind of knowledge through the illustration and ideation of our science-art collaborations. By blending scientific ideas with creativity and visual storytelling, we aim to humanise science, making it more approachable and relatable. Through symbolic imagery, vibrant aesthetics and dynamic narratives, we distill complex concepts into stories that spark curiosity and emotional connection in both kids and adults.
We strive to depict scientists as heroic figures; the ultimate problem solvers, innovators and creators; who, much like fictional superheroes, contribute meaningfully to society. By reshaping how science is perceived, we hope to inspire audiences of all ages to see themselves as part of the scientific journey, leading them toward their own discoveries. The knowledge we generate goes beyond facts; it reimagines science as extraordinary, engaging and accessible to all.
In a few words, how would you characterise the artistic concept of SuperScientists and how do you see it developing in the future?
Justin: The artistic concept plays on the bold and powerful imagery of comic book characters – vibrant colours, dynamic poses and superhero iconography – to portray scientists as powerful, relatable and aspirational figures. The art is characterised by sharp lines, saturated colors, and exaggerated action-oriented compositions, giving the scientists an iconic, larger-than-life statuesque presence. With inspiration in part from the response to the Black Panther movie and Africa’s rise, Afrofuturistic elements and a real pride in what these scientists are doing comes through in the poses and characterization. The medium we used initially is also part of the artistic concept. We created trading cards to get the scientists into children’s hands and become tradable with kids choosing who they like based on art, science, gender etc. The photo of the real person on each card then connects them to the fictionalised version. The “Marvel-like” characters are the standard bearers, and we’ve made chibi versions for a younger audience and to explore the humor and goofiness of the scientists and the idea itself.
In the group of villains “The Agents of Disinformation” that we’ve created, that depict strategies and tactics used to spread disinformation, we use more muted colours, play with the size and shapes of the characters, and anonymise them. I’d love to expand on these and bring them and the SuperScientists into different media that kids engage, particularly video games.
At the end of the day, we want to connect kids to scientists using a visual language they already understand. You see kids yelling “Go Flash!” while sprinting across playgrounds—we’re tapping into that same fantastical energy, but grounding it in real people and real science.
Thank you very much, SuperScientists Team, for this superpowered conversation!
Cover image above the text: Meet Africa’s SuperScientists! Art: Clyde Beech (2024).
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References
A PowerPack of SuperScientists: An innovative concept by African scientists to address gender bias and inequity in science (2023) in Welcome Open Research.
SuperScientists Official Website.
How to cite this article
Justin Yarrow, Clyde Beech, Crystal-Leigh Clitheroe and Anna-Sophie Jürgens (2025): SuperScientists: Celebrating science through the power of superheroes. w/k–Between Science & Art Journal. https://doi.org/10.55597/e10289
