When I was in school, I conceptually didn't want black people to have context, to take it out of all that history. I wanted nothing to indicate where… - Toyin Ojih Odutola

The graphic style itself is influenced by a lot of very layered and detailed comics that I read as a kid, like 'Vagabond' by Takehiko Inoue.

My identity is not based on performance; it's based on something that's pre-determined by someone else, and I don't even understand what that is because I'm an African who came to America.

I don't think about race before I start drawing. I think about how to make that mark to fit whatever purpose I need it to fulfill. Being a black artist, the first thing people want to talk about is your blackness, the importance of your blackness, and your black presence.