Facebook comic page launches e-shop

By Maryann Lockington

A 20-year-old local man has taken his passion for creating comics and launched a small e-shop selling T-shirts via Facebook.

Maika Bakani, the “Only in Fiji” comics page moderator, launched an e-shop that sold t-shirts printed with his comics’ artwork.

“I was overwhelmed by the great response the comics and jokes received and I’m proud of the community that has been established on the page,” he said.

Bakani said he was a freelance graphic designer who did small comic strips on the side, which he posted up on his Facebook profile.

“Around September last year a friend of mine suggested making a page for the comics and I decided to

 take it up,” he said.

His brother Kalivati Bakani said that he helped Maika pitch ideas whenever he could.

“This became the dynamic of the page; he would ask the public to send in funny stories and jokes (primarily focusing on the Fijian context of “funny”) and then visually portray these jokes in the form of comics, developing different characters and themes making the stories relatable for all those who read them,” he said.

A fan of the page Losena Raiyawa had ordered a T-shirt from Maika and sent the page a picture of her wearing it.

“I like the page because of the funny cartoons and I bought the t-shirt because I liked it and a few of the cartoons was sent in by my brother,” she said.

Kalivati said that the family was proud of his brother’s achievements with the e-shop.

“I personally had no idea that it would develop this far but yes it has come a long way from being just another random comic on Facebook and I am happy for him,” he said.

Maika launched the e-shop application on the Facebook page called “The T-shirt Bure.”

“Only In Fiji is more of a label than anything, it’s not a fully-fledged company or anything like that, although I am considering registering for a business license very soon,” he said.

Bakani’s comic strips use local humour and some vernacular language, with various characters that have grown popular among fans.

One of his most popular characters was the “Vakilz Squad” with the tagline, “They know everything about nothing.”

Originally published by Wansolwara