Dawud Anyabwile is an Emmy Award Winning and two time Glyph Comics award winning Illustrator and comic artist based in Atlanta, GA. He has received numerous awards and accolades throughout his career including the Key to Kansas City for Outstanding Service to Children. A Lifetime Achievement Award from the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention and in addition he was nominated for the Will Eisner Award - Best Artist category at the San Diego Comic Con in 1992 for his work on the critically acclaimed comic series, BROTHERMAN: Dictator of Discipline.
Dawud was born by the name of David Sims and raised in Philadelphia, PA where he developed his love for art, culture and music appreciation. As a young person, Dawud and his brothers explored all kinds of creative forms of expression including stop motion animation, film making and story development. Dawud has always been a leader in his interests dating back to his days as an airbrush artist on the streets of Philadelphia where he inspired aspiring artists from all backgrounds.
His vision at an early age was to encourage his peers tobe their own hero and create that which they felt may have lacked in their communities or lives. He set that example by teaming up with his brothers to create the BROTHERMAN comic series which is recognized as a catalyst for the contemporary Black Comic book movement. Although he did not have a background or experience in the comic book industry he never let that stop him from breaking new ground by demonstrating self determination which inspired a generation of youth around the world to do the same.
Dawud has since gained studio experience in both NYC, LA and Atlanta by working on popular television shows and feature films such as Goosebumps 2, The Bobby Brown Story, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, The Wild Thornberrys, The Rugrats, MTV’s Daria as well conceptualize and storyboard a myriad of commercials and other major projects for Tyler Perry Studios, 20th Century Fox, CW, BET, TBS, Cartoon Network, TRU TV, CNN and more. Dawud recently illustrated the graphic novel adaptation of the 2015 Newberry Medal Winner, 2015 Coretta Scott King Honor Award Winner and New York
Times Bestseller THE CROSSOVER by Kwame Alexander published by Houghton Mifflin Books for Young Readers. He has also illustrated the graphic novel adaptation of Walter Dean Myer’s Award Winning book MONSTER, published by Harper Collins. Another major release which he illustrated is BECOMING MUHAMMAD ALI by the #1 Bestselling author, James Patterson and Kwame Alexander.
Dawud currently runs his own company, Big City Entertainment, Inc. In January 2016 he released the award winning graphic novel Brotherman: Revelation Book One.
Much of his original art and artifacts from the Brotherman comics series and his personal works are part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian’s National African American History Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC, The Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture in Atlanta and most recently the Clark Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Archives Library.