ABOUT
Boldly Making Our Own Table

BLACK SANDS STUDIOS

Black Sands Studios was formed to be a fiercely independent animation studio dedicated to developing and producing the highest quality animated content based on the bestselling comics of the Black Sands Entertainment library. Black Sands Studios was founded in 2020 by Black Sands Entertainment’s Owner & CEO, Manuel Godoy and animation industry luminary, Teunis de Raat as Partner & Head of Studio. With his veteran industry expertise, knowledge and connections to talent, Teunis will guide the development and production of the studio’s properties, maximizing budgets, and ensuring they will be of the highest quality.

Black Sands Entertainment was founded in 2016 by Manuel and Geiszel Godoy. In 2017 they launched the title Kids 2 Kings as a comic book about ancient African antiquities. Focusing on empowering youth with rich stories of the past, they had major success raising funds through kickstarter, patreon, and other avenues. To date, they have sold over 25,000 physical copies of their books, raised over $140,000 through crowdfunding websites, and published over twelve books in two years.

They also secured major endorsements from Michelle Obama, The Schomburg Center of Harlem, ReedPOP, and many other major influencers in this space. If any company is positioned to take on the industry, it is Black Sands Entertainment

But what is the most exciting thing about the studio is the traction the IPs being developed have accumulated over the years. Black Sands is the most popular black indie comic series in the nation, selling over 25,000 copies in the last two years. Being a stable and consistent guest at major comic and anime conventions around the nation, Black Sands Entertainment has proven their worth in this space.

STUDIO KEY MEMBERS

Manuel

Partner and CEO

Manuel Godoy

The CEO of both Black Sands Entertainment and Black Sands Studios, Manuel Godoy is the lead creative behind Black Sands and Cosmic Girls. His skills at team management, branding, and social media outreach has garnered him incredible success in the last few years.

LinkedIn

Education

  • CUNY Queens College
  • Economics Major

Activities

  • Member of SCBWI
  • US Army Veteran
  • Service-DIsabled Veteran Owned Business certified.

Titles

  • Black Sands, #1 through 6
  • Sons of Nibiru
  • Rah, the First Pharaoh
  • Cosmic Girls

PARTNER AND HEAD OF STUDIO

Teunis de Raat

Teunis is an animation industry veteran and leader. His 25+ years of experience spans his diverse roles as an artist, technical director, creative/technical lead, VFX Supervisor and Executive Producer. Prior to teaming up with Black Sands, Teunis spent the previous 7 years building a fledgling studio from the ground up leading 3 TV specials and 2 feature film productions and designing, implementing and overseeing the strategic development of all studio production workflows, pipelines, recruitment and organization of critical key personnel. In his career, Teunis has worked with the most preeminent animation studios in the world(Disney,Pixar). Along with building an indie studio’s infrastructure from the ground up, Teunis brings a unique set of skills and top industry connections to lead Black Sand Studios to success.

Teunis’ production experience includes work with Walt Disney Feature Animation, Pixar, ImageMovers Digital, Rainmaker Entertainment, and Dream Quest Images. His credits include: THE WILLOUGHBYS, HENCHMEN, MEET THE ROBINSONS, BOLT, A CHRISTMAS CAROL, ARMAGEDDON, MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, MARS NEEDS MOMS, CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK, QUEEN OF THE DAMNED, and INSPECTOR GADGET among others.

LinkedIn

Education

  • Pratt Institute
  • Architecture

Activities

  • Disney
  • Pixar Canada
  • Bron Animation
  • Rainmaker
  • Dream Quest
  • Image Movers

Titles

  • Meet the Robinsons
  • Bolt
  • The Willoughbys
  • Henchmen
  • A Christmas Carol
  • Mars Needs Moms
  • Armageddon
  • Mighty Joe Young
  • Chronicles of Riddick

  • Queen of the Damned
  • Inspector Gadget
  • Pixar’s Toy Story Shorts: Small Fry, Partysaurus Rex
  • Pixar’s Mater’s Tall Tales: Time Travel Mater, Air Mater
Geiszel Godoy

Chief Financial Officer

Geiszel Godoy

Handling the logistics, contracts, and media outreach, Geiszel has been a critical member of Black Sands Entertainment. She is also a distinguished author of the series Mori’s Family Adventures and is a frequent guest at comic conventions across the nation.

LinkedIn

Education

  • Faulkner University
  • Masters in Business Management
  • Bachelors in Human Resources

Activities

  • SCBWI member
  • US Army Veteran
  • Blacks in Government
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Properties & Development

Animation

The studio will focus heavily on developing properties completely independently and using a disruptive finance and distribution model. Production will be undertaken using a Virtual Studio model wherein production quality benchmarks are set by contracted top industry veterans with quota work largely outsourced. 2D and 3D animation will be our core focus.

CURATED COMIC BOOK APPLICATION

In addition to animation, the Studio will help develop assets for our distribution platform BSP (Black Sands Publishing) . The Black Sands Publishing app allows black content creators a platform to distribute their content directly to their core audience and benefit from it.

LICENSING & MERCHANDISING

Due to our independent business model, licensing will be a top priority and we will be able to rapidly grow our company valuation once we complete our slated productions.

BLACK SANDS, THE SEVEN KINGDOMS

This shounen jump series based on ancient Egyptian mythology has had unprecedented success over the last few years. It is a prime candidate for franchise of the decade if we play our cards right. Black Sands will be the most expensive production campaign to keep the quality of the comics.

MORI’S FAMILY ADVENTURES

Mori’s family Adventures will focus on short miniseries episodes running no longer than five to ten minutes each. The episodes will feature world locations and will be a strong play for international grants from governments and/or businesses. It also promotes positive images of black families world wide.

COSMIC GIRLS

Black Girls don’t get enough original content and Cosmic Girls is the solution. This will be a three-part feature film series following the amazing bounty hunter Corina on her quest to take on the biggest bad guys in the universe. No more “I love my hair” books, it’s time to give these girls a hero!

“The last time there has been a big-budget production on African antiquity was Shaka Zulu in 1986. Thirty-five years is enough evidence to prove that we must build it ourselves or it will never happen again.”

CEO MANUEL GODOY