Meeting Maniacs: Harsho Mohan Chattoraj

 ComicAddicts chats with H.M.C

(Click to enlarge the awesome-ness!)

So Harsho, tell us a a little bit about yourself.

Let’s see – I’m a comic book artist ( well, I fancifully refer to myself as a graphic novelist at times ) based in Kolkata. I’ve worked in other fields too, and still continue to do so, albeit to a lesser extent these days, as I try to give most of my work energy to my comic projects. I love watching movies and TV serials, listening to music and reading books ( my favourite authors would be Stephen King,. P.G.Wodehouse and John Mortimer ), and let’s not forget comics – I prefer them to books, actually.

The man himself.

How did you get your first break in this industry?

The first break in the comic strip zone ( and they’re the strips in the newspapers, not to be confused with comic books ) came pretty early for me – I had a cartoon column and a comic strip column in 2 supplements of ‘The Statesman’ newspaper in Kolkata. That was around 12 years back, if memory serves me right.

And my first comic book break was a project for a US-based client. The comic’s name was ‘GunMetal Blues’. Strangely enough, that 80-pager is yet to be published, whereas the ones following it got published rapidly, almost immediately after creation.

Can you share some of the biggest influences on your life?

I suppose you are referring to the influences on my life in the comic world… so lemme see – Mike Mignola , Lee Bermejo, Stuart Immonen, Tony Harris, Jae Lee, J.H.Williams III , Leinil Francis Yu . The list goes on and on, but these would be the toppers any day.

What first made you want to not just be an artist, but a comic-artist?

Yes, at the start, and till around 4 years back, I preferred to be a jack of all trades, but comics had been my mainstay always, even among those other ‘trades’. And 4 years back, when I returned to my home in Kolkata from my sojourn in Bangalore, I focused primarily on comics, trying to get better at it.

Tell us something about your insanely-awesome style that has been making people crazy ever since its big debut.

Well, I’m simply glad some folks like it. I try to be as detailed and true to life as possible ( not, of course, when I’m doing a cartoon-style comic ), and I’ve made a change in my art style in the last couple of years that’s made it look a little better – that is, I’ve started to add a healthy amount of background art ( sometimes an unhealthy excessive amount too! ) , instead of focusing only on the characters in the foreground and leaving the background bare ( a flaw I had started off with ).

Have you ever undergone any formal art training?

Not really. I used to go to a kid’s art school near my house during a couple of my primary school years ( classes 5 and 6 , if I recall correctly ), but all I got from that was how to draw apples and oranges.

How to prep dinner in zombie-land!

You recently collaborated with Level 10 on ‘The Rabhas Incident’ which got featured in the Comic-Jump anthology from Volume 1, issue 1-11. How was the journey, bringing these characters to both life and then death?

It was great working with Suhas Sundar ( the writer, coordinator and co-creator ) and the colorists. Suhas was a storehouse of amazing ideas and he planned the whole story arc from start to finish, so all kudos to him. And it was great to have a horror comic on my plate for a change . I see horror comics coming out in the US markets all the time, a few of them winning high accolades, so this was certainly a big foray for Indian comics in that hitherto untrespassed zone.

Yeah you better Confess!

Before Level 10, I believe you have worked with the monthly Tinkle magazine and Kriyetic Studios. What happened with Kriyetic?

Kriyetic was a comics company based in Kolkata. Owned by Manojitda ( Manojit Chakraborty ), and full of freelancing writers, artists and colorists ( like Shamik Dasgupta, Deepak Sharma, Soumen Majumdar and others ), it started off with the aim of creating a monthly comic magazine. Quite a few issues were published before the process slowed down and then stopped. But happily, it’s started again and its creators are putting out a 100-pg issue regularly.

In the starting days , I had created a couple of comics for it. The best one, to me, was the tale of the fictional king ‘Ueriber’ – a 22 pager written and drawn by me, and colored by Soumen Mazumdar.

From "Shades" the online comic

You have worked in the field a lot? And is it limited to India only or have you worked international projects as well?

Yes, I have worked on quite a few international projects.

There are a few - ‘Charlz of Marz’, a 50 page graphic novel published in the US,

‘The Shades’ Volume 1 – an 80 pager published online and now in print in the UK market,

“our Life at War’ - a 50-pg graphic novel about the soldiers in the American army who have children and how their children adapt to a life when their parents are not always with them,

a 15 page comic ‘Around the Swiss World in 20 Days’ that got published in the Indo-Swiss anthology ‘When Kulbhushan Met Stockli’.

My happiest moment was having the 8 page comic called ‘The Twelve’ ( that I created with my US colleague Ira Singerman ) published in the Eisner Award nominated anthology ‘Negative Burn’.

How has the overall experience been so far?

Amazing, and I’m looking forward to more projects where I can work more, learn more and improve my style further.

From "Hyderabad" the Graphic Novel

Any current or new comic projects you’ve been working on?

I’m currently working on 3 comic projects – the most interesting would be ‘The Hyderabad Graphic Novel’ project, where I’m collaborating with Jaideep Undurti ( JasRaman Grewal is also working on the project, although he’s taking on other stories with other artists ). And the two projects which are coming to a rapid close are ‘Munkee Man’, which should be coming out in the Mumbai Comic Con 2011, and The 5th issue of ‘The Stone Legacy’ that I’m creating for a US-based client.

You seem to be truly multitalented - Journalist, visualizer, storyboard artist, voice-over artist and promo producer. So, how have you been holding up?

Nowadays most of the focus – well, nearly all of it - falls on comics. I still create storyboards occasionally for clients like Bates, Kolkata. The voice-over work has ground to a standstill almost, as it’s hard to find a lot of projects in that domain in Kolkata and same goes for the promo producer bit. ( I used to do voice-overs when I was in Pune and Bangalore, and would love to do more in Kolkata, if I just had the time or the right projects. And my promo producing days were in Mumbai, where I interned with Star TV. )

But I still do quite a bit of illustration work as well these days, for diverse ad houses and magazines.

And I recently created 10 artworks for the promotion of ‘Ra One’ – let’s see of they get used and find their way on T shirts and pillow-covers!

Do you have any non-comic projects in the works or plan to have in the future?

Oh yes, I am planning to script, storyboard and direct a film ( and hopefully have a hand in editing it too ) sometime in the not too distant future! Let’s hope that plan reaches fruition.

What would describe as your dream project? Is it a long-standing dream or one that evolves and grows as you do?

Only one dream project I can think of – a series of comics for Marvel Comics. They’re putting out amazing stuff nowadays and their artists are my biggest inspiration in the comic world.

And it is a looooooooooong-standing dream. Let’s see if it ever gets realized! The unfortunate can but hope.

What is your take on the Indian Comic Scene for now and what do you see it becoming in the next year or two?

The Indian comic scenario seemed to be moving up, what with lots of new companies throwing their oars in and starting off ( a good name here would be Level 10, and they’ve certainly made a big splash with some innovative ideas and great stories ), but I still see a few unsatisfied readers hither and thither hungering for more and quite a few writers and artists either unhappy or looking for a big break. So, it has to go a long way yet. But the fact that it has opened up in recent times can only say that good things are in store. I can only hope that better things come up in the upcoming years for both readers and creators.

Can’t help but lamenting the fact that Virgin Comics is no more, though. That company brought in hope for readers, who would be assured of good comics for a decent price, and more so for the writers and artists, who would get proper pay (most of them get a miserly fraction of that amount nowadays for their efforts ) for their hard work and have some hope of being able to make a mark in the comic scenario in the US, thereby getting scooped up by some comic house like DC or Marvel!'

Thanks for taking the time to chat with us and share all this amazing artwork with our readers Harsho - we look forward to more amazing work from you!
 
So there you have it folk! One of the most dynamic, talented and versatile artists in the field that we all know as the fledgeling Indian comics industry - definitely a rising star to keep an eye on, watch this space and Comic Addicts will bring you all the info and amazing-ness as it happens!