Rajat's Random Rambling 2-In-1 Review : Chairman Meow + Widhwa Ma Andhi Behen

Last year at the first Indian Comic Con India (2011) in New Delhi, for me, the find of the 2-day event was without doubt UBiMa. I have written about it in detail in one of my first few reviews for Comic Addicts.

After a few months, I heard that a sequel was in motion and that excited me to no end, I hounded both Adhiraj Singh and Abhijeet Kini to send me pics, and Abhijeet even promised to send a few sample art pieces but I guess they got busy or something, the sequel hasn’t happened yet. Disappointing, but what the hell. Life goes on, right?

Since there was no UBiMan #2 or for some unexplained reason Retrograde #2 either (fellow addict Akshay can perhaps shed some light on this!), and Sumit Kumar wasn’t launching anything, I had no major expectations from this Comic Con, as far as the artist and writers I knew were concerned.

There were going to be some new launches and Rovolt looked totally kickass, but didn’t expect much from the humor section. Anyway, 3 days went in a breeze. Due to Cosplay, I missed out checking out and buying anything from the stalls this time as well!!! Note to self: Next CC BUY stuff on day 1 and then follow it up with the fooling around in costumes!

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.