Comic Review : Aghori #01 and #02 (Wayfarer Special!)

I think something short-circuited in my brain just now...

Like you dear reader, I've seen the previews, I've heard the rumours and scoured the facebook groups and people I know for anything I could on this new series and found little beyond what the folks at Holy Cow Entertainment put out there. They played this one close to the chest and now I can see why. This is a very a well-executed and bold new step from Indian creators, the art alone elevates this to a new level of amazing and the production values are impeccable.

(NOTE : Check out some of the preview pages we've got for you here!!)

Series writer Ram V is a very new face on the Indian comic scene and with the aid of his collaborators in this project - that I know for a fact came about amazingly fast (for more history on all this, check out our earlier interviews and coverage, all linked at the end of this review!) - may well be one of the most promising I've come across so far.

Holy Cow presents "Aghori" : EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW!! (Part 2!)

Promo art - a character study (clickable!)

The Aghori is back!

Yes folks, welcome to our follow up to last weeks most-excellent preview pages from issue #0 of the exciting and much-talked-about series.

This week we are excited to bring you the second half of this tantalizing teaser chapter from this promising new series from creators Vivek Goel and Ram V. who have got the Indian comic community buzzing since the first images were released.

What is he? Demon fighter? Hero? Rogue? Mystic? Human? … and what is his mission?

We all have to wait a while still to know the answers to all this and more, but this short story has been a great glimpse into the kind of stories and art that we can expect to see from the series.

So without any further, here is the end of the beginning as this chapter wraps up just as the #1 issue is poised to hit the shelves! With special commentary from the creators themselves, we hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Holy Cow presents "Aghori" : EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW!!

Teaser cover image

Greetings comic fiends and fellow fans! 

Thanks to the amazing folks over at the creative power-house that is Holy Cow Entertainment (HCE), we have an extra, EXTRA special treat for you. 

Not all that long back we had a special, exclusive interview with Ram V., the writer for the very-in-the-news series titled "Aghori" which is being teased as one of the intended flag-ship books/characters in the Holy Cow universe of comics. 

Now, we have something more and even better : the first four full pages of the Aghori #0 with commentary from both Ram and Vivek Goel on the development of the series as well as insights into the creation of this first glimpse into the world of Aghori, before the highly anticipated launch of the series itself!

And so, keep reading for all the latest Aghori awesomeness! (And remember - CLICK TO SEE EACH PAGE IN IT'S FULL GLORY!)

Special Interview : "Aghori" writer spills some beans!

All right folks! The wait is over... We have been teasing you with hints of an inside scoop about Holy Cow Entertainment’s (a.k.a HCE) next Magnum Opus – “Aghori” - and now your wait is ended!

For those of you not familiar with the basics of how this came to be : HCE was started by super-star artist Vivek Goel to be a creator owned and run publishing house, a rare feat anywhere in the world, with emphasis on always having excellent art and a style all it's own. They kicked off with the release of the horror/fantasy/therianthropy based Werehouse : Home of Monsters v1 which introduced them with a bang featuring three unique stories with different writers. This success was followed closely by the current fan-favourite re-telling of one of India's greatest saga's (from the other side of the fight) – Ravanayan. You should check this stuff out to whet your appetite before this new series that's going to be one of the flagship titles from HCE, hits the bookshelves and stands!

Read ahead now as we bring to you an exlusive rapid-fire interview with the writer of the series – Ram V. – and start to peel away the layers of mystery around the project.

Review : Ravanayan #5 (Holy Cow Entertainment)

(click to enlarge)

In terms of the actual chronological events of The Ramayan, this issue reaches the milestone where Ravan kidnaps Sita using Mareech as the decoy/sacrificial lamb and kills the vulture warrior Jatayu, nullifying any efforts made to prevent Sita's abduction. This issue also presents a take on the fight between Mayavi and Vali which, as we all know, caused the bad blood between the Vanar brothers Vali and Sugriva, eventually leading to Lord Ram defeating Vali and as a result winning the support of the powerful Vanar army.
So, according to Vijayendra Mohanty (a.k.a, “the writer”) it was Ravan who lays the seeds of enmity between the Vanar brothers. It was Ravan who used Mavayi as a mere pawn to create the perfect misunderstanding. 

(click to enlarge)

Review: RAVANYAN #4

The Ramayan is probably the first Indianized/desi superhero/superhuman story we listen to or read in the early stages of our lives, a story which instantly burns a long lasting circuit in the cache-memory part of our brains. I guess the stellar significance of The Ramayan can be felt by the fact that most of us develop the sense and the ideology of right and wrong, good and evil, kind and cruel via The Ramayan and throughout our lives we keep referring to these ideologies and changing them according to our needs and demands, either consciously or subconsciously.

Now why I mention this very trivial information is to emphasize the level of creativity and innovation that the people at Holy Cow have used while concocting RAVANAYAN. I mean they have taken probably the most popular Indian reading material and completely changed the position of the pieces to create an entirely new and extravagant viewpoint. Truly Holy Cow has shown us the other side of the coin. And with chapters 5 and 6, Ravanayan has reached a different level of awesomeness altogether - both in terms of writing as well as the artwork.

Wishing Well : Indian Comics in 2012

 In a lot of ways, the future will remember 2011 as the year the Indian comic-book geek came out of the closet. The success of the first ever comic-book conventions in the country being held in Delhi and Mumbai went a long way in illuminating fanboys in regard to the presence of their fellow comic addicts.

It’s a year that saw Ravan’s side of the story, the beginning of an indigenous Martial Arts epic, Shiva finding his way back into comic books, the conclusion of India’s first home-grown Zombie comic book series and an arguably ballsy move from print to digital (and free), among many other exciting prospects.

Keeping in mind all these developments, It’s difficult not to imagine what this oh-so-beautiful monster, currently in its infancy, is going to grow into tomorrow. Bear in mind, however, that this is all just speculation and wishful thinking, but its fulfillment would make this little geek very happy:

A Shared Universe

In my mind, this is the one thing from a creative point of view that needs to happen soon. We are already seeing the seeds being sowed for this, with Yumi coming to a computer screen near you soon, as a Shaurya spinoff, but there is still quite a long way to go. The reason a shared universe is important is that it opens a whole world (literally) of literary possibilities, and helps give multi-dimensional looks at a character and settings. If the upcoming Avengers movie can’t convince you it’s awesome, I don’t know what will. Picture the cast of Shaurya stuck in a zombified Bangalore or a Daksh-spinoff Ravana escaping from hell into the modern day, keen for redemption.

REVIEW: Ravanayan #3 & #4 - Double sized!

Ravan’s audition and Brahma’s casting ouch! (Spoilers ahoy)

Well written and equally well illustrated, Ravanayan issue 3 is a triumphant return to form after issue 2 which seemed more like an illustrated version of the “The story so far...” section of a book. The good folks at Holy Cow promised to treat us to a double issue this time round and the issue was a treat.

Coolest Indian Comic Cover Ever?

Most of Vijayendra Mohanty’s photos that I've come across till now depict him deep in thought. While most writers want to portray a brooding aspect to their personality, Mohanty appears to be someone who actually thinks. Ravan’s mindset throughout the issue is eloquently depicted in words. A noteworthy highlight is the dialogue between Brahma and Ravan - The conversation is quite interesting (though I sat in the brooding pose and have some questions which I shall raise later) and refreshing.

And speaking of refreshing, how cool is the way Brahma is depicted!!!

Having a sit-down with Holy Cow!

You've all been aching to learn more about upcoming issues of Ravanayan, we've all been teased by art from Skull Rosary and been enticed by hints of much more still not revealed – well be at peace good readers!

We at Comic Addicts have finally nailed down the elusive creative head of Holy Cow Entertainment (HCE), Mr Vivek Goel himself along with some of his creative co-conspirators and now bring you an in-depth and honest talk about what in the coming months will make you exclaim “HOLY COW!!”

Thanks for taking out time to sit with us Vivek, its a real pleasure.

To start with, tell us how does it feel to be at the forefront of changing face of indian comics?

It feels great, honestly. Finally I have got the chance to do the things I always wanted to do, the projects, the kind of art, stories, experimentation with different art styles without being answerable to anyone. Also, I love teaching comic book art and with HCE, I finally can do that. Being a self taught artist I understand the value of time and if it took me 2 years to prepare myself I can cut short that period for my young interns to 8 months under proper guidance thereby infusing new blood in Indian comics which we seriously need at this point of time.

How did the idea for Holy Cow Entertainment germinate? what are you looking to do within that banner?

It basically started with a need and a want. A need to give myself a stable platform as an artist and a want to something unique in the form of projects of different genres, giving independent ideas a stable platform. Now is the time that creators take control of their own content and the only way possible is self publishing stuff.

Our basic aim under the banner of HCE is to unite the artist writer fraternity, to give them creative freedom so that they can deliver the best possible comics for the Indian market. The Indian comic industry is very disorganized and fails to understand that we need to work together in order to flourish together as comic making is a team work, no single person can rule it!

EXCLUSIVE: From the desk of Vivek Goel...

AMAZING!! 

Dream a dream...

The only word that comes to my mind when I think of the Indian comic convention is “Amazing”. Trust me when I say this, Comic conventions are probably the best thing that have happened to the Indian comic industry in the last 10+ years.

Project Ravanayan and the minds behind it were totally unaware of it during the 1^st Comic Con at Delhi and we, along with so many of our peers from outside Delhi, were not planning to visit it. But things totally changed as out of the blue an invite came to team Ravanayan (Vijayendra Mohanty and me) to attend the Comic Con and to conduct a workshop and an autograph signing session there. I spoke to my partner Vijayendra and decided that this is probably the best platform Ravanayan could ever get. I did not have any firm plan worked out to start Holy Cow Entertainment (HCE) by that time, I mean it was a bit dicy… I can now proudly say that it was the one of the few but best decisions that I took, that changed my position in the world of comics.

Rajat's Random Ramblings - Ravanayan Begins...

Comic Addicts has done it again. In an unprecedented move, we are doing, probably for the first time in India, a pre-release review of one of the most anticipated book this summer, Ravanayan.

This has only been possible with the cooperation of Mr. Vivek Goel the owner and the chief artist of the Holy Cow Entertainment, who was futuristic enough to realize the way cookie crumbles. Other Publisher friends… Ahem. We are waiting... Our public DEMANDS pre-release reviews!!! ;)

Anyway, as always, I get distracted and wander off to paths unexplored. Let us come back to the task at hand.

One of the 2 covers from Issue 1 - The inner turmoil - Sage Father, Demon Mother

Click on the image to view full size.

The Pondering Pawaskar - An opinion on WERE HOUSE titled…….If wishes WERE HORSES….or…..I’m a WERE-ASS….

[The author wishes to make it ridiculously clear that the opinions mentioned below have sprung from his own messed up head & the owners/administrators/co-contributors (one of whom has been mentioned below) of this site do not necessarily support these opinions. He would understand if the said owners/administrators/co-contributors resort to concocting tales of his dementia or of his being a were-ass to counter the bad publicity the opinions below might garner.]

I titled this article as an opinion instead of a review because I believe that reviews are done by people who know a thing or two about comics. Opinions on the other hand are like assholes. Everyone has one and so I qualify! Two things to note before you read. There are SPOILERS and a spoilt comic geek stuck in a thankless job venting his fury ahead. You have been sufficiently warned.

Nish's Notepad: Werehouse #1

After 5 days of fever, I finally managed to attend the Delhi launch of Werehouse Vol.1, organized by the Comic Addicts team itself! an hour late though. I missed the fun they had, but grabbed my copy, which is Holy Cow's debut title. So, here I go!
Werehouse has 3 were stories at the price of 1, so you get 3 reviews for the price of one too.. :D

1. Gaurdian Demon



Script: Akshay Dhar
Art: Vivek Goel
Colors: Yogesh Ravindra Pugaonkar
Letters: Komal Surale

Project Reveal: Were House : Vivek Goel shows and tell

Lets start with the obvious question Vivek, you have got everyone excited with the brilliant art you have shown recently at your and our facebookpage. Time to tell us some more about the origin of your new project: Were House:

This project basically began with a curiosity, to do something black n white. Since I do tight pencils and my art style is also very noir/dark, horror provided with the perfect opportunity. I am mostly tagged as being a mythology/fantacy artist (can't help it, this is what I have got to draw till date) I desperately wanted to break from it but since my other creator owned project Ravanayan wasn't goin to allow me to do that for a long time, I decided to do something in it myself :)

Click to see in full size

It seems you have chosen shape shifting animals as your subjects this time.

  I was always into animals and am very fascinated by the amazing concept of Lycantrope (shape shifting) and so the idea of doing a mini series based on different creatures depicting different degrees of Lycantropy hatched. It is a kind of project that has been done and a no. of times (take a werewolf) and that is why I wanted to give it a different take and took the native Indian animals as the lycantropes !!

Tell us a little about the team of Were House.

  I wanted to have a veriety and so i started looking for different writers and got blessed in the form of Super talented Akshay Dhar, Shweta Taneja and Soumya Das who have written the 3 stories and I have drawn them all !! 

Why three different writers? 

The reason of working with 3 different writers is that I wanted a variety in storytelling and it has worked amazingly, all of them have their own forte and their own unique ability to tell a story !! 

The final but no less important player in this series is my pencilling assistant Ankur Amre whom i discovered 5 months back, his internship in my office is nearly completing and now he is working very closely with me. He has played a pivotal role in the backgrounds of the GN.

You have said that you wanted to do this in Black and white. Why avoid colors?

Click for full size

 I really want to explore black n white medium of story telling, I believe that a good readble comic does not needs colour dependency (no offence to all my colourist brothers and sisters.), colouring always enhances your drawing but every comic does not need it...especially horror and crime !! I have experimented a lot in the art with this GN and let me tell you that if you handle your pencil carefully with the right amount of pressure, the result just comes out amazing . I got a tremendous opportunity to play with solid blacks and whites and i just loved each moment of it.

Before we end this interview , anything that you would want to tell us about the project?

 To wrap up, I can just tell that all 3 stories are connected in some way and will definately relate to your personal fears !!! i guarentee you that !! Wanna find out more, go buy the book, its out in May 2011......and oh !! yes...we have the same publisher for ravanayan and were house .