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!

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 :)

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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?

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 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 .