Comic Con: Vivek Goel on reimagining the Ramayana and the Indian comic book scene

While that war between DC and Marvel fans has been waging since time immemorial, a number of homegrown comics have also made their place on many a reading list. Besides Chacha Chaudhary and Suppandi, we have also seen a number of darker characters like Doga and Nagraj courtesy Raj Comics, among others.

So it's hardly a surprise that when erstwhile Raj Comics inker Vivek Goel decided to strike out on his own, his comic books took a turn for the darker side of our own mythology. The result was Holy Cow (HC) Entertainment (founded in 2011) and the start of two epic comic book series – Ravanayan and Aghori. The inker, who was recently present at Mumbai Comic Con 2018, spoke about how his love for comics helped him turn Ramayana on its head and more. Excerpts:

What were the inspirations behind the illustrations in the Aghori and Ravanayan series?

I always wanted to break the linear storytelling of age-old epics (without changing the facts and events) and work on a villain's perspective because one thing that I have learned from epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata is that evil is relative. It all depends on your poing of view. Initially I thought of taking on the case of Duryodhana but later realised that he is not the bonafide renegade of Hindu myth, Ravana is!
Aghori followed on the same lines of exploring the road less traveled. Set in contemporary times, it offered a glimpse into the lesser known lives and practices of the famous Aghoris in India. An idea hardly explored, the series soon became a commercial success and later paved the way for more characters leading into a shared HC universe.

While Ravanayan sticks with the epic and retells it in a fascinating way, Aghori is of a darker variety and the art reflects this. Was it challenging to create scenes that would be gory but still something that would grip the reader rather than repulse?

We never compromise on the artwork. Art is the backbone of any comic book because it's all in the visual interpretation that you can convey your thoughts and mood of the settings. Aghori required the challenge of rightfully depicting what actually goes in the life and times of our titular character in the books. I believe it becomes our responsibility as storytellers to justify each genre with complimenting artwork and themes so that readers can live those moments and scenes you are trying to convey and be with you on every page of a comic book.

What age group would you say the Ravanayan and Aghori series target?

Ravanayan is for all age groups but requires you to understand the events of the traditional Ramayana so that you have the ability to accept a different point of view. Aghori contains some amount of blood and gore and is suitable for 14 and above.

You started out inking Raj and then did penciling work with 10 Ent. Which part of the process do you prefer and why?

Well, my first love will always be manual inking that I learned back at Raj. The organic process of working with rock steady hands with a needle-sharp brush and waterproof ink in the final piece of a finished page with absolutely no margin of error will always be dope for me. I love creating new things and new stories is why I picked up pencils.

How has the comic scene in India grown and thrived since you founded Holy Cow Entertainment?

A lot of people have come in and shut shop since the day we started. We have grown a lot but the market is growing slowly mostly because people still have very less to read from the Indian content. There are hardly 3-4 companies here in India that are putting out comics on a regular basis.

People come back to our stories since we maintain a linear continuity. People are digging more into it as mostly because it's all Indian, made by Indians with Indian characters revolving around familiar Indian settings.

What do you think would be a good way to boost our homegrown graphic novels and comics and help them catch up with the DC Marvel craze?

We need to have companies and production houses with long sustained comic book titles and characters. The more a character/s are popular in India, the more fan following it will have leading to great things. People here expect lots of cash in no time and when that seems to be a long shot, they abandon ship mostly leaving half-baked stories and incomplete arcs.