EPIC ENDING: Vengeance of Ravana and Sons of Sita conclude The Ramayana Series

As many of you already know, about a year ago I realized I had to publish the last two parts of my Ramayana Series before allowing my Mahabharata and Krishna series to be published.

My reasons are explained in an introductory essay included in both the books, which are titled VENGEANCE OF RAVANA: Book 7 of The Ramayana Series and SONS OF SITA: Book 8 of The Ramayana Series.

These two books shall be collected later into a hardcover omnibus volume titled KING OF DHARMA: Part 4 of The Ramayana Series completing and concluding the series definitively. There will be no further volumes in the Ramayana Series.

However – and this is crucial – the story itself continues directly in The Krishna Coriolis and is also connected to my other series which began with Gods of War, VORTAL: Shockwave, the upcoming comic series Sword of Dharma, the upcoming ITIHASA and INDUS RISING series, and of course, my long-awaited WiP (Work in Progress), the Mba.

To know how and why, you will have to read the same introduction I just mentioned. Those of you who have been familiar with my original EPIC INDIA LIBRARY plan which I outlined way, way back in 2001, even before Prince of Ayodhya was published will know that this is all part of that great concanetation.

VENGEANCE OF RAVANA: Book 7 of The Ramayana Series

was available for pre-order in an exclusive signed & personalized, limited-run hardcover edition upto 15th November 2009. Pre-orders are now closed. The mass market paperback edition will be published by Penguin.

Nov 11, 2009 | Ashok | Comments Off

Becoming Kali:A Vertigo Comic…coming soon!

Some die-hard phans of my work will recall that back in 2005 I was approached by Vertigo Comics, a division of DC Comics USA, to write an original graphic novel series. Some of you who’ve known me personally also know that I’ve been a lifelong die-hard phan of comics.

And when I say phan, I mean phanatic, really. As a kid growing up, I was so passionate about graphic storytelling–or sequential art, as it’s also known–that I actually set up a publishing company to publish original Indian comics.

I’d even gone to the extent of registering three titles for periodical publications with the Registrar of Newspapers at Esplanade Court, Mumbai. Because I was too young at the time–this was in 1979, and I was 15–I had asked my friend Cyrus Kalwachia’s older sister Roshni, who was the only one above 18 in our ‘company’ to put her name as ‘publisher and editor’ for registration purposes.

I registered three names: Zone, Titan and Valentine. Zone was to be a monthly comics magazine which would vary its content each time: one month it would be an all-fantasy comics anthology, another month it would be packed with science fiction comics stories, the third month horror, then noir, and so on. Depending on that month’s content, the name would be enhanced to Fantasy Zone, SF Zone, Horror Zone, etc. The tagline for the magazine was to be “The Fantasy is Real!” (I was 15 at the time, yaar, what do you expect?)

Titan would be an all-story magazine containing only genre stories, with plenty of gritty B&W illustrations and at least one monthly comics serial. Valentine was to be a romance comic anthology, which Cyrus’ other sister Nargis was to co-write.

As with most adolescent dreams, this one never worked out.

I never lost sight of the dream itself, and about a decade later, an ad film maker friend of mine, Uday Bhandarkar, and I tried to ressurect the comic publishing plan. We had a perfume and attar exporter for whom we’d done a ‘fantasy’ ad commercial who showed keen interest in backing us financially. We had some really talented artists eager to work on original desi comics that weren’t the usual ACK-type stuff. I even had pages of several stories in progress, at various stages of completion–and I don’t mean just scripts, I mean art and lettering. I even brushed up my non-existent drawing skills if only to outline and breakdown my scripts and communicate them better to artists. We were poised to revolutionize the comics world in India.

The attar exporter backed out at the last minute. And when he did, everything fell apart. Nobody wanted to work on speculation, least of all the printers and paper suppliers. In time, we all moved on to other things and the dream lay by the wayside.

But I never stopped reading graphic novels and comics. In fact, I’ve followed the runs of some comics for over 30 years and even today, try to keep up with all the latest developments in the field. This past year, 2007, I read close to 75 new graphic novels, and over 300 comics, and my TBR (To Be Read) pile is about twice that much.

So, in 2005, when a veteran comics writer named J.M. Detteis sent me a long, passionate fan letter, and began a correspondence with me about my Ramayana books, he was pleasantly surprised to learn of my lifelong passion for comics. He mentioned the fact to Karen Berger of Vertigo, who immediately jumped, and contacted me, asking me if I would write an original comic series for Vertigo.

What do you think I said? I said YES, of course. Okay, so I wouldn’t be publishing it myself, and it would be released in the USA, and would perhaps never see the light of day in my own country. But it was a real honest-to-goodness comicbook, and that too for one of the greatest comics imprints in the world.

Those of you already into comics know that Vertigo is the ‘mature’ imprint of DC Comics. They don’t do superhero comics, in fact, their readers are the kind of readers who don’t touch superhero comics with a barge pole. They publish a kind of mature no-holds-barred graphic storytelling genre that is to comics what Alt Rock is to Pop. You can look them up at The Vertigo Comics website and learn more about them if you’re interested. You can even read some of their free sample issues online to get a taste of their cutting-edge comics work.

Karen Berger and I began a dialogue back in 2005 that continues to this day. It’s been great dealing one-on-one with a genuine legend in comics publishing and I can clearly see why she’s a legend now. She has a way of drawing out the best from a writer and artist, infinite patience, and an eagle eye for quality. I’ve probably never had to rewrite anything in my life as much as the first few scripts for the comic, and each time, I did it willingly and happily, because I could see that it was making the script better in immeasurable ways. I never thought I’d say this of any editor but she makes revision more pleasurable than the writing itself!

And if you think I’m brown-nosing here, that’s because I’ve worked with editors who are not a pleasure to deal with, and I’ve learned the difference between them and a Karen Berger. I’ve also corresponded a great deal with other writers and artists who work with other comics publishers, such as a certain Indo-US comics publisher that’s been in the news recently (and only been in the news, with nothing really to show for all that hype) and the fact is that they work like creative sweatshops, using Indian writers and artists like outsourcing slaveships, working under dismal rights-sharing agreements that force them to sell everything including their soul, while the company owners wax eloquent at media meets about their great Hollywood film production plans and their slew of great film projects–all based on the comics created by those some slaving writers and artists. Unlike such firms, Vertigo publishes only creator-owned properties, which means that the writer and artist own and earn from every copy sold of every issue of the comic and graphic novel, as well as from other rights sales.

For instance, Warner Bros. has already taken a pre-emptive option on media rights for my Vertigo Comic, and I’ve already been paid for the option (back in 2006, in fact). Maybe there’ll never be a movie or TV series based on the comic, but if and when there is, both the artist and I will be paid our fair share of the royalties.

Speaking of the artist, his name is Peter Gross. He’s best known for his really brilliant work on the Lucifer series (written by Mike Carey). You can check out Peter Gross’s website here. In time, of course, you’ll see art from our collaboration up there too. He’s made the process of writing my first professional comicbook series a great experience, and over time, we’ve developed our own working style that’s neither entirely the Marvel approach, nor wholly the DC/Vertigo approach, but is a combination of the two, and then some. He’s not just the artist on the book, he is truly the co-creator and while I have invented all the characters and story and written every line of dialogue and panel description in the script, I couldn’t imagine the finished book without Peter’s invaluable touch on every page, panel, illustration and hairline.

I can’t wait to show you the finished art from the first four issues, which are ready as of this writing, but Vertigo has a policy of not showing any work-in-progress until the book is published. Which it will be shortly. As of now, in late December 2007, the comic is scheduled for mid-2008 publication. I’ll post the specific month once it’s officially on the Vertigo schedule, and at that point, I’ll post some sneak previews of the first issues too. Meanwhile, here’s some concept art from Peter’s early sketches. Almost none of these made it into the final book, which gives you an idea of how much work goes into the making of a comic, especially at a publishing house like Vertigo which is willing to spend years in concept and development alone!

The associate editor on the book, running the day-to-day editorial matters that Karen can’t always handle because of the demands on her time (she isn’t just the seniormost editor at Vertigo, she runs the whole company), is a great guy called Pornsak Pichetsotte. We finally spoke in realtime in a long hour-plus telephone conversation a couple of weeks ago, after almost two years of email correspondence (Karen and I have spoken several times), and it was nice putting a voice to the name. Pornsak is a combination nursemaid, handholder, and creative guidance counsellor, and he’s been invaluable to the project too. Working on this book has really given me a great sense of the power of collaboration and as a writer who’s been accustomed to working alone on long multi-volume projects for years, it’s actually been refreshing to work in a collaborative medium with such terrific people, and to see the results reflecting the genuine joy of that camaraderie.

So what’s the name of the comicbook? The working title upto now has been Becoming Kali. It’s possible that may be the final published title, but it’s just as possible it will change to something completely different. But you can be sure it will have the word Kali in the title for sure.

What’s it about? Well, it’s a contemporary story set in present-day India, about a teenage girl who unwillingly becomes the host for the avatar of the Goddess and gets caught up with an unlikely bunch of other characters–including a horse, a four-faced vagrant who turns out to be the Creator of the universe, a talkative and erudite Sikh private-taxi driver, a pimp from Dharavi, a sleazy agent named Guptaji, and various other bhadralok.

That’s all I can tell you about it now. But watch this space. Because once I get permission to share more–art, story details, character sketches, et al–I’ll be introducing you to the world of Becoming Kali (or whatever we finally decide to call it) and a whirlwind fantasy-mythological-adventure of epic proportions.

Meanwhile, enjoy these sketches and colour tests. Don’t miss the psychaedelic colour effect Peter used on a couple of them. Aren’t they cool?

Dec 24, 2007 | Ashok | Leave A Comment »