The word, the visual

A new publishing house hopes to make the graphic novel more accessible to Indian readers.

It's either a minor inside joke or pure serendipity that the first book to be released by publishing house Phantomville is called The Believers.

For that title is an apt description of Anindya Roy and Sarnath Banerjee, the men behind the project, whose belief in the potential of the comic-book format has led to the creation of India's first publishing house that will deal exclusively in the graphic-novel format.

The idea had its genesis around a decade ago, when Roy and Banerjee were dabbling in short films together.

"We got into the habit of storyboarding the sequences ourselves," says Roy, "We would draw panels depicting how the final film would look, frame by frame. And this in turn got us interested in the comics format."

Banerjee would go on to author Corridor, billed as India's first graphic novel. Finally, last year, they pooled resources (including some borrowed from relatives, near and distant) and established Phantomville.

It's an enormously ambitious venture for a country where the idea of an intelligent, thinking person's comic book is still restricted to a very small circle of readers.

Interest in the graphic novel has been growing in India in recent months, with bookstores (especially those in the metros) stocking some of the genre's key titles "" by authors like Alan Moore, Daniel Clowes, Joe Sacco and Neil Gaiman.

But the readership, though intense, is still tiny, and pre-conceptions about comic books still define the attitudes of most readers.

In the West, leading bookstores have entire sections dedicated to graphic novels, classified by author and sub-genre. In India, it still isn't uncommon to see a graphic novel with strong adult content being mistakenly placed in the children's section of a bookstore.

But as Roy says, "Our intention is to create a market rather than bank on the existing, minuscule readership." The Believers (see "Must-reads", top right) was published last month, eight further books have been commissioned and will be out over the next 15 months or so.

Roy is clearly fascinated by the potential of comics to spread an awareness of social issues; he even made a film on the subject last year. "The medium is so universal," he says, "and with just a little initiative and a good visual sense, people can produce such effective work."

He recalls one of the semi-literate areas he visited once, where an amateur artist had put together a 16-page comic book in Hindi about the dangers of alcoholism, and was retailing it for Rs 8 a copy. "He sold 800 copies in that small region," Roy says, shaking his head.

Internationally, the graphic novel has developed to the extent that the nature of the stories being told is not a big issue. What matters is the execution: as long as the writing is intelligent and provocative, and the visuals compelling, even a Batman story can attain the level of High Art.

In India, that level of comfort will take some time to achieve. "Most people are uncomfortable enough with the format in the first place, so giving them, say, fantasy stories in this format will mean setting up a double barrier," says Roy.

"In the initial stages we will concentrate on human stories "" dramatic narratives about some of the issues facing the country, which people can relate to. Or, at most, good thrillers or suspense stories."

One of the challenges that Roy and Banerjee face is the supervising of what can be a torturous artistic collaboration. The best graphic novels seek to attain a perfect balance between the written word and the visual, and this requires just the right synergy between writer and illustrator.

"We have to mediate constantly," says Roy, "and we don't have the luxury of allowing a lot of time for gestation." No child's play, this.

THE BELIEVERS

Written by Abdul.Sultan.P.P.
Illustrated by Partha Sengupta
Rs 150

Phantomville's first publication (see "The Word, The Visual", below left) is a poignant story about a Muslim man returning from Edinburgh to the small Kerala town he grew up in and discovering that his older brother has become involved with a terrorist operation.

Hamid hasn't seen his family for 12 years but must return to India now for his grandmother's funeral. Memories "" especially of his restless and embittered older brother Rashid "" soon return to haunt him, though reality turns out to be even more bitter.

This is an absorbing if somewhat unambitious book with some nice insights on the irreversible journeys we make "" from childhood to adulthood, from innocence to awareness of the world around us "" and on changing relationships.

The writing and the artwork aren't spectacular, and the Indian graphic novel clearly has some way to go yet, but at just Rs 150 this is worth picking up.

Next on Phantomville's agenda is a graphic novel set in Kashmir, about indoctrination into militancy, and a collection of four short stories, all dealing with life in contemporary India, including issues of sexuality.