A Godsend chance!

Here is something I wish to share with you all. My first 10 pages of my First ever created Comic series for S. Chand & Company titled SPACE STAR - RAHASYAMAYA GRAHA!

Living Within Complex

Private Detective Kapil is a character close to my heart for many reasons. Most of the things I learned about writing and drawing comics were during this period. I suggest if you wish to be a Comic writer, start with a suspense story revolving around a certain character. You would learn how to start the story, how to rearrange different incidents in the middle of story, as to keep reader entangled and guessing, then to end the story with a twist which would stun the reader. Mind you, this twist has to be incorporated in the story from beginning or mentioned earlier, not to be concocted out of blue in the end, barring some exceptions and variations, of course. (like a clue from which stems out the whole theory of crime).

The toughest thing I faced during this period was; How to shake off influences both in writing and illustrations, from various quarters! I loved Artworks of so many artists and so many writers made me gasp. I should be drawing like him or I should be writing like her, and then that gnawing inferiority complex telling me that I am good for nothing! Then I learned, being influenced is not bad at all, rather it is good, just don't try to copy. It is similar to learn and memorize something and then reproduce it as your own version, in your own words during examinations. I made friends with my foes, and they became my virtual teachers. Whatever I learned to qualify as a professional was through Western Comics. Sorry to say, but Indian comic then did not try hard enough to imbibe professionalism.

I learned to my dismay that we always stopped short at the level of acceptability while Westerners try to achieve the level of excellence. Even to this day, our country has no place to go for those who either want to learn professional writing or professional Illustration, let alone sequential art.

Illustration is taught only as a small part of graduation curriculum in art colleges and that too without guidance. Learning Concept or fantasy art is left for winds to carry. Result being we become a nation for production doing nothing in Pre-production which comprises 60-70% of a project! Think, folks and if convinced take the issue to others and spread awareness and create demand. Let's become bosses rather than workers!

Oh, oh, oh! I went too far off tangent. Beg your pardon, folks.

Kapil did many things for me, I still want to revive him, but there is one thing he was not!

He was a fictional character but not a Fantasy! And Fantasy was the castle I wished to breach!

The opportunity came from a very unlikely quarter. One Mr. Maanvendra Singh Rathore (Sorry if I can't recall the name correctly) from Gwalior, with political background and intellectual leanings arrived at S. Chand & Company with a story called MAHAMAYA KI TALWAR !

Be back soon, folks!

Gathering Pace!

Allow me, friends, to make one thing very clear in the beginning; this Blog is not about my life history! I just felt that in order to understand the composition and sequential art as I do, you have to know how I did!
Again, you are not supposed to take it without analyzing on the basis of your own logic and strengths.
I was lucky to have the opportunity to peep into the world of commercial drawing without any training at all, let alone professional guidance. The best thing about being a cartoonist is that you are both writer and artist of your work, mostly! I think, this was my first encounter with my future self. One more important thing; I found out to my utter disbelief that one can actually earn through this medium! How much, however, remained a matter of conjecture.
I kept commuting between Delhi and Kanpur with Sukhwant , invariably staying with his relatives, who were very kind and excellent host.
My first real success was a cartoon strip in Diwana Tej, at the time when Pilpil Silbil and Motu-Patlu ruled the roost. I kept studying and kept trying simultaneously and then I was asked by destiny to choose a path.
It was exactly 1^st January 1979, when I was sitting in front of charismatic Gulshan Rai, who offered me a full length 48 pages comic Tau ji, which was to be published under his new venture, Diamond comics! It was in cartoon style. Though I just passed my higher secondary with flying colors and got an offer from BITS, Pilani, I respected the gesture of destiny and chose to remain with my heart. I was certain I was not capable of riding two boats at the same time. It was a foolish decision, seconded by many, but supported by my parents! They knew I would try my best to excel in any field I decide to take.
The die was cast and I had become a published professional!
I was just 16 then, but already I was adding panels in the original scripts to make it more sequential. Noboby objected as nobody was bothered. But after just a handful of books, I was becoming aware of limited access of cartoon style in Comic field. I wanted to switch to realistic art, and I got this opportunity when I was given my first superhero series Fauladi Singh.
I handled it pretty badly though readers were not complaining. There was a sea of difference in analyzing something already on paper and a blank page where one has to decide everything right from scratch. This was learning in real and believe me, folks, it was quite tough and diminutive when you consider that your work is surrounded by the books of demigods of Industry. But I kept on improving at a breakneck pace and within in 4 years of my 1^st comic, I started finding my feet.
Artwork was proceeding towards satisfaction but stories were a very different issue. They were too simple in nature and presentation was unprofessional to a great degree.
For the first time I thought of writing my own stories, a task which I never undertook before, though I read a lot and was conversant with many classic and popular styles of writing. Now all my efforts done previously came handy. Like every other artist, I was too a fan of western comics, but with a little difference. I not only analyzed the illustrations but stories and their continuity too.
I created my first real series Space Star for Chitra bharti; a comic launched by S. Chand & company. This series was heavily influenced by Star Trek series and my background as pure science graduate came quite handy. But this series had no chief protagonist and to correct this mistake I created my first Character Private detective Kapil in 1983.
My journey was gathering pace!