The First Edition of Comic Con Hyderabad will see the debut of Campfire Graphic Novel’s Latest, Pride & Prejudice.
For getting a deeper insight into the must see ingredients of this graphic novel, AnimationXpress.com’s Zeenia Boatwala had a chat with Jason Quinn- Creative Content Head at Campfire Graphic Novels.
So once again, Campfire Graphic Novels is gearing for bringing the classical touch to the readers! We would like to know about Pride and Prejudice in your words?
Ever since its publication over 200 years ago Pride & Prejudice has been hailed as a great novel and today it has more hardcore fans than ever before. It’s one of the world’s greatest love stories with possibly the world’s most eligible and most desirable bachelor as a hero. I’ve yet to meet a woman who doesn’t have a crush on Mr Darcy, and Campfire’s Mr. Darcy is the hottest of them all.
We would like to hear about the genre, concept, story line, characters, and targeted audience?
Graphic novels have always been more popular with guys than girls, so we really wanted to produce a book that would fill that gap and satisfy women as readers. Pride & Prejudice seemed the ideal way to go about this. It’s a great story filled with brilliant characters, a strong female lead and a dishy male hero. Of course we aren’t only targeting Jane Austen’s huge army of admiring fans; we are targeting readers everywhere, but especially women. To that end we’ve gone for a bigger format than most of our books, giving it the feel of a popular women’s magazine. The added bonus to this larger format is that Rajesh Nagulakonda’s art is bigger and clearer than ever before. Honestly, if we could, I’d bring out a book the size of a wall, so that readers could enjoy every single line of his fantastic craftsmanship. So, yes, we want to bring out a book that women will love, but having said that, I’m a man and I love it too. We want our book to be the definitive visual Pride & Prejudice, better than the Keira Knightley movie or the BBC TV series.
Why did you settle for this story line and do you feel these stories would work with the reading trends and taste of today’s time?
Well we chose Pride & Prejudice because we felt a great graphic novel for women was long overdue and Pride & Prejudice has a huge following. As far as adapting classics goes I think Pride & Prejudice is more popular today than it has ever been, and when you read the book, you will find that it hasn’t dated at all. It is still incredibly funny and insightful. Today’s readers will love our version.
What kind of vision and approach did you have for this graphic novel?
We wanted to appeal to not only fans of literature or students but to anyone who has ever sighed over Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy; to anyone who loves a good read and to all women of taste anywhere. We want our readers to feel they are reading their favorite magazine. The book really is designed as a must have style accessory. If you want to be with it, make sure you get a copy, now.
Please shed light on the research, study that had to be carried out for making this graphic novel?
Obviously our artist, adaptor and editorial team had to become experts on the original novel but that’s not enough. We needed to know the look and feel of fashion, clothes, furniture and daily life in Regency England, so that the whole book seems really authentic. In every panel we have been double checking everything from our characters’ footwear to the cups they drink out of.
If you were to compare your version of Pride of Prejudice with any other top graphic novel, which would it be and why?
That’s a good question. I think I’d have to go back to one of the first examples of a graphic novel, namely the satirical cartoons of William Hogarth back in the 18th century, his Rake’s Progress from 1735 really captures life at the time and I hope ours will do the same.
How many pages is the novel composed off?
We’ve got a hundred and twelve pages each and every one a masterpiece.
Can we have a rundown of the credits?
Author: Jane Austen
Adapted by: Laurence Sach
Editor: Sourav Dutta, Kokila Tripathi, Jason Quinn
Artist: Rajesh Nagulakonda
What are the creative aspects that one can look out for in this novel?
Rajesh has been growing as an artist all the time ever since Krishna Defender of Dharma, but this really is his magnum opus. It’s like being around Da Vinci working on the Last Supper.
How much time did you take to complete the graphic novel?
We’ve been working on this flat out since just before Christmas but work began on the script a long time before that. With graphic novels just as in movies we have to wait for the right artist and writer to become available.
Can you give the breakdown of the time that was taken to work on each area of this graphic novel, starting from concept to the final print?
Well we had the script written about a year ago and then, while we waited for our preferred artist for the book to become available we worked on editing the book and working on the concept of the book. Rajesh began his initial character explorations back in November and then after we worked out the specifications for the book he really hit his stride in January. So all in all it’s taken him around seven or eight months of work.
When it comes to reworking on classics like these, there must be a ready line up of challenges; we would like to know more on this front?
The main challenge is what do you leave out of a classic? Obviously we can leave out bits of narration that the images will tell us, but what about those great conversations? Rest assured we’ve got the best bits.
How is the look and feel, mood setting of this novel like?
The look of the book is the same you’ll get from a really classy magazine. The mood is one of warmth really I feel. It’s great to just settle down and slip into this world. I want every reader to begin by thinking Mr Darcy is a stuck up horror and to end up falling in love with him.
And, we would see this launch at Comic Con Express Hyderabad?
Yes, we’re all set to launch this book at Comic Con in Hyderabad. It’s going to be especially good because Rajesh, the artist is a local boy so we’ll be launching the book on his own home turf.
With each graphic novel, you must be setting a new vision?
We certainly try to. We produce between six and eight books a year and we want each one to be special in its own way. With every one we do we have a different angle and with every one we do we get better and better. I think Pride and Prejudice is the best book we’ve ever done, but I’m hoping we’ll end up raising the bar even higher with our future titles.