Replicating the success of your previous work is always a tough nut to crack; The stakes get higher so do the expectations. But Holy Cow Entertainment has always managed to beat all odds and surpass the expectations.
After the highly successful and appreciated Aghori Book 2, the makers are back with the third part of the comic book series.
Aghori is Holy Cow Entertainment’s First “flagship” offering which represents the comics debut of fantasy / sci-fi writer Ram V, featuring art by Industry Heavyweight Vivek Goel ( Ravanayan, Phantom – The Ghost Who Walks ), Colorist Yogesh Pugaonkar ( Ravanayan, Voltron ) and rising talent, Gaurav Shrivastav. It follows the journey of a man to the depths of hell, to save that which he holds dear.
The First part of the series was launched at the First Ever Bangalore Comic Con. A Home Coming of sorts for the makers as they hope to be lucky the ‘Third Time’
Animationxpress.com’s Ishpreet Chandock caught up with Vivek Goel, Founder of Holy Cow Entertainment as he gets ready for the launch.
In this short interaction, Vivek spoke about his thoughts on the book, the early jitters and how has been his experience at Comic Con over the years.
Here are the excerpts to the conversation...
Thank you so much for speaking to us, first, tell us about your expectations from the up coming Bangalore Comic Con?
It is the second Comic Con to be held at Bangalore so the expectations are big and since Aghori was launched in Bangalore last September, the city is waiting for the much anticipated 88 pg Aghori book 3.
Tell us your experience in Comic Con over the years?
It has been a wonderful experience, for people like us it’s literally our 2nd home. The entire Indian comic book fraternity is family and almost everyone knows every other person and since most of us stay in different cities, it’s a good opportunity to catch up with our friends from the fraternity but the most important aspect is the direct interaction between the publishers/creative’s with the fans/buyers. We also get to learn a lot about the likes – dislikes of the readers and vice versa. Being in India where physical copy distribution is a big problem, a comic con is like a breath of fresh air.
This is the 3rd part to the Aghori Series to be launched at Comic Con, tell us more about it?
The upcoming Bangalore Comic Con in particular is very special to the company as Holy Cow celebrates its 2nd anniversary on June 1st! 🙂 And on the occasion we have decided to compile an extra sized anniversary book thereby making Aghori book 3 a whooping 88 pg instead of the regular 56 pages. And since it’s our anniversary issue, we decided to publish issue 00 of our next flagship title “That Man Solomon” in Aghori book 3 just like the way we did with Ravanayan issue 6 which was also an anniversary issue where we published Aghori issue 00 in it. This practice serves multiple purposes and we plan to continue it in the future too. Aghori book 3 is the labor of 4 months and a team of seven people including the key person Ram V. (writer of Aghori). Vira (the protagonist) moves one step closer in solving the mystery of his missing son and travels through hell thereby experiencing a lot of unnatural beings and events and getting killed in the process. Also, there’s a certain someone making an appearance in the book making it more digestible and people are going love him. So, we have a lot up our sleeves with this anniversary issue 😉
Writer Ram V. is the main driving force in events turning in the Aghori series as he is the one who plots and plans. Later, I brainstorm with him and then the rest of the 6 artists come to make it alive.
It is also a Series of the Year nominee, tell us your thoughts?
We are delighted, in just a span of 4 month publishing of the Aghori franchise and just 2 books published, it’s a great honor. Surely, we did not win the award, someone more deserving took it but we have just been around for 18 months. Considering that, getting nominated is a big thing, besides the fact of the matter is that Aghori was actually an experiment and it succeeded thereby pushing our morals to move ahead with it with more force and bigger, better plans 🙂
Look where it has led us to – 88 pg Aghori book 3!
How much time did it take for you to complete the book?
It was a humongous task, it was my first experience in compiling a big book and managing a team of three pencillers and four colorists and I was drawing myself at the same time too. The timelines, the deadlines for each individuals were different as a lot of creative’s working for us are freelancers and were busy in multiple projects. Also, while using multiple colorists it becomes very important to take care of the matching color palettes otherwise the book will end up looking smudged! In the end It’s a team effort and I am very proud to say that we all have pulled it off with super co ordination. It took us nearly 4 months to complete this book, from scripting to lettering.
Were you working on Ravanayan and Aghori Book 3 simultaneously? If yes, tell us the difficulties you faced, juggling between two different stories?
Yes!! and I am still facing a lot of difficulties but its like I accepted those difficulties on the very day I started this company and I know there would come a day when I would be super busy with multiple projects and drawing myself too. The difficulties are time based. I am not the lead artist of Aghori series, Gaurav Srivastava is, I just do 4-5 “Kriya” pages in each issue because deep down the artist inside me wants a stint on Aghori and the kriya and current timeline sequences are not literally related to each other so I thought giving 2 drawing styles in a series would bring more flavor to it. Now there comes Ravanayan, which gave HCE its much needed base – literally and made me and writer Vijayendra Mohanty what we are today. Ravanayan was my brainchild and it will always be my favorite and maybe that’s because I decided to draw it completely. Working and drawing Ravanayan, its my duty being the Art Director of the company to shuffle other projects in the same given time frame and Aghori project is just one of them, there are other things going too. Then there comes the post production, distribution, marketing and delivering books to the vendors. I do it all, single handedly. And the answer to it is “I love the totality of this job”! and that keeps me going on.
Handling other artists, projects, upcoming stuff; it gives us an edge. Doing all this and drawing each day takes a very heavy toll on your work productivity, in my case my ability is to produce more art. There was a time in my freelance days when I used to draw almost 25 pages a month but now I am reduced to draw only 11 odd pages a month and that’s why I only select specific projects to do which require my special skills as I have always made it a point that even when I draw 5 pages a month, I will never compromise on the quality of art – which is the basic ideal of HCE.
Was it difficult to switch off from Ravanayan and switch on for Aghori book 3?
No, I always get into the character when I draw one and that is the master key of pulling off any book successfully. Aghori and Ravanayan are perfectly inbuilt in my system, I have brainstormed both the projects with the respective writers for hours. Ravanayan is completely mine – artistically and I am just a Kriya sequence and cover artist for Aghori series. Also, there is no particular shuffle from Aghori as even if I am not drawing I play the role of Art Director to Gaurav Shrivastav who’s the lead artist f Aghori…so Aghori is a daily job. Also, both are dark and anti hero characters and I love dark stuff. Its fun doing both 🙂
Tell us your equation with Ram? Were there any creative arguments during the production?
The equation between the two people is flawless when your goals, methods, wants and needs are similar. Both of us are completely dedicated to the medium of comics. I left my high paying job at the merchant navy and he left his chemical engineer job in Philadelphia to do this. This is our life, passion and full time career. Both of us are highly uncompromising towards the quality of the product and extremely professional when it comes to delivering it and the last part is the unmatched honesty between us. We never lie or hide anything from each other when it comes to doing something together. So, its really good working with him, it’s like a constant learning process for both of us from each other.
We argue a lot but we both are result oriented people and end result matters most to us, is we know that there is a certain way to achieve certain kind of quality, we push each other to achieve it thereby making each other a constant support to both of us. As a matter of fact when I work on his stories inspire being the top dog of the company, I look up to him as my editor and constantly strive for perfection in my storytelling thus evolving myself as an artist and making the end result even better 🙂
Rest of the irrelevant stuff we argue upon does not really matters!!
What are your expectations for Aghori book 3 this comic con?
As I said earlier, Aghori book 1 was launched to the same crowd last September. I know they are coming back for the latest edition and dragging their friends along with them too 🙂
Describe Aghori Book 3?
Aghori Book 3 is a big turning point in the Aghori franchise leading to bigger events in the finale and establishing some pivotal elements/characters in the making of a firm HCE universe.
Are you planning to showcase it at other festivals as well?
No. Comic con is completely comic book centric. People come prepared for comics and comics only. Nothing replaces a comic convention when you are in this business.
What’s next on the cards for Holy Cow Entertainment?
Next is giant sized long delayed 60 pg Ravanayan finale in 2 month’s time, then there is the 92 pg Aghori Book 4 (finale of 1st arc of Aghori) to be launched in the August comic con and then 100 page GN The Skull Rosary (based on the dark side of Shiva) In Oct. Mumbai comic con. We are all set for these releases back to back. We have made sure for our readers that they are going have a rocking 2nd half of 2013 with these upcoming books!
Describe Comic Con for you in one word?
Growth!
The book is also available on flipkart.com