As an artist, Pankaj Naik always fantasised of creating his own comics based on his own concepts and designs. Before delving into full-time comics, he was freelancing as an illustrator, 3D animator and also worked for several other comics and advertising agencies.
“Love of comics has always drawn me to its colourful art form, and now, I think I’m where I’m supposed to be. And luckily, something happened and God implanted self motivating battery in me. People call that battery as ‘Unpractical approach to life’,” said Pankaj to AnimationXpress.com. He has been dilly-dallying about getting into comics full-fledged since quite some time.
It’s almost going to be a year since Aayumi Productions was started and two books have been launched till date, Kaal- reap what you sow and Item Dhamaka- Godsmack part 1. The latest to the addition that will be visible at Bangalore Comic Con 2015 from 3-5 April is Kaal#2: Aarambh.
In the second issue, Kaal finds himself in an unenviable position as the herald of his lord and master, Lord Garuda, the new ruler of Naraka. He has proved himself by bringing back the whip but his services would be needed again sooner than he expected.
A mysterious illness spreads across Mumbai; people are falling prey to it in droves. A cure needs to be found and in a hurry before countless lives are lost. “Will Kaal find the source of the mysterious illness? Will he be able to save countless people from the clutches of death? How did the Whip of Yama find its way on a park bench? You will be able to find the answers to all these questions in our action packed second issue of Kaal,” expounded Pankaj.
The artwork for this issue has been done by him along with Lalit Singh, colours were added by Pradeep Sherawat and the script has been written by Shuvorup Bhattacharjee.
Kaal is inspired by Garud Puran, an ancient scripture about the conversation between Lord Vishnu and Lord Garuda about afterlife. “I love comics and that’s why I chose this medium. I have always been reading comics from my childhood and being an illustrator, it was an advantage.”
The story of Kaal has an element of sarcasm in it and is based on today’s social behaviour, mythological references, detailed imagination on punishments according to the Garuda Purana, and a journey of the soul after death. All of this is tied together neatly into one hardcore storyline.
Kaal #2 consists of 50 plus pages and will be priced at Rs 210. He explained, “Our target audience is 14+ as our stories are for mature readers. We will be attending every Comic Con this year in order to sell as many copies as possible. We are also distributing the comics online on Flipkart, Doordeals, Amazon, InfiBeam, Raj Comic’s online store and Comic Con India store.” Digitally, it’s available on Huhuba app both on Android and iOS.
The book will be in digital as well as printed format for which very fine quality 100 gsm papers have been used.
“We are an independent publisher and it’s quite difficult for us to manage the budget. But we are constantly trying to do much more than we can without compromising anything. We are definitely looking for crowd funding also. Soon we will be releasing Kaal #3 and Item Dhamaka #3 by the end of this year,” ended Pankaj.