Another Kind of Comic: Delving into the visual stories brimming at the fringes

Conversations structured to further decode the artists’ individual processes and ways to nurture the form are a major part of the festival.

The Big Picture by Kaveri Gopalakrishnan; Adarsh Balak by Priyesh Trivedi; Fahad Faizal’s artwork for DeCaf

There are comics in the world that are worldwide phenomena, forged deeply in the pop culture consciousness of the global audience, and enjoy a cult following that embraces high-testosterone movies made on mammoth budgets. Then, there are the other kind. They are alternative and independent, feisty and non-conforming. With DeCaf, a comic arts festival, Anindya Roy, the helmer of an independent graphic novel publishing house called Manic Mongol, aims to create a haven for those kinds of comics.

“I feel the underground comic scene in India is very disorganised. We wanted to bring the new generation of graphic storytellers together and showcase their work,” says Roy. He rues the predicament of comics, saying that festivals centred around the form have been reduced to “fancy dress parties”. “Of course, the superhero clout and other comics for children are entertaining but the form has expanded its identity,” adds Roy.

The three-day festival clubs artists riding the fringes with those whose works have garnered wider acceptance. Several international artists will be presenting their works alongside our own. Exhibited works, which dot the India International Centre, range from erotica to travelogues, feminism to horror.

“It was important for us to cover the diversity of themes that artists explore so as to further open up the conversation about comics,” says Roy. It isn’t only in theme or aesthetic but also in form that variety emerges. Swiss artist Lika Nüssli, whose work ranges from the political to the personal, extends comics to performance drawing and large-scale installations that viewers can physically enter. “Illustration allows me to venture into territories that I may not explore otherwise.

An illustration by Appupen

My intention is to show a free way to do comics and be inspired by something that I didn’t know before. So, I am constantly looking for that which cannot be planned,” she says. These are, as Westland publisher Karthika VK puts it, works where “art is not merely illustrating the text but the art, itself, needs to be read”.

This is perhaps why Priyesh Trivedi, who is better known as the visual artist behind the popular Facebook page, Adarsh Balak, feels that graphic storytelling is not understood as a “serious mode of communication.” “When I read the comments on the Adarsh Balak series, I realised that some people had completely missed the point. I try, as a result, to be as direct and unambiguous as possible. With my work, I want empower people to create their own value systems and break away from the conventions laid out for us,” he adds.

The form, still niche in the country, is slowly gaining gusto, especially on the internet. However, not many graphic novels get support from mainstream publishing houses. “The expertise on the form is limited and the standard of production is much higher with graphic novels. The work needs to be produced and backed with great care. But, the numbers are gradually rising. We need to persevere and prop it up in the right way. This is something publishing needs to do collectively,” says Karthika.

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Conversations structured to further decode the artists’ individual processes and ways to nurture the form are a major part of the festival. “There is so much work that people who are not a part of big cities are creating. We want to make this an annual multi-city event and take it, especially to the smaller towns so that we can build a genuine Indian base,” concludes Roy.

DeCaf will be on at IIC from December 4 to 6

Day 1
Elephant in The Room: Launch of Indian-German anthology published by Zubaan
Discussion: Is Comics something you can teach?
The Urban Legend: Norwegian artist Josef Yohannes offers a new kind of superhero experience with Malcolm Madiba that he created while travelling through Africa in 2010

Day 2
Artist Presentation: Style vs Substance by Vishwajyoti Ghosh
Panel discussion: How can comics be used effectively to bring about social change ?

Day 3
Artist Presentation: Drawing private in public by Kaveri Gopalakrishnan
Artist Presentation: Drawing as reportage by Swiss artist Pierre Thomé
Curator Presentation: Publishing the universe: The power of self-publishing by Bia Bittencourt from Brazil