Comics, graphic works: Towards animated belief

If names like Phantom, Mandrake, Tarzan, Superman, Batmen, Spiderman, Titin, Asterix or Bahadur and Chacha Chaudhary are familiar signifiers, you surely have consumed numerous sequences of images in the multiple-panel sequence of comic strips or comic books.

These characters from the comics have managed to weave magic into our imaginations and left our minds with imageries difficult to erase from the mindscape.

The popularity of these characters has been made possible through the art of comic book making and production. The art has also been majorly responsible for spawning a surge in interest for graphic novels in contemporary times. Graphic novels are narrative works in which the stories are told/shown to the readers using sequential art adopting experimental presentation or resorting to the durable traditional comics art format.

Lee Falk, an American writer, theater director and producer was responsible for creating The Phantom or Mandrake the Magician.

Belgian Georges Prosper Remi also known as Hergé is known as the man responsible for 23 comic books of The Adventures of Tintin series.

And who can forget the immortal Asterix and his friend Obelix, co-created by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo.

All these immortal characters were shaped and mould through the superlative imaginative ability of these creators. Many of these characters and their stories have now been immortalized and rendered into films too.

However, far away Nagaland may seemed to be with the development of world history of comics or comics characters, contemporary Naga youth have not lagged behind in catching up with the global interest and resurge in comics art, comics character generation and animated filmmaking.

Take for instance the works of Vito Chophy who had a short stint with 2CA Ventures (P) Ltd. Bangalore as a digital rendering artist & asst. studio coordinator. Chophy has also contributed in generating characters for Gotham comics studio.

A comics work executed by Vito Chophy.

The studio was set up to handle the outsourced work for Marvel and DC Comics with the emphasis on creating characters based on Indian mythology. 

Chophy says though his works have been primarily focused on “comic art rendering”, he has ventured into comics generation of Naga folktales and have done strips which have been published both electronically as well as through hard prints. 

Chophy is looking forward to coming up with independent full-fledged comics series. He has also worked for Ape Entertainment Studios.

Another young talented Naga youth who had also been contently and quietly working to produce similar but distinct art albeit as a trained animation hand is Vito Sumi, who wants to describe himself as graphic designer, short-filmmaker and freelance photographer. 

Vito Sumi, equipped with a Master’s degree in Mass Communication from Bangalore, is keen on streamlining a proper character generation process for animation works out of the real life situation that the Naga society sees today. 

He is not adverse to producing comics but says he wants to deal with a non-commercial works as of now. Currently, Sumi is making a short film.

Vito Sumi who worked at Pedestrian Pictures, Bangalore says he wants to pick political issues adopting a satirical and critical approach to ongoing issues that dogged the society. 

He has also worked with award winning documentary director Ritesh Sharma, director of The Holy Wives. “During my stint in Bangalore, I was taught to be more critical and analytical while enhancing my skills – be it in filmmaking or photography”.

Vito Sumi was the associate director and editor of the film – The Silent Field (Yenguyelei Qua), a documentary project depicting traditional rituals and songs that were vanishing due to the influx of western culture. 

This film was supported by Endangered Language Development Project (ELDP), The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London. 

His current work under-post production stage is titled ACE. Vito Sumi says this film deals with a “figurative representation of the present Naga political crisis through the game of cards, adding that the film would give the audience a chance to reflect and introspect the whole process of “decisive political discourse.”

While the film is at the post-production stage, Vito Sumi has also begun working on a graphic novel tentatively titled: The Cradle, which would be a fusion of modern and traditional art in recreating a history likely to be out of public memory soon. 

“Though the characters are fictional and the event is recreated, original institutions of the Naga legacy are maintained to make it look authentic. The three characters are based on a rhetorical expression of political system, the church-moral police and the “revolutionaries”, says Vito Sumi. 

Stating that he loves using “hard hitting colours” such as black and red, Vito Sumi says these colours also represent the brutality and dark side of the Naga times of the headhunting yore. And the characters are bound to be sharply defined in his works.

Another Naga artist and ace illustrator Akanito Assumi, who was part of a team that produced the excellent piece of graphic collection of folktales from Nagaland titled - Shadows, volume one, says his group DesignStash follows two pronged steps while dealing with folktales and stories.

Talking about generation of characters, Akanito says that when he gets a folktale to work on, the first thing that comes to the mind is ‘verification’. 

By verification Akanito means verifying whether which one is the authentic version in the event of more than one versions of the same folktale. For this, he says, the team ensures to consult village elders and experts to point out the “authentic narrative.”

Once this process is complete, Akanito and his team go for the second step in trying to understand the aura and personality of the characters as depicted and sketched by the oral tradition.

Converting or generating characters out of folktales is not an easy task and hence the necessity of reference in Akanito and his team’s work. 

He feels that the process also include referring to available tangible objects for figurative imageries and also the landscape of the bygone era. For this, there is the imperative to refer to old, archival pictures and photos too. 

Akanito and his team also are keen on making animated films based on folk characters and the stories surrounding them. 

These three young Naga artists are well versed with the latest trends in the world of comics, graphics and animated filmmaking. 

With such pool of talents showing the way, there would be hundred others blooming with brimming implementable ideas and thoughts. 

And those who quest for our own comics, graphic and animated heroes can find solace in the thought that someday, there would also be Naga characters immortalized and edged sharply in our mindscape.