Paper Moon

18 Days is available on Amazon for a sweet discounted price of only $17 for a hardcover edition with 120 pages of Mukesh Singh artgasm. A 47-page preview is available for free on Scribd.

I am looking forward to enjoying the Mukesh Singh artwork almost as much as I am looking forward to laughing really, really hard at the "Grant Morrison writes about the Mahabharata" sections of the book. Actual quotes from the preview pages:

( Snark behind cut. )

Meh, enough snark for now. The artwork by Mukesh Singh is OH MY GOD ABSFUCKINGLUTELY MINDBLOWINGLY GORGEOUS and makes the entire book worthwhile, especially if you ignore the pages full of Grant Morrison's braindroppings.

Wait, that book was listed on Amazon all the way back in July?! How did I miss that until now?! Oh yeah, the semester from hell. That's why.

Meanwhile! The Liquid Comics website is showing new artwork for Ramayan 3392 AD in several places (check out the front page and the Ramayan gallery under "Titles"), yet no new issues are available on either the Liquid website or on Scribd. Hmmm. Yet Liquid is apparently finishing some of Virgin's unfinished projects, as Buddha was finally completed last summer and is now available in graphic novel format.

Liquid is releasing all of the old Virgin titles on more digital devices now. For the iPad, you can now get the entire Ramayan 3392 series for $9.99, some parts of Reloaded for free, and all five issues of The Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma for $4.99. Of course you can still download good old-fashioned PDFs of all of the previous titles plus the entire rest of Liquid's line from their Scribd website and import the comics to your e-reader that way, too. ;) Which is how I got Devi on my iPad right now.

UNIVERSAL FORMATS: DOIN' IT RIGHT. Thank you, Virgin/Liquid! Manga publishers, are you paying attention?!

Speaking of Virgin Comics alums, Abhishek Singh is up to awesomeness, with art shows in New Delhi and Los Angeles.

Via Saurav Mohapatra's twitter:

An advertisement for 18 Days printed in The Boys #42.

So the book is going to be just Grant Morrison's script, not a proper comic?

Both the advertisement and the 18 Days website claim that an animated version will be available in "Spring 2010":

18 Days will be available in Full Hi-Def and in a variety of formats: 2 x 90 minute TV movies, 6 x 30 episodes, extended 200 minute DVD release and as 18 x 10 minute web episodes. It will be supported by on-line and console gaming products, mobile content and other L&M licenses.

18 Days will be available in Spring 2010.

Yeah, sure. I'll believe it when I see it.

(Still nervous about Grant Morrison's involvement. Hey, you know what's really, really awesome? Grant Morrison writing the current Batman storyline with Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne. You know what's really, really NOT awesome? Everything else that Grant Morrison has ever written having to do with mining other cultures for stories, pretty much ever.)

HELL YES 18 DAYS!!!!!

FUCK YEAH!!!

From the PR: 18 Days takes one of the most enduring tales of the East and places it in the capable hands of Grant Morrison, one of the greatest storytellers of the West.

A HA HA HA HA HA HA no. But Mukesh Singh is doing all of the artwork, so no matter what Morrison does to the story it is utterly impossible for this project NOT to rock. Thus is the awesome power of Mukesh Singh.

From the Beat writeup: The original — a classic Indian myth telling of three great warriors and their cataclysmic battles — is the world’s longest epic poem at more than 1.8 millions words, so there was certainly a lot of source material.

...Three? Only three? Is it going to be Krishna, Arjuna, and Karna? But what about Bhima?! What about Drona and Bhisma?!?! What about the Original Woobie, Ashwatthama?!?! What about Abhimanyu?!?! Inquiring minds want to know!

Pretty pictures are preeeeeeeeetty.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is doin' an Indian comic book art exhibit this fall, and also sponsoring a "create your own superhero" contest at the same time.

I am awesome'd by the fact that the artwork shown on the LACMA blog post is none other than Saumin Patel's rendering of Devi pwning Bala. The same scene that this icon is from, no less. :)

1. Girl-Wonder art auction!!! Girl-Wonder art auction!!! Girl-Wonder art auction!!! This year we've got a good mix of both "awesome but totally affordable" and "serious collectors, start your drooling."

2. Liquid Comics bought out Virgin Comics some time ago, and recently they've partially restored the old comics website. Which basically means that they've restored the widescreen digital versions of the first issues of *most* (meaning nearly but not all) of Virgin's series. Other than the digital issues, however, nothing else has been added to the Liquid Comics website. Nothing. Still no word on which, if any, series are going to continue in comic book form. Ramayan 3392 has been optioned for movie rights, though. I imagine lots and lots of bluescreen in its future. Apparently John Collee is writing the screenplay. He's the guy who wrote Master and Commander and Happy Feet. Hmmmm. Interesting resume. So... Y'all are going to cast actual Indian actors in this movie, right? Right?! Assuming that said movie ever actually happens, that is.

3. Oh, this brings back terrible, terrible memories. On the other hand, I would love to watch a reality TV show in which millionaire/billionaire CEOs are forced to be servers at Applebee's for weeks at a time. It would be like The Simple Life but with the added bonus of watching the Powerful Men Who Fucked Over America curling up in fetal positions on the kitchen floor and bawling like babies. Quality entertainment.

4. This is so true, and so deeply scary, because I feel like I'm running into those sorts of conversations on a daily basis now. Among people that I've known for many, many years. Ugh.

5. Here, have some awesome. The original source is Pockybox.de, but her fanart gallery is currently offline.

Edited to add: This is absolutely beautiful. And yeah, I'll admit it. I cried, too.

1. Sugreeve crashes and airplane right in the middle of Kishkindha, walks right through a hundred of Baali's soldiers, walks right the hell up to Baali himself and tells him, point blank to his face: "Neener-neener you can't kill me because your whole kindgom is watching and I'll be martyr." Dasgupta's version of Sugreeve has officially achieved that perfect balance of "scholarly peaceful statesman" and "delightfully flip badass" that Hanuman had in Valkimi's version.

2. Ravan tries to intimidate Sita with his "Blah blah blah I am the most powerful being in the world" speech. Sita stares him right in the eye and tells him, No, actually, she's a thousand times more powerful than he is (go Sita!), and that if Ravan were so powerful then he wouldn't have had to resort to trickery to abduct her. She also tells Ravan that she could destroy Lanka with her mind if she so chose to do so (this is true - just like she did with Panchvati), and that the only reason she isn't right now is because Ravan's maya garden is sedating her brain. Granted there's nothing she can do about that, but the point of her speech is, she has Ravan's number. This version of Sita is kind of awesome.

3. Jambwan's utter pwnage of Lakshman.

4. Lakshan crying uncle. Literally.

5. Rama and Jatayu's half-airborne battle. That was just fantastically rendered. Hats off to Siddharth Kotian.

Now, the sadness factor: According to an advertisement in this issue, the next issue of India Authentic would have been "Krishna." There's a very cute image of a baby Krishna printed beside an announcement of the third India Authentic trade, which may or may not happen now. Probably not.

There's a five-page excerpt from Kshatriya at the back of the issue. It looks potentially very fun. Oh well.

And of course there's also an advertisement for Stan Lee's probably-definitely-not-going-to-happen Virgin superhero project. Of course.

So I guess this is the end for Ramayan? Arrrrrrgh. Even if the final issue hadn't ended on a cliffhanger, still, arrrrrrrrgh. I am going to miss this series a lot.

Virgin Comics to drastically scale back their actual comics.

This makes me a sad puppy because I suspect that they're going to cut back on their actual good titles and focus on their celebrity-backed stuff instead. :(

I also fear that Devi might be canceled. I actually had that suspicion when I picked up the fourth trade last month. At the back of the trade, in the extras section, there are two gorgeous color paintings by Dean Ruben Hyrapiet and Jeffrey Spokes. The Hyrapiet painting depicts a new and yet-unknown character behind Devi. Both of the paintings are obviously comic covers. But I couldn't figure out why Virgin would put two future comic covers in the back of a trade collection... Unless these were destined to be "unused" comic covers. And now I can't imagine that Virgin would actually pass on either a Hyrapiet or a Spokes cover unless the Devi comics had been cancelled altogether.

Devi has been published steadily, every month, since Virgin launched. Until recently. Since there are no new solicits coming up, and no announced plans for any future issues...

Things look bad.

Mmmm. I wonder how Ramayan will fare. Now that the story has taken a delirious turn toward Rama for some reason being more concerned about rescuing a kidnapped chain-smoking monkey prince than he is about rescuing his super-powered girlfriend... Now I gotta see where this is going. Hopefully not into yaoi doujinshi territory.

Oh well. Regardless of what happens next, was anyone really surprised by this? I mean, I'm not an industry insider, just an armchair quarterback. But I know a little something about comics readers, er, being one myself. And I know that:

1. Comic readers will only put up with mediocrity if they have a twenty-year history with and beloved childhood memories of the franchise. Hence, Messiah Complex can be the biggest pile of shit that I've read all year (and it was), but still sell a gajillion copies (including some bought by moi), because readers are deeply invested in the world and the characters. But getting readers to spend their money and invest their emotions in a new comic book series? Unless it's freakin' spectacular (and Devi so totally is), that's unlikely to happen. And y'know, I don't care if you're the Most Innovative Comics Company Ever or whatever, not all of your series are going to be great, or even good. Law of averages. There are only so many Shakespeares and Picassos to go around.

2. You can have truly great titles that are beloved by critics and bloggers (India Authentic, The Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma, and Buddha) and still not sell many copies of them. Sucks, but that's the way it's always been.

3. It probably didn't help things, though, that you lost street cred right away by being so upfront about your intention to use your comics as springboards for movie and TV deals. If you don't value your own comics - if you only see them as stepping stones to something more lucrative - then why are we to assume that you will invest anything other than a mediocre effort into them? Also, comic fans are an insular, prickly lot. We don't like Clueless Outsiders, we don't like anybody who smells like they're only latching onto comics as a "trend," and we especially don't like anyone who seems more interested in making money than in making actual comics. Now, you might not be any of those things, but a few misspoken words, or a little bit too much honesty about your marketing plan, and you will instantly become all of those things in the minds of fans.

"You" in the preceeding being a reference to the Chopra Duo and other Powers That Be, as opposed to the actual writers and artists working for Virgin, who were clearly in it for the love of comics, and that showed through. But they were undermined when Gotham and Deepak went around mouthing off about how they primarily wanted to turn those comics into movies/TV. Way to undermine the reputation of your own talent, guys.

4. It probably didn't help things that your CMO behaved like an asshat in public.

5. Fans have long memories.

This is what your Friendly Neighborhood Armchair Quarterback thinks: Fans have limited funds, and it's always an uphill battle to get them to spend money on something new, no matter how good said new comic may be, especially when you're competing against 20- or 30-year love affairs with Marvel and DC. Fandom Financial Inertia is a powerful and terrible force to behold, capable of slaying even the most carefully planned, innovative, creative, "mistake"-free young businesses. But! Virgin clearly did make some mistakes. That probably hurt them in the end, too.

Still, this makes me immensely sad. If not for Virgin, I would never have been introduced to Samit Basu, Saurav Mohapatra, Mukesh Singh, Ashish Padlekar, Harshvardhan Kadam, Abhishek Singh, Shamik Dasgupta, or any of the amazing artists who have worked on India Authentic. I really really hope that Virgin doesn't axe their Indian titles, because so far it's been such a great source of amazing, vibrant new talent.

Sigh. Very sad.

Edited to add: Oh hey look, comments at The Beat now include Jameson-bashing, complete with two sleazy jokes and counting. Arrrrrrrgh. Sometimes I just hate people. I really do.

I also do not regret that the Tweety Effect works really, really strongly on me. Apparently. That probably explains a lot.

Edit the Second: "Scale back" was apparently an understatement. Aw, crap.

Just finished reading India Authentic's thirteenth issue, "Saraswati." It wasn't so much about Saraswati as it was about Kalidasa, the legendary poet and playwright about whom little biographical information is known, but plenty of folk stories abound.

And, inevitably, I found myself comparing and contrasting IA's take on Kalidasa's life with that told in the Amar Chitra Katha comic book, "Kalidasa."

( Behind this cut: 18 scans and 4.8 megabytes total bandwidth-suckage. You've been warned. )

Two issues, six variant covers, lots of ass-kicking, and lots of boobies. Let's go.

( Apparently the villain-killing invite for tonight is ladies only. )

First! Girl-Wonder.org wants YOU to a) enter contests and b) submit writing and/or artwork for our upcoming newsletter. Or at the very least, please spread the word as far and as wide as you can. We're hoping to get a diverse group of contributors submitting content for the newsletter. Hopefully.

Second! Me blathering about comics. Anyway, here are a bunch of short comicly reviews, all from Virgin's Shakti line.

( Ramayan, India Authentic, Project: Kalki, Devi, and Kshatriya. )