Mixing religion and comics.

[nenena]

India Authentic #11 - Hanuman

Okay, okay. You know that I'm madly in love with India Authentic. And I'm madly in love with Hanuman. And...

I mostly didn't like this issue.

Because if there's one thing that I don't want to see, it's "Rob Liefeld does Hanuman." Which was basically what this was. Observe:



What the hell is THAT?!

Forget the freaktastic anatomy for a second. Why does Hanuman have spikes on his tail?! I like the om bling, though.

But it gets worse. I give you:

Elephants with spikes!



Elephants with spikes!



ELEPHANTS WITH SPIKES!



And that doesn't even begin to touch on the fact that Indrajit looks like Dracula, or the ROCKIN' NINETIES MULLET that Rama sports, or any of the other bizarro Liefeld-esque touches.

Especially the rockin' mullets.

So here's my major beef with this issue. In the introduction, Deepak Chopra writes that Hanuman is defined by his "gallantry, loyalty, humility, courage, and playfulness." But very few of those attributes are present in this depiction of Hanuman, most notably, the complete absence of Hanuman's playful charm. This version of Hanuman is a grim-faced overmuscled he-man warrior with his teeth permanently gritted and his face perpetually frozen in that unmistakable Liefeld-esque grimace.

I don't know about you, but the Hanuman that I know - yes, even the Hanuman who raced to Mount Gandhmadan in a desperate attempt to save Lakshman's life, as is the story recounted in this issue - that Hanuman was almost always smiling.

This Hanuman doesn't smile, not once, not until the next-to-last page of the comic. But when he does finally smile, however, it's worth it:



That's better.

I don't want to be totally down on the artwork, because there are certain sequences where the over-the-top, bombastic style really works. For example:





So yeah, it's not all bad.

This is a difficult comic for me to criticize, because it's obviously a labor of love, and it IS the expression of someone's religious beliefs. This is not my vision of Hanuman; but who am I to judge the penciler Swapnil Singh's vision of Hanuman? In the end, with a comic like India Authentic, it's very difficult to level "valid" criticisms at it, so to speak.

But I maintain that I have every right to make fun of the artwork if it amuses me, though.

One more time: Elephants. WITH. SPIKES!!!!!

Deepak Chopra's Buddha

So y'all have seen the preview pages posted on Virgincomics.com, right? And by "preview pages" I mean "the entire first issue, basically."

If you haven't yet, go and look. Then come back here.

Okay.

Okay, I have nothing to add to that.

Well, maybe one thing.



Baby Buddha compels you to buy this comic. You cannot resist the power of baby Buddha.

(No, it's cool. Baby Buddha hasn't been awakened yet; baby Buddha has no objections to crass materialism or the expansion of your comic book collection!)

With only one issue it's impossible to tell, but so far, Chopra's Buddha is holding up very well compared to that other Buddha comic with fantastic artwork. So we'll see.

Comments

[rachel-edidin.livejournal.com]

The Buddha preview won't work, but I'm glad to hear it's good! *hearts Joshua Dysart*

[arionhunter.livejournal.com]

Oh man. I have to buy Buddha just for the artwork, but the storytelling being good really helps. That's bloody gorgeous, with just enough mysticism to hint to the more mystical aspects of Buddha's birth without overdoing it.

[goldenflames.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the part-Japanese version of the Ramayana? Indrajit and Ravana have fangs.

I kept waiting for Indrajit to turn to Lakshmana, sweep his cape about, and go, "I vant to suck your bloooood."

[nenena.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I love love love the half-Japanese animated Ramayana.

But I think the Indrajit=Dracula connection was even stronger in this comic, due mostly to the fact that he was wearing a classical Dracula-style cape. That, and apparently not much else.

(I mean, I've done some research but I'm still no expert on ancient Indian clothing, but... I'm pretty sure that nobody ever wore a giant swirling dramatic cape with a huge sweeping collar into battle.)

I was kind of amazed at the lack of armor overall in the Hanuman comic. But I guess that in order to display all of those bulging muscles properly, everyone had to, by default, be bare-chested.

[goldenflames.livejournal.com]

True... I'm pretty sure that no one wore giant swirling capes. Although... I can definitely see Duryodhana pulling off a giant swirling cape.


Naturally... who needs chest armor when you've got massively bulging pecs?

[goldenflames.livejournal.com]

Oh, and speaking of bad mullets, remember B.R. Chopra's Mahabharat?


I rest my case. =)

India Authentic Hanuman

[(Anonymous)]

It's right ,the artwork is not that good. Thanks for true criticism. And yes ...Elephants with spikes :'D
-Swapnil Singh

Re: India Authentic Hanuman

[nenena]

Oh wow, I never expected the artist to respond to my livejournal post! Thank you for being really awesome about it, though. I apologize if any part of my post was rude. And like I said, there were parts of the comic that I really did like - the fight with the sea monster, and Hanuman's smile - so I hope my post didn't come across as too negative!

Whatever projects you're working on now, I wish you luck! :)