Well-thought-out sequences, carefully placed objects that point to the subtle, hidden meanings that only a seasoned reader can grasp, and imagination that stretches beyond the literal. These and many more nuances that help understand comics better were offered on a platter recently in the city by Javed Imthiaz, a comics artist and writer with The Sequential Artists Workshop, Gainesville, Florida. And exploring the world of comics at his one-day workshop were a bunch of college-going youngsters and professionals, who were more than eager to learn.
A few hesitant, others on the ball readily took out their sketchbooks what looked more like scribble pads when asked to draw a simple strip with four panels. When shapes began sliding onto paper, Javed insisted that as a beginner, one’s focus should not be on the way it’s drawn, but on storytelling. The former does matter, but not in the initial stages as it can be reworked later, a reminder that making comics is tedious business.
“The paradox of comics is that they are really hard to make, but really easy to consume. It takes both a strong demand from the market and a compelling inner need to put in time, patience and energy to make good comics,” he told The Hindu later.
Even if both these are achieved, India lacks comic literacy – the knowledge on how to read comics the way it’s meant to be, he opined.
What readers consume in the country are the popular ones: the easy reads, some independent narratives and many based on mythology. Imthiaz believes India’s comics industry hasn’t developed to the extent that we see in the West, in part because comics, as an independent medium, cannot get readers to commit to it – unless of course they are adapted into movies that go on to become popular like Superman or Batman. But on the brighter side, India has plenty of themes that can be written about.
Do comics limit one’s imagination? Quite the contrary, he says. Referring to Alan Moore’s Watchmen , V for Vendetta and From Hell , comics that are all layered with meaning, he says they need effort on part of the reader to understand. And that, Imthiaz says, is the pleasure of reading comics. It is both compelling and difficult, and that’s what he enjoys the most.