Comic Review - Aghori (Holy Cow Entertainment) - Book 1

Aghori ventures to tread the uncharted
territories which has not been explored 
much in Indian comic scene. The protagonist 
of the story is a dark character something 
in the line of Blade, Hellboy who indulges 
in some Gothic events. Yet it has a very desi background as it draws inspiration from
Indian ideologies about "Aghoris", who 
are known for their taboo rituals in India.
One interesting thing about these new
publishing house is that they are using 
some really cool methods to promote their
books that is, Motion Comic Trailers a trend 
which was started by Vimanika for the promotion 
of their "LOK" and the recent "Shiva" book.

It is the first comic book based work of the writer Ram V and he has done a reasonably good job with the script, yet I will point out and i may sound critical here but I felt that the storytelling,  the way to progression and presentation lacks the professionalism of Vijayendra Mohanty. May be Ram can add more elements in each sequence of story to give it a more real and grittier tone and show us some high standards of comic book writing. However, Vijayendra's script starts loosing strength as the story progresses as was the case in "The Northern Song" and recent Ravanayan which is turning out totally predictable now. I hope Aghori avoids that. Mature content has been executed brilliantly. You never get the strange and vulgar feeling about it. Nothing unnecessary or forced, everything seems to be a part of story. If I had to rate the parts of story i would say prologue is intriguing and mysterious. First chapter "crossroads" was best in the book. Second chapter had an above average story with a sense of Deja-vu.

Notice the distance between the Aghori & the circle
yet it takes just a push for the matchstick to reach the circle.       

Vehicles mostly are poorly drawn

  

Can't figure out weather the girl in green is standing or walking.
weird posture though

Sketching is done by Gaurav Shrivastav, who holds the previous experience of working with other Indian comic publishers. I am not much aware of reading his work previously but his work in Aghori can be considered to be of an acceptable standard and quality. But it certainty had lots of flaws. You can't help noticing Clumsily drawn and awkward body movements of characters, small things like Weird hand posture while the characters are having conversation, way of holding objects. At some points characters look stiff. He can surely improve the body language and posture of the characters. Vehicles look very unrealistic and childish and are not dynamic at all. But there is a significant improvement in the second chapter. I guess he does close-ups and big panels pretty decently. The star who shines in the whole book is the colorist Yogesh. He is the soul of the book and remains astonishing throughout the story. Glossy color effects, neat photoshop edits covers up the flaws in sketching to a great extent. Full points to him. Significant improvement in Paper quality and binding can also be observed.

All together its a good one time read, every comic book fans can give it a go. Iniquitous introduction to the book withstanding.

Rating : 7/10 

421 Brand Beedi Grade : B+