420 Diwali

Sumit Kumar : news and updates from an Indian cartoonist

This was an eventful year.  I completed my longest work yet, proposed with an animated film and experienced how it feels to have your work stolen. 26, An year in review. An all new Webcomic Aaapki Poojita narrates the tale of Poojita - star of her own cancelled TV soap - and her family as they survive reality. Warning: Can get really random! Parivarik Manoranjan, somvaar se shukravar raat 8 baje. Facebook.com/AaapkiPoojita www.aaapkipoojita.com Story of a conflict older than India Newslaundry presents Kashmir Ki Kahani : A graphic narrative of the Kashmir conflict. Read the three part comic and become an expert on Masala-e-Kashmir! Part 1, Part 2, Part 3  A School to die for Applied and got into the MFA program in Illustration at the reputed School Of Visual Arts in New York. Sort of. Reaching lakhs in a day Got to do the Hindustan Times Brunch cover for the Delhi and Mumbai editions. Had lot of fun and learnt the value of beautiful. The cover process. The coming of age comic The coming of age story set in the Indian middle class, uses Hindi, English and no colors. "must read" - Abhishek Sharma, Director, Tere Bin Laden, "Simply fun" - Neelabh Banerjee, Cartoonist and National Art Director TOI. Flipkart Amazon  follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook | forward to a friend  All Rights Reserved. My mailing address is: sumit.drew@gmail.com  unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences

An year in review : The 26 year old cartoonist

An year in review.

Today is my Birthday.
I've just turned 26.

Last year I sent this to everyone -

Now some of my worries about crossing the half retarded age of 25 came true. I started telling lies people wanted to hear.

This year was full of lot of new things - 

I did a Hindustan Times BRUNCH cover!

I started a webcomic with my comic writer and artist himself man Adhiraj Singh!

My partnership with Newslaundry continues, I completed the longest comic I have written (100 pages, one page is vertically 3/4 times the A4 page.) about a conflict older than India, using a irreverent and satirical tone. It was read by lakhs, appreciated by all, shared like crazy. With the coloring support of the minimalistic illustrator Rajkanwal Suri 

I also did a comic review of Khushwant Singh Lit Fest.

Also I was able to finish my long drawn Khushwant comic pitch after two years, with the help of my talented artist cousin Shikhant! Logo used only for pitching purposes, Penguin hasn't commissioned it (yet.)

I (sort of) got accepted into the most respected Art School for Comics and cartooning in the world!

Finished a Fisherman's Story using illustration and a new technology called Parallex/Scrollpath for a good friend of mine!

Learnt basics of Thangka (Tibetan Paintings)

Which I intend to use on a secret project 

Proposed my girlfriend for marriage with this animated film. She said Yes. :-)

Our Story from Sumit Kumar on Vimeo.

My little book continues to do well, but the fight goes on.

And this year, for the first time my work was stolen.

So thank you for your eyeballs. 

Keep looking because I'm not satisfied yet, but that doesn't mean I'll dilute anything to mass produce anything.

I paid all my assistant illustrators including the Mario Mirandaisqe - Charu Chaudha, well and didn't use their talent on the ruse of training, opportunities and what not.

I'm taking a small break this year due to someone something said, and continuing the relaxed approach all this year. Enjoying my tiny success.

Thanksu very much.

Always the best to read but low cost comics with free sambhar.

Udipi Comics Zindabad.

Follow me on @sumitdrew

or on facebook.com/sumit.drew

www.sumitdrew.com

My Khushwant Story

In the summer of 2011 Itch You Can't Scratch was not yet finished and I was getting worried over what will be my future in cartooning.
Around that time I read Khushwant Singh's new book - Absolute Khushwant and I found it perfect for graphic adaptation.

It was divided into chapters like  - On being an old man, on being a writer etc. etc.

I also realised that a comic on him was bound to make lot of money when Khsuwhant Singh dies, and given his age I expected that'd happen soon.

I started working on it.

By sitting extra hours after office, after finishing Itch you can't scratch pages, till 3-4 am everyday, I kept doing these -

At that time I was so much into him, that my girlfriend thought I really loved him and she gifted me this awesome Khushwant Singh painting for my birthday :

By the time I was done with the inked artwork for a single chapter I got an epileptic attack. and I dislocated my right shoulder. So I could not draw any more.
I got the artwork colored with the help of Neeraj Menon.

The finished page looked like this :

I send this pitch with this proposal letter to Penguin Books -

Too gaandchatu, I think thats why it got rejected.

 and they shredded it.
I meet some people at Penguin later and they remembered seeing my pitch and were impressed with the idea but didn't like the way I finished the final product, i.e 5 printed pages cut with a rusted cutter, so the prints had improper edges.

They said that if I could manage a better, bigger pitch it might have a better chance. and it could be pitched again.

So, i could not get the time to finish this better pitch, it kept getting delayed until finally this year I sat down and finished it, with the help of Shikhant, my talented engineer turned artist cousin, who was working with me at that time and Rajkanwal Suri, a great illustrator who has been helping me from some time now.

We made two interesting covers -

And an interesting forecomic where Khushwant Singh dies, and then has to defeat God in a game of tennis to live on (I lifted this from a comic Afrodisiac), Khushwant Singh goes on to win, but in vain -

I adapted three chapters from the book :

On being an old man : 

On Nehru : 

Post script : 

The conclusion to the Forecomic : 

Which I don't like as such,I hammered my brain to think of a better ending but nothing came to my mind.

And there was the miniature Khushwant Singh ad which Shikhant designed and Adhiraj wrote :

a credit page :

a better cover letter : 

and the back cover :

I sent this to Pneguin books again, and also gave it to the people I knew - no response.

I went to the Khsuhwant Singh Litfest at Kasauli 

and gave my pitch-comicbook to Khsuhwant Singh's Son Rahul Singh there, he seemed happy with it. 

No response.

I finally found a contact in this new publishing company Aleph and gave it to them there. They seem interested in it- no response.

I am happy that I atleast finished it, nicely, I tried out a new style, more coloring in my work. 

& it got me the biggest assignment of my life :