The Reverse comic - MSF Doc n Donor

I have already professed my love for MSF in this earlier post.

This is what I had made for them the last time

After working with them on the first campaign, there were plans to tell a bigger story, and they decided to make 'THE REVERSE COMIC' a concept I had pitched them long back. 

What's a reverse comic? basically the story begins from both the ends and meets in the middle. We decided to tell the story of the doctor from one end and the story of the donor from the other.

I started working on a script and made some rough sketches.

I based the character of the donor on my friend Anas. He is a dhokebaaz.

This is what the stories of the Doctor and the Donor started to look like...

I wanted to make lot of middle class references, use desi lingo - so that the comic connects with local audiences. I didn't want to be gora appeasing, just because my client was an international NGO. 

Other than some panels, we kept most of the panels text free, so that we connect with most of the audiences - irrespective of the borders. 

The coloring and inking of this comic is unusual - rather than inking the comic digitally, I used a tracing paper and regular sketch pen. If I had colored it - the next step would've been scanning the artwork and making the lines absolutely black. 

But, luckily I took Mitali Panganti's help in coloring and she did something very unusual - she kept the inks as it is, with those tones of greys etc and just colored it. Which made this unusual comic book. This is how it looked

It took some to and fro between MSF and me, till we settled on the final comic. Eventually it came out at Delhi comic con. Full santushti.

If you want to know more about MSF, click here
MSF will share the comic online soon. Till then, :-< please wait.

Brunch - Modern Love (August 2015)

I got to do another cover. and this time I wanted to do a really good job. Given that the last assignment I did for them was a real mess - I got late, it didn't come out well and then I made last changes in the train. I wasn't happy with that.

So this time I dug in my feet deep and worked hard. We were working on the theme of 'MODERN LOVE'.

I wanted to keep a couple at the center, busy with their phones and then show more characters in the background.

We decided to push the characters back in so there is also some space for the stories in the background.

Now it started to look like something. But this couple looked slightly older, to make them younger, we gave the boy a haircut and changed the girl's lowers.

Then added colors

All we needed to decide now was the colors - poora yellow ya yellow and red?

Done! and this is how it looked in print

Yup, colors get a bit subtle in print. 

Salman's sports biography

This June Salman Khan was announced Indian team's Olympic ambassador. Obviously, it was the "trending topic of the week", maybe two weeks.

Trending topic is the monstrosity that catches the imagination of the public at large and makes comedians, writers, comedians, news channels, content websites, websites of all kind write about it and feign genuine interest in the subject in an attempt to get what you get 'eyeballs'

Cartoonists are no exception.

Newslaundry and Scoopwhoop wanted to do an album recounting Salman's achievements in sports. I had done something similar for Newslaundry - An illustrated biography of Rahul Gandhi - I think it was 5 pages long. Because he hasn't done anything. I wrote and drew it, Rajkanwal Suri had colored it.

Only thing was it had to be complete by August 5, 2016 the day of Rio's inaugaration.

So me and Suri had to get to work. This time I went all Animation studio on the project's ass and did some character sketches (2) of Salman. I wanted to that change from human salman to steroid junky salman.

This time I tried this different technique where I composed the comic in PPT, with roughs, in this case extremely bad roughs and Text. This helped me compose the comic separately while edits were made on this PPT - became an anchor point for changes.

Eventually I finished the drawings and shared them with Rajkanwal Suri

Who then did his his magic on the artwork

The ending was based on this meme on Amit Shah and we added two more pages commenting on the sports ministry and athletes. We finished it on time and it came out on time.

It's still there, Go read!

2 years a corporate slave

(TO READ COMIC: click on it or this link http://bakarmax.com/sites/default/files/2-years-a-corporate-slave_0.jpg)

Yesterday was my first-day making comics again, full time.

Two years ago I got tired and took a break. I am not really a designer, so I decided to find something on the other end of my skillset - coming up with ideas and telling stories.

With Gaurav Ratra's help and Narendra Nag's bravery I got work at MSLGROUP, largely known for its PR wing, but also has a Digital advertising wing called Socialhive (all of it part of the blue whale of communications called Publicis Groupe')

Some months ago, I got tired again, so decided to leave MSLGROUP for full-time cartooning.

I worked for two years as the Manager(Planning). I don't know what it means. What I did was come up with ideas and help people. 

Below are some notes to self about corporates and digital advertising (in case I forget later)

1. There are two kinds of digital advertising, One is the (lets make a hashtag of everything) kind and the other is (research and data based to tell a holistic story) kind. I liked the second kind.

2. Never work on assumptions about people. Our experiences engrave our assumptions. Use data to draw a picture. Then think.

3. Not all corporates are assholes. 

4. Most advertising pros are not makers of things (except PPTs)

In this time I started my webcomic, got married, published my second book, conducted an exam, moved into my own house,  and got three seizures (story for another day)

What now? A new Bakarmax every week and an artist's co-op.

And refer me to your friends please? I'm best in the business.

I found a big chunk of friends and traveled here and there.

Here's an album that recaps the two-year story (apologies if I missed you)

https://goo.gl/photos/5RMqpsdJ2T8ov8u99

2 years a corporate slave

(TO READ COMIC: click on it or this link http://bakarmax.com/node/59)

Yesterday was my first-day making comics again, full time.

Two years ago I got tired and took a break. I am not really a designer, so I decided to find something on the other end of my skillset - coming up with ideas and telling stories.

With Gaurav Ratra's help and Narendra Nag's bravery I got work at MSLGROUP, largely known for its PR wing, but also has a Digital advertising wing called Socialhive (all of it part of the blue whale of communications called Publicis Groupe')

Some months ago, I got tired again, so decided to leave MSLGROUP for full-time cartooning.

I worked for two years as the Manager(Planning). I don't know what it means. What I did was come up with ideas and help people. 

Below are some notes to self about corporates and digital advertising (in case I forget later)

1. There are two kinds of digital advertising, One is the (lets make a hashtag of everything) kind and the other is (research and data based to tell a holistic story) kind. I liked the second kind.

2. Never work on assumptions about people. Our experiences engrave our assumptions. Use data to draw a picture. Then think.

3. Not all corporates are assholes. 

4. Most advertising pros are not makers of things (except PPTs)

In this time I started my webcomic, got married, published my second book, conducted an exam, moved into my own house,  and got three seizures (story for another day)

What now? A new Bakarmax every week and an artist's co-op.

And refer me to your friends please? I'm best in the business.

I found a big chunk of friends and traveled here and there.

Here's an album that recaps the two-year story (apologies if I missed you)

https://goo.gl/photos/5RMqpsdJ2T8ov8u99

2 years a corporate slave

(TO READ COMIC: right click, click open image in new tab and zoom in)

Yesterday was my first-day making comics again, full time.

Two years ago I got tired and took a break. I am not really a designer, so I decided to find something on the other end of my skillset - coming up with ideas and telling stories.

With Gaurav Ratra's help and Narendra Nag's bravery I got work at MSLGROUP, largely known for its PR wing, but also has a Digital advertising wing called Socialhive (all of it part of the blue whale of communications called Publicis Groupe')

Some months ago, I got tired again, so decided to leave MSLGROUP for full-time cartooning.

I worked for two years as the Manager(Planning). I don't know what it means. What I did was come up with ideas and help people. 

Below are some notes to self about corporates and digital advertising (in case I forget later)

1. There are two kinds of digital advertising, One is the (lets make a hashtag of everything) kind and the other is (research and data based to tell a holistic story) kind. I liked the second kind.

2. Never work on assumptions about people. Our experiences engrave our assumptions. Use data to draw a picture. Then think.

3. Not all corporates are assholes. 

4. Most advertising pros are not makers of things (except PPTs)

In this time I started my webcomic, got married, published my second book, conducted an exam, moved into my own house,  and got three seizures (story for another day)

What now? A new Bakarmax every week and an artist's co-op.

And refer me to your friends please? I'm best in the business.

I found a big chunk of friends and traveled here and there.

Here's an album that recaps the two-year story (apologies if I missed you)

https://goo.gl/photos/5RMqpsdJ2T8ov8u99

Drawing #WithoutBorders for MSF India

When I first heard about Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), I wished I was a doctor. It was wonderful - to go to distant lands, help people, there was risk, yet they made sure that it was worth your time. I so wished I was a medical student.

But I wasn't - I was an engineer, not interested in engineering who wanted to become a cartoonist.

So yup, no chance of me ever working for them.

Well, if there is one thing god is good at - proving you wrong.

I got to know more about MSF in recent times from Guy Delisle's graphic novels - his wife works for MSF. And he like any obedient artist-husband tags along.

His work refreshed my initial memory of reading about MSF.

And then it happened - MSF India got in touch and I got the chance to draw for their campaign #WithoutBorders.

They were making a landing page, with semi animated illustrations - Where the audience can click a button and make MSF doctors and people in need meet.

They wanted some Indian artists to do illustrations for this landing page.

Me, Ojoswi, Siddharth Sengupta and baap of us all - Orijit Sen came together to do this.

We are to make 4 illustrations encapsulating MSF's work in India they basically work with populations that are out of reach for traditional healthcare.

As always I was the one to warm up the audience (usual practice at standup, send the one who has the highest chances of bombing)

and the final one (lot of animation has been added to this later)

The landing page is up and has my illustration on it - but the link isn't being shared yet.

What MSF wants you to do is join their Thunderclap campaign to release the full landing page with all four illustrations. Thunderclap is a "crowdspeaking" platform that lets you donate your social profiles for a moment in time - so a single status can be shared on a given moment.

We the people of India are kanjoos chindi who will donate for religion because after life mein benifit milega - ya red light be gareeb ko sada hua apple de denge - kyunki mere saamne hi gareeb khaa le mujhe santushti milti hai. Bakwaas. shutt up!

Why not empower an organisation reach those you personally can never reach!

Maan bhi liya that you "urban poor" nahi de sakte. But you do lot of netagiri on social media - so when it comes to donate - paisa to doge nahi - social media hee donate kar do? that too for a brief moment in time? please!

This was my way to contribute to MSF. Can you too? Please!

https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/43162-withoutborders?locale=en

The Great Indian Obsession - The untold story of India's engineers

Ask anyone about their experiences during 11th and 12th standard and all you will hear is either story of horrors or silence. And still this continues - 2 years of pure torture of children.

I am someone who went through the 2 year torture like many of you, and then a further 4 year long torture called engineering (the education, not the life)

Education system is pet peeve and earlier I had done a comic for The Guardian on this, and another opportunity came when Adhitya Iyer called.

He said he was looking for a cartoonist to make illustrations or comics to go with each chapter of his book - his was the highest funded book on Kickstarter and was about this unusual fascination with engineering.

I happily said yes.

Trailer of the book.



Illustrations I did for every chapter

The full color poster for the book

And then after payment and completion of work Adhitya vanished for some months, to return back with not just the book but the top reward for me : a ghanti with my name "guda" hua, the poster, a hardcover, a paperback, a sweatshirt and this sweet letter.

This is what the final cutie looks like.

Order here: http://www.amazon.in/The-Great-Indian-Obsession-Engineers/dp/9352063627

Remember, if you ever need to piss on the education system, I am your man person. uhm.