Libera Artisti, the creative art studio based out of Trivandrum, is all set to launch their debut graphic novel “Auto Pilot: The Traffic Novel” at 2nd Annual Comic Convention which will be held at Dilli Hatt, New Delhi from 17th Feb – 19th Feb, 2012. The book is planned to come out in 10 volumes of 48-pages each. The first volume will be unveiled at the Comic Con 2012.
Founded in 2010, Libera Artisti is a fresh artistic studio started by 3 art-crazy guys Kishore Mohan, Roshan and Sinu Chadrasenan. With studio is Trivandrum and Bangalore, there are 5 people working on the book The completion time of the novel was about 20 months, where they took roughly 2 months to complete one volume.
Talking to AnimationXpress.Com, Kishore Mohan, Co-founder of Libera Artisti says, “Despite the fact that all three of us are digital artists, each of us has a distinct style when it comes to art and thought process. Depending on what the project demands, we decide who plays what role in it. This project required Sinu’s extremely stylized, very expressive characters and Rosh’s rich colours.”
Autopilot can be best described as an urban fantasy with a humorous core. Coming out in ten 48-page volumes, it is set in an alternate Kerala which is very much like today’s Kerala, except that there are masked vigilantes who are out there fighting crime and protecting the civilians from mythical creatures. The chief protagonist is Suku, an autorickshaw driver who ends up having to play chauffeur to Yamraj, the Indian God of Death. The story progresses through a series of adventures that take place in strange lands, some known, and many unknown, but each of which would take him one level deeper into secrets he would rather not know.
About the challenges faced Kishore asserts, “The main challenge faced in terms of storytelling was in bringing two genres, namely superhero and mythology, together. Though it may initially seem so, Autopilot is not just an odd mishmash of genres. It has a very strong underlying flavor of its own that we believe, would become evident as you travel further into this seemingly alternate version of our homeland. The second challenge was in coming up with an art style that would work for the story. But tackling that was a lot of fun as there was a lot of teamwork involved.”
“Every other aspect of production was relatively cakewalk, as we were fortunate enough to have a publisher (Dragonmill Media) that has been not only supportive, but also as enthusiastic as we are about the project”, he further adds.
When asked his views about graphic novels & venture in comic industry Kishore says, “Speaking generally, I would say Graphic novels, because we love graphic novels. It is such a wonderful medium for storytelling. Now speaking subjectively, we primarily are artists and we think visually – in terms of pictures and videoclips, if I may. So it is easier for us to tell stories through sequential art than through words alone. But each medium has its set of strengths and weaknesses. You choose to do certain things in one and you choose to do certain other things in another. In time we hope to explore other media for storytelling. But right now, with our current resources and time limitations, a graphic novel is the best way we can tell the story that we want to tell.”
In addition to this graphic novel, Libera Artisti is also working on a 2D animated TV series which will come out some time in 2013.