Batman Is Overrated!

Amongst the many superheroes, Orijit Sen (once upon a time) liked Batman for his darkness, while found Superman too goody-goody for his taste. However, it was the reporter cum adventurer Tintin that he was more interested in. "I was so fascinated by him that I used to feel like I was transported to different countries through his narrative," he reminisces.

From Amar Chitra Katha to Phantom to Commando, his passion for comics was so deep that he started creating his own stories at age 12. "My first published book was in 1994. I was so touched by the environmental issues surrounding that I went to a protest march and made a graphic fiction on it," Sen tells us. The short work by the artist is regarded as one of the first Indian graphic novels.

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With ink being his favourite medium, he draws inspiration from his contemporaries and younger guys, apart from Manga comics and Tintin. Although his latest story Plasmoids with Samit Basu revolves around aliens, quiz him on if he believes in their existence and he instantly replies, "No! "The story was fun and challenging, so I designed it, but I don't know if aliens exist or not."

What's more – his second story, Hair Burns like Grass published in PAO, is a modern take on Kabir's poetry. "It's just two chapters of my upcoming comic. I'm not a fan of Kabir, but you can call it a fan-fiction," he informs. The black and white sketches together with thought bubbles are effortlessly juxtaposed with lines from the poetry.

To come up with such out-of-the-box ideas, Orijit studies his surroundings, imbibes it and brings out innovative styles. In fact, he stays in villages and valleys to make a comic as real as possible. So we ask him if he captures villagers in his stories. “Oh yes, the people around me or the one’s close to me often become my characters," he says with a smile.

It was as much a challenge for him to create the fantasy characters of Plasmoids as it was to sell the first copy of his comic way back in 1994. "At that time, the situation was different. I had to distribute my comic to the bookstores myself. It was irritating when people kept saying comics are for children, so which section do we place this one in. But today the industry has changed and big publishers are willing to invest as they understand that down the line, it's profitable," he adds positively.

A whole gamut of things like art, cinema, theatre and graphics form his world. "(Laughs) I like to believe this, but ask my wife and she’ll tell you I don't do anything apart from drawing," says the graphic designer who runs a store called People Tree and prefers to keep away from politics of power, but is deeply interested in bringing to life the politics of love and relationship in his works full of dark humour. He chooses to be this way because politics and several other comic characters are done to death. "Especially Batman, all thanks to his movies!"

From the November 2012 issue of FHM India.