The myth makers

Illustrators hope a new graphic novel series will become a beacon for the ailing comics scene, and the title of its first instalment DevaShard: At First Light perhaps reflects those expectations. The English-language series is a big-budget venture by local standards. Start-up publisher Fluid Friction is eyeing an international readership and expects to spend HK$2 million over two years on the Indian-inspired fantasy action series. Can the gamble pay off? 'We just want to create a great work; the money will come,' says Fluid Friction chief executive Simon Squibb. The former marketing consultant expects to sell at least 40,000 copies of the debut issue, which went on sale in Hong Kong last week and will be launched in India and Singapore next month, followed by Britain and the US in September. The Chinese version will also be released in September. Squibb is taking a sanguine view when comic publishers worldwide struggle to fend off the lure of computer games and other faster-paced escapist entertainment. But Squibb reckons that if art is booming as a business in Hong Kong, there's no reason that a quality comic won't succeed - as long as people know about it, he says. It's all a matter of marketing. Veteran colourist Johnny Tam Hung-lik, who joined the creative team after working with Hong Kong's biggest comic publishers for the past 15 years, has high expectations of the DevaShard series and compares its complex storyline to The Lord of the Rings. 'Most comics in Hong Kong are all-out action vehicles, and the market needs different genres. DevaShard has a good chance of making a breakthrough,' he says. A cultural hybrid, the graphic novel series draws elements from classic Indian epic, the Mahabarata, to create a mythical world populated by mighty gods and cursed demons in which a young hero battles the forces of evil. But it is the production process that sets DevaShard apart from local comic productions. Fluid Friction art director Helen Griffiths and her creative team came up with the concept before recruiting British writer Benjamin Hall to put together a script peppered with elements of Indian mythology. Although the team say they tapped Asian mythology purely for artistic reasons, the choice also makes good business sense since the company views India and the mainland as major potential markets. 'People [in China and India] can't necessarily afford to buy an Xbox or PlayStation, but they can afford to buy a HK$45 comic book. So they are allowed to escape from reality and into fantasy for a fraction of the cost. They're emerging markets,' says Squibb. DevaShard certainly aims to cater to Asian readers' appetite for non-stop action. 'One thing that I really like about manga is that it's just unrelenting,' says Hall. 'There's constant action, there's always the next thing coming and there's always more fighting. Just when you think everything is over - someone has just defeated the main bad guy - suddenly there's another trial around the corner. 'It's very different from how the action plays out in western comics such as Spider-Man, X-Men and Iron Man where you only get a couple of pages [of action] and there's not a lot of fighting,' says Hall. 'With DevaShard we really want to give a blow-by-blow [description] of what's happening to keep the aggression and speed up, and this is very much the manga style.' Irish artist Keith Burns pencilled the panels, with Tam and fellow inker Ken Cheung King-wah fleshing out the details with a visual flair that carries a distinct flavour of Chinese martial arts comics. To boost its appeal to readers abroad, the cover artwork of the first issue was done by Simon Bisley, a British artist known for his work on Batman, X-Men and Judge Dredd. 'I don't think you should create a work that is directed at just one country or one type of people,' says Griffiths. 'We're trying to do something that's a lot more international. I think we've managed to create something that's a good mix of east and west.' The creative team took 18 months to produce the first instalment, from researching the story and penning the script to designing the characters and printing. With the series to be published quarterly, Tam appreciates the luxury of being able to work at a less frantic pace. 'We have sufficient time to carry out our work, and I think that's the major difference between the production of DevaShard and other local comics,' he says. 'Most of them are weekly, and you may only have a few hours to finish a colour page. The quality control isn't good, whereas here they make sure every page is up to standard.' To boost its profile, Fluid Friction also launched an international character design competition for DevaShard, which was won by 24-year-old Au Yeung Chun-hay. A similar contest was organised solely for India and an online poll of the shortlisted candidates helped ensure heavy internet exposure. 'A lot of comic books don't promote themselves in a very cool way. DC and Marvel Comics don't promote themselves at all in Asia. They don't care about this market,' says Squibb. 'We want to create a new wave of interest [for comics].' Connie Lam Suk-yee, who organised a 20-month comics programme at the Hong Kong Arts Centre, says overseas readers may find DevaShard interesting, although its local appeal is limited. 'The storyboarding resembles local comics, but it also tries to have an international flavour [in its art],' she says. 'Many publishers are now targeting the market in Britain, which has a lot of young Chinese people who can't read Chinese. So [DevaShard] could be appealing there,' Lam says. However, illustrator Colan Ho Ka-chiu, a fan of Japanese sci-fi manga and western comics, isn't bowled over by the debut issue. 'The quality of the artwork [of DevaShard] is average and movement is rather rigid. In terms of action, it's not as thrilling as manga and the visual tension isn't as dynamic as western comics such as Batman and the work of Frank Miller,' Ho says. 'It's risky for the publisher because there are already many high-quality western comics in Hong Kong that have failed to appeal to local readers.' Such comments are unlikely to faze the Fluid Friction crew, an offshoot of marketing and design consultancy Fluid. The strategy is to increase earnings by issuing figurines and other collectables based on the series, and spin off into video games feature films. 'So even if the comic business is dead - and we don't think it is - we can still make income from producing these other things,' says Squibb. 'We are creating intellectual property, and the comic book is just its first form. We don't need massive sales to survive. One simple gaming deal will cover our costs very easily.'