23 May,2010 02:53 PM IST | | Janaki Viswanathan
Nicolas Wild moved from Paris to Afghanistan for a temporary but odd job: to create a comic for kids, explaining the Afghan constitution to them. Before Kabul Disco 2: How I Didn't Become An Opium Addict in Afghanistan hits Indian bookstores in a few months, we got you an exclusive look at the first three pages
There was just one thing that terrified Nicolas Wild in four years in Afghanistan -- paying the bills every month at the local French restaurant. "You have no idea how expensive foie gras can be in Kabul," says the French artist, without the slightest hint of humour during a telephonic chat from his Paris office. That Nicolas looks at the lighter side of tragic situations is obvious from the first of his trilogy, Kabul Disco.
Survive India, survive anything
When he set out for Kabul on a whim in 2005, Wild didn't really know much about the country. "I said to myself, 'If someone is recruiting comicbook artists in such a place, it means it's not such a dangerous destination.' I had spent six months in India the year before and after that experience, nothing seemed too dangerous," he laughs. Four years and several projects later, the country felt quite like home, and some graphic reportage was in order.u00a0
Kite Runner ended like Hollywood
First published in French in 2007, Kabul Disco took an unlikely, funny look at the volatile country, even injecting laughter into kidnapping. It talks about an acquaintance who gets abducted, and Wild and his colleagues spend days making posters and emblems for protests. Finally, the acquaintance returns without much drama, and Wild laments the waste of time. Light years away from the heartbreakingly romantic view of the country that is Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner. Wild says he was touched by both, the book and the movie, though the bad guy didn't convince him. "An Afghan-German-Nazi-Taliban villain? The book started in a realistic way and ended like a Hollywood movie. It's a real Afghan-American cultural mix, a bit like the author's life, I guess," he says.
Book Two
Kabul Disco 2: How I Didn't Become An Opium Addict in Afghanistan is about a war against opium, elections, disabled people and propaganda for democracy. Page seven, which is where the story starts, is a compact version of Book One. Pages eight, nine, 10 and 11 are about Wild's holiday in hometown Alsace before returning to Kabul. "It's about cultural jet-lag," shares Wild, adding www.reverso.com could help translations.
What's new?
He is currently working on the third in the Kabul Disco trilogy, and another book on Zoroastrianism ("also funny but dark"). But what he is looking forward to right now is a trip to Madrid where he's expected to deliver a lecture on Afghanistan.
