What was initially meant to be a 100-page comic book had to be extended to include 50 more pages
It was sometime last year that Goa-based animator couple Roy and Riddhi Soumyadipta found themselves arguing about science and religion. The duo knew that it wasn't one of those discussions that was going to die down anytime soon. "After debating for hours, it came to a point when we thought, is it possible for the two schools of thought to come to a consensus? Are the two really incompatible?" This led them to research more on the subject and what ensued has now taken shape of a comic book titled Winter Child. Touted to be the first indigenous comic book series on the post apocalyptic world, it is an attempt by the Soumyadiptas to marry science fiction with ancient Hindu literature.
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Animator couple Roy Soumyadipta and Riddhi
Will man turn monster?
Winter Child is set in the distant future - wherein the ice-apocalypse has brought an end to the world. Given the situation, will the scarcity of resources turn us into man-eating monsters as Kalyuga predicts or will science find a way? The book explores the subject through comic characters. "While the topic may sound serious and catastrophic, I can assure you it's entertaining," Roy laughs. "It is based on the various post-apocalyptic theories according to Hindu mythology and science," adds the 30-year-old who has worked on movies like Harry Potter, Brad Pitt's World War Z and Stan Lee's Chakra the Invincible. What's interesting is that somewhere there's a common ground between the two schools of thought. To drive home the point, he gives us the example of the different theories surrounding the origin of life. "Lord Vishnu brought life on earth through his half-god half-fish avatar. His second avatar was half-god half-tortoise. On the other hand, science says life began at deep sea. When the cellular creatures moved to land, they transformed into tortoise. The parallels are intriguing," he says.
Pushing the boundaries
Their research also threw up nothing on these lines has been attempted in India before. Being a science fiction junkie, Roy decided to create something himself. The couple began working on the script in August last year. "We wanted the story to be friendly to all ages. It was meant to be an adventure," he says. Keeping this in mind, he has kept the colour scheme vibrant with bright blues, yellows and reds.
What was initially meant to be a 100-page comic book had to be extended to include 50 more pages. Roy also roped in a team from Brazil to develop the graphics. Understandably, that led to a spike in production costs. "We realised there are a many stories to tell. It's an unexplored genre graphically," he says. To meet their goal, the couple is now crowdfunding the book on Wishberry. They aim to raise Rs 7,00,000 and have managed to receive Rs 1,76,003 till now. If the comic book sees the light of day, the Soumyadiptas plan to turn this into an animated movie/ TV series.
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