Miss Moti is chubby and has no superpowers. She is klutzy and awkward. But she has managed to get a lot of attention from comic lovers at the festival Comica, in London, last December. Says Kripa Joshi, creator of the Miss Moti series, "The protagonist came out of my body image issues. Being overweight, and viewed in a certain manner, I wanted to create a positive character who could achieve and accomplish things regardless of her size. My character may be big on the bum, but she doesn't let that stop her from doing anything. Miss Moti doesn't sulk about her weight. She's lonely and wants to find someone. She's rather positive and sweet.
People see her as a very lovable character," says Joshi. There are no captions or bubbles in Joshi's comics. She has created a visual journey, in which the only words one comes across are sounds, like 'dham' when a door shuts or 'kattak-kattak' when a train runs. Excerpts from an interview:
Who's Miss Moti?
Miss Moti is an ordinary woman with an extraordinary imagination. She has a mundane life but runs all her errands in slightly unusual ways. She is kind, lovable loving a bit lonely and insecure; but she does not let her weight hold her back. She can achieve anything when she puts her mind to it. She loves animals and nature and has liberal values. In Miss Moti and Cotton Candy, the first Miss Moti comic, she overcomes a challenge by letting go of her inhibitions. Miss Moti and the Big Apple is about meeting her soulmate, sharing a beautiful moment and then being separated.
She was described as 'the fat Asian woman with no superpowers'. Did you find that description limiting?
It was fine with me. I am an Asian woman, and Miss Moti was born out of my personal struggle. However, I do not want to consciously have any boundaries for her. Miss Moti could be anyone... from any background. She does not have superpowers. Her power lies in her flights of fancy or her ability to imagine. We all have that quality, but we don't tap into it well enough.
Is that why you did a wordless comic? Do you want your readers to use their imagination for your sketches?
Yes, the lack of words invites the reader to put their own thoughts and feelings into the story. An image speaks a thousand words. I don't think one needs words to understand the feelings of Miss Moti. Feelings are universal. The wordless comic also helps the story to transcend borders and language barriers.
Is there any specific genre that woman graphic novelists are coming out with?
A lot of women are creating comics on personal and social issues, though I wouldn't like to generalise. But there are plenty of others who like fantastical elements. As a part of The Strumpet (an anthology of new comics work by women artists from the US and the UK), I got to see a wide variety of works from women from both sides of the Atlantic. Their stories and style of storytelling was very different from one another. Some of the books I enjoyed are Anya's Ghost, The House that Groaned, Persopolis, Please God Find Me A Husband, Robot Dreams, My Cardboard Life. The issues in these comics vary from body image, self-acceptance, friendship, search for love, personal and family struggles and much more. Tangles by Sarah Leavitt is a story about her mother's struggle with Alzheimer's. I also enjoyed Amruta Patil's Adi Parva. I felt she had brought quite a personal touch to the retelling of the Mahabharata.
Were there any challenges in creating a character like Miss Moti, who is quite ordinary?
I think what enchants people is her personality. She is a hero because she is ordinary. She just uses the power of her imagination to get through problems. She offers hope that we can all achieve greatness if we open our minds to possibilities.
Stylistically, what was the inspiration for the two Miss Moti comics?
My style is inspired by the Maithili or Madhubani paintings. However, I like a variety of traditional and decorative arts too. In the Miss Moti series, I have tried to let the reader decide whether the events in the story are real or a fantasy. Aren't there moments in life too, where you think something was not just a part of your imagination?
You said Windsor McCay's Little Nemo was the inspiration for the fantastical dream world of Miss Moti...
Little Nemo was a serialised comic on a Sunday newspaper in the early 1900s. Back then, one comic would take up a whole newspaper page. They were wonderful, coloured worlds that children could explore. In one of those pages, a little boy falls asleep and wakes up to an adventure in a place called Slumberland. But at the end of the story, he is woken up, and the reader is left to wonder whether it was all just a dream. And this would happen each week. This play between dream and reality inspired my Miss Moti stories.
What age group are you targeting?
Miss Moti can reach out to all age groups, but she tends to get naked a few times! Some people find it inappropriate for children. However, her nakedness is not vulgar and I always cover her bits. I have had some people buy the comics for their children and others who have not allowed their kids to read it. But most of my comics are bought and read by adults.
Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang
Miss Moti and her flights of fancy
Dengan url
http://masalahurat.blogspot.com/2013/03/miss-moti-and-her-flights-of-fancy.html
Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya
Miss Moti and her flights of fancy
namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link
Miss Moti and her flights of fancy
sebagai sumbernya
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar