A picture’s worth a thousand words.
This phrase kept coming to my mind when reading Malik Sajad’s wonderfully drawn Munnu: A Boy From Kashmir.
Sajad’s work tells a thousand stories of sorrow and loss during the whirlwind of political instability that surrounded Indian-administered Kashmir during the 1990s. The ink drawings come alive on the page as the reader becomes absorbed by the nightmarish conflict that engulfed Sajad’s childhood. Inspired by German expressionist woodcuts, Sajad has managed to create a world of shadows where death blends with life, ink with paper, Pakistani with Indian. Kashmir. The very word seems to echo the cries of all whose lives were torn apart.
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This month’s theme, Picture Perfect, celebrates the image. Be this through graphic novels, food photography, cover design or how to post the perfect Instagram pic, we want to share with you all the ways in which the picture is truly perfect. First off, Malik Sajad, author of Kashmiri conflict memoir MUNNU, tells us about the technical process behind the creation of his graphic novel.
MUNNU, the graphic novel, is the astonishing debut from Kashmir based illustrator Malik Sajad. We asked Malik about the concept of the novel; where did the idea come from? Why a graphic novel? What is it about the Kashmir’s torrid conflict you wanted to explore?
I came to know about this medium around 9 years ago. There were no graphic novels in the bookstores in Kashmir. Read more…
