Hope on is a pleasant collection of short stories in full colour, where writers and illustrators from different backgrounds have collaborated. Short story collection, narrated in the comic form is not very common in the Indian space of comic writing. Hope on plugs itself in that space, and it is a rather pleasant exploration of very personal experiences and stories.
Because of the varied backgrounds of the illustrators and writers, each story has a distinct narrative and art style.
Short
stories can be hard to deliver and especially in the graphic narrative form.
The stories in Hope on manage to put across both the emotion and graphic
content smoothly. The stories are an easy read, each story has a different art
style. However the difference in consistency
with the art styles might bother some readers.
But that also helps the book draw up it’s own flavour. Almost like a bouquet of flowers. So it can come across as a bit of a mash up with the art styles but as you read on you will start enjoying it.
This
book is a quick refreshing read. Often with lighter reads there is always the
danger of losing out on the emotive content. Hope hits the bulls eye there.
Even if the stories are short and breezy, make no mistake it is loaded with a
lot of emotions that make you feel, think some cases smile. And the best part
is like the name of the book suggests the stories all of a ray of hope shining
through.
Each story feels like you are sitting over a nice cup of coffee and having a conversation with both the writer and the illustrator. It does provide that sense of intimacy with the reader.
Any good book is always about how it connects with a reader. And finally it all boils down to that.
- Nandita Basu, graphic artist and author of The Piano
Shop for the book here -https://t.co/cIkbzrzLLr
