Chat with Helter Skelter

Ram and I had a chat with Manav from Helter skelter

Click on the image for the full interview

And here's a small excerpt:

What other media did you derive inspiration from when creating Black Mumba?

KISHORE: As far as the artistic process goes, I ended up choosing a visual language that I felt would put the reader in the exact state of mind that Ram wanted them to be at each point in the story. The art style I’ve used in Black Mumba is very different from the ones I’ve used in my previous works. Calling it film noir would be an over simplification, but noir comics like Torpedo (Jordi Bernet) and Blacksad (Juanjo Guarnido) were definitely on my mood-board. There is a constant sense of foreboding throughout the story that felt almost supernatural, and I had to make sure that the elements that I chose to compose each frame subtly hinted that something darker lurked right around the corner. It’s like that ominous musical note you hear in a horror flick when the dog runs up the stairs to inspect the strange sounds. You hear that note and you know instantly that Timmy isn’t coming back. What happens between the frames happens entirely inside the reader’s head and that, in fact, is where the real magic of this medium is supposed to happen.

RAM: Yeah, I think the noir influence is obvious. Old ’40s Bogart films and Hitchcock were my touchstones for creating scenes and using visual cues. In terms of comics, I learned from reading Azarello and Lemire (apart from the staples of Moore, Morrison, Gaiman). As for the literary influences, the idea for Black Mumba germinated after a reading of Paul Auster’s New York Trilogy, although the content and subject matter is nowhere near Auster’s work.