A few days back Blue Jackal comics had invited entries for their "Situation Comics",
The comic was to be based on a a sound piece composed by Sun Ra - 'I
Seek a New World’. The lyrics were so strange and made no sense to me.. but
reading them in reverse did provide visual stimulus to make the comic.
Here is a note from Blue Jackal regarding the "Situation"
Sun Ra (1) was an Afro-American jazz composer,
bandleader, poet and philosopher known for his experimental music and
"cosmic" philosophy. Born as Herman Blount, he disowned the
"slave name" he had been given at birth, becoming instead Le Sony'r Ra.
Defying the Second World War draft, he became one of the first black
conscientious objectors and served time in prison. He is considered one of the
pioneers of Afrofuturism (2) . Mark A. Rockeymoore writes "Afrofuturism
... is not a mechanical, technology driven vision of the future
because an afro ain't never been about anything constricting or
orderly, in the hierarchical sense. Rather, an afro is free-flowing, loving the
wind. Changing, shifting and drifting on the breeze, bending this way, puffing
out or just plain swaying gently from side to side, following the whimsical
inclinations of the melanated person upon who's head it is perched."(3)
Each of the entries we received this time, has imagined
and invented a different, a new world. This world sometimes manifests as a
memory and sometimes looms in a moment yet to come. It sometimes
counters existing reality and at others simply takes off beyond its
given coordinates. The imaginative remains at the centre of many of these
expressions of resistance, widening the scope and understanding of political
action itself.
BlueJackal would like to thank all the contributors for their
entries to Situation Comics 2. The contributors include Anarya
Dodes, Sonam Chaturvedi, Raih, Shaunak Samvatsar, Vasvi Oza, Gagan
Singh, Chakupa Banda, Karthik KG, Treibor Mawlong, Vivek Moktan,
Pallavi Arora, Lokesh Khodke, Anupam Roy, Blaise Joseph, Jithinlal and
Akshay Sethi.
My work at Blue Jackal