A Lit Mag Evening -- July 7 in Bangalore

Attention Bangaloreans:

 

Note: Some organizers voiced concerns that it might appear tacky to mention on the invite itself the fact that there will be 

 

FREE BOOZE AND SNACKS!!!! 

 

at the event. Good thing we have no such qualms here at the Blaft blog.

 

Call for Submissions: The Obliterary Journal Vol. 2

In February we released The Obliterary Journal Vol. 1, a book of comics and street art and alien robots and illustrated nonsense by around 30 contributors.

Some very nice words about the book have appeared in print, written by people we think are really smart like Achal Prabhala and Deepa D. and Aishwarya Subramanian and Jai Arjun Singh, which makes us feel happy and proud. And so: we want to make another book.

Call for submissions. The Obliterary Journal Vol. 2 is going to be a themed issue, and the theme is:

MEAT

We are looking for short works of graphic fiction / graphic non-fiction / photo-essays / infographics, ranging in length from 1 to 20 pages, dealing primarily with various aspects of meat-eating and meat-production. We're looking for authors/artists who will explore the morality and ethics of non-vegetarianism, examine the business of raising animals and killing them and selling their body parts, delve into the history and politics of religious food taboos, take up the PETA $1 million cultured meat challenge, begin eating bugs as a way to combat global warming... you get the picture.  Please mail us at blaft [at) blaft (dot] com with your concepts or partial work.  Page size is 7 in. by 9 in.  We're looking at finalizing a table of contents by October.

Despite all those cool reviews we linked to above, we are still a struggling independent publishing house, and we can't pay much. Upon acceptance we will negotiate a payment based on length, how much work our editorial and design team put in, and other considerations.

We are especially interested in

• working with artists trained in traditional/folk arts who may have limited access to English-language publishing markets 
• any meat-related comics or graphics which have already been published in regional languages, for translation.

We can pay a bit more for projects like these, and would appreciate any leads or introductions.

We look forward to seeing your submissions and ideas!

Independent Bookstores!

Over the last few years, anyone interested in reading, writing, and/or publishing will have heard people making statements like "the book industry is in the middle of major changes."  It's true.  One of the major changes has been the advent of the eBook. And while some people really hate eBooks or are sad about them or frightened of them, Kuzhali Manickavel thinks you should stop whining yougaiz.

If you have accepted the eBook into your life, you may be interested to know that Blaft has some for sale, with more slated for release soon. On the other hand, if you are still one of those people who gets high on newbooksmell, we would like to encourage you to buy books from an independent bookstore.  Indie bookstores need and deserve your support because they are usually stocked by good, kind people who actually care about good writing and good books and good art, instead of by retail software customized for the optimization of B2B verticals via dynamical supply chain modeling based on the resynergization of the robustness of maximally profitable logistical fuckery.

We have made a little map of independent bookstores (and some indie variety stores which have a few bookshelves) around the country. All of these stores, as per the latest information at the time of posting, have Blaft's full catalog in stock, in addition to books by other great indie publishers and many other things you probably want to own.  So go forth and spend your money.

View Support Independent Bookstores! in a larger map

Note: if you have an indie bookshop and you would like to be on this map -- what are you waiting for? Place an order from us already! 

Tamil Pulp Update, Alien Landings Press, Etc.

We haven't updated the blog in a long while. Our latest releases Stupid Guy Goes to India and The Obliterary Journal have been in stores in India for a couple of months now. We hope you'll pick them up and that you'll enjoy them as much as these reviewers. (They're not available outside the country yet, but they will be soon.)

Even more exciting, Pachanana Moharana's illustrations from The Obliterary Journal have been sparking long-overdue speculation on the 1947 Odisha alien robot landing in mainstream publications like The Hindu and Zee News and Deccan Herald, which of course has us just tickled.

Meanwhile -- We often get calls from journalists asking about the popular fiction market in India. A lot of these journalists seem to take it for granted that the regional language pulp fiction industries are dead or moribund, and that all new exciting work is happening in English only.  However, while readership may be down from the 1990s peak, in Tamil at least, the scene is alive and thriving--as proved by a recent visit to the Besant Nagar newsstand outside Words & Worth.

Rajesh Kumar, the most prolific writer in the world, is still hard at work as ever -- these three novels all came out this month. The back covers are good too:

"Mythological crime thriller" author Indra Soundar Rajan is still publishing short novels, and longer works in installments:

 

And, perhaps most exciting, we saw a bunch of unfamiliar names: Akhil Kumar, "Crime King" Thennilavan, and Maheshwaran...

That's nine novels for Rs. 135, kids. Hard to beat. Of course, if you only read English, you'll have to spend the big bucks on one of our translated anthologies. (Available soon as eBooks! Watch this space.)

The Obliteration Continues

At the launch of The Obliterary Journal yesterday at Comic Con India, contributors Vidyun Sabhaney (author of "Gurk") and Amitabh Kumar (author of "") led a workshop in which they encouraged participants to make comics out of a variety of strange materials, including x-ray paper, frisbees, cotton balls, and surgical gloves. Each participant was given an action ("running", "flying", "shitting", etc.) and asked to create a "comic" to represent that action.

Pictured below are some of the wonderful results (Thanks to Vidyun for the pictures!).

Go ahead... guess which "comic" represents which action.

Sneak Preview: The Coming Obliteration

Here's a sneak preview of "Memories of the Nayagarh Incident", one of our favourite sections of The Obliterary Journal, a collection of comics, street art, and illustration from Blaft Publications in association with Tranquebar Press -- two traditional yantra-purusha tala pattachitra, or "machine-man palm-leaf engravings", by award-winning artist Sri Pachanana Moharana from Puri. The pieces are inspired by the nearly-forgotten 1947 UFO landing and close encounter in Nayagarh, Orissa -- just weeks before the famous crash in Roswell, New Mexico.

 

The Obliterary Journal, which also includes work by Malavika.PC, Zen Marie, Subrata Gangopadhyay, Aarti Sunder, Amruta Patil, Orijit Sen, Bharath Murthy, and many others (see the full table of contents here) launches at 3:30 pm on Friday, Feb. 17th at Comic Con India, Dilli Haat, New Delhi. We're also having a release party at Yodakin Bookstore on Monday, Feb 20th. Please come if you're in Delhi!

Available for pre-order soon!

Delhi Book Launches!

The Obliterary Journal Stupid  Guy Goes to  India Blaft in association with Tranquebar is very excited to announce the upcoming release of TWO NEW BOOKS! We will be launching both titles at events during the 2nd Annual Comic Con India, in Delhi, Feb. 17th - 19th 2012. Blaft will be in stall No. 13A. Drop by and say hai!   The Obliterary Journal edited by Rakesh Khanna and Rashmi Ruth Devadasan LAUNCHING ON FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17th, 2012 TIME: 3:30pm VENUE: COMIC CON, DILLI HAAT, NEW DELHI A collection of comics, street art, typography, and illustrated stories from India and beyond. Includes: *) A classic Bengali gangster comic in translation *) Traditional Odisha palm-leaf engravings of alien robot invaders *) 12th century Sanskrit algebra problems *) Bus painters from Suriname *) New work from Vidyun Sabhaney, Amitabh Kumar, Roney Devassia, and Aarti Sunder *) and much, much more!     Stupid Guy Goes to India by Yukichi Yamamatsu translated from Japanese by Kumar Sivasubramanian LAUNCHING ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19th, 2012 TIME: 1:00pm VENUE: COMIC CON DILLI HAAT, NEW DELHI In 2004, having never before left Japan, 56-year-old manga author Yukichi Yamamatsu travelled to India, armed with little money, less English, no sigmoid colon, and absolutely no idea of what to expect. He did, however, bring with him his formidable art skills, a missionary zeal for spreading Japanese comics culture, and a keen pair of eyes -- through which we are treated to a hilarious, brutally honest look at India as it presents itself to the foreign visitor. This is the true story of Yukichi’s adventures -- playing marbles, searching for bathrooms, betting on horses, visiting a brothel -- and his madcap mission to sell Hindi translations of samurai manga on the mean streets of the nation’s capital. Yukichi Yamamatsu will be travelling to India from Tokyo for the 2nd Annual Comic Con! Come meet a legendary mangaka, and get your copy signed! BLAFT WILL BE IN STALL No.13A   2nd Annual Comic Con Dilli Haat, New Delhi  Feb 17th-19th 2012  We'll also be having an event with several contributors to The Obliterary Journal at YODAKIN 2 Hauz Khas Village New Delhi  at 6:30 PM on Monday Feb 20th 2012 See you there!