(¯·._.·(¯·..· COMMISSIONED ·..·´¯)·._.·´¯)

My cover illustration for Those Boyhood Years by Shibram Chakraborty, the first English translation of a century old BL that was published as Chhele Boyeshe in 1926. This is published by Speaking Tiger Books.

Those asking:

Is it doomed? ✘

Shibu da wrote Yaoi???! ✔

This came to me last year, but was on hold for copyright technicalities. The art director Maithili reached out in August and sent me the rough draft of the text alongside design specs and references. I finished the draft, then watched one of the talks by translator Niladri about the book- I was so touched by how dedicated he was to the story, to its author as a 22 yr old writing this after jail (and disowning it after). About the time period of anti colonial armed resistance and the young people caught in the middle. It felt very present.

I have talked about the process here- which has been a trial and error journey with nature printing since Lockdown, and seeing it maturing to commission -able stage feels like an accomplishment. I am glad that the team liked it

»-(¯·.·´¯)->FANART<-(¯·.·´¯)-«

okay but like imagine this as an animated series! Made these in a frenzy after the project, dedicated 6-8 hours on each. My visual library was The Runaway (1959) by Ritwik Ghatak adapted from the author’s second book. Hyperfixation in this economy is a blessing. Shibram truly GOATED!!

The shorts are up on my youtube (aindrizzle) !