Grafity’s Wall, the creator-owned graphic novel by Ram V, Anand RK, Jason Wordie, Irma Kniivila, and Aditya Bidikar, is receiving an expanded edition from Dark Horse Comics later this year. The graphic novel was originally published last year via the UK-based crowdfunding platform Unbound; the new edition will feature bonus sketchbook material not included in the previous printing. The deal with Dark Horse will bring the book to American audiences for the first time.
Grafity’s Wall focuses on a young artist named Grafity as he creates a mural on the last standing wall in a tenement neighborhood that’s being torn down. The graphic novel tells the story of Grafity’s friends and neighbors as he immortalizes them on the wall.
Ram V has gained a mainstream following over the last year with work for DC, Marvel, and Vault Comics. Grafity’s Wall is the only credit I can find for Mumbai-based Anand RK, though a look at his portfolio page on Behance reveals an artist capable of a number of different styles, all sharing a similar fluidity and high level of detail.
Check out the full press release from Dark Horse on the release below, as well as several preview pages originally shared during the crowdfunding campaign for the book. The expanded edition of Grafity’s Wall is due in stores in March of 2020.
MILWAUKIE, Ore. (July 9, 2019)— From rising comic book writer Ram V (Paradiso, War of the Realms: War Scrolls) and rising artist Anand R.K. with colors by Jason Wordie (Dark Horse Presents, God Country), and Irma Kniivila (Ronin Island, Deadpool), and letters by Aditya Bidikar (Little Bird, These Savage Shores), comes Grafity’s Wall Expanded Edition, a graphic novel telling a universal coming of age story set in the bright and chaotic city of Mumbai now published for the first time for an American audience with a brand new sketchbook section specially included for this expanded edition!
When an aspiring street artist “Grafity” sees the illegal tenements outside his home destroyed, he finds in the debris, a lone, standing wall– one that’ll go on to become a summer-long canvas for the lives of his friends growing up in the constantly changing and challenging city of Mumbai.
As Grafity’s mural on the wall grows, it chronicles the lives of his friends– Jay, a young man with dreams of being a rapper lured into the dangerous path of a gangster. Chasma, a bright but awkward boy who chronicles his struggles as an outsider trying to belong in this city, by writing letters to strangers, to the city itself. And Saira, who comes to Mumbai with Bollywood dreams but must first survive the reality in this place of gangsters, con-men, friends and lovers.
As the long Mumbai summer comes to a close, hearts are broken and leaps of faith, taken. This coming-of-age tale set in Mumbai’s loving, unforgiving and chaotic embrace, is a unique exploration of that entirely universal experience- the falling, soaring, the grave permanence and fleeting transience of our adolescent years.
Grafity’s Wall goes on sale March 18, 2020, and is available for pre-order on Amazon, and at your local comic shop. Be sure to pick up this 144-page hardcover graphic novel for $19.99.
Praise for Grafity’s Wall:
“Following an eclectic cast of young people in bustling Mumbai, Grafity’s Wall is a snapshot of a culture too rarely explored in Western media, told with heart and authenticity by Ram V and his collaborators, Anand RK, Jason Wordie, Irma Kniivila and Aditya Bidikar. Anand RK’s dizzying art gorgeously captures not just the exciting hustle and bustle of Mumbai, but its challenging underside, as a barefoot muralist, an illiterate wannabe rapper, an awkward but sweet-hearted waiter and an aspiring actress carve out an existence in the margins of the densely populated city.” – Paste Magazine
