Vérité 02

Vérité #2

by Bharath Murthy (Series Editor), Lokesh Khodke, Sunil Nampu

Vérité 02, an anthology series of comics for adults, features comics by Indian artists Sunil Nambu, Lokesh Khodke, Anpu Varkey, Bharath Murthy and Japanese comics by Takashi Fukutani, Nazuna Saito, Susumu Higa and Seiichi Hayashi. Manga historian and critic Ryan Holmberg contributes with an essay on acclaimed gekiga artist Seiichi Hayashi.

Genres: Manga, Graphic Novels

294 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2019

About the author

Bharath Murthy is a filmmaker and comics author.He studied painting at Faculty of Fine arts ,M.S.University of Baroda, and film direction at Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute,kolkata.

Reviews

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vérité 02 continues to present some interesting works from alternative cartoonists based out of India whilst reprinting hard to find gekiga to put out a satisfying comics anthology. In the first section, "Phoren Soap" by Lokesh Khodke and Bhupan Khakar is the standout story. As satire on the Indian middle class, the story examines the middle class fascination with imported products as a means of a status symbol. Phoren is a linguistic barb at the pronunciation of the word "foreign" which is just one of the many little in-jokes that probably lands with Indian readers a bit better, and it also helps to have some insight on the subcultures of the middle class given how readily the story dives into some subtle subversions of class consciousness and sexual repression. Other stories like "St. John Abraham", "The Lady Left Alive" and "Unmei" are all solid entries as well.

On the manga side of Vérité 02 are some fantastic pieces by Takashi Fukutani - "Midnight Mover" and Susumi Higa - "Tolerated Cultivation". But the highlight here is a reprint of Seiichi Hayashi's Flowering Harbour with an accompanying essay on Hayashi by Ryan Holmberg entitled "Comics vs. Art History". Though the reprint quality isn't as great as the Breakdown Press version due to the cheaper quality of the paper in Vérité, it's still worthwhile to pick this up just to read this incredible work from Hayashi in a much more affordable way (given the rarity of the Breakdown Press printing).

[Ushnav Shroff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the stories were fun to read. Some.

[Abhishek Jamalabad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some fascinating pieces, some curious, some meh. This is a mixed bag as many anthologies are, and it's probably not what you're looking for if you want bang-for-buck. With Vol. 3 around the corner, I'm interested in seeing where this very interesting (and seemingly path-breaking in the Indian market) initiative goes.

Only one thing that's unforgivable in my opinion - very poor print/lettering quality for some of the stories. One story has text in bad handwriting, which it seems (after some digging for the real reason) was the artist's own choice; oh well. And there's one story with print text that is almost illegible due to the tiny font size and white-on-black printing for that story.

There are a couple of stories in here - I won't say which ones - that have made this book a keeper for me. However, all things considered, Verite 01 was better in my opinion, and you might want to get that one if you're wondering which to choose. (At the time of writing this, Verite 03 isn't out yet, and I have high expectations.)