What do you think?
Rate this book
Operation Decay #1
Ayudh
Ayudh is a magician. He’ll banish ghosts that might haunt you, hunt chudails that might hunt you, and he’ll help you deal with other supernatural predicaments you might find yourself in, for money.
When his friend is murdered, Ayudh investigates the death and finds out that his friend was involved in some very strange things, like insects from another universe, dragons, a shady government organisation, and gangsters, lots of gangsters.
Brought to life by the award-winning team of Ashwin Kalmane (Shaitan), Harsho Mohan Chattoraj (Destiny’s wings), and Prasad Patnaik (everything Holy Cow), Ayudh kicks off Holy Cow’s first company-wide crossover — Operation Decay.
When his friend is murdered, Ayudh investigates the death and finds out that his friend was involved in some very strange things, like insects from another universe, dragons, a shady government organisation, and gangsters, lots of gangsters.
Brought to life by the award-winning team of Ashwin Kalmane (Shaitan), Harsho Mohan Chattoraj (Destiny’s wings), and Prasad Patnaik (everything Holy Cow), Ayudh kicks off Holy Cow’s first company-wide crossover — Operation Decay.
110 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2020
3 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 11, 2024
While it is the first installment in this brand/company-wide crossover storyline, this first volume is only a bit of that and more an origin comic for the titular character Ayudh.
In a shape reminiscent at first of magician characters comic fans will be familiar with, like John Constantine, the writer does a solid job of giving him a vibe that makes him feel unique and not just a replication of the type. Under the pen of Kalmane, the character of Ayudh is an erratic but gifted magician for hire who has an unclear past and not a lot of friends in his present - the mysterious death of one of them being a mystery at the core of this story as Ayudh tries to figure out what happened to him and gets drawn into a murky mess that involves secret organisations, Asura's, interdimensional creatures, gangsters, Dragons (!?) and more.
The artwork is also interesting. I knew Harsho and his work from many years ago and while he is not known (by me at least) for much supernatural work, it was a zombie story where I had first seen his art. He has clearly evolved over the years and his style is both familiar and new as he shows a strong hand with the look and feel of the whole book. Aiding his visuals is the in-house talent of Prasad "Pressy" Patnaik who has really come into his own with his work at Holy Cow and he adds a lot with his colouring choices throughout this book.
From the perspective of the bigger story to come, this volume lays down some solid seeds that keep you curious about the true nature of the threat to come. Meanwhile the primary focus of Ayudhs journey and how he finds himself going from loner to entangled with others and drawn into this larger narrative is executed in a very nicely paced and well constructed story - one that I frankly enjoyed more than I expected and made me want to read the whole event. So a great opener overall.
In a shape reminiscent at first of magician characters comic fans will be familiar with, like John Constantine, the writer does a solid job of giving him a vibe that makes him feel unique and not just a replication of the type. Under the pen of Kalmane, the character of Ayudh is an erratic but gifted magician for hire who has an unclear past and not a lot of friends in his present - the mysterious death of one of them being a mystery at the core of this story as Ayudh tries to figure out what happened to him and gets drawn into a murky mess that involves secret organisations, Asura's, interdimensional creatures, gangsters, Dragons (!?) and more.
The artwork is also interesting. I knew Harsho and his work from many years ago and while he is not known (by me at least) for much supernatural work, it was a zombie story where I had first seen his art. He has clearly evolved over the years and his style is both familiar and new as he shows a strong hand with the look and feel of the whole book. Aiding his visuals is the in-house talent of Prasad "Pressy" Patnaik who has really come into his own with his work at Holy Cow and he adds a lot with his colouring choices throughout this book.
From the perspective of the bigger story to come, this volume lays down some solid seeds that keep you curious about the true nature of the threat to come. Meanwhile the primary focus of Ayudhs journey and how he finds himself going from loner to entangled with others and drawn into this larger narrative is executed in a very nicely paced and well constructed story - one that I frankly enjoyed more than I expected and made me want to read the whole event. So a great opener overall.
Displaying 1 of 1 review