The Vanished Path
The Vanished Path: A Graphic Travelogue | |
---|---|
Date | March 2015 |
Page count | 218 pages |
Publisher | HarperCollins Publishers, India |
Creative team | |
Writers | Bharath Murthy |
Original publication | |
Language | English |
ISBN | 978-93-5177-019-0 |
The Vanished Path: A Graphic Travelogue is a graphic novel written and illustrated by Bharath Murthy, and published in March, 2015, by HarperCollins Publishers India. It is Bharath's first book-length comic.[citation needed]
Publication history
There were two trips to the sites, one lasting a week and the other three weeks. Alka Singh, a filmmaker and photographer, visually documented the journey, while Bharath made notes. The longer trip was funded by the Tamil language Dinamalar newspaper. The plan was to publish a weekly short comic based on the journey in their weekly children's supplement Siruvarmalar. Two issues were published, dated 4 and 11 February 2011, before the series was cancelled. Each issue carried a 10-page episode. Translations of the text were done in-house. Other excerpts were published in Himal Southasian,[1] Fountain Ink [2] magazine, Live Mint[3] and the self-published Comix.India anthologies.
Art
The black & white artwork and panel layouts invoke narrative techniques characteristic of Japanese
Plot
In September 2010, Bharath Murthy and his wife Alka Singh, recent converts to
Reception
The book received broadly favourable reviews. It was nominated for the 2015 Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize, the first comic to receive that honour in the award's history. Prajna Desai, reviewing it for the Caravan magazine said,
"... the virtue of The Vanished Path consists in mobilising the dregs of history, that is, archaeology and little-read texts, to tell a witty and rounded story of the Buddha’s teachings.[6] "
The Outlook Traveller criticised its narrative style as 'bland'.[7] Rakesh Khanna, writing in the Deccan Chronicle, found the narrative 'not carefully planned', yet 'refreshing'.[8] Striptease, an online magazine devoted to comics called it 'a spiritual journey littered with discoveries and evolutions.'[9] In an interview in The Hindu,[10] Bharath says that he wanted to reach out to readers who never read comics, and to those Indians who may not be so aware of their Buddhist past.
References
- ^ "The vanished path". Himal Mag. Retrieved 2016-03-19.
- ^ "December". Fountain Ink Magazine. Retrieved 2016-03-19.
- ^ Murthy, Bharath. "Following Buddha". Live Mint. Retrieved 2016-03-19.
- ^ Trivedi, Divya. "Morphing the Buddha". Frontline. Retrieved 2016-03-11.
- ^ "Comix India and the Indo-Manga Connection: An Interview with Bharath Murthy". The Comics Journal. Retrieved 2016-03-19.
- ^ Desai, Prajna (2015-05-17). "The Middle Way Without Middlemen: A Review Of Bharath Murthy's The Vanished Path". The Caravan Magazine. Retrieved 2016-03-19.
- ^ "The Vanished Path: A Graphic Travelogue". Outlook Traveller. Retrieved 2016-03-19.
- The Deccan Chronicle. Retrieved 2016-03-19.
- ^ "The Path Less Travelled". StripTease - The Magazine. Retrieved 2016-03-19.
- ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2016-04-05.