Ravanayan (Issue 1)  (English, Paperback, Vivek Goel Vijayendra Mohanty)

This book is an imaginative take on the life of Ravana, the antagonist of Ramayana. It deals mainly with the life and incidents of Ravana and the people in his life.

Summary Of The Book

This book is different from The Ramayana as the protagonist here is Ravana instead of Rama. The creators believe that the land of Lanka had prospered under the rule of the mighty Ravana, and as a result, they have come up with this book to pay their tribute to this influential ruler, addressing him as The Lord.

In this book, the physical description of the characters differs from the actual epic’s descriptions. The chief protagonist, Ravana, has been depicted without the ubiquitous ten heads that are often associated with the character. Instead, the ten diverse qualities that those ten heads stood for have been aptly explained.

Moreover, this book mainly deals with the important people in Ravana’s life, rather than those in Rama’s life. In addition to this, small tidbits have been provided about the differences in character between Ravana and his two brothers, Kumbhakarna and Vibhishana. The creators have gone on to portray Ravana as a clean-shaven, good-looking, and chivalrous man with clean white hair who doesn’t sport the thick moustache usually associated with the character.

Before the proper execution of this book, the two authors reportedly took reference from the original epic, written by Valmiki. They also referred to the works of Arshia Sattar and Devdutt Pattanaik.

About The Authors

Vivek Goel is primarily a comic book writer and concept artist. He is also gaining reputation as an inker, penciller, and letterer, and is a graduate with a Fine Arts Diploma from Mumbai.

His other popular books are Ravanayan (Issue 2), Ravanayan (Issue 5), Aghori (Book - 1), and Aghori (Book - 2).

He has a vast range of experience in diverse sectors, and has worked with Raj Comics and Level 10 Comics. Goel has collaborated with companies like Moonstone Books and even agencies like Star Plus. He is the only Indian artist to be officially authorized to draw Phantom professionally. At present, he continually contributes short stories to Comix.India magazine as a guest author. He has set up his comic publishing house called Holy Cow Entertainment. He currently resides in Mumbai.

Vijayendra Mohanty is a well-known Indian comic book writer.

He is mainly popular for the Ravanayan series of books.

Mohanty has been featured in many publications such as The Indian Express, The Times of India, Hindustan Times, Mumbai Mirror, Mail Today, and DNA Mumbai. He has contributed his stories and other works to famous publications like Comic JUMP and Comix.India. Mohanty received his primary education in Kendriya Vidyalaya. After finishing school, he enrolled himself into Ravenshaw College in Cuttack, Orissa, where he became a BA graduate in English Literature. Afterwards, he went to pursue his post graduate diploma in Asian College of Journalism, where he studied subjects like Journalism, New Media, and Cyber Journalism. He is a well-known personality with an active Twitter account through which he keeps in touch with his fans.