A mini-interview with MARD BANN co-creator RAHIL MOHSIN
Our MISFITZ CLUBHOUSE artist took a little time to be interviewed about his brand new bilingual title, that's available (digitally) in our HEIRS OF ISILDUR campaign!
We announced recently the inclusion of a super-cool bilingual comic, MARD BANN, into our HEIRS OF ISILDUR Kickstarter campaign (FYI that ends in six days on Feb 29th - we need you to help us reach minimum funding and finish strong - check it out and BACK IT here). As soon as we reach minimum funding, every tier backer will have this issue added FOR FREE. (Can’t beat free, right?)
MARD BANN’s co-creator, RAHIL MOHSIN, is someone we’re very familiar with at #TeamINSYM, because he’s the artist on our series MISFITZ CLUBHOUSE. We were honored to be the ones to bring this super cool issue stateside (digitally), as well as the be the first Americans to ever read it!
We did a quick little interview with RAHIL, to help explain why the comic is important to him, to the DAKHNI language, and also explain why you as a reader should dig it:
#TeamINSYM: MARD BANN is in DAKHNI and English. Has there ever been another comic made in the DAKHNI language?
Rahil: No. This is the first comic series EVER in the Dakhni language!
#TeamINSYM: What makes it important for you and your studio to have this MARD BANN release available with both DAKHNI and ENGLISH together?
Rahil: Dakhni is a spoken language largely in South India. Although there are some colloquial differences in the spoken word from region to region, it's still understandable. It wasn't taught in schools and survived mostly orally for almost a century now.
The resilience of a language that has survived for this long deserves its due and we would like to share our culture with the rest of the world. The choice to have a bilingual comic was planned even before the book was written. Our motive was to always make Dakhni culture accessible to a common language crowd which would help us create more awareness around a dying language.
#TeamINSYM: How has the reception to the comic been in your local area, and at comicons?
We have received tons of love and support from our audience, new and old dedicated followers on social media. Convention spaces provide us with a more intimate experience with our audiences and future readers allowing us to connect with folks on a more personal level, these are people who are either Dakhni speakers or someone who has heard of it. We even ended up building our team based on these interactions! And that's always a flex when people reach out and connect with us solely based on their faith in our initiative eventually becoming our strongest allies and best of friends.
#TeamINSYM: What is the translation for MARD BANN? What does the name itself mean?
Rahil: Mard Bann literally translates to "be a man" or more commonly, "man up". We chose the title owing to similar phrases heard in Dakhni circles, usually delivered by a patriarch as instructions on how a "man" is supposed to act, behave and conduct themselves in society. The book addresses concepts of generational trauma, toxic masculinity and societal expectations of men. The book is also about hope and finding joys in the little things.
TeamINSYM: Youve stated before there is a motion comic associated. Can you give us more info?
We have made mini motion comics based on the characters that inhabit this world we've created. Each story explores the relationship between characters and in a way introducing potential readers to familiarize themselves with Dakhni slang. We have these animated comics uploaded in the form of short reels sprinkled all over our instagram page and even as you tube shorts.
Watch the shorts here:
https://www.youtube.com/@HalluBol
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Admittely, we weren't sure what to expect when we were first shown this by Rahil, but we were pleasantly surprised by a comic that is well written, enjoyable, and an EASY read (and drawn in his signature art style you've seen before in MISFITZ)! Both languages appear seamlessly on the pages, with the WHITE word bubbles in Dakhni, and the BLACK word bubbles in English.
We're SUPER STOKED to be able to be the ones that get to reveal this comic to you, that's already making waves in the convention scene in India! All you have to do is be a backer of HEIRS OF ISILDUR: THE PERILOUS PROSPECTS Books 1-3 and it’ll be digitally yours!
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Lastly, ICYMI: We dropped the EXTENDED TRAILER for HEIRS OF ISILDUR: The Perilous Prospects 1-3 campaign yesterday, and it features a longer sample of the BRAND NEW upcoming HEIRS OF ISILDUR song!
Go to the campaign page HERE and click on the picture at the top and you can HEAR and SEE the updated trailer! Goodbye 15 second teaser. Hello 1:10 second trailer! If any of you have wondered what the story is about, this trailer does a pretty good job of explaining!
That’s all we have for now. We hope you enjoyed this little intro to MARD BANN!
Matt & Steph
#TeamINSYM
www.linktree.com/insymmetrycreations
DON’T FORGET TO VISIT OUR STORE HERE!
