Yagyaa The Demon Goddess, there is something about this first issue of Yagyaa The Demon Goddess… maybe it is a homage to one of India’s most famous comics company, Raj Comics or several Indian comics company’s, many of which I am just not aware of. I have neither read Raj Comics nor am I well-versed with many of their characters, but from the way the characters are described in this issue, it looks like at least one of them Vishraj pays homage to Nagraj.
Or, I am just getting carried away and it has nothing to do with any of those publishers. That said, this issue is a great start to a new series. Be warned, there may be some spoilers ahead. If you haven’t read it yet, stop right here and now. I am reviewing the English language version of this comic book which has been translated from Hindi to English by my new, favorite writer Ashwin Kalmane.
Pragya Parashar is the daughter of Prashanth Parashar who was the best comics writer of India in the 90’s. After he passed away in an accident, Pragya took over the duties of not only writing comics, but also drawing them and continuing her father’s legacy. And, her dreams appear in the form of comics panels. She is a passionate young woman who wants Indians to read Indian Comics and that is a very nice touch to this issue.
But I didn’t like some of the panels where you are showing Marvel and DC characters, that’s so dumb especially when you are portraying Pragya as being passionate about Indian Comics and characters… sigh! She wants to make Indian Comics great again, just like her father. So, the story moves from her current publisher closing shop and some rich guy wanting to get into comics hires her and makes her head of a new comics publishing company. All the time, there is a back story of magic and demons taking shape and the last few panels are a look into the future of Yagyaa The Demon Goddess series.
Yagyaa The Demon Goddess comic writing is great and flows through smoothly to the very end of this issue. The artwork by Sushant is fresh and Zoheb’s panels are absolutely kick ass. I love the way the characters Pragya’s father created are shown in some panels as talking with her. That artwork is just wonderful… felt like I was reading Indrajal Comics there or maybe just my imagination going wild. The coloring looked a bit off to me and am unable to pinpoint what ticked me off, yet! The lettering is well done.
Yagyaa The Demon Goddess comic cover art of both the English version (Emilio Utrera) and the Hindi version (Zoheb Momin) is just fantastic. I like Zoheb’s version better because like I said above his art triggered some old memories and I am glad I picked up both the covers.