Sitting in a second-floor, two-room office in a quite neighbourhood in Banashankari, Shreyas Srinivas and Suhas Sundar are directing ongoing work on a new comic magazine set to hit the stands soon. The duo, who haven’t studied art or practiced it professionally earlier, are fascinated by graphic art — between them, they own around 400 graphic novels — and this shows in the trajectory their careers have taken.

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After graduating from BMS Engineering College in Bangalore in 2005, Srinivas and Sundar went their separate ways. While Srinivas opted for an MBA and went on to work in the FMCG sector, Sundar went abroad and started working with a US-based company. While in college, they had bonded over their love of comics and when they met again, a shared entrepreneurial instinct kicked in and they decided to start a comic book venture themselves, calling it Level 10 Comics.

Instead of bringing out multiple individual comics, the duo decided to go for an anthology format — a compilation of different comics, of which the themes may be totally unrelated. “As a format, anthology magazines are popular in countries like Japan and Belgium. This format ensures readers get a lot of diversity in a single magazine,” Sundar says. Called Jump, the magazine will feature three separate storylines told in a five-part series. The comic-mad duo has put together a small team of writers and artists who are working to get the inaugural issue on the stands soon.

Level 10 comics will be releasing its first magazine nationally by the end of this month. The 84-page anthology will carry three comics, each with very distinct art styles and storylines. While Northern Song is a mythological adventure, Shaurya is based in Mumbai. Bangaloreans, though, should especially look forward to the last comic in this collection — called The Rabhas Incident, it is set in an alternate-reality Bangalore where the city has been cordoned off by the government after an epidemic that has turned residents into zombies. While The Rabhas Incident may sound very Resident Evil/I Am Legend, according to Sundar, who has scripted the story, it’s different in terms of outlook. “We won’t be concentrating on killing the zombies through the comic; we wanted to concentrate more on the people around. The normal people we meet in the city — they are the focus of the story.

There’s a traffic constable, a father who runs an orphanage — it’s on how their lives are affected by the outbreak,” Suhas says.All the stories in the magazine will continue in the next issue for a season of five issues; going by the kind of feedback they get, the company will decide on future storylines. “We’re not saying our comics are just for teens or just for the grown-ups, there is something for everyone,” says Sundar.

The company has a small team of five artists and writers in Bangalore and the rest are based out of various cities in India, which means a large chunk of work is done online with actual artwork also couriered across cities. Sundar bemoans the lack of quality script-writers and artists in India for comics. “The problem is there is a dearth of talented writers. We got a lot of proposals from people who wanted to do something based on the Ramayana or the Mahabharatha, which have been done to death. But after an intensive search, we did get some very interesting scripts. As far as artists are concerned, we found them through forums such as comixindia.com,” says Sundar.

Apart from the money from sales, Level 10 is looking to earn some revenue from ads as well, which, like the rest of the magazine, will have a comic touch to them. “Regarding the feasibility of such a magazine, we’ll get to know after a season, but we’re hopeful that it’ll be profitable,” says Srinivas.

The company has tied up with India Book House for the distribution of the magazine and plans to price it at Rs60.Check out their Facebook page (facebook.com/level10comics) for a sample.