AFTER THE STORM | Short Graphic adaptation

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"AFTER THE STORM" is a short story by Attia Hosian. It is one of her lesser known shorts, and a part of her collection of stories called "Phoenix Fled"

Our brief was to adapt this story into a 8-page graphic narrative.

STORY PLOT SUMMARY:

After the Storm is a short about the narrator and her interactions with Bibi, a young servant at her new house. In about four pages, the author presents the story of the little girl, of about ten years, who has apparently lost her mother, uncle and aunt in the genocidal violence of the Partition. Through their conversations, we find out about Bibi's journey and personality, as well as the unspoken narrative of her lost childhood.

PROCESS:

This short story was full of sentences which seem straightforward but read like metaphors, with the invitation to delve in and read between the lines. The major part of it was the choices which were to be made- which parts of the story to adapt? From who's perspective should the story be? What all was said, and what was left unsaid? And the things left unsaid, how could we show them?

I chose to focus more on the characters themselves, and their interactions.

For the settings, I leaned back into the memories of our old childhood home in Delhi. This, with the addition of the time period context of the short story, is represented in the way the house is shown, and little things like a faded Roohafza bottle, the types of flowers shown in the comic, their clothing etc.

I have also leaned heavily on depictions of visual metaphor and deriving new meanings from simple text by attaching a visual to it. Each flower, composition, and panel was specifically added. One of my favourite examples of this is the elevation of the simple line "you can put it twice around your neck!" with a single contrasting visual.

I chose to render it in simple black and white to elevate the narrative and draw attention to these specifics through the stark contrast.