Anand Radhakrishnan, known as Anand RK, was already a name to reckon with before the honour of 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Illustrated Reporting and Commentary: conjurer of jazz-haunted nightmares, and a draftsman who can switch from the rain-slicked gullies of Mumbai to the outer reaches of a post-apocalyptic radio station without ever losing his grip on the emotional weather inside a panel, he was the first Indian to win an Eisner Award in 2021.
The Pulitzer Prize for Illustrated Reporting and Commentary was instituted only in 2022 to accommodate long-form visual reportage. But it has already built a distinctive record: it has honoured graphic investigations into state oppression, data visualisation that maps billionaire wealth, visual essays on incarceration, and editorial cartoons so fearless they cost a veteran her job.
That Anand, working from a home studio in Mumbai, sits comfortably in such company says much about the breadth of the career he has built. It also speaks to the steady, under-documented arrival of a generation of Indian artists in the bloodstream of American comics.
The comics writer Ram V saw Anand’s early work online in 2015 and reached out. The partnership that followed has been compared by Anand to musical improv. “Having been one of Anand’s earliest collaborators, what was apparent even then was the honesty and authenticity of voice that is ever present in his work,” said Ram. “In an age of pop culture-driven ubiquity, Anand’s narrative art continues to have an earnestness in its way of looking at and representing the world, its people and their truths.”
Continue reading Arunava Banerjee's (@haroonava ) piece on Scroll.in (Link in BIO/IG Stories)
#digitalarrest #cybercrime #cyberfraud #pulitzerprize #investigativejournalism #graphicstorytelling #anandrk
I wrote for @scroll_in about how @an_anandrk won the Pulitzer. Read to know how his comic on digital arrests, based on @suparnasharma123 and @natalieobiko 's painstaking reporting alongside a cracking Editorial team from @Bloomberg , pulled it off.
An entire bonus section on his work so far and what it means for Indian comics, for those who make it.
With inputs from @ramvwrites and @adityabidikar . Link in bio.
hbd to my first roommate, first snitch in my life, my eternal irritatant, ever reliable servant, biryani finisher, grilled chicken devourer, creatine paglu, pool aficionado , financial consultant, most unserious person in my life who has terrible taste in shades but somehow taught me how to wear suits and who I would do anything for on most days despite everything else etc.
Presented without any comment other than the fact that such bankruptcy of the public sphere is what has brought us here, regardless of what happens on May the 4th.
Credit: Joy Baba Rudranath (dir. Anjan Dutt, 2005)
For the love of comics, and many things beside. My gratitude to all who turned up.
Also thankful to Sudhanva Deshpande and his team for hosting us so wonderfully. Really look forward to the launch of Imposter, Sudhanva's detailed volume on Orijit's life and work, forthcoming from @leftwordbooks . @studiosafdar
<Sunday, 15 March, 6 pm> We’re excited to host artist, activist, and muralist Orijit Sen at May Day Bookstore.
Join us at 6 pm at Studio Safdar, Shadipur, for a conversation between Orijit Sen and writer-editor Arunava Banerjee about his work and forthcoming book.
Spread the word—come one, come all!
(Comics, activism, mural, graphics novel, MayDay Bookstore, Studio Safdar)
#mayday #comicart #graphicnovels #orijitsen
