Devmalya Pramanik Talks Art Origins and Moon Knight

Foundational comics I would have to say were probably early Marvel for me. Like 2000s. Siege was specifically a run that was transitional to me, especially because of the Olivier Coipel art. The way it melded together fantasy elements with real ones made a huge mark on me and how I approached art. Another was Hellboy by Mike Mignola. What a sublime master of the form. Batman by Grant Morrison and honestly any of their earlier works were very eye opening to me. Along the same lines, Frank Quitely was a huge building block in my sensibilities. Another big one was James Harren. His BPRD run redefined comic art for me and also everything he did since kind of has been a massive source of inspiration for me !!

I honestly don’t remember. I used to draw comics on the side of me attending engineering college. I was never really dissuaded from drawing comics until I started talking about doing it professionally. My first foray into comics was honestly so long ago I can’t even remember the year. Possibly 2009 or so? But I kept working and kept getting recognized for my work.

The plunge came when I decided after graduating engineering college that I would do comics full time. I already got a job placement with this company called Cognizant. But I just couldn’t stomach the idea of doing a job that didn’t fulfill me in any way. So I made a wager with my family that if I could get a paid job in comics in India, I would not have to take the corporate job. Thus began my first “job” with Graphic India. Mind you, by now I had already worked on titles like Nightbreed with Boom Studios and done Black Mumba with Ram V!

So the history of me taking a plunge is kinda varied, but honestly, it was when I decided I wasn’t going to do comics in the side alongside a corporate job (which is a common sentiment hurled towards youngsters deciding to choose art as a career, often by older, more jaded relatives) but pursue it with all my heart.

You have sourced correctly! I was working on a Savage Wolverine Infinity comic when I got pulled off to do Vengeance of the Moon Knight as a guest artist. #6, I believe it was. It was really fun to draw a part of the story that was affecting so many bigger things in the 616, while also staying tight and intimate, close-knit, and dealing with issues closer to home rather than sweeping event stuff. It’s what I’m better at anyway, I feel. But watching Pepe Larraz rip with the main event and just doing such insane work with the designs and pages was honestly very, very fun!

It’s actually been brilliant. When I came on, I was trying to find my footing and nervous about how much I should let my voice through. But as soon as #8 and definitely by #9 of Vengeance, our chemistry evolved, along with a lot of encouragement and support from Devin (then editor). I was pushing boundaries of panel layouts, playing with it to emphasize story beats, bending and breaking based on what was needed, culminating in the action sequence between MK and Shroud. That led to the pages in #4 of Fist of Khonshu that are still to date some of my most ambitious pages. Couldn’t have happened without Jed fully trusting in my vision and my abilities.

As for the cape, I just kept increasing the size. It’s very much based on what is needed and how cool it makes MK look. Now I worry if I need to shorten it, people might revolt.

Haha, “pushing boundaries” it’s not as glamorous, the process of coming up with a page. It’s funny cause some of the most spoken about pages from Marc Spector, the splashes and most importantly montages, are all last-minute decisions that came out of nowhere. But as for the structure and thematic throughlines of how I work off the script, I have an example here for you that’s not a very popular one.

This is page 12 of Marc Spector #1. As you can see here, Jed’s script and the page vary quite a bit. That’s because I do here on a less flashy level what I do with all pages – sit with the script and try to figure out a through line that portrays the theme of the page, and on a wider level, as I will demonstrate with the next page, connects the narrative. In this page, the theme was repetition and a sense of despair, not for Marc, but for the reader watching Marc. Nothing better than a 9-panel grid with uniform pacing to do a 1-2-3 1-2-3 1-2-3 beat. Like a song you listen to that holds a chord progression too long. It makes you feel uneasy, but not in an exciting way, but in a “why is this so boring” kind of way. The attempt for me was for the reader to watch this sequence and feel uneasy for Marc, feel like they want to watch him break out; they want to break him out. If you look at the subtle details, like the number of mail in the cart reducing, the slight changes in the demeanors of the agents, and the slow zoom in the latter 1-2-3 sequences, to kind of give the feeling that we are zooming in, but there is no more information to be had. It’s just this. This is Marc’s life.

This is page 19 of Marc Spector #1. This page is supposed to mirror page 12, and as such, you can see I didn’t really scribble the ideas for the first two panels, because they are supposed to be identical to the first two panels from page 12. However, the reason I set up the symmetrical 9-panel grid on page 12 was so I could use that dull, dour rhythm and contrast it by shaking the panel placement and the sizes of the panels. When you read a comic book page, at least when I do, I often take a big glance at the page, before starting again from the left. Kind of like looking at your meal, before starting to eat from a specific part of the plate. so to crystallize my philosophy, I like to utilize that initial view people have of the page when they turn it over to my advantage. When you look at this page, you immediately see that its panels are a little bit more off base than what we have seen panels with Marc in them so far, almost reminiscent of page 4(attached at the end). Subconsciously telling you something is not right if you’re paying attention. And as you start reading the page, you can see it’s the same sequence that starts on page 12, but it doesn’t have the same rhythm. And as you keep reading, you get to the part where there is a glitch in the matrix, something has been upended, and that’s when the final panel and the next page drive home what has happened.

Long story short- a lot of my approach is not to follow the script to the letter, but to interpret it farther than the descriptions and trying to convey what emotion and theme its trying to put forward. Trying to aid in the quest distillation of the page’s philosophy. And of course, when I want to make changes to the script, I run it by Jed to make sure it aligns with his vision. Comics is a team effort, we are only as strong as our communication and joint vision!

Glad you liked them! Well, right now, because of the back-to-back issues, it’s been a little hard to find time. Mostly on breaks during workdays, I spend time with my partner, watching shows, playing games, tending to the house, and playing with our three cats! And usually on my free time, I like to play and experiment with video game genres and trying out new traditional techniques. With family, I enjoy going on day trips to small towns and just venturing out and exploring with my partner 🙂

That’s a good question. My thoughts. I have a lot of those on digital vs traditional. I’m almost fully digital at this point, but I cannot deny the beauty of traditional. I love the experimentation of drawing on tangible materials. It’s a big part of my digital art. Every tool I use is something that can be replicated in traditional media. I try not to use tools that I cannot recreate traditionally. But yeah, sadly, all I have is love for both!

I would say, try and be honest with yourself about what you want out of this line of work, and if you’re clear on the answer, you will get to your style, work ethic and possibly what you want out of it, whatever that is. Provided you don’t abandon it completely, that is.

Haha sadly, we are in a place where we are coming up with wild ideas every second, so honestly I couldn’t even if I tried!