SAILESH GOPALAN
Pointing out the hypocrisies and idiosyncrasies in Indian society, this artist decided to pursue illustration and animation right after hig school. Calling Eiichiro Oda, author and artist of the Japanese manga One Piece, his “biggest comic inspiration”, Sailesh Gopalan, 23, says that making webcomics was a “product of trying out various forms of illustrations and storytelling”. Speaking about the name for his comic illustrations, Sailesh says, “Brown is a colour, we Indians associate with, and the paper-bag-over-the-head trope in cartoons resonated well with the theme I was going for, which led to the name Brown Paperbag.” But when asked about how lucrative the field is, Sailesh says there is “no such thing as a salary for independent comic artists”. He adds, “Especially not for webcomic artists. The aim on social media and the internet is to gather a large audience by providing free-to-read content, and then directing their attention to merchandise or prints or books for sales.”