When Arjun and Bhargav reached the newspaper publishing house they were not very welcoming until Bhargav came up with the excuse of advertising through comic strips and finally was able to meet with the comic strip editor for the news paper.
The editor was surprised someone wanted do advertise in a comic strip. Usually this strip was used to make mockery of present situations making most businesses not wanting to advertise in it. Now someone was coming here asking for the same spot.
He was even more taken aback when the kid accompanying the bigger guy wanted to check out rejected comic strips, He had never seen someone wanting to see rejected versions. As he was hesitating the same kid slipped a couple hundred bills in his hands and gave a knowing smile. What more could he say, He kept them in his pocket and left to get the rejected versions.
He brought out a stack of rejected proposals, put them on the table and started panting. he then informed these were all the submissions for the past month and the ones prior to them were already disposed.
Arjun could only blame the lack of digital world for this but started going through the submissions one by one. Majority of them were very lame comics until he came across one submission. It was nothing exciting just a couple of oranges and a cabbage debating who would be a better party to vote for in the upcoming local elections.
Although the elections were eight months away it seems people were already starting their debates about whom to chose. Arjun meanwhile was captivated by how he drew these in a very cute manner but the six scene comic strip spoke more about the social issues than a whole article in the newspapers.
Arjun had a vague feeling that the guy probably did not spend much time on this piece yet still managed to snatch his impression. When he enquired the editor about details of it's maker he was informed that this was made by Vinod Kumar a English literature student in his last year at the Andhra Loyola College.
This was a heavy weight college and Arjun was unsure if he could recruit this guy or not. He went through rest of the submissions but could not find any more interesting ones except for the one where the maker had a very unique style. The comic gave him the vibes of a mix of Attack on titan and the incredible spiderman art styles, He enquired the details of this guy too and left to try and meet Vinod at the Andhra Loyola College.
The editor meanwhile was confused, he did not understand what the kid liked in the comic strip involving oranges, were they going to advertise about orange juicers in the comic he wondered. Still he was happy he made two hundred rupees for just one hour of his time and was looking forward to the kid's visit again.
Andhra Loyola College was a very reputed College in the surrounding areas next only to Siddhartha college, But while Siddhartha college was more famed for it's science curriculum Loyola was more famed for it's Arts, Several of it's students went on to become famous actors and musicians. Such being the case many of surrounding kids wanted to go here if they wanted a career in films or music. But the college fee made most of them turn the other way.
Vinod Kumar was one of those students who entered the college through scholarship because of his paintings. But he was never truly interested in classical art, He wanted his paintings to be different so he tried doing some comics as he was trying to figure his style out.
He had applied for many newspaper and magazine columns but had yet to receive a single reply and was starting to wonder if this could work out or not. As he was in middle of another one of his painting sessions sitting below a tree in a corner of the vast hundred acre plus campus Vinod noticed a jeep coming towards him.
At the start he was not sure but as they neared he was sure they were here for him. He felt a bit panicked inside and started rewinding his past few days and tried to remember if he had offended someone. Just when Vinod was prepared to run away A kid got down from the jeep and started walking towards him with a huge smile on his face, seeing the kid Vinod dropped everything he was holding and kept staring at the kid.
"Are you Vinod Kumar Anna?"
"sniff...sniff.... So you are not here to beat me up it seems"
"What do you mean Anna? i am here to meat Vinod Kumar"
"Yes"
"So you are Vinod?"
"Yes"
"I am Arjun nice to meet you, did you make this comic?"
"Hello Arjun, you are not from the newspaper are you?"
"How did you know?"
"I smelled it."
"I am looking to open a new studio Anna, I already have a good story plot and am going to invest thirty thousand rupees for the start."
If you don't believe me i can have someone vouch for it said Arjun and was about to call Bhargav down from the jeep.
"No need, isn't he your underling? He'll for sure go ahead with whatever you say"
"How did you know?"
"I smelled it."
Bro do you have something in your nose Arjun wondered.
"No it's pretty clean"
"What?"
"My nose, i'm sure there's nothing in it."
"..."
"Damn does this guy read people's mind?"
"No i can't read your mind"
"You just did" Arjun thought
"I smelled it."
"..."
Dude!! does this guy have some nose fetish? Arjun was starting to feel weirded out by this guy at this point.
"No i just use it more than you do"
Arjun was speechless, "okay tell me how would you believe me Anna" He spoke utterly defeated.
"Tell me your idea first, we can then decide if it's good or not and my future plans"
Arjun went on to explain his idea of Chitra Lekha and some of it's story and character arcs. He gave him the brief introduction he had written earlier and showed the few drawings Kavitha had made of Teju and Agnika. He emphasized how this story was made for kids and mentioned he wanted the comic to come up with similar cute designs for all other monsters.
Vinod took the pages Arjun handed to him and took a long look at them before starting to sniff them out.
"Anna what are you doing?"
"Shhhh.... let me imagine." Vinod said still engrossed in his sniffing.
"..."
It took over fifteen minutes for Vinod to wake up from his Visualization. He loved the idea very much, he had never imagined a world could be set up in such a way, but there were few things that needed fixing he felt.
"This is awesome Arjun, just imagining it gives thrills to me. But why do we need the badges for? instead let's replace them with some items that could be useful for the hero in his final hurdle against the main Sena Veera."
"How would we indicate progression then? wouldn't it be tough for kids to follow?"
"Not necessary, we can just introduce core item counter or something similar. Kids are way more perceptive than what we imagine them to be"
By now Arjun was satisfied by this find. It seemed this guy liked the story too so he started to recruit Varun.
"What do you think Anna, willing to join me?"
"Well how much salary are you offering kiddo, let me remind you i already have a job offer of thousand rupee for a month already." Vinod tried bluffing. He wanted to know how much the kid felt he was worth after all it was Arjun who approached him first.
"How much salary do you want Anna, you can say without hesitation."
"You serious kiddo?" Vinod asked jokingly
"Yes go ahead Anna"
"two thousand rupees a month" Vinod said looking at the kid curiously, he purposefully exaggerated his asking price wanting to test his reaction.
"Done" Arjun replied nonchalantly.
"..."
"What?"
"your salary of two thousand rupees consider it done"
"Okay, i can smell you are sincere, one last thing though why did you come to me?"
"Of course because i felt you're capable Anna"
"You're lying"
"It's because your comic style is very unique and suited for this project Anna."
"You're lying again."
"I couldn't find anybody else"
"Finally the truth,
Okay i will probably need six months to get this done"
"Why so long?"
"Because i have to work alone?"
No Anna let's hire a team, you can take all their help to speed up the process. By the way Anna do you know who made this comic? Arjun said handing him the other strip of rejected comic he had taken from the publishing house.
Vinod took a look and nodded his head, I know who made this.
"You don't need to smell it?"
"I already did."
"When?"
"When you took it out?"
"..."
"So where can we find this guy?"
"I know, let's go" Vinod carried all his stuff got on back of the jeep and looked puzzled at Arjun giving a why are you not getting on stare.