Review by Frank Plowright
Black Mumba is named after one of India’s deadly snakes and has a dark start of Mumbai police officer Dev about to commit suicide, depressed by the atrocities he hears on his car radio. He’s stopped by hearing a crash, and comes across a dog that’s been hit by a car. Things become no more comforting over the remainder of these dark interludes set in a massively overpopulated city where the rats outnumber the people, and gangs of monkeys will attack the small and isolated. With each new tale Dev discovers the previous low-set bar for atrocity can be dropped further downwards.
Dev’s investigations are gruesome, crime-tinged horror in which the city is a secondary character, reinforced by the use of striking black and white photographs separating the chapters, any people deliberately obscured. There’s no doubt we’re not seeing Des Moines or Taunton.
The three artists have very different styles, but because Ram V’s stories feature no continuity beyond the presence of Dev and Mumbai, that’s not an issue. Devmalya Pramanik supplies the sample art by virtue of having drawn the most pages. His is a style not unlike Guy Davis, where cartooning and naturalism meet in the middle, and his portraits of Dev are the most distinguished. He’s a developing artist, his style refining between the opening story and the closer. Claustrophobic urban decay is Rosh’s speciality, his figures not as accomplished, and events shown from dizzying angles. Kishore Mohan is a cartoonist, which is just as well considering his story is the most gruesome offered.
A history of Mumbai is cleverly slipped into the final story as Dev crosses paths with the supernatural. It closes an ambitious career début, easily explaining V’s rapid ascension up the creator’s league, his writing combining detail, atmosphere and observation, yet remaining unobtrusive, guiding, not bellowing.
Copies of Black Mumba aren’t available through mainstream websites, but as of writing can still be had from eyeforlondonprints. Order from them and your copy may come with a nice bonus sketch.
