Let's Get Ethnic - Vimanarama!

There are a LOT of stories out there that take Japanese culture and history as influence. But as far as Asian cultures are concerned, Desi tends to get thrown on the wayside despite having a longer storytelling tradition and just-as-rich context to fall upon.

Bollywood has long been regarded as not-quite mainstream enough to hit Hollywood or comic-dom shores in a big way. Slumdog Millionaire, it can be fair to say, was for many people their first encounter with Bollywood as an entertainment vehicle, despite it not being authentically Bollywood. True Bollywood remains a acquired taste what with its overacting, semi-ridiculous plot points and habit of breaking into song and dance that renders something as serious as Othello turned into Hairspray at the drop of a hat.

Grant Morrison and Philip Bond have done something special - they focus on the Indian community of England, itself the home of a rich and unique culture, (it's also the birthplace of an awfully cool musical subgenre called ethno, blending techno, breakbeat and tabla/sitar music) and tales of the delicate balance of modernity vs tradition, brown vs white, Islam vs Hinduism, etc come to the fore. Writers like Hanif Kureishi, musicians like Talvin Singh, and movies like Bend It Like Beckham all come from this not-too-little community.

Blending this modern UK culture with a Jack Kirby-esque story involving cross-dimensional meta-humans, demonic aliens and reincarnation (we think, we're never too sure) and a heavy dosage of humor is Vimanarama. The storyline is simple, a self-absorbed not-too-bright dreamer/loser named Ali is set into a modern battle in the middle of Camden, London between the ancient cosmic demigod protectors of earth and their demonic rivals who want nothing more than wipe humanity's asses from the face of the planet. But in reality, despite all this - all Ali really wants is for his arranged wife to not be too ugly upon seeing her for the first time. And who knew that she's also the reincarnation of the Lord Demigod Protector's Holy Wife? Dammit! Some guys just have no luck.