“What Happens When You Look for Too Long Into the Abyss of Insatiable Hunger?” — Q&A with HUNGER Writer Nihaarika Negi

Set at a concentration camp in 1896 Bombay, the new graphic novel Hunger follows a young girl who embraces her own monstrous mutations to survive during a time of unimaginable colonial horrors. Ahead of its October 28th release from The Lab Press, Daily Dead caught up with writer Nihaarika Negi to discuss teaming up with artist Joe Bocardo and exploring the real-life traumas of India's past in her powerful new graphic novel.

Below, you can read our full Q&A with Nihaarika Negi, and we also have a look at the cover art and preview pages from Hunger. To learn more about the graphic novel, visit:

• https://www.thelabpress.com/pages/hunger

Can you talk about what inspired you to write the story of Hunger and what were some of your influences when developing it?

Nihaarika Negi: Yes, of course. Hunger came to me back in 2021, when a devastating second wave of lockdowns and covid happened in India, creating with it its own kind of famine. And the manner in which this was covered by the international and some of the local media—with its focus on sensationalizing the spectacle of brown death without much care for those that had passed—really called back to the portrayal of tragedies in non-Western countries from colonial times. There was something about the pleasure that was being derived from the production and consumption of this kind of coverage—that was quite ghoulish.

And I began to wonder about the roots of this kind of hunger—not just for the colonizing culture but also for the colonized. For given India’s history of over 200 years of British occupation and slavery, and how we as a country have never quite come to terms with how this heritage still shapes our mindsets, we remain fundamentally fused with our oppressor. Caught in a bond of love that’s forged in trauma. And I was interested in exploring this dance.

So I looked back into history to another time in the British era when a manmade famine and a pandemic coincided, which is 1896 in Mumbai during the plague, where the book is set. And after a lot of ‘creative’ historical research, I found that this was a time when the British had set up these sort of famine camps, where the survivors would be made to do hard labour in exchange for bread. It was also a time when Haffikine developed the anti-plague vaccine by testing on Indians. And when Willoughby Wallace Hooper popularized ‘famine photography’—where he would make highly staged tableaus of famine survivors, just moments before their death.

All of this was eerily similar to how covid lockdowns affected migrant workers in India, how the subsequent vaccine testing was done in the country on socially vulnerable individuals and how the carnage that came after was being visually documented and reported. It allowed me to make sense of the monsters of our past and how they continue to affect our present. With Hunger, I wanted to bring these seemingly disparate ideas together to explore what it means for us, as a people, to look back and embrace our inner and outer monsters, as a way of coming to terms with what happened to us so we can break the cycle. I was inspired of course by history itself—a lot of archival photos of that time, by larger philosophies of Hinduism and Buddhism on the nature of death and transcendence, Butoh dance, Indian folklore of vampires and ghouls, my own subconscious and dreams, and by Junjito Ito’s manga Spiral Into Horror.

You're an artist, writer, and creator that works across mediums to tell your stories. What made the graphic novel format perfect for Hunger?

Nihaarika Negi: Yeah, as an interdisciplinary artist that works a lot with live forms like film or performance, you are always beholden to the limitations of a budget and how well something can be executed in the available resources. So you are always reiterating your vision to an evolving context, and there is a special beauty in that, but with the graphic novel format, I found that you could really be unbridled with your imagination, especially when collaborating with an artist as special as Joe. And that gave me the freedom to think about the ‘unthinkable’ in creating the visual landscape of Hunger.

And since performance is so central to my practice and to that ‘act of making a photograph’ that is key to the story, a question I set for myself was: how could I bring that sense of ‘liveness’ to this format and what could that be, now that there was no need to be ‘practical.’ So a lot of the language of the body-based horror which involves the transmogrification of the characters into different kinds of non-human creatures or entities developed from that. And in a way the graphic novel format allowed me to find the most unmoored way of telling this story, and I’m grateful for that.

I was really impressed by how Hunger had such a strong, distinct visual style. Can you talk about your collaboration with Joe Bocardo to develop this world and its characters?

Nihaarika Negi: Definitely. Joe is one-of-kind in the way that he can take the material, really listen to what it is trying to communicate on a core level, and then make it his own through his highly nuanced perspective and artistry. The book then becomes our collective vision, and for me that is the most special part of the process. That you make an offering and someone brings their whole self to giving it life. And that is everything one can ask for in a collaboration.

In terms of how we worked: on a script-level, I tried to be as precise and detailed in my description of the visual imagery and the language. And this language changes and transforms over the course of the book, so I created a sort of beat sheet that through reference images showed how the visual and color language of the book would evolve. In addition to that, I created a bank of images—historical, artistic, stylistic—that I had referred to while writing; and made a detailed note on characters, their appearance and evolution, in addition to a note on historical context. Plus, I mentioned all the things that the book is not.

Joe read all of this and came back with some very insightful questions about understanding my intentions. And after that, we were flying. Joe first sent across some character and world sketches, and they were exceptional and then our process really was that he would send pencils and inks on pages. I would respond with any thoughts, we’d make adjustments as needed, and then move on. But these thoughts were minimal because Joe’s artwork was breathtaking and visceral from the get-go. And I don’t think this version of the book would have been possible without him.

What can you tell our readers about Izna and why it so important for you to tell this character's story?

Nihaarika Negi: From 1765 to 1947, India experienced 31 manmade famines under the British rule. Each famine cost about 1–11 million lives. The famines in part were caused by draconian tax laws that left Indian farmers destitute, landless and hungry. Many perished along the way as they traveled from their villages to the cities in search for work and food, creating the migrant labour class.

And Izna is a young girl who comes from such a place. She loses her entire family to the famine and the camps. When medical experimentation turns her into a wolf-like mutant made to assimilate to the British ways, it unleashes within her an ancient rage that her life of submission had somehow erased. And this story is about her, reclaiming that connection with her lost self.

In that way, Izna’s story is the story of anyone who has been trained to deny their own truth for the sake of a dominant one. And the truth of who we are and what parts of ourselves or our histories we are denying is almost always uncomfortable and beastly. With this story, through the lens of horror, I want to make space for characters who are willing to risk the transformation that such an acceptance might create. Given where we are in the world right now, I think telling stories that ask us to look inwards and accept our own shadows are essential.

You've teamed up with The Lab Press for Hunger. Can you talk about your experience with them as a publisher and collaborator?

Nihaarika Negi: Yes. It really is a dream partnership. Dagen Walker, who is the editor-in-chief and my professor from the Stark Program at USC, is the one who encouraged me to explore this medium. And he, along with Diane Richey (VP Business Development), gave me the freedom to imagine without guardrails. I think Dagen’s exact words were, "Write something as wild and unhinged as you can possibly imagine." So I just went from there. And their support throughout the process has been unconditional. For me, in a way everyone at The Lab Press is an artist, so they are exceptionally attuned to understanding what you need to bring the best version of a vision to life, and they along with you become the guardians of protecting and cultivating that vision. Without which nothing is possible. And it’s very rare to find such a nourishing partnership in the creative world, and they are also just very cool people to spend time with, so I am grateful and excited about the journey ahead.

Can you tease the horrors that await our readers in Hunger?

Nihaarika Negi: The horrors in Hunger are the horrors of unsanctioned desires between the oppressed and the oppressor. In it, the British officials and the famine survivors that they transform into mutants—both long to be merged with each other. The borders of their class, race, position prevent them from acting upon these desires. And the book explores what happens, when they suddenly have permission to act on this. What happens when you look for too long into the abyss of insatiable hunger? Does it become you?

What other projects do you have in the works that you can share with our readers?

Nihaarika Negi: Quite a few. Thank you for asking. In terms of horror, I am currently in the financing stages of a feature film called Feral that is thematically similar to Hunger. It’s a Sundance+WIF and Film Independent supported-project about two maidservants who take over the home of their sadomasochist British Madame in 1950s India.

I’ve just finished a short-film called Tenfa, which was grant funded by The Storiculture Company and ONI (India), and is about cultural erasure and climate change in my hometown in the indigenous region of Kinnaur (Himalayas). And I am in post-production for my first feature, Birds of a Feather, an absurdist film about grief, dysfunctional families, and intergenerational trauma.

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In 1896 Bombay, under British rule, a concentration camp holds IZNA, a plague-infected and famine-stricken being. Mutated through medical experiments, she, along with others, becomes a mutant. British officers invite famine photographer William Wallace Hooper to document the mutants, unaware he's controlled by a shape-shifting vampire called Pisach. The Pisach infects prey with insatiable hunger, while Hooper bonds with Izna amidst rulers' games with famine slaves.

Unbeknownst, Izna descends from women embracing monsters. Discovering Hooper's role in her mother's death, she wishes to become a monster herself. Transformed into a half-human, half-mutant, half-beast, she embraces her hunger, consuming oppressors and drenching her land in blood. This infinite hunger mirrors trauma's generational and cultural impact, forging an inseparable link between oppressed and oppressor. The graphic novel blends True Blood, Kill Bill, and Spiral Into Horror, delving into hunger's exploration of trauma's pervasive influence.

WRITERS
Nihaarika Negi

INTERIOR ARTISTS
Joe Bocardo | José Villarrubia (colors)

COVER ARTISTS
Bill Sienkiewicz | WOLFSKULLJACK

ADDITIONAL DETAILS
Hardcover | Slipcase | 152 Pages | PG13

EDITIONS
Hunger: Sienkiewicz Premiere Edition

Hunger: WOLFSKULLJACK Limited Edition