Introducing a Lankan legend to comic book readers
Already established in the local comic scene, Sachi Ediriweera, is a jack of all trades.
From working as a designer, writer, comic book artist, and even as a writer, producer and director of short films ‘A Small Miracle’, ‘Wildings Within’ ‘HTM’ and ‘Garden of Bones’ his portfolio is vast and diverse.
Sachi Ediriweera. Pic courtesy Filmbox
Sachi having tried his hand at digital illustration was always a comic book fan at heart. “Visual storytelling and illustration was something I was passionate about, so making a comic felt natural,” he says. “Lionborn” – Sachi’s first experience into the comic book world was written and illustrated by Sachi himself with the help of American colourist Chris Lissman.
Sachi’s comic book “Lionborn” is a fictionalized re-telling of the Sri Lankan legend of Sinhabahu.
“Sri Lankan historical stories have always been fascinating to me,” he says adding that what captivated him was the battles, adventures, characters in the background to the story in the historical elements which led to his Eureka moment in writing the comic. “During development, I was looking for a story that was familiar to Sri Lankan audiences and at the same time gave me liberty to do my own take on it.”
Although Lionborn may not be the first local comic published (many Sinhala comics whether strips or books have made their rounds through local bookshops/ magazines/ or newspapers) however it does have the honour of being possibly the first recorded graphic novel by a Sri Lankan artist/writer to be launched at the Lanka Comic Con.
Having started work on the book in 2014, Sachi’s seven chapter book was first released as a self published comic with an initial 120 copies. Sachi’s astonishment at the general feedback of the success of his first comic was unexpected.
Many fans reached out to Sachi expressing their delight to see a local comi reach intentional standards.
Although Sachi’s initial plan was to publish “Lionborn” as a seven issue mini-series, each issue being a single chapter to be released monthly, based on general feedback he decided to self publish the entire comic series as a single book.
Sachi acknowledges the support for his work from the Geek community. “The GCSL’s support for Lionborn has been truly tremendous. From a dedicated panel for the “Lionborn” launch last year and all the way to blog posts promoting the project- it’s been great and I have to thank the GCSL team for that.”
The “Lionborn”story follows protagonists Sheerdas and Sivali (based on the original Sinhabahu and Sinhasivali story line). In order to prove the innocence of his sister Sheerdas returns after a long absence, lighting the spark for an exciting epic story.
Readers can eagerly anticipate the climax of the story when Sheerdas (Sinhabahu) comes face to face with his father in battle.
Sachi describes his work as a very grounded take on the Sinhabahu legend. The story features supernatural elements, however his ultimate goal was “to explore realistic character dynamics in an otherwise male-hero driven historical story.”
With many avid comic book readers and collectors now looking for relatable themes and stories that include a diverse representation of characters and issues, Sachi replies, “Personally, I believe that a creative work should only be diverse if it makes sense to the narrative and themes of the story in the first place.
Not to ignore Sachi’s ability to feature Sinhasivali in his narrative, the general response toward the female protagonist, according to Sachi, was well received. “Her presence made sense to the narrative,” adding “we have two siblings who grew up close to each other. Ignoring her would have been completely wrong,” he says. Sinhasivali (otherwise known as Sivali in “Lionborn”) has a rich back story making her character quite complex and adds depth to Sachi’s story line.
Sachi’s advice to aspiring creators is pretty simple – work hard and never give up. Stemming from his professional experiences Sachi shares “Work on that idea you have, bring it to life and most importantly, see it through and finish it.”
He believes creators should not get too attached to their art (especially if they foresee it’s dead end) “Learn to know what’s working and what’s not and to completely start over is what’s needed,” ultimately adding “One good finished product is always better than dozens of great unfinished ones”
Read next week’s issue of the Mirror Magazine as we delve into“Extra Ordinary” the first trilingual comic to be published in English, Sinhala and Tamil).
Illustrations courtesy Sachi Ediriweera
