Unbound is a new UK based trade publishing house that operates on a Kickstarter-like crowdfunding model which I’m beginning to hear more and more about from a few creators such as Ram V, author of last year’s Indian based crime-noir graphic Novel Black Mumba. He has chosen this site to raise the funds for Grafity’s Wall, a coming-of-age GN set against the South Asian continent’s own city that never sleeps, Mumbai. 

Indeed, it is Grafity’s Wall that will be the first Unbound campaign and publication, after a meet-up with Unbound last November at Thought Bubble.

Here’s how Ram sums the story up:

4 Teenagers in Mumbai start hanging out at a solitary wall left standing after the razing of a slum. One of them, an aspiring street artist who calls himself Grafity, begins to paint on the wall a mural that will become the picture of their lives. Stories of love, crime, ambition, life and death told through vignettes of these teens on Mumbai streets where life is cheap and all dreams come at a price. Set in the context of Mumbai’s nouveau street-culture – Hinglish hip-hop, designer drugs, casual violence and street-art.

The artwork, by Anand ‘RK’ Radhakrishnan – and in colour this time round (but then who needs colour in crime-noir anyway?), courtesy of Irma Kniivila – looks amazing, as you can see from the preview pages we’ve been given to show you, readers. The colours sing from even these few pages and I’ve always been a sucker for shared universes, such as the View Askew shared universe of Kevin Smith, who is no stranger to dealing with such slice-of-life issue, albeit in a humorous way. It seems Ram is doing the same thing here, buy focussing on the teens of Mumbai rather than the police this time. Although, I do hope there’s the odd cameo or two.

I suppose I’ll find out only one way, by pledging. Which range from the very affordable (a tenner will get you a digital copy) to the higher-end (for £250 you could be the proud owner of an original page of the art, along with other goodies, of course).

Hey, why not take a look for yourselves right here.