Vol 1 Issue 1 | April-June 2021
The Razor and the Scalpel
Story by Sheela Jaywant | Art by Haasini Casukhela
We had already got a fix on the story break-up for the first issue when Sheela Jaywant sent us her writing samples to consider. One of the pieces she sent was “Kace to Case”, a poem that she had written for RHiME, an unusual online journal that promotes ‘Medical / Health Humanities’, looking at medical and public health matters through the lens of art and social sciences.
With our first reading of the poem, we were captivated. Not only did it fit flawlessly into the theme we had identified for the first issue – ‘Machines and Masters’ – it also delved into matters of equality and social justice, concepts that we had decided were going to be important for Comixense magazine.
We asked Sheela if she would be willing to convert the poem into an essay, and gave her a rather tight word count. The consummate professional, she came up with the perfect text.
We paired the experienced Sheela with the young Haasini Casukhela, and the latter created the page border with elan.
In every issue of the magazine, apart from the more conventional comics – panels with images and blurbs – we intend to have a piece that will make the text the hero, and the visual to bring the text page to life.
Presumably, if you are here, you will have read The Razor and the Scalpel in the magazine. Here is the poem that birthed it:
