From film and performance to graphic novels, Negi's debut Hunger earns a Zelda Awards nomination — and signals a new voice in horror comics.

A nomination at the inaugural Zelda Awards is drawing fresh attention to filmmaker, interdisciplinary artist, and now author Nihaarika Negi, whose first graphic novel Hunger is emerging as one of the more distinctive horror works in contemporary comics. 

A Career Built Across Borders and Mediums

Negi’s creative career has unfolded across several artistic worlds. An Indian artist whose work moves between film, immersive theater, live performance, and now graphic novels, she has built a body of work shaped by curiosity and experimentation. 

Over the past decade her projects have gained international recognition. Negi was selected as a Berlinale Talent in 2021, and her work has received support from organizations including the Sundance Institute, the Venice Biennale, and the UK Arts Council. Cultural institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art have also highlighted her work. 

Across these platforms she has developed a creative practice that blends mythology, historical memory, and genre storytelling. Themes of transformation, survival, and folklore frequently appear throughout her work.

Founded by Karla “Moon the Storyteller” Medrano, creator of Blaq Girl Comics, the Zelda Awards were established to recognize women creators shaping the comics landscape. Named in honor of pioneering cartoonist Zelda “Jackie” Ormes, the awards celebrate artists expanding the cultural and creative boundaries of the medium.

Within that context, Negi’s nomination highlights a creator whose path into graphic storytelling reflects a much broader artistic practice.

A Practice That Moves Across Borders

At the center of Negi’s work is a willingness to move between artistic traditions and forms of storytelling.

Her projects span film, theater, immersive performance, and visual narrative, often exploring the intersection of mythology, history, and genre. While her career has unfolded internationally across India, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the deeper connection between her projects lies in their philosophical approach.

Negi’s creative process often begins in uncertainty, a state she has described as “not knowing.” From that point, stories emerge through experimentation and collaboration.

Her background in psychophysical acting and embodied performance practices shapes how she approaches storytelling and character.

“My process often begins in a place of not knowing. I try to stay with the feeling or the state of mind of the character, and if you remain inside that space long enough, images start to emerge and the story begins to reveal itself.” 

Across mediums, Negi’s work repeatedly returns to questions of transformation. Her stories examine how individuals and communities confront historical trauma and how myth or horror can serve as a language for expressing it.

Entering the Graphic Novel Medium with Hunger

Those themes take a new form in Hunger, Negi’s first graphic novel.

1896 Bombay: History as the Setting for Horror

Set in 1896 Bombay under British colonial rule, the story unfolds during a period marked by famine, plague, and political upheaval. At its center is Izna, a young girl whose transformation becomes both survival and rebellion.

The transformation draws from the mythology of the Pisach, a supernatural entity from South Asian folklore associated with hunger and spiritual corruption. In Negi’s interpretation, the mythology becomes both horror and metaphor, reflecting the violent historical forces surrounding the story’s characters.

"Even though it's a genre, it's really prescient for our time, because we've become so divested from nature in the highly modernized ways of civilization that we've  cut off this connection to myths and storytelling that was quite integral to us as a species.

The idea of myths and monsters in stories can speak about things that are impossible to understand without the metaphor. Horror allows you to go back into these things that are very ancient and fundamental to us as people, " said Negi.

Blending historical fiction, supernatural horror, folklore, and dark fantasy, the book channels real historical trauma through genre storytelling.

Artist Joe Bacardo brings the world of Hunger to life visually. His artwork allows the narrative’s mythology and emotional intensity to unfold through atmosphere, symbolism, and transformation.

The book was published as a premium hardcover edition by The Lab Press, whose graphic novels emphasize visual storytelling and carefully crafted physical editions. In the case of Hunger, the format reinforces the scale and atmosphere of the story while allowing Bacardo’s artwork to fully breathe on the page.

“From the moment Nihaarika shared Hunger with us, I knew we had something rare on our hands. This wasn't a story that could be told any other way — the silence between panels, the weight a single image can carry, the mythology living inside the history.

Her understanding of horror as something that doesn't just frighten but reveals stayed with me. Everything about how we published it — the format, the hardcover — came from wanting to do justice to that.” said Diane Richey, President and Co-Founder of The Lab Press.

For audiences familiar with Negi’s work in film and performance, Hunger feels like a natural expansion of her storytelling voice.

The Zelda Awards and a Changing Comics Landscape

The Zelda Awards reflect a growing shift within the comics world.

Created by Karla "Moon the Storyteller" Medrano — wife, mother, nurse, and founder of Blaq Girl Comics — the awards grew from a long-held vision to celebrate women who are shaping comic book culture from every angle: the page, the panel, the mic, and beyond. In her own words, the awards are "a tribute to every woman who's ever dared to imagine, draw, write, edit, publish, or speak out in this space."

Named for Zelda "Jackie" Ormes, the first Black woman cartoonist to have a nationally syndicated comic strip in the United States, the awards carry forward the spirit of a pioneer who succeeded when the world wasn't ready for her.

By highlighting creators whose work spans different cultural traditions and genres, the awards reflect how the modern comics landscape has become increasingly global and interdisciplinary.

Negi's nomination for Hunger sits within that evolution — demonstrating how horror and mythological storytelling can engage histories and cultural traditions that have rarely appeared in Western-centered genre narratives. 

A Vision That Defies Category

What emerges across Negi's body of work is a creative vision that resists easy categorization — one that moves fluidly between mediums, cultures, and centuries without losing its center. She is, at her core, a storyteller drawn to the places where history, myth, and transformation converge. Whatever form her work takes next, that instinct is unlikely to change.