Ever thought of news stories as a graphic novel? If you follow Newslaundry’s comicles like Kashmir Ki Kahani or Naxalbari (humble suggestion), then you know what we’re talking about. A recent addition to this genre of storytelling is First Hand, an anthology of stories told using photographs and illustrations.

A combined effort of editors Orijit Sen and Vidyun Sabhaney, the volume comprises 22 stories spanning memoirs, reportage and even fantasy. The informative One Step Forward, Two Steps Back by Dhwani Shah is about mining in Goa. Madhuja Mukherjee’s Whispers of Wildcat is a history lesson on silent era actress Ruby Myers. In Akhtari, Gitanjali Rao draws Begum Akhtar’s life in shadowy greys. Thanks to Sen, there’s a superheroic twist in Neha Dixit’s heartbreaking tale on girl trafficking, The Girl Not From Madras.

Launched in May, the volume exceeded the expectations of Sen, Sabhaney and publishers Yoda Press, selling out within days of its launch. The project is crowd-funded, which makes re-printing complicated. “We will be printing in batches,” said Arpita Das, publisher at Yoda Press. “Crowdfunding is important as we need to pay some honorarium to the contributors too.” After the first run, 500 copies have been printed and the book is back on sale.

Meet the people who made the anthology possible.