Anand Rk

He was reported as the first Indian to receive an Eisner Award. In 2026, he shared the Pulitzer Prize for Illustrated Reporting and Commentary with journalists Suparna Sharma and Natalie Obiko Pearson for the Bloomberg graphic story trAPPed.

• Name — Anand Radhakrishnan • Other Names — Anand RK • Education — Sir J. J. Institute of Applied Art • Known for — Illustration, comics art and comics journalism • Notable Works — Grafity's Wall Blue in Green Radio Apocalypse Resurrection Man: Quantum Karma trAPPed • Awards — Eisner Award (2021)

Radhakrishnan grew up in the Mumbai neighbourhoods of Andheri and Wadala. He attended St Joseph's School in Wadala and initially intended to pursue medicine. After completing secondary school, he enrolled in a Bachelor of Science programme at St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, but left the programme after deciding to study art. He graduated from the Sir J. J. Institute of Applied Art in 2011 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in applied art. He subsequently studied illustration for two years through The Art Department, an online art school. The institution closed before he could complete the final portfolio year of the programme.

Radhakrishnan has said that he does not attempt to maintain a single visual style across his work. He instead adapts his drawing methods, composition and choice of media to the tone and subject of each narrative. The exaggerated and colourful artwork of Grafity's Wall, for example, was intended to reflect its youthful characters and Mumbai setting, while the darker mixed-media treatment of Blue in Green was developed for themes involving grief, ambition, depression and artistic obsession. His work combines traditional materials, including pencil, ink, acrylic and gouache, with digital colouring and production methods. For trAPPed, he adapted from fixed printed pages to an open-ended vertical format intended primarily for reading on smartphones.

• Black Mumba – cover art • Grafity's Wall – artist and colourist; with Ram V, Irma Kniivila, Jason Wordie and Aditya Bidikar; expanded edition published by Dark Horse Comics, 2020 • Blue in Green – artist; with Ram V and John Pearson; Image Comics, 2020 • Radio Apocalypse – artist and cover artist; with Ram V; Vault Comics • Ruin of Thieves – artist and colourist • Resurrection Man: Quantum Karma – artist; with Ram V and Mike Spicer; DC Black Label, 2025 • trAPPed – illustrator; with Suparna Sharma and Natalie Obiko Pearson; Bloomberg, 2025

In April 2025, Radhakrishnan joined a Bloomberg investigation led by journalists Suparna Sharma and Natalie Obiko Pearson into “digital arrest” scams in India. The scams involve criminals impersonating law-enforcement officials and keeping victims under continuous surveillance through video calls while coercing them into transferring money. Radhakrishnan travelled to Lucknow to observe a court hearing and visit locations connected to the case of a neurologist who had been kept under video surveillance by scammers. Working with Bloomberg's reporters, editors, colourist Nisha Singh and letterer Aditya Bidikar, he developed a predominantly black-and-white, line-heavy visual treatment designed for a vertically scrolling digital format. The resulting graphic story, trAPPed, was published by Bloomberg on 4 December 2025 as part of the investigation India's Digital Dream, Hacked. The work recounts how a neurologist was isolated and controlled through her telephone while scammers extracted her family's savings. In May 2026, Radhakrishnan, Sharma and Pearson received the Pulitzer Prize for Illustrated Reporting and Commentary for trAPPed. The Pulitzer board recognised the work for combining reporting, words and visuals to examine digital surveillance and international fraud.

• In 2021, Radhakrishnan and colourist John Pearson won the Eisner Award for Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (Interior Art) for Blue in Green. • In 2026, Radhakrishnan shared the Pulitzer Prize for Illustrated Reporting and Commentary with Suparna Sharma and Natalie Obiko Pearson for the Bloomberg graphic report trAPPed.