Iman Vellani Makes Her Solo Writing Debut With ‘Chachu’
Image Comics announced Chachu, a five-issue miniseries written by Iman Vellani, best known for playing Kamala Khan in Ms. Marvel on Disney+, with art by Marianna Ignazzi and colors by Jordie Bellaire. Vellani describes the series as growing out of her own coming-of-age experiences in the entertainment industry.
Set in 1979, the story follows Leila, a 19-year-old Pakistani-Canadian with a love of film and pulp novels, who travels to California hoping to reconnect with her estranged uncle — her "Chachu" — a semi-retired private eye who was once famous for marrying the starlet he had been hired to find. When his wife disappears again under mysterious circumstances, Leila and her uncle are pulled into a road trip investigation that forces both of them to confront family secrets, unresolved grief, and the stories they've built their lives around.
"I've always been deeply curious about comics as an art form because of their capacity to hold contradiction — arguably better than any other medium," said Vellani. "That became especially meaningful to me while writing Chachu, which grew out of this tension between mourning my youth while I still have it, and an incessant urge to come-of-age already."
Chachu #1 is on sale August 2026.
