Indian comics

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India has a long tradition of fine art, as seen in this 6th century Buddhist painting

Indian comics are comic books and graphic novels associated with the culture of India. India has a long tradition of comic readership. Indian comics often have large publication; however, the industry still remains immature compared to that of Japan, France and America. Due to widespread use of English language, Indian comics and graphic novels tend to be more stylistically similar to western comics, than the manga, manhwa and manhua of India's Asian neighbours, which share common links through use of Japanese language.

1 History
2 Non-Indian writers' work
3 Graphic novels
4 Commentary
5 Publishers
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] History

[edit] The early years

The distribution of comics in India is more recent than the European, American and Japanese industries, but is nevertheless almost 60 years old. Despite the publication of about 100 million copies a year, comics in India are still largely dominated by American characters, and local production remains marginal. One of earliest attempts is by comic magazine Chandamama. Chandamama has published in more than 5 languages since 1947[1]. It developed from the adaptations of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata in the 1960s, to educational comics for children, caricatures in print media, and adaptations of American superheroes.

One of the early Indian comic authors was Aabid Surti, who published the first 3 panel strips Dhabbuji based on the protagonist who is a lawyer by profession and is witty, in the magazine Dharmayug. In the 1970s he also created a character Bahadur for Indrajal Comics which proved to be quite popular and could compete with other characters like Phantom and Mandrake which was also published in the magazine. Around the same time Pran Kumar Sharma published the comic Daabu. However, these first experiments remained the only ones in India in the 1960s, since Indian magazines almost exclusively published American strips on their pages. Pran created, however, numerous strips, like Shrimatiji, Pinki, Billoo and the popular Chacha Chaudhary in the 1970s. These comics continued to be inspired mainly by newspaper strips, and popular early superhero based western comics. Unlike in Japan, where comics were quickly recognised as a potentially mature medium, comic readership remained confined to children, and content remained largely conservative and un-intellectual.

Among local languages, cartoon strips and comic books thrived, especially in West Bengal. Pratulchandra Lahiri created two strips on a regular basis, for the Jugantar newspaper in Bengali and for the Amrit Bazar Patrika in English. Narayan Debnath created local strips that were published as books from Kolkata. Among his creations, Nonte Phonte and Handa Bhonda are still in circulation, and have spawned animated films. Another one of his creations, Batul The Great is one of India's earliest superheroes as it was conceived during the sixties. Mayukh Choudhury was another comics artist/writer who did stories in the action/adventure and historical genres, published in Bengali. Most of his work was published by Deb Sahitya Kutir, Kolkata, from 60s-80s.

[edit] The middle years

Characters from the Tinkle comic book

Comics of this era were influenced by the popularity of Archie comics and series like The Adventures of Tintin. In 1967, the editor Anant Pai of the India Book House, launched the series Amar Chitra Katha, the objective of which was to transmit to children the great Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain religious texts, the stories of several non-Indians such as Jesus, and historical figures. The life of Krishna was the first in the series, joined rapidly by the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. The collection now has 426 volumes. This success inspired other publishing houses who launched their own series on their own themes: Dreamland Publications and Diamond Comics at New Delhi, and Jaico Publishing House at Mumbai. Some publishing houses specialized in making comics for the Indian diaspora, like the Chakra collection, the Cultural Institute for the Vedic Arts of New York. This last collection, which sells mainly in South Africa, Kenya and North America, competes with its contemporaties by adoting a very dynamic style, similar to manga. Anant Pai and India Book House launched in the beginning of the 1980s, the first Indian comic magazine for children, called Tinkle, which was a big success. Tinkle diversified on the educational themes developed by Amar Chitra Katha, including science, contemporary culture, etc. The magazine introduced numerous recurring heroes like amusing Suppandi, Mooshik the adorable mouse, Kalia the crow and the malicious minister Tantri. Tinkle has a Marathi or Maharashtrian influence in many of the names of characters and storylines. In the 1980s, Target, a children and youth magazine published two page comics. Detective Moochwala by Ajit Ninan and Gardhab Das, the singing donkey, by Neelabh & Jayanto, were its most popular characters. Target magazine was an innovator as its artwork was original and of a high quality for its time. Manjula Padmanabhan, one of the few Indian comic authors, did illustrations for Target. She also created a female comic character called Suki which was serialized in Sunday Observer in the 1980s. Another notable Indian comic publishing house is Raj Comics, home of characters such as Nagraj, (a Hindu superhero who has subsequently made the transition to television), Doga, Super Commando Dhruva, Parmanu and various others. See:

[edit] The newspaper medium

In the 1990s, newspapers started publishing more caricatures of Indian origin. Indian law and democracy permits the journalists and cartoonists to discuss current affairs with reasonable freedom. Among the most famous caricaturists are Joseph Arul Raj, Ashok Dongre and Neelabh Bisen. With the advent of India's potential and demand of quality comics, but lack of institutes for the speciality in comics art, Mr. Anupam Sinha has launched his own Anupama Academy Of Art for specialisation in departments of creation of comics.[2] He is renowned for illustrating some of the best Indian comics. Currently his weekly strip superhero "Rudra" is being hailed as trend setting in hindi newspapers like Dainik Jagran. Ashok Dongre is well known for his Comic Strip SWAMI based on the Infotech Business in India. Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray was also a caricaturist when he was young.

[edit] Virgin Comics' foray

Virgin Comics started an era of more mature entertainment and art

Illustrated Orchids was founded by members of India's eastern diaspora, where Virgin Comics was founded by members of India's western diaspora

Recently, a partnership between Richard Branson's Virgin group, and India's Gotham Comics, has led to a new company, Virgin Comics, geared towards creating new lines of comics rooted in Indian mythology and Indian history (much like many manga series in Japanese culture). The first series of comics were published in 2006, to mixed critical reviews, and Virgin continues to release new series. The main icon of Virgin Comics is the superhero Devi, but other series have included a science-fiction adaptation of the ancient Ramayana epic, a series based on the life of a supernaturally adept Sadhu, as well as many comics set outside India. The company aims to eventually create animated series, computer games and films, based upon its property.

All series so far have followed the western style of comic storytelling and art, focusing on the typical 32-page full colour format. This reflects how many of Virgin Comics creative team were inspired by the more mature western comics becoming available in India during the 90s, such Frank Miller's gritty Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. Virgin has announced it will produce a series in which the popular cricket star Sachin Tendulkar is a super-hero, as well as a film based upon The Sadhu starring Nicolas Cage, who is a self described comic fan, and has created a series for Virgin with his son. See:

[edit] Illustrated Orchids' foray

Illustrated Orchids is a comic book company that is operated by the Indian Singaporean diaspora. The company has creative studios in India, and is led by creative director Sudhir Sehgal. Having published comics in Singapore, the company plans to enter the Indian, Malaysian and European market. In contrast to Virgin Comics, the company is oriented toward the eastern market, and seems to contain some manga inspired artwork, as seen on the cover of Mythology issue one, which features the classic manga style facial art. In press releases, the company claims it will create a unique Indian style of comic art. Four series have so far been developed. See:

[edit] Webcomics

Scene from the comedy Badmash.tv webcomic which is popular amongst the Indian diaspora

The increasingly popular webcomic medium, which is mostly dedicated to short online comedy strips, has also been used by a small number of Indian artists or writers. Badmash is created by and aimed at the Indian diaspora. This format is expected to expand due to ICT literacy, large numbers of white-collar workers, and internet penetration in India. Wecomics afford an outlet for artists who do not wish to distribute via published media. See:

[edit] Non-Indian writers' work

The Indian adaptation of Spider-Man was mainly bought by collectors

In 2002 the comic industry published a minor cult comic based upon contemporary Indian culture. Slave Labor Graphics of San Jose California published Bombaby the Screen Goddess. The comic introduced a character by the name of Sangeeta, who doubled as a dutiful daughter by day, and as a reincarnated Hindu goddess by night. The comic did not meet wide distribution, although it received acclaim and was featured in Time Magazine.

Although large western comic houses such as Marvel had used Indian superheros and characters in the past, (such as Timeslip, Karima Shapandar, Neal Shaara, Indra and Captain Nemo), this was probably the first comic series to use an Indian character as its main protagonist. Other comic artists started similar projects, such as Grant Morrison's Vimanarama comic, and Marvel's Spider-Man: India project, which was the first major release by a large comic company, introduced India-based artists talent to the mainstream, and which was published in India by Gotham Comics. The title was inspired by the success of American comics in India.

Japanese manga artists have also produced numerous series with Indian themes, including the use of yogic terminology in Naruto, the Kushan Empire in Berserk, and numerous references to common gods and demons which Japan and India share thanks to the commonality of Buddhist influence in the two countries. A great many manga series are inspired by Journey to the West, the classic Chinese tale of Buddhist monks on pilgrimage to India. Some manga series which have Indian themes central to the plot are; the Buddha manga, Earth Girl Arjuna, Saiyuki and RG Veda. See:

[edit] Graphic novels

In addition to the recent development of more mature comics, in 2004, Penguin published Corridor, by Sarnath Banerjee, which was widely advertised as India's first graphic novel, followed by a second foray in 2007. However, a 60 page comic called River of Stories by Delhi based artist Orijit Sen, published in 1994 by Kalpavriksh, about the Narmada Dam Projects controversy, is an important precedent and can be regarded as the first Indian graphic novel. Some of Deepak Chopra's books such as his retelling of the Kama Sutra, or the life of the Buddha, could be considered partly graphic novels, for their artwork, created by Virgin Comics. Additionally, Kashmir Pending, a graphic novel by Naseer Ahmed, and The Believers, a graphic novel by Abdul Sultan, both dealing with Islamic militancy, were recently released by Phantomville, Sarnath Banerjee's company, to positive reviews. See:

River of Stories
Corridor
The Barn Owl's Wondrous Capers
The Believers
Kashmir Pending
Upcoming untitled graphic novel about Dhyan Chand
Deepak Chopra's Buddha
Deepak Chopra's Kama Sutra

[edit] Commentary

It remains to be seen if Indian comics will be able to escape the popular perception in India that comics and graphic novels are 'just for kids', or a wasteful pastime, as the world accepts them as a complicated and intellectual adult medium of entertainment. The popularity of western comics, and greater availability of Japanese manga and anime in recent years will hopefully help the industry gain a mainstream foothold. Conservative attitudes and policies may hinder the development of the medium. It will also be interesting to see whether India continues to lean toward western-style comics, or culturally more similar, (but far less available), manga style of Japan. Aside from recent graphic novels, comic companies are yet to publish mature fiction in serial format, and underground comics are non-existent.

[edit] Publishers

India's epic literature is a common theme amongst comics as seen in Ramayan 3392 A.D.

Diamond Comics
Raj Comics
Indrajal Comics
India Book House
Jantar Mantar Comics
Virgin Comics
Gotham Comics
Phantomville
Illustrated Orchids
Manoj Comics
Nutan Comics
Pawan Comics
Star Comics IBH
Bungalow Publishing
Tulsi Comics
Radha Comics
King Comics
Kiran Comics
Kriyetic Comics
LM Comics
Chitra Bharti Kathamala
Deb Sahitya Kutir
Fort Comics
Chandamama Classics
Madhu Muskan
Dolton Comics
Goversons Comics
Prabhat Comics
Parampara Comics
Spectrum Comics

[edit] See also

Krea Comics

[edit] External links

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