Indian comics

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This article concerns Indian comics, graphic novels and the comic industry in India.

1 History
- 1.1 Early years
- 1.2 Later years
2 Non Indian Publishers' Foray
3 Commentary
4 Publishers
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Early years

Sabu and Chacha Chaudhary

The concept of comics in India is quite recent compared to the European, American and Japanese industries, but is nevertheless almost 50 years old. 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. Despite the publication of about 100 million copies a year, comics in India is still largely dominated by American characters, and local production remains marginal.

The first Indian comic author was Abid Surati,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^{[citation needed]}. 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^{[citation needed]}. Pran created, however, numerous strips, like Shrimatiji, Pinki, Billoo and the popular Chacha Chaudhary in the 1970s.

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 Bangla 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 in September 2006 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.

In 1967, the editorAnant Pai of the India Book House, launched the series Amar Chitra Katha, the objective of which was to transmit to children the great Hindu religious texts. 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.

[edit] Later years

Heroes of Raj Comics

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 subconsciously Marathi or Maharashtrian influence in the names of charcters and storylines.

In the 1990s, the newspapers started publishing caricatures of Indian origin. The Indian 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. 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. 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 and various others.

Recently, a partnership between Richard Branson's Virgin group, and 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 manga in Japanese culture). The first three series of comics, which were launched around July 2006 are:

[edit] Non Indian Publishers' Foray

Sangeeta Mukherjee

Devi from Virgin Comics

In 2002 the comic industry became aware of an unassuming cult comic that had hit the scene. Slave Labor Graphics of San Jose California published Bombaby the Screen Goddess. The comic introduced a character by the name of Sangeeta. Sangeeta 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. This affected the comic industry for a release with indian subject matter - despite the profound effect India has had on worldwide culture, and the interest it elicited in the past, people in the west, especially America, were quite unfamiliar with Indian culture.

Larger comic houses began using idea of an Indian superhero or using Indian themes in their books. Two years later Spiderman went to India, . See:

Bombaby the Screen Goddess

The success of American superheroes and of Marvel Comics in India inspired the Gotham Entertainment Group, the principal editor of comics in South Asia, and the licence holder of Marvel in India, to create in August 2004, the series Spider-Man: India, designed by Jeevan Kang.

This comic did not receive the same readership Spider-Man follows all over the world.

Spiderman combats against the demons in Hindu tradition. In addition, India's first graphic novel, Corridor, was produced. See:

[edit] Commentary

It remains to be seen if Indian comics will be able to escape the popular perception in India that they are 'just for kids' as the world accepts them as a complicated adult medium of entertainment. The launch of foreign comics, and Japanese manga and anime in recent years will hopefully help the industry gain a mainstream foothold.