The golden era of Indian comics, dominated by Amar Chitra Katha, offers a
nostalgic high. After cooling off from that peak, the enterprise is again
gaining superpowers, not unlike some of its characters. With conventions like
Comic Con drawing thousands of visitors in Indian cities and publishers turning
to new themes, bolder colors, and glossier pages in the quest for wider
audiences, the industry is on an uptick.
Atlanta-based Vamsi Duvvuri teases
meaning out of numbers in his job.
That entails wading through fine-grained
data sets, burrowing into figures, and ferreting
out patterns in them. As a datascientist,
Duvvuri dreams numbers. And
yet, crunching data all day long is a job not
without stress.
His antidote? Comics! Indeed, it is Duvvuri’s
favorite way to unwind. In a flash, he
can leave behind the cold, hard, objective
world of mindboggling data and zoom right
into the illustrated world of cool characters
and piquing plots.
(Left: Chacha Chaudhary)
“I enjoy reading about superheroes.
I used to enjoy Super Commando Dhruv
and Naagraj.” Now a fan of Dilbert, and
Calvin and Hobbes as well, he grew up in
Hyderabad reading Amar Chitra Katha
(ACK), Diamond Comics, Raj Comics and
Chandamama. Champak, Suman Saurabh,
Misha, Tintin, Suppandi (“lovably stupid”),
and Chacha Chaudhary (with
Rocket, the dog, and Sabu, the giant)
filled his imagination.
“My brother and I won a
local library competition one
summer where we read 1005
comics in 50 days. We used to subscribe
to Champak, and also buy a
lot of Diamond and Raj Comics. We
also ran small comics libraries during
our summer vacations,” says the
father of a newborn baby daughter.
Even today, Indian comics are a
shopping staple during holidays in India and
Indian-American children here often receive
comic books as gifts from family and relatives.
Away from home, far removed from merrygo-
rounds with home-grown characters,
maneuvering bits and bytes, people like
Duvvuri are immigrants also to the
fantasy land of comics. And they retain
a special place in their heart for Indian
comics, their first love. “I learned a lot
about Hindu mythology through comics,”
Duvvuri remembers.
The bullhorn of Hindu mythology and
Indian history
Generations of Indians got their emotional
sustenance from Indian mythology,
an inexhaustible source of stories of valor
and cowardice, integrity and moral turpitude,
magnanimity and greed, and all the values
permeating the continuum of life.
Legions of those who grew up in urban
India in the late seventies and eighties will
tell you unabashedly that if they know anything
about mythological and historical
Indian characters of India, it is thanks in
a huge part to the formidable Amar Chitra
Katha collections. From Krishna and
Sudama to King Ashoka and Rani Lakshmibai,
from Meerabai and Sant Tukaram
to Subhas Chandra Bose and Gandhi,
and even relatively obscure or regional
characters like Ghatotkacha or the Gujarati
lovebirds, Jesal-Toral, the ACK was
a veritable treasure chest of richly illustrated,
captivating stories of characters
across India’s vast timeline and expanse.
“Mr. Anant Pai, the founder of Amar
Chitra Katha, had conducted a study
in schools where he found children retained
information better when they
were taught through the medium of
comics. Even now, the ACK biographies
are in demand in educational
institutions. As for mythology
and folktales, many Indians
can trace their first mythological
story back to an Amar Chitra
Katha comic and they remain
as relevant today. Small wonder,
because mythology is perfect
for comics, containing the
elements of storytelling and
fantasy that make for great art
and writing,” says Rajani Thindiath,
Editor, Tinkle.
(Left: Billoo)
Along with ACK, Raj Comics and
Indrajal Comics were perennial favorites
with most readers growing up in
the 1970s, ‘80s, and ‘90s. Diamond Comics,
too, continues to regale audiences
with everyday characters like Chacha
Chaudhary and the kids Pinki and
Billoo. It publishes in English, Hindi, and
all the regional languages of India.
Growing up, the image of Lord
Hanuman lifting the mountain, or the
Bhagavad Gita’s divine form of Krishna,
or the bhakti-inspiring stories of India’s
saints and sages, Birbal’s subtle wit in
coaxing some sense into his master,
Emperor Akbar, the heroic tales of Shivaji,
Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekhar
Azad, the riveting stories from the Panchatantra
and the Jataka Tales—all of
these left an indelible impressions on
our psyche. A full-blown Avatar-like
atmosphere inhabited by these immortal
characters exists in our heads.
“The only superheroes
that have seen pan–Indian appeal are our gods
from mythology.
They are all fantastically
etched characters
brought out
through complex
plot lines.
Each story is
allegorical to the
human condition and
yet explores its scope
beyond it. At the root,
each story may be about
good vs. evil but a lot of
them also explore various
philosophical theories in
a form that is easy to ingest.
They have come to
define the people we are,”
Thindiath says.
The collective unconscious
is a storehouse of
powerful images, a space
filled with universal archetypes.
What comics
do is re-jig these memory-
sets, invoke, and inspire
these images to life.
In Indian comics, heroes
operate on a completely
vaster plane, whereas in
Western stories, they mostly operate on
the physical plane.
“At the root of it, it is
about fantasy. We fantasize
about extraordinary strength and
abilities, and it’s a great way to rise
above what we are, to aspire to be more.
Whether it is our deities or Western
superheroes, it is about humanity
rising above what it is.
“At the root of it, it is about fantasy.
We fantasize about extraordinary
strength and abilities, and it’s a great way
to rise above what we are, to aspire to be
more. Whether it is our deities or Western
superheroes, it is about humanity rising
above what it is, and that is an aspiration
that will remain,” observes Thindiath.
Mythology is essential. Children
crave stories, and everyone looks for
glory. Myth satisfies both. Since America
doesn’t have mythology, it created superheroes,
soldiers in full-body armor and
with weapons, raining hell on villains. Of
course, Greek and Nordic mythology find
a place in Western comics.
Thindiath goes on to speak about
differences in the conceptions of superheroes.
“It is only recently that we have
become aware of
Western superheroes.
The root is the
same: the battle between
good and evil
and the extraordinary nature
of their abilities. What is different
is the sensibility. Western
heroes correspond to the
times they are created in,
be it the World Wars,
civil strife, global
warming, or the fight
against prejudice.
Modern Indian superheroes are just rising.
Some are born of our myths and lore
while others are novel concepts that give
form to needs, desires, and angst that are
uniquely Indian.”
It’s not an exaggeration to say that
comics contributed to what it means to
be Indian, amidst the flux and malleability
of identity. It’s also no overstatement
to say that the comics fostered the spirit
of national integration. Some publishers,
like Diamond Comics, have also tried
to spread awareness about social issues
such as hygiene and the importance of
voting.
A Comic Convention.
New Avatars: The resurgence
With conventions like Comic Con
drawing thousands of visitors in Indian
cities and publishers turning to darker
themes in the quest for wider audiences,
the Indian comic book industry is at the
threshold of a big boom.
Of course, changing times have
brought a growing fascination with cartoons.
In recent years, children have
been spending more time watching cartoon
films than reading books. They’re
plugged into futuristic and scientific storylines,
rather than just into mythological.
To compete with this phenomenon, publishers
have taken to making their books
more visually appealing, with brighter
colors, and glossy paper.
“Comics are cooler than ever before,
and being geeky is mainstream. Comics
are influencing pop culture like never before.
We are getting people who are not
regular with reading comics following up
on their favorite characters via films, animated
series, and games. It’s taking these
characters and story lines to different
places, and it’s damned exciting,” says
Jatin Varma, founder of Twenty Onwards
Media, an alternative media house with
interests ranging from publishing to
films to live events. His company organizes
India’s Comic Con.
Enjoying Comic Con.
There’s a new kind of readership
for comics in India which wasn’t there
in prior generations. In older days the
prime market used to be the urban middle-
class kids, a group with limited buying
power. Comics were considered too
amateurish for the college crowd. That’s
no longer the case. Recent Comic Con
gatherings have been full of yuppies and
college kids, with a lot more money in
their pockets than their parents used to
have. There are also people in their thirties
and forties, on a nostalgia trip, buying
up merchandise and vintage comics
and memorabilia. It’s probably this market
that is driving up the boom.
As his experience with Comic Con
shows, Varma feels “reading and collecting
comics is not something for the few.
It’s something that is now considered
mainstream. Being a dedicated fan of
a particular character or franchise (for
example, Star Wars) is not something
trivial. It’s something that the individual
celebrates.” And this sense of identification
with a character or a franchise is
helping the comics industry, with the
college-going and early-twenties readership
taking to comics in a big way.
The undying appeal of Indian comics
The past two decades have seen an
expansion in the genres and formats of
Indian comics, with publishers bringing
in noticeable transformations and moving
beyond “simple retellings of folktales
and mythological stories to more
nuanced storylines with plenty of layers
and twists,” Thindiath points out.
(Left: Shaktiman)
| “We have a rich tradition of superheroic characters that have the potential to satisfy all types of readers, no matter what their form, retold or reincarnated. Authors and artists of repute are working in the industry, lending it their talent and weight. So, the Indian reader is not restricted to the superhero genre. There are a lot of voices, distinct and novel, that are contributing to the rise of the medium, and that is our strength.” |
Gulshan Rai, Chairman and Managing
Director of Diamond Comics, says,
“Our sales are increasing. We have 46
Indian characters, and we rotate them.”
Diamond publishes 21 comics every
month and sells close to 400,000 copies.
That’s huge, considering the market.
He attributes their success to regular
periodicity: “We haven’t stopped at any
time in the last 45 years.”
“Our books reach beyond urban
centers,” he continues. “It’s about expanding
your market, reaching out to
interior areas.” Publishing in local language
has helped Diamond Comics increase
its reach.
In addition, “[Diamond] comics
are fun-oriented through and through.
They are positive stories,
family stories.
Parents like to buy
them for their kids.
Foreign comics have
blood and [gore].
As to distribution,
they don’t have network.
They are sold
in metros and cities,
but a bigger India
is out there. The foreign
comics don’t
reach them. And
their price is very
high. In our comics,
for a hundred
rupees, you get 300
pages of stories, art,
and color,” Rai adds.
Newer companies
like Graphic
India, Mantra Ray
Comics, and Level 10 Entertainment
Pvt Ltd are trying out new story lines
and platforms.
“A huge talent pool and dedicated
fans” are the
reasons why Indian
comics are doing well, according
to Varma. He agrees
that “the price-points of our
comics are much lower than the
international ones, getting people
to try our new issues.” He loves
recent trends in experimentation
and exploration. “Sudershan
(Chimpanzee) by Rajesh Devraj and
Meren Imchen is great.”
Although the Indian comics industry
is not as big as that in the West, interest
in comics and graphic novels is on the rise in India. Techsavvy
start-ups are experimenting
on and exploring
new storylines, like dark
themes. Old publishers are pushing
themselves into the internet
and the world of apps, and getting
into YouTube, VODs, feature films,
animation, and 3-D films. Their main
breakthroughs in terms of sales and
reach have come from publishing in the
regional languages. E-commerce has
made it convenient to reach out to more
people. Social media facilitates better
communication between the creator
and the user. Digital versions of books
are being picked up, even if only in
small numbers.
A flawed distribution network and
other hurdles
However, the downside for the Indian
comics industry
has always been a flawed
distribution network.
Vijat Sampath, CEO,
Amar Chitra Katha (ACK)
Media, says: “The distribution
of comics in
India has always
been a problem
due to the fragmented and
widely dispersed book retail
industry. Unlike in the
West, there are no dedicated
comic book stores. While the demand
is robust and growing, making
comics available is therefore the
biggest challenge.”
Varma agrees. “Distribution is the
biggest issue, followed by a lack of book
stores. And this includes zero understanding
of the medium on the part
of the distributors and retailers. With
Comic Con we have provided a platform
for not only promoting comics but
also selling them. I hope to keep expanding
our network of events to reach out
to as many prospective readers out there
as possible. The lack of proper channels
for sales prevents sustainability for
small publishers in the country. Therefore
any new entrant into the industry
has to plan for the long haul
and have funding to last
them at least three to four
years. Lastly, while the quality
of content has greatly improved,
the diversity of the
content coming out has not
increased at the same pace. I
think we can do a lot better.
There certainly is no dearth
of good ideas out there.”
Also, Indian comics
have not received much
support from the film
and television industry. Unlike in the
West, where comics have been made
into hugely successful films and franchises,
very few comic book stories have
been adapted for film or television in
India. An exception, perhaps, is the
series Chacha Chaudhary, featuring Raghubir
Yadav.
With new technologies evolving in
printing, animation, and digitizing, everyone
agrees this is an exciting time to
be doing comics. “In the long run both
readers and content creators have to
think beyond just the books. We need
to tap animation, gaming, merchandise,
films, and television,” Varma remarks.
G.B.S.N.P. Varma is a freelance journalist
based in Andhra Pradesh. His work has been featured
in The Hindu, The Caravan, Hans India,
Fountain Ink, and Avantika.
Frame by
Frame
A documentary film set to chronicle
the saga and stars of the Indian comics
industry has a promising start…
By G.B.S.N.P. Varma
The
setting: Bombay, India, post-World War II.
A narrow-gauge slow train transports European
soldiers from the dockyards to the Victoria Terminus
rail station in the city. Local ragamuffins are known to
run routinely alongside the train hoping to grab at the largesse
of the soldiers, who are known to drop chocolates and
money or other goodies sometimes. One fine day a soldier
hurls out something that looks like a magazine. The usual
scrimmage follows as the robust gang of kids fights to lay
a claim on it. Before long the “magazine” is claimed by a
dozen different kids, each holding a page or a few of them.
Little Abid Surti, all of six or seven years old, gets one
solo page. When he goes home and checks it out, he is fascinated
by the images of a cuddly mouse. Turns out he is
holding a page of a Mickey Mouse comic book. It seems
something clicks within young Surti who feels, quite naturally,
that he can draw characters like this mouse. Without
losing any time, he is at it…and a cartoonist is born!
It is thanks to that one page, tracing back to a foreign
solder, that “I am now also a cartoonist,” narrates
the National Award-winning author, playwright, journalist,
screenwriter, environmentalist, and the creator of
Bahadur, Inspector Azad, Dhabbuji, and other favorite
Indian cartoon characters.
This fascinating narration by Surti is captured on celluloid
in a documentary film called Chitrakatha: Indian
Comics Beyond Balloons and Panels, made by Alok Sharma.
Still a work in progress, it is a first-of-its-kind documentary
on the evolution of comics in India. “Comics have been my
first love since I can remember,” says Sharma. He traveled
all over the country, put in years of research, talked to the
unsung heroes of comics, wrote the script, directed, and
produced the film.
(Left: Detectives)
A documentary filmmaker’s journey with comics
Though Chitrakatha chronicles the history of Indian
comic books, it’s also the journey of an impassioned fan.
Inspired by his cartoonist father, Sharma wanted early on
to be a cartoonist himself. Like many other Indian kids he
first read Chacha Chaudhary. Later he read Indrajal Comics
and Phantom, a particular favorite. “But as I grew up I
fell in love with 100-percent homegrown superheroes like
Nagraj, Super Commando Dhruv, and Doga. I also loved
Hawaldar Bahadur, Tausi, and Shaktiputra. My favorite
always remained Madhu Muskaan with characters like
Daddyji, Sustram-Chustram, and Jasoos Bablu.”
Sharma had a humble beginning as a political
cartoonist at the age of 16. He began his career with Gotham
Comics (later Virgin Comics). After that, he worked
with radio stations like Radio City and Radio One. He
was later associated with the TV wing of the Walt Disney
Co., India. He explored animation with Big Animation
and worked on their acclaimed title Little Krishna before
he went independent.
The evolution of Indian comics, as seen by an insider
According to Sharma’s research, 1960-70s can be called
the formative years of Indian comics, when Indrajal Comics
was formed and later Amar Chitra Katha began its operation.
The ’70s saw the massive success of these two publications
inspiring several others. This was also the decade that
spawned the advent of several humor-based comic magazines
like Deewana, Lotpot, and Madhu Muskaan.
The ’80s were the golden age of Indian comics. India
had as many as 60 publishers publishing in this arena (most
of them were based in North India) and 90 percent of the
content was homegrown. Comics were a rage till the early
’90s, after which they took a bit of a nosedive.
(Left: Iron Man)
Things have changed for the better now. “There is an
upsurge in the market, with new players trying to revamp
the medium while old publishers are trying to make better
content to compete with other mediums. New publishers
are trying some darker and mature content, while superheroes
are still very much the flavor of the season. Mythology
remains a favorite with publishers as you don’t have to deal
with any copyrights when it comes to content and you can
keep churning out stories from India’s vast mythology.”
Fresh content includes Rajesh Devaraj’s delightful
Sudershan (Chimpanzee) that takes us back to the world of the
black-and-white stunt cinema of the 1950s, with its talking
animal stars, and Sumit Kumar’s semi-autobiographical and
hilarious Itch You Can’t Scratch, which explores the life and
times of an average urban youngster.
A ten-minute cut of Alok Sharma’s documentary film can be seen at:
http://chitrakathaonline.com/