13 years ago, I had thought about the subject and published as my second blog with similar title. As it was earlier days of blogging, it was all about venting rage and frustration of then youthful mind against taboo societal norms and rigid think-models. I was “amateur” blogger. I had yet to witness cultural liberation of the western world. Coming back to India, I had to rethink and rearrange my thoughts. Comics are now integral part of my vast reading habit. And I’m not ashamed to admit this fact. Going back to my old blog post, I have much needed new perspective that was supplied by my long stay in USA. I must admit that the stay was revitalizing for the comic lovers like me. While promising western world had supplied environment that was liberal and ripe with prsopects to growing love for comics, coming back to India, pitcure looked more grim and sad. After coming back to India and in process of getting my comic itch scratched, I shuffled through my library for old Indian comic books, trying to get next installments of these old Indian comics and I realized that if not truly liberal its still stifling enough environment to get one like me screaming at online stores for not providing ample stocks and availability. Its not yet as hopeful as I expected. Even bad than before.
Agreed that nowadays, craze of manga amongst youth has drastically put this amazing ancient Japanese form of pictorial story telling (Japanese comics, in short) in front of wide population of India. Blockbuster Hollywood movies had helped increasing interests in its source material of Marvel and DC comics. Dedicated comic portal on Amazon.in is proof to its increased popularity. I would get my Batman, Superman, Spiderman and other western superhero thirst quenched satisfactorily (but not always) by going through Amazon or such online platforms that housed most of new and popular comics nowadays. But if you are not typical “card-board” cutout reader, like me then that’s where trouble starts. Looking for old or specific comic special runs will leave you unhappy wanderer exploring the nooks and crannies of e-shops. No, not even Google is going to help you out with good web store. Some of them are out of print and lots of stuff is only available as Kindle edition (on Amazon India) which I don’t prefer. This leads us to our first point of concern…
Scarcity of print media: For me, first ever reference to comics where those ancient pictogarms depicted on walls of old caves. Crude but effective way to communicate about your world, community and stories that were experienced by them. Archeologist deciphering cave paintings is no different than reading the comic with graphic and speech bubbles. Our evolutionary mind always liked the stories told with pictures and painting. And physicality of it all. Nowadays, more than people are losing interest in print media, more people are losing interest in reading as whole. When I had to take decision on stacks of comic books and other novels while returning back to India from USA, I did not feel guilty or bad while donating them to resident libraries or selling to popular book shops like Half-price Books. These were proper establishments for handling books. This kind of second hand book seller establishments work beacuse there is huge market out there. On the contrary, when I decided to sell some of the books from my collection in India to get some shelf space (of my personal library), so called researched book shop just asked me to put them on weighing scale and rendered me rupees based on weight, like old paper garbage. No dignity. No second glance to what it was. I’m pretty sure that there are some other good establishments out there in metro cities. But where I live is not that smaller than other metro cities.
Interest in print books and comics is declining. I could still understand the charm of Kindle and other digital variant to enjoy novels or books. It could cut the hassle of traveling with weight. But as said before, comics are medium that has to be precisely enjoyed in physical form. However good comic reading apps are, they lack the feeling of touch on slightly embossed title on cover page or smell of freshly printed paper. Flipping a page or hold book/comic, however thin or think, has some physicality that could never be replaced in digital form. True comic lover won’t lose the emotions awaken by great two page spread in physical form. But printing needs more resources and also expensive. And once number of sales do not justify the printing efforts, it had to either shut down or distribute digitally.
Price is always the matter: Comic books are expensive affairs. Printing with good quality paper and color inks with special binding results in higher production cost. Not all publishing house are Marvel, DC, Dark Horse etc. Also a comic needs dedicated creative efforts from author, illustrator, inker, colorist and font setter. Marketing and sales are mandatory where they need the good reputation of all of the above comic makers. In short, comic need distribution and number to reduce the cost which is very dificult aspect to balance if there is reduced reader base. At the same time, from consumer perspective, you need to be fanatic to buy pricey comics and support your favorite author or illustrator. This is where balance is tipped not in favor of comics in India. Since time improbable, comics are marketed for the demographic that do not have control on spending mobey; mostly kids and teens.
Not for mature readers: My childhood was rife with Nagraj and Super Commando Dhruv, typical Indian superheroes. In western culture, parents exposed their child to colorful worlds of comic and picture books as early as 4-5 months old. Their libraries are full of crawling and mewling infants and kids in respective library areas over weekends. While western world has created gods out of superheroes of comics, we have created comic superheroes out of our Gods. And that has brought upon immovable perspective that comics are for kids and children alone. Comics must spread ideas of virtues and for learning cultures. Comics are for kids. Nagraj and SCD comics were not adults, but just because it did not fall under Indian culture or mythology, it was “not good” influence on kids. Where are our beloved heroes such as Nagraj, Super Commando Dhruv, Chacha Chaudhary, Doga, Parmanu etc.? Lastly, I checked, Raj comics, home of many such superheroes, is still active, but content wise has been reduced to small time operative as compared to its previous glory. While e-platforms are aplenty to inflate the sales and reach, ignorance to such superheroes and competence to Superman and Batman is resulting in losing battle for such local endeavors. While there are truely dedicated story arcs of Batman, Superman and other superheroes for adults, In India, all we think of is Amar Chitra Katha and Champak, fairly kids centered comics. We as Indians, have to understand that Amar Chitra Katha and other mythological tales such as Ramayana and Mahabharata in comic format is not the only way to represent comics (btw some of Ramayana and Mahabharata re-telling in comic format are really good. Check next point). There were and are means of comic for adults.
Comic-cons… where are they? I’m missing comic-cons. Comic-cons are best way to spread awareness on awesome comic books and its niche traits. Its celebration of likeminded comic lovers. Visitors feel some kind of invisible pact of brotherhood amongst all attending comic enthusiasts akin to all smokers within common smoking areas. Abundant amounts of comics, merchandise, paraphernalia, events, special guests, cosplays etc. could win hearts of even non-comic lovers as well. Six to seven years back, I have attended Indian comic-con events. They were fun as well. I could get my hands on solid entries in Indian comic worlds such as Ramayan 3392AD, Devi, Carwan and such. Yali Dream creations, Graphic India, Virgin comics and other such publishing houses were pushing out commendable efforts when it comes to comics originated in India. While Ramayan 3392AD was eye-catching modern retelling of Ramayan, Carwan was potboiler curry-western from Shamik Dasgupta. Shekhar Kapur’s Devi was new IP for mythic Indian superheroes. All in all, quality was up to the mark. Fast forwarding to year of 2023 (After 6 years), I’m having difficulty in getting print material of any of the above sequels or further publications. What went wrong is the diminishing interest of populace in reading Indian comics. Either they switched to digital playground or to western comics or altogether left the field in the fear of this taboo reading hobby. Somehow getting grown up and reading comics never synced up in Indian consciousness.
Drawing parallels: Indian comic history states that, comic journey for India started in 1950s with translated comic strip of Phantom, Mandrake, Flash Gordon etc. in respected newspapers. Officially, Anant Pai started Indian comic with “Amar Chitra Katha”. Though “Amar Chitra Katha” is still available, as stated above, its too occupied with sowing Indian culture and mythology to young minds. And hence restricted itself from breaking the boundaries. Fortunately, my growing years of 80s and 90s saw steep rise of Indian comic industry, almost 500,000 copies over the course of its shelf life in few weeks1. Nowadays, its 50,000 copies. This steep decline is not due to lack of bad efforts or quality. When Bollywood movie is “Inspired” from something, it means it is copied. But that was not the case with Raj Comics when it introduced truly inspired heroes such as Nagraj and Super Commando Dhruv. Nagraj was inspired from western Superman but it was not Superman at all. Nagraj have its own superpowers, origin and Indianized tales. Super Commando Dhruv was inspired from Batman but SCD has its own aura, intellect and deduction powers. And what could be said about original from the initiation about famous Chacha Chaudhary and Saboo. Late Pran, Anupam Sinha, Sanjay Gupta and many others singlehandedly brought forth plethora of comic books that would be fun reading even now. In decades following 2000 saw unimaginable evolution of smartphones and digital media contents. Like nature, art and culture is not unaffected by law of evolution. Only fit can survive. Only fact is, factors that decide the path of evolution for Indian comic industry are tainted by not-so-great digital parasite and stunted minds. And Indian comic industry is dying because of it.
Our loss, others gain: There is huge job market available for sketch artists not only in the name of comics but with movie and gaming industries. The way movie and games are visualizing things, they need as many artists, modelers, sketchers from sotryboarding to 3D modeling. Comics is one way of expressing the art. By stunting such expressive area by not giving damn about comics, we are forcing artists to flee the nation and serve to the country that respects them; USA and Canada. Not just IT or other industry but in comic industry also we are facing severe case of brain drain. Works of many Indian artists are getting recognized now outside India. Global comic book market size was USD 15.35 billion in the year 2022 and projected to be 22.37 billion by year 2030. There is a scope of huge growth. Things are moving furiously fast with digitization and there is no bound to the reach of the market. This is ripe time to get Indian comic industry up and running. Let people identify local super heroes along with Superman and Batman.
Before closing, Its not all bad. There is some commendable jobs from Indian publishing houses such as Yali Dream Productions, Holy Cow, Raj comics and many more. These comic publishers are coming up with new stroy arc and heroes time and again. Indian artists and authors are getting bold with storytelling and art. The idea that established comics either as part of giddy, cheap medium of erotica (Savitabhabhi!!!) or simple fantasy of kids or puerly historical or mythological learning are shattered by new titles available that are focusing solely on adults. Its time that we as readers, get our too scrunched up heads out of glowing screen of “smart” devices and take up new hobby as reading, if not black on white only dry texts then colorful, imaginative and full of pictures called comics.
Some good Indian comics to start up with…..
- Raj Comics: If you are not grown up with Nagraj and SCD (Super Commando Dhruv), you should envy my childhood. Though not many new titles are coming out, Raj comics frequently print old issues in new format as collection or digest. For new readers, Nagraj, SCD, Doga, Parmanu, Bhokal, Fighter Toads and other such heroes going to open massive world of pent up reading. For old readers like me, its nostalgia. Apart from fun, you will skill up in Hindi language. Where to buy: Raj comics official website, JH comics, First Cry app/store.
- Yali Dream Creation: Caravan + Caravan Prequel (potboiler curry western with twist), The Village, Codename Alpha, Neelakshi etc. Conetent and story are fresh and art is competitive enough to make Marvel and DC run for their money. Where to buy: Official website, JH comics.
- Holy Cow Entertainment: Lead by Vivek Goel, it has some impressive titles under its belt like Aghori (Various story arcs), Ravanayan, Shaitaan, The skull rosary etc. Like coffee, comic lover will get all kinds of various degree of dark and “roasted” to perfect liking. Where to buy: Official website, Amazon, Flipkart.
- Graphic India: It’s shame that Graphic India is no longer in printing business. It re-defined itself as animated content creator and motion comics (which is nothing but digital format of comics with some animation). They had published globally praised comics such as Ramayan 3392 AD and Devi. You don’t get print of these nowadays. If you can, grab them as they are now as precious as that “One Ring to rule them all”.
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