Ammu Kannampilly
Organisers of India’s first comic book convention hope the event will help show the art form is thriving in the internet age, as the event held over the weekend in New Delhi introduced the booming youth market to new graphic characters including a warrior blessed by the sun god and a half-otter, half-human superhero.
Jatin Varma, organiser of the two-day convention, says the effects of India’s economic dynamism have spread from big business into the alternative worlds of youth culture and underground art.
“The number of artists working on comic books has grown, new graphic novels are being launched, bookstores are developing dedicated areas to display comics; it’s all pretty exciting,” he says.
The Indian comic book is experiencing a renaissance after
spending 10 years in the doldrums. Many middle-class Indians grew up on a diet of Amar Chitra Katha
(Immortal Picture Stories) comics, which specialised in Hindu myths, historical narratives and ancient folk tales.
But the arrival of cable television and video games in the 1990s saw a sharp drop in readership.
“Indian stories suddenly felt too old-fashioned – kids were not excited by the idea that they were reading the same books their parents were raised on,” Varma says.
Rina Puri, editor of the Amar Chitra Katha series, puts it more bluntly. “The Cartoon Network channel came to India and it pretty much halved our sales,” she says.
With a steady drip of American cartoons and superhero movies, the
Organisers of India’s first comic book convention hope the event will help show the art form is thriving in the internet age, as the event held over the weekend in New Delhi introduced the booming youth market to new graphic characters including a warrior blessed by the sun god and a half-otter, half-human superhero.
Jatin Varma, organiser of the two-day convention, says the effects of India’s economic dynamism have spread from big business into the alternative worlds of youth culture and underground art.
“The number of artists working on comic books has grown, new graphic novels are being launched, bookstores are developing dedicated areas to display comics; it’s all pretty exciting,” he says.
The Indian comic book is experiencing a renaissance after
spending 10 years in the doldrums. Many middle-class Indians grew up on a diet of Amar Chitra Katha
(Immortal Picture Stories) comics, which specialised in Hindu myths, historical narratives and ancient folk tales.
But the arrival of cable television and video games in the 1990s saw a sharp drop in readership.
“Indian stories suddenly felt too old-fashioned – kids were not excited by the idea that they were reading the same books their parents were raised on,” Varma says.
Rina Puri, editor of the Amar Chitra Katha series, puts it more bluntly. “The Cartoon Network channel came to India and it pretty much halved our sales,” she says.
With a steady drip of American cartoons and superhero movies, the
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