Bringing International comics for the Indian Tamil Audience has been the vision of Muthu Comics since 1972. Lion Comics, a sister publication of Muthu Comics came in to the picture in 1984 and together they bring the best of world comics to the Tamil readers today. Currently they are working on a Tamil comic book titled ‘Never Before Special’, in which one can read through a wide range of International stories including LARGO WINCH, WAYNE SHELTON, Lt.BLUEBERRY, CHICK BILL, GIL JORDAN + STEEL CLAW and JOHN STEEL.
Till date, Lion /Muthu Comics has reprinted numerous International comic titles in Tamil language, including British action comics, American super hero tales, Franco-Belgian classics, Italian productions ,Dutch creations ,Western cowboy stories while working on genres like humor, action thrillers, dramas, graphic novels, war tales, horror thrillers ,.super hero stuff and more.
Published by Prakash Publishers, ‘Never before Special’ is being created to mark the celebration of Muthu Comics 40 year legacy in the Tamil comic book world. Lion/Muthu Comics started working on ‘Never before Special’ from September this year and it would be a 456 pages book priced at INR 400.
Speaking to Animationxpress.com’s Zeenia Boatwala about ‘Never before Special’, S Vijayan, Founder and Editor of Lion Comics shares, “Working with non-English original titles is always walking the tightrope. You can never convince yourself 100% about the story’s strong points with the translated scripts. We seldom create stuff on our own – except for maybe the filler pages. All our productions are reprints are of the best talent that the International Comics world has on offer”
According to S. Vijayan, the toughest part in making the Indian version of an international comic book is to match the expectations of the target audience. “With internet making the world such a small global village, a comic fan has online access to the very best that the international comic’s world has to offer. So we need to live up to the constant comparisons of our translated editions against the original versions and present them with a wholesome reading package every time.”
S. Vijayan feels that a great amount of reading: research; is very necessary to select suitable stories for the Tamil language versions and also to understand in-depth about the International comic ratings and success.
Adds more, “Since most of our stories are reprints of French; Italian or Dutch originals, reading those originals and understanding the storylines is basically impossible. Hence a lot of stress has to be put on trial translations, conducting appropriate research on storyline and script of the international comics.”
‘Never before Special’ will see its launch on the 5th January Next Year and will be predominantly sold against Pre Bookings the Chennai Book Fair Website and on E-Bay too.
“LION COMICS carries on the tradition established by MUTHU COMICS – on a bigger; bolder canvas. More genres of comics were brought in from several top European publishing houses and together MUTHU COMICS + LION COMICS offer the very best of International comics !Comics for 7-77 is our motto !”, concludes, S. Vijayan.
