2022 was a busy year for the Indian comic publishers with Applause Entertainment acquiring Amar Chitra Katha’s titles for animation adaptation, Yali Dream Creations’ The Village adapted into live-action series by Amazon Prime, Bakarmax launching and completing funding for its adult animated series Aaapki Poojita on Kickstarter, Vimanika launching merchandises of its comics and many more comics being launched by other publishers.
As the comic industry embarks into the journey of 2023, it is hopeful to grow in the near future as it has been one of the well-recognised industries under the AVGC sector and it surely finds its place in the draft policy which was recently submitted to the Ministry of Information and Broadcast which was created by the AVGC task force.
To understand the vision for 2023 of the comic book publishers, Animation Xpress got in touch with them and here’s what they had to say:
Sharing about Amar Chitra Katha’s (ACK) 2023 plan, ACK president and CEO Preeti Vyas said, “2023 is going to be an exciting year. The pace of ACK is faster than ever before in our history.” Along with a lineup of titles across history and mythology, the publication house will be launching a collection of Tribal Folklore based on Siddi, Ahirani and Nahali tribes of India. In May 2023, ACK will be launching the 800th issue of Tinkle and it’ll continue to have a weekly digital release and a monthly print magazine. “We are also super excited about our new Tinkle Mega Box launching in February, which will contain about 35 books of all the popular Tinkle characters, new and old,” added Vyas. Whereas, Bakarmax intends to collaborate with more artists and writers in 2023 to publish their work on Bakarmax’s website. The publication’s primary focus will be to work on the first season of Aaapki Poojita.
As for Chariot Comics which will complete 10 years in 2023, its founder Aniruddho Chakraborty plans to release VRICA: Collected Volumes. On the other hand, Holy Cow Entertainment will be celebrating 13 years in the industry. Holy Cow Entertainment is planning to launch seven books which includes five new and two Hindi-collected editions. They’ll wrap up their mega-crossover event Operation Decay with the release of Vol. 4 and 5. Other than that, to celebrate their 13th anniversary, they’ll launch The Last Asuran and Caster Hindi hardcover editions in May. Three new titles Dehek, Viridian and Bloodhammer are also slated for release.
In 2023 Fenil Comics will release the pending comics and shall release more of Jasoos Balram comics alongside some planned book launch events.
Sharing about future projects, Abhijeet Kini Studios founder Abhijeet Kini said, “We will focus more on our own IPs for sure and we promise to come out with at least two to three new titles for our stable.” The studio is also currently working on the next issue of Angry Maushi but that has been delayed a bit.
Meta Desi’s major plan for 2023 is to shift gears and start working on their products. The sixth instalment of Holy Hell is in the works and they want to put together the first five titles in a collected issue. Meta Desi is trying to finish the scripting of Retrograde Vol. 2 and locking an artist for the same. The publication is also planning on giving its characters Rakshasa its own comic and apart from that the fans might even see Desolation Runner get its own comic in the future.
Yali Dream Creations’ 2023 looks buzzing as it plans to release The Village in Bengali and in January they’ll release it in Tamil. Rakshak Crackdown 2 will be released in January 2023 and their first novel Gandiva: The quest for Divine bow will be released in February or March 2023. Codename Alpha 2 is to be released in the summer of 2023 and they are currently working on their new horror comic book series Technicolor Lovers. The fans can see an omnibus of The Caravan and Rakshak origin series in English, Hindi and Bengali in 2023.
Apart from the comics, the craze of its merchandise and collectibles is on the rise and to bank on that the publishers are foraying into that segment. Raj Comics owner Sanjay Gupta said, “We are planning to get into character-based collectibles and merchandise markets as well. We will also be planning to launch comics targeted at kids and would see if other languages can be used to attract new readers.” Vimanika Comics has already released several statues, collectibles and apparel in 2022 but in the coming year they plan on releasing more posters, paintings, statues, merchandise and NFTs. Other than that Vimanika will be launching Maharana Pratap graphic novel, Shiva book 4 and relaunch titles such as Dashaavtar Vol. 1, Kalki series and Moksha series. They’ll be translating their titles into different Indian regional languages and will be getting into digital and motion comics.
With so many releases in the pipeline by various publications, comic book lovers are in for a treat and we hope to see the comic book industry as a whole thrive further this year.