Published in the year 1980 by Uncle Pai, India’s first English-language comic Tinkle recently celebrated its 34th anniversary. It is a comic book that has played an integral part in the growing up years of most children in India over three decades.
A total of 622 issues have been printed so far; Suppandi, Tantri The Mantri and Shikari Shambu are some of the most renowned Tinkle comic characters and have been recognised globally as well. Apart from comic strips, Tinkle also contains various stories, puzzles, quizzes, contests along with other features which are mostly targeted at school children.
As the date of Mumbai films and Comic convention is nearing, all comic publishers are geared up to launch their new projects and this 34 year old comic is all set to bring out its new edition this month.
AnimationXpress.com’s Niyati Handa recently caught up with Tinkle’s editor and business manager, Rajani Thindiath and Aishwary Gupta respectively, who spoke in detail about their up-coming projects.
What inspired you to write these comics? How are your characters different from others?
Rajani: We released the first segment of Tall Tales in 2013. It was the very first offering from Tinkle in the graphic novel space where we explored our beloved characters beyond the short comic’s format. And so was born the tagline – One Toon, One Story, One-derfully Long. The titles released in that year were Shikari Shambu, Butterfingers and Defective Detectives. The success of that segment, prompted us to come out with the present set of two titles to be launched at the Mumbai Comic Con. They are Tantri the Mantri – The Dream Team, written by Sean D’mello.
Sean describes his experience while creating the Tantri book below.
Sean: “I always liked Tantri the Mantri and his eternal quest for the throne of Hujli. Tantri is one of the smartest villains around. Plus, he tries really hard and is incredibly passionate about his mission. So you often find yourself rooting for him to win.”
My story line in Tantri the Mantri – The Dream Team, involves Tantri joining forces with the greatest assassins in the world. Hooja, the current king of Hujli and the focal point of Tantri’s assassination plans, is a man blessed with immense luck. So instead of taking on Hooja alone, Tantri assembles a formidable team to make sure that, this time, the crown of Hujli finally lands where it belongs… on top of his head.
Rajani: The thought of a group of SuperWeirdos occurred when I was toying around with the idea of a superhero character but I didn’t want to create something in the usual mould. Years later, the idea came back to knock on my head, when our young readers started asking for a superhero character in Tinkle. I thought perhaps SuperWeirdos could fill in the gap, adding something of their own to the genre.
The series is about Aisha, a 12-year-old who desperately wants to be a superhero. She tries everything possible, from leaping from trees to standing on her head (even dancing around random stone circles!) to discover one measly superpower. And discover one she does, except it is one that embarrasses her to no end. She jiggles when people of certain superpowers (SuperWeirdos) are around. These are youngsters like Aisha, who are discovering certain weird powers in themselves that they consider useless. So we have a child who has stopped jumping for fear of causing earthquakes while there is another who can’t wave out to people unless he wants to get them invisibly slapped. During the course of their adventures, Aisha helps them realise that their powers are not as useless as they think.
In Whoosh! Aisha and her friend Heer encounter SuperWeirdos who make even the other SuperWeirdos they have met so far seem normal. To make things worse, Aisha now seems to sense the SuperWeird in everything and every person around, or else why would she jiggle when listening to her cousin’s girlfriend giggle, or while attending a show by the hottest music band in town, or even when reading about a place where the winds slap and the rains sting? Is the world going mad, or is Aisha? The more she tries to solve the mystery, the deeper she is pulled in.
How many people were involved in designing the above mentioned comics? (Illustrator, writer, colouring etc)
Tantri the Mantri – The Dream Team was written by Sean D’mello, illustrated by Vineet Nair, coloured by Akshay Khadilkar, and lettered by Pranay Bendre. The cover was made by Vineet.
SuperWeirdos – Whoosh! was written by me, illustrated and coloured by Abhijeet Kini and lettered by Prasad Sawant. The cover was made by Abhijeet.
I have been the Editor for the Tall Tales series so far, and Savio Mascarenhas the Art Director. The whole Tinkle team worked on the production.
How do you plan to market your stories?
Aishwary Gupta: We will be promoting the Tinkle Tall Tales through the vast offline and online network available to us. This involves print ads in Amar Chitra Katha, the single largest children’s publication in India, and in Tinkle, the largest selling monthly children’s magazine. Promotional banners will be displayed on several websites including amarchitrakatha.com and tinkleonline.com. This will be followed by individual mailers to our existing 5 lac database. In addition to this, there will also be events promoting the Tinkle Tall Tales across the target regions/territories. 
How many more volumes are in the pipeline?
Rajani: The next edition of Tall Tales will hit the market next year. Each title comprises 48 pages, cost Rs 125 each and will be published in print format for now. We have two more of our popular characters in the pipeline – Suppandi – The Real World written by Dolly Pahlajani and illustrated by Rajesh Sakpal; and Dental Diaries – The Ride of Your (After) Life written by Dolly again and illustrated by Abhijeet Kini. You will be seeing Suppandi in a setting and in an adventure never seen before but it’s going to be a fun, loony ride. As for Billy, our fangless vampire of the Dental tales, his quest for fangs is going to surprise both him and the reader, and leave them rolling on the floor.
What are your future plans?
Every New Year begins with a surprise and this year is no different. We are starting a new series and have loads of other surprises for our young readers.
We have been introducing new characters each year (SuperWeirdos, Dental Diaries, School’s In, and PsyMage – Tinkle’s first true blue superhero series), based on what our readers have been asking for, and each series has been a hit. It follows that some of them will find their way into the Tall Tales books.