Comic industry in India is growing and how! The indie comic artists are charged up, bringing new stories to the audience to munch on. With the number of comic enthusiasts only growing with each passing day, the artists’ brigade is matching the pace. 2018 saw new comics being published, new comic artists’ being launched and various comic fests gracing different cities all across the country.
The internet is penetrating even the smaller cities and towns at a rapid speed, making way for many vernacular readers to try out the new platforms with the increasing usage of social media. TBS Planet founder Rajeev Tamhankar said, “We used WhatsApp as an innovative medium to send comics to subscribers and saw over thousand new subscribers in just one day.” Recently, Reliance Jio also released an article about TBS Planet, telling how TBS Planet Comic Channel crossed 50,000+ subscribers on their mobile app, Jio Chat.
Comic artist Abhijeet Kini mentioned, “As an indie-comics publisher and comic artist, I personally had a terrific year with the kind of content we could churn out under our banner. Abhijeet Kini Studios had the maximum number of comics released this year compared to the past few years, including the Rhyme Fighters Vol 2 and 3 as well as the Collected Odes edition, the Dabbawala comic in English and Marathi (with SodaBottleOpenerWaala), Dainik Jagran’s Sanskarshala (a Hindi comic we got to work on), Holy Hell 5 (with Meta Desi Comics), and a whole lot of other commissioned comics for clients and of course our very own Indian favourite, Tinkle!”
Comic artists in India found the last year to be exciting with the launch of new comic series across the country at the Comic Con, which helped in introducing readers to new publishing entities who have entered the arena. Kini adds, “Events like Comic Cons and the year old Indie Comix Fest editions have really helped unearth a lot of good artists and writers, and thus have given everyone a great platform to show the world what they have created.”
Yali Dream Creations chief creative officer Shamik Dasgupta mentioned, “2018 was an eventful year for us, we completed the last two parts of our Rakshak series and our original graphic novel The Village. We made more than 300 pages worth of content in a span of one year of the long expansive superhero saga of Rakshak and will be finishing the first season.” The Village is possibly the first hardcover original graphic novel in India, with a unique kind of horror story told in the backdrop of rural Tamil Nadu.
This year Yali Dream Creations had the deal of a live-action adaptation of the vampire series, The Caravan with a major studio in Bollywood. “Comic Con has been very helpful in promoting our works and have supported us throughout the year. On the whole I can say the comic book industry though seeming to be nascent is growing slowly, all we need is a push from media, and people will see there are so many stories we have to tell,” Dasgupta concluded.
The various comic events taking place across the nation are providing a good platform for indie comics to reach out to more audience and in bringing on board various new talents from different parts of the country. With an increased reader ratio and huge growth of digital media, here is hoping 2019 keeps the trend going and the Indian comic scene goes higher up!
