It is a widely conceived perception that comic books are referred to as been made specifically for children. When mentioned about a comic book, the first thing that comes to mind is comic stories based on superheroes targeting an age-group that include toddlers and kids. But the truth been told, some comic books are apt for adults more than they are suitable for kids. As it is likely visible the love for comics had started when we were kids, but it has continued to persist as the content has also grown in age. There are comic books which are liked by adults due to the mature content that they cover. Moving from kid stories, comic books are covering rich content based on graphic bloodshed, violence, and bone-chilling deaths. One cannot find a visible mark on such comic books to distinguish them from the kid-friendly books. Sometimes the cover page defines it all and other times one has to read the content to know whether it is suitable for kids or not. These ghastly comic scenes are more than simple drawings, but a horrifying piece of art. The illustrations of bloody scenes displayed are a food to the imagination, thus scary at times. It also engraves these gruesome images in one’s memory, thus making them want to watch more of such scenes either with whole intentions or half-mindedly. Isn’t it a magic created by the artists?
In old days, comics used to highly focus on heroes saving the day, now the focus has equally shifted to both heroes and villains. More and more content is developed describing both the parties and their exchange of live-action scenes. The importance of developing a superhero has become equivalent to the importance of developing a supervillain. Earlier times used to see superheroes receiving all the popularity and coverage, but now we see a lot of content on supervillains—their strengths, powers, actions, psychological behaviour, and the cruel intentions. If we talk about comics released in the 1940s for instance, we see a huge difference in the look and feel of the content. Those were the days when the comic industry was still learning and experimenting with various ways of creating artwork. Now with far better production technology and artistic expertise, comic artists can easily producing a scene and relatively speaking its context to the readers by warranting their attention with the high-quality and clear-illustrative drawings. A scene with people killing, blood-shedding and dying are exhibited so perfectly that the drawing mesmerises one and takes them to the world of superheroes versus supervillains.
Comic books with twisted logic along with clumsy, absurd, gory, and insignificant drawings can tarnish the minds of children in alarming ways. Such comic books include violence, brutal deaths, blood-sheds, sexual abuse, child labour, and much more, which is not the message we want the children to read. Every adult comic has bizarre moments which are shocking and terrifying as hell. Sometimes these scenes are cringe-worthy and the dark content is not as per our tastes. Despite that, dark comics are running wild and the content is appreciated by those who enjoy a little darkness and brutal content. For more exposure and reach, the content is given the form of a movie too. When transforming these dark comics into movies, it is a heavy task to be carried out as some scenes are difficult as well as inappropriate to be picturised. Thus, many dark scenes are eliminated when the movie version of the book releases. History has also seen many comic books never transformed into a movie due to the context of the content. But, a majority of the comic book content that can be converted is taken up for the movie and successfully done so.
The founder of Fenil Comics, Fenil Sherdiwala, shares his viewpoint for today’s comic trend, “When an ordinary person who is not a comic book reader hears the word “COMICS”, the alternate word comes in his mind is “SUPERHEROES”. In classic comics, superheroes fight with supervillains and save the world. But, earlier the content of these books was based on a combination of reality and fantasy. Now the trend has changed, if publishers want to increase the reach of their content they have to work on the strategy of “DARKNESS”. Today, we also have lots of tales and stories based on the Hindu mythology.”
About Fenil Comics, he continues, “We recently launched a character named as TASKARA which was written by the famous Telugu film actor Kiriti Rambhatla. We are also launching a dark character which will go by the name VETAAL, which will also have web series. In short, readers are tired of same and repeating concepts in comics, so publishers have changed their content and today’s comics have become darker in content.”
A dark character and dark content are slowly making its presence known and liked by today’s generation. There is appreciation in the eyes of the viewers for the character, story-line, and dark artwork. With growing demand for the good-hearted superheroes, there is a clear demand for dark and powerful supervillains. Because who doesn’t like to watch dark been defeated by the good in a savagely violent way?