Comix India-backed Indie Comix Fest debuted with its maiden edition on 2 October 2017 in Colaba’s Y.W.C.A and suffice to say, the event was a resounding success.
Co-organised by The Pulpocracy and WonTolla, the festival was light up with comic writers and illustrators from Mumbai, Delhi, Goa and so on, showcasing their comic strips, illustrations, graphic novels and so much more!
Whilst the festival was the first under its name, the platform provided a great opportunity for the comic industry to network and also communicate with the masses through their work.
Abhijeet Kini of the Angry Maushi series, Fanboys and Superwierdos fame, said “I think this is a good event to be a part as we’re getting to meet a lot of other Indie publishers. The fans also get to check out our comics and understand the market better. It’s a fun outing overall.”
“Since this is the first time this is happening, there really aren’t any expectations, but more the merrier!” he further adds.
Flying in all the way from New Delhi was Lokesh Khodke of Blue Jackal with interesting themes such as “situational comics”, a one-page comic based on a particular situation, real as well as fictional. He says, “We have with us, a comics based on Hyderabad University’s Rohit Vemula’s suicide. Another comic has a song as a situation, and so on. We also have on display, a project that we are doing with FICCA, which are paintings by the late Inder Bhan Madan, which he did for 60 years but he never published those.”
Upon the experience of the event, Khodke says, “The event is very exciting. Unlike at the Comic Cons where people normally come to sell, this is a kind of community engagement where we can interact with each other. This is a great opportunity for us as well as we not only to get to know more about others, but also share our work with people.”
Mumbai-based Crimzon studios, one of the participants, introduced new series The Anthology, and founder-director Amit Ghadge exulted about the fine start to the Indie Comix Fest. He says, “I’m very happy to see people coming here, meeting people from the industry, know about all the latest happenings, as there aren’t many platforms that do the same. So it’s a good start.”
“I’d be glad to see more such events coming up.”
Comix India founder and Indie Comix Fest co-organiser Bharat Murthy explains the purpose of the event as he says, “It is important that we create a culture of reading as well as making comics. It has to be at the grassroot level, be localised and focussed on comics. That was the spirit of organising this fest.”
“We also want to express diversity in comics and do it non-profit. This is primarily to support and celebrate comics as well as boost comic culture.”
The Pulpocracy founder-editor Kailash Iyer, who too was a part of the organising members, said, “We just felt to put together an event where the focus is less on the commerce aspect and more on community building. We hope in the next one or two years we will do this more regularly and in a few more cities.”
Holy Cow Entertainment, Bombay Underground, Ahmed Sikander, Nitin Veturkar, Rahul Bhandare, Sumit Kumar, Nachiket Patwardhan, Saumin Patel, Jazyl Homavazir, Raviraj Naik, Madhav Nair, Pradeep Yadav and Vinay Brahmania (drshti) were also among the participants for the event.