Generations of readers have enjoyed Tinkle and the magazine has changed to keep pace with each new generation that comes. However the essence of Tinkle remains the same – Where learning meets fun.
The Tinkle Toons make Tinkle special. They have been unique and massively popular down the years whether they are our classic toons – Suppandi, Shikari Shambu, Tantri the Mantri and Kalia the Crow or the new kids on the block—Ina Mina Mynah Mo, Defective Detectives, SuperWeirdos, Dental Diaries, WingStar and Wai Knot.
And now, one of India’s oldest comic publications is coming up with fortnightly for the month of November in order to commemorate the thirty-seventh anniversary of Tinkle. Spread between the two issues are: a special story from PV Sindhu, a mega Toon mash-up, the launch of a new Toon series, two winning entries from the Idea Star contest, Tinkle Party Merch, and lots more exciting stories and activities.
Some of the highlights of anniversary issues include:
- A comic from badminton ace and Olympics silver medalist PV Sindhu, specially for children’s day.
- A thrilling Mega Toon mash-up story that has Defective Detectives—Ravi and Rahul—joining forces with Sam and Mynah from the Ina Mina Mynah Mo siblings to take on an insane villain
- The two stories that won the most votes in these two fortnightlies—Best SuperWeirdo power and Best WingStar villain
- A special Do-It-Yourself activity where one can create fun Tinkle party props
- The third Tinkle awards where the readers can vote for their favourite issues, covers, stories and comic characters.
The fortnightly will also witness the launch of a brand new series YogYodhas and here’s a brief synopsis of the same – While staying and studying at VidyAshray, the school sanctuary for orphans, siblings Bir and Bala come upon a startling secret. The birthmarks on their bodies that get them called “freaks” by other students are not simple birthmarks. The marks indicate that the two kids are the last young of the YogYodhas, a secret group of Spirit Warriors with magical powers.
With YogYodhas, Tinkle explores a fictional philosophy and martial art form, based on yoga and kalaripayattu, for the first time. It will be a fantasy action-adventure set in present-day Kuruva as well as the Silent Valley (both based on actual places in Kerala).
The series has been conceived and written by Rajani Thindiath, illustrated by Vineet Nair, coloured by Varda Kumrotkar and lettered by Prasad Sawant.
Comprising of 52-pages each, the Tinkle team of writers, artists and designers have made ends meet in order to bring out the special issues.
Tinkle CEO Rajani Thindiath also explains the viewpoint of this anniversary special, “Every anniversary is an occasion to say Thank You to Uncle Pai who founded Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle, especially when many of us on the Tinkle team grew up reading these beautifully fun comics. Each anniversary is also a Thank You to our readers who span generations.”
“So it is a joy to brainstorm and figure out how special we can make each new anniversary. With these fortnightlies, we had the pleasure of knowing the gracious PV Sindhu who contributed a story from her childhood. We had a blast building a new world for the latest character series YogYodhas. We sifted through ideas and votes from the IdeaStar contest to come up with the best SuperWeird power, best WingStar villain and best monster for the Dental Diaries series. And then, figuring out which characters will combine to provide the maximum madness to make up a Mega-Toon mash-up,” she further added.
The first fortnightly will be from 1 to 15 November 2017, followed by the second from 16 to 30 November 2017.