BANGALORE: One of your first memories as a kid would have been reading a comic book with colourful,lovable and villainous characters such as Chacha Choudhary, Suppandi, Shikari Shambu, Chamataka, Kalia, the crow and a lot more. The attractive illustrations, funny characters and interesting plots kept us hooked for hours together, even through, many a examination throughout our childhood.
Now, comics are making a comeback and unlike earlier where it was targeted only at the younger generation, market leaders are now trying to woo the adults. Not only in India, Indian comics are popular but also, they are being sold in Great Britain, Sri Lanka, UK, Malaysia, Singapore. According to industry estimates, the Indian comic publishing industry is worth over $100 million and is expected to grow more in the coming years. Indian comic publishers banking in on the popularity of Internet are coming up with graphic novels and online editions.
The 1950s saw strips like The Phantom, Rip Kurby and Flash Gordon translated into Indian languages. Later, of course, we had our very own Indian hero Bahadur (Indrajal comics) who had become a household name. In the 1960s, Amar Chitra Katha comics came with an entirely Indian content.
The 1980s which this generation of youngsters, would be able to identify with, saw the arrival of superhero comics trying to emulate the West. Chacha Chaudhary (Diamond comics) and Detective Moochwala (Target magazine) became the staple diet of the young Indian reader. Later, Amar Chitra Katha created by Anant Pai, also affectionately called as Uncle Pai (founder of Amar Chitra Katha) made an entry with stories based on folk tales from India and faraway lands.
The trend of comics plumetted in the 1990s with the advent of cable television and other modes of entertainment. Unfortunately, comic books took a backseat and they rusted away in the bookshelves. But, the last decade has seen revival of the Indian comic book industry after the Virgin Comics’ launch, which was later re-launched as Liquid Comics and it sruck a chord with its readers with mythology-based books. Ramayana is one of their best sellers.
Today, India is annually witnessing sales of five million English comic books, and if you include all the regional languages, the figure is around $30 million.
Amar Chitra Katha has also ventured into animation, merchandising and Disney Publishing Worldwide, a division of Walt Disney Company (India), had announced a licensing agreement with Junior Diamond in 2009 to publish Disney comic books in India, both in English and Hindi. They hadn’t ruled out the possibility to localise the comics’ content for their Indian readers and introduce their comic books in regional languages as well.