
BENGALURU: It is finally that time of year when ‘nerds’ can shed off the bullying they face for actually being cool enough to like comics, and rise up in festive unison; Comic Con India is here! The Indian edition of the beloved international convention has a lineup of visionary artists, trailblazing local publishers, merchandise, and more.
Comic Con is a festival whose constriction to the urban metropolis in India is emblematic of the country’s limited reading culture. Even standing in the year 2025, when graphic art and forms of storytelling transcending the textual have irrevocably intermingled with mass culture, the mention of the word ‘comics’, still, invites a sort of peculiar disdain (at least in India) whose implication seems to conjure an image of the form as an inherently inferior one.
The advent of Comic Con in this regard is a much-needed intervention, despite its aforementioned limited reach and the fact that a medium needs this sort of ‘legitimation’ at all. Graphic artists from India already have the beloved Indie Comix Fest, but the stage of Comic Con is indubitably a bigger one. It is a stage that allows a mellifluous commingling of art from diverse spaces and demographics, which only benefits the art itself and the artists who produce it.
Ron Marz and Jamal Igle, American comic-book artists whose genre-spanning works are widely celebrated and revered (at least in the West), are as excited as the fans to be a part of Comic Con ’25 in Bengaluru. “This is my first time in Bengaluru, but my second time in India. I have previously visited Hyderabad, now I’m looking forward to Bengaluru,” Marz notes. Igle, for whom this trip will be his first to India in general, says: “Despite having a large Indian population in the United States, my only real exposure has been through the American lens, so to speak.”
In the vein of comics and the politics of its existence in the Indian context, Marz is more hopeful than cautious. “I think it just takes time,” he states, continuing: “For decades, comics and graphic novels in America were seen only as juvenile entertainment. But in the last two decades or so, especially with so many comic stories making the transition to movies and television, the perception has really changed. I really believe the trajectory will be the same in India, as more and more people are exposed to the artform.” A true artist, he does not shy away from expressing his ardent love for the form: “We do this because we love it, because we can’t stop doing it.”
Igle, who is ‘a professor at a university that specialises in comic book art’, not unlike Marz, acknowledges quite rightly India’s nascence in the comic book scene and holds it responsible. In all his erudition he remarks that “Reading, in general, is an ‘active participation media’, meaning that to enjoy it, you must be fully engaged with it, as opposed to television, film, and music, for example.” Igle’s advice for upcoming artists is one of clarity: “You’re going to grow and change as the world around you changes. Be flexible, be adaptable.”
Accessibility, however limited, will be the key point in this year’s Comic Con as well. As Marz notes, “Now comics are seen as just another way to tell a story, and seemingly everyone is a part of comic[s] culture thanks to conventions.” Jatin Verma, founder of Comic Con India, is a picture of brimming optimism: “Bengaluru has always been at the heart of this vibrant scene, and we’re excited to bring fans an even bigger and better experience this year.”
(Comic Con is on Jan 18-19, at KTPO, Whitefield. Entry Rs 899 onwards on insider.in )