This will be the first year after the last 10 that Delhi’s event calendar won’t kick off with the Comic Con India, thanks to Covid. Over the last decade, every February, the Capital is overrun with caped crusaders and other costumed characters from all manner of entertainment media, while the creators and stars of the various franchises flew down to Delhi to interact with their legions of fans.
Jatin Varma, Founder of Comic Con India, and its many ancillary properties, is determined to not let the 10th anniversary of the Indian edition of the world’s largest celebration of geek-dom pass by without, well, a celebration.
“It obviously is not being held at its usual time, but later in the year, hopefully in the autumn-winter season, once there are more vaccines and vaccinated people out there, we’ll celebrate the occasion with a bang,” says Varma, 36, clearly itching to get out into the arenas of his making.
What began as a relatively small event, relegated to one corner of South Delhi’s Dilli Haat in 2011’s sunny February, with a few hundred fans with even fewer in costume and a limited line-up of events and comic book writers and artists, has since gone into boss mode.
Now held across stadia like the JLN Stadium and the NSIC grounds, the mega-event boasts lakh of visitors and fans, with flying visits by creators and stars of global entertainment powerhouses ranging from HBO to well, everything that Disney owns, as well a sprinkling of legendary comic artists and writers from the old days of ink and print. It is, after all, Comic Con.
“Of course, like with everyone else, we have adapted to more digital media and have seen some great responses with online events, but conventions are still very much an inperson experience, and the whole team is looking to get back out there,” says the media entrepreneur. Out there is more than just Delhi’s Comic Con.
While the Capital is still the site of the Annual Indian Comics Convention, the property has since expanded into Comic Con Express; Mumbai Film and Comic Con, Bangalore Comic Con and Hyderabad Comic Con.
“We had introduced Ahmedabad Comic Con last year just before the situation got serious and social gatherings began to be restricted. Hopefully, we’ll get back to all those cities later this year,” he says. Varma points out that since the conventions are held outdoors, there’s significantly less risk of infection as compared to indoor functions.
He believes that if all social distancing norms are followed and more people get vaccinated, authorities will be inclined to allow large social gatherings, at least after summer. That means we should be in for a winter of content.