From childhood, Binu C Madhavan had a deep love for comics. With a talent for drawing and a fascination with comic characters, he spent his leisure time creating comic stories using pencil and pen sketches. Now he is set to launch a series of graphic stories based on Aithihyamala.
“From a young age, I used to think and imagine comic characters,” says Binu, a guest lecturer in the department of applied arts at RLV College, Tripunithura.
“I wrote stories and translated them into pictures as well. As I was trained in sketching, I found it amusing as well as productive.”
When he learned about an Aithihyamala project by students at the College of Teacher Education in Tripunithura, Binu decided to sketch the characters in it.
“This Aithihyamala series was prepared by a few students of Prof. Rajeev Puliyoor. I collected the script from the students and started sketching the characters. It took around two to three months to complete Aithihyamala Chitrakadha,” says Binu.
Rajeev Puliyoor, who is now principal of the College of Teacher Education in Nedumkandam, says these stories were curated by the students as part of an assignment.
“I used to teach at the College of Teacher Education, Tripunithura. That’s when I asked the B.Ed students to prepare stories based on Aithihyamala, which was part of their syllabus,” he recalls.
“They delved into its roots, did thorough research and developed stories. The Malayalam teachers edited them. Later, we asked Binu to turn them into graphic stories.”
Binu, who studied at RLV College of Arts, has created, sketched, and published several other comic characters, such as Super Rambo, Detective Makru, James Bond Dog, and Minnal Manushyan. He quips that he has always written stories, even if they did not always make sense to others.
“Among friends, we often discuss graphics, sketches, animation, stories, and new characters. Presenting a story through graphics or images makes it easier to understand. Readers can grasp the story more easily that way,” he says.
Graphic stories, he believes, make reading more accessible, especially for children. “No one has done graphic stories based on Aithihyamala. Graphic stories can help attract more children and young people to reading. We need to instil the habit of reading in children. Also, Aithihyamala stories will give them an understanding of history,” says Binu, who is now planning to release the Aithihyamala Chitrakadha on Instagram.