Chitrakatha (

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

: चित्रकथा,

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

: చిత్రకథ) are

comics a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

s originating from India published in a number of Indian languages. India has a long tradition of comic readership and themes associated with extensive mythologies and folk-tales have appeared as children's comic books for decades. Indian comics often have large publication. The comic industry was at its peak in the late 1980s and early 1990s and during this period popular comics were easily sold more than 500,000 copies over the course of its shelf life of several weeks. Currently, it only sell around 50,000 copies over a similar period. India's once-flourishing comic industry is in sharp decline because of increasing competition from satellite television (children's television channels) and the gaming industry. Over the last 6 decades

Diamond Comics Diamond Comics is an Indian comic books publisher and distribution company, headquartered in Delhi. It is the largest comic book distributor and publisher in India. Diamond Comics created several original Indian comic characters like Chacha C ...

Raj Comics Raj Comics, is an Indian comic books publisher, based in New Delhi, India. It published a line of Indian comic books through Raja Pocket Books since its foundation in 1984 by Rajkumar Gupta, Manoj Gupta and Sanjay Gupta. Some of its most we ...

Tinkle ''Tinkle'' is an Indian fortnightly magazine for children in English, published from Mumbai. Originally owned by the India Book House, the Tinkle brand was acquired by ACK (Amar Chitra Katha) Media in 2007. The magazine contains comics, sto ...

Balarama Balarama (Sanskrit: बलराम, IAST: ''Balarāma'') is a Hindu god and the elder brother of Krishna. He is particularly significant in the Jagannath tradition, as one of the triad deities. He is also known as Haladhara, Halayudha, Balad ...

and

Amar Chitra Katha Amar Chitra Katha (ACK Comics) is an Indian publisher of Indian comics and graphic novels. Most of its comics are based on religious legends and epics, historical figures and biographies, folktales and cultural stories. The company was founded ...

have established vast distribution networks countrywide and are read by hundreds of thousands of children in a wide range of languages. Famous comic creators from India include Pratap Mulick, Chandu, Harvinder Mannkar, Sukhwant Kalsi,

Anupam Sinha Anupam Sinha is an Indian comic book artist and writer, credited as the creator of the Raj Comics superhero Super Commando Dhruva. The ''BusinessWorld'' website said that Sinha revolutionised Indian comics with his work at Raj Comics. Career S ...

Aabid Surti Abid Surti or Aabid Surti (born 5 May 1935) is a painter, author, cartoonist, journalist, environmentalist, playwright and screenwriter from India. He was given a National Award by the government of India in 1993 for writing a series of short s ...

, Uncle Pai and cartoonist

Pran Kumar Sharma Pran Kumar Sharma (15 August 1938 – 5 August 2014), better known as Pran, was an Indian cartoonist best known as the creator of ''Chacha Chaudhary'' (1971). He also created other characters like Shrimatiji, Pinki, Billoo, Raman, and Channi ...

, Neerad and famous characters are

Chacha Chaudhary Chacha Chaudhary is an Indian comic book character, created by cartoonist Pran Kumar Sharma. The comic comes in ten Indian languages including Hindi and English and has sold over ten million copies. It has also been made into a television serie ...

, Bahadur, Meeku,

Motu Patlu ''Motu Patlu'' is an Indian animated sitcom created by Harvinder Mankkar and written by Niraj Vikram that premiered on Nickelodeon in India on 16 October 2012. The series is produced by Cosmos-Maya Studios and Viacom 18. It is adapted from the ...

, Detective Moochhwala,

Nagraj Nagraj is a superhero appearing in Indian comic books published by Raj Comics created in the late 1980s by Rajkumar Gupta. Nagraj first appeared in the comics Nagraj GENL #14 which was written by Parshuram Sharma and illustrated by Pratap Mul ...

Super Commando Dhruva Super Commando Dhruva is an Indian superhero appearing in comic books published by Raj Comics. The character, created by writer and illustrator Anupam Sinha, first appeared in GENL #74 ''Pratishodh Ki Jwala'' published in April 1987 and since t ...

, Doga, Suppandi and

Shikari Shambu Shikari Shambu (''Hunter Shambu'') is an Indian comics character created by Vasant Halbe and Luis Fernandes for the ''Tinkle'' magazine in 1983. Shikari Shambu is one of the characters of Tinkle. Shambu is a cowardly and lazy shikari (hunter) ...

and many more . Anant Pai, affectionately known as "Uncle Pai," is credited with helping to launch India's comic book industry in the 1960s with his "

" series chronicling the ancient Hindu mythologies.

History

India's comic industry began in the mid-1960s when the leading newspaper ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...

'' launched

Indrajal Comics Indrajal Comics was a comic book series in India launched by the publisher of ''The Times of India'', Bennet, Coleman & Co in March 1964. The first 32 issues contained Lee Falk's ''The Phantom'' stories, but thereafter, the title alternated betwe ...

. The industry evolved later in India. Up until the late 1960s the comics were only enjoyed by the children of wealthy parents. But from that time until the early 1990s they established themselves in the market. The evolution of Indian comics can be broadly divided into many phases. Around 1950s saw syndicated strips like

The Phantom ''The Phantom'' is an American adventure comic strip, first published by Lee Falk in February 1936. The main character, the Phantom, is a fictional costumed crime-fighter who operates from the fictional African country of Bangalla. The charact ...

Mandrake A mandrake is the root of a plant, historically derived either from plants of the genus '' Mandragora'' found in the Mediterranean region, or from other species, such as ''Bryonia alba'', the English mandrake, which have similar properties. The ...

Flash Gordon Flash Gordon is the protagonist of a space adventure comic strip created and originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by, and created to compete with, the already established ''Buck Rogers'' adve ...

Rip Kirby ''Rip Kirby'' is an American comic strip created by Alex Raymond and Ward Greene featuring the adventures of private detective Rip Kirby. The strip ran from 1946 to 1999 and was in the hands of artist John Prentice for more than 40 years. Pub ...

being translated to Indian languages. The success of such comic books was followed by a swarm of publishers trying to emulate these titles. The second phase in the late 1960s came in the form of

(literally translated as "immortal picture stories"), comics with hundred percentage Indian content. In the 1970s several indigenous comics were launched to rival the Western

superhero comics Superhero comics are one of the most common genres of American comic books. The genre rose to prominence in the 1930s and became extremely popular in the 1940s and has remained the dominant form of comic book in North America since the 1960s. Su ...

. The superhero comics in the early '80s marked the third wave, with creators and publishers hoping to benefit from the success of the superhero genre in the West. However, one of India's earliest superheroes is Batul the Great, was created during the 1960s by Narayan Debnath., whose early comic strip '' Handa Bhonda'', inspired by

Laurel and Hardy Laurel and Hardy were a British-American Double act, comedy duo act during the early Classical Hollywood cinema, Classical Hollywood era of American cinema, consisting of Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and American Oliver Hardy (1892–19 ...

, had been launched in the magazine '' Shuktara'' in 1962. In the 1980s, at least 5.5 million copies of comics such as Heroes of Faith series were sold in India. Dozens of publishers churned out hundreds of such comic books every month, but this trend nosedived in the late '90s with the advent of cable television, Internet and other modes of entertainment in India. However, publishers like Raj Comics and Diamond Comics along with comics like Amar Chitra Katha (with characters such as Suppandi) have been able to sustain their readership. After a lull, new publishing companies such as

Level 10 Comics Level 10 Entertainment is a comic publishing company based out of Mumbai, India. Founded in late 2009 by Shreyas Srinivas and Suhas Sundar, the company started publishing comic books for the teen audience in April 2010. Its flagship monthly publi ...

, Chariot Comics, Arkin Comics, Nila Comics,

Yali Dream Creations Yali Dream Creations LLC, known as YDC, is an Indian comic books publisher, focused on creating original stories using comics and graphic novels. YDC was founded in 2012 by Asvin Srivatsangam, and published its first graphic novel in 2013, wri ...

, Fiction Comics, Comix Theory, Green Gold, Jr. Diamond etc. have appeared on the market in the last few years. Comic publishers meanwhile have been accused by critics of lacking innovation in the face of digital competition. But counter to the claims many innovations had been introduced where Indian publishers have tried many innovative ways to promote comics such as animation, film and short films, and TV serials and ecomics, VHS films, audio films and mobile apps by Raj Comics, Diamond Comics, Amar Chitra Katha. And a very innovatively attempt was done by Indian publishers which is reaching out to 236 Indian Rajya Sabha members through sending postcards with request to promote reading books and comics by world record holder sri Niand Jadhav ji in conjunction with Indian comics publishers Comix Theory and Comics Byte, and also comics art workshops, massive comics giveaways programs, Pulp Gulp Talk Show made by Comix Theory to promote comics digitally and brings out various topics of discourse in mainstream comics which were earlier not present like comics and philosophy, history of comics directly from the academicians, link between comics and fine art and theatre from the viewpoints of legendary as well as new comics artist of Indian comics industry, making a rich contribution to the present culture and discourse on Indian comics from within. A dedicated news portal
Comics Byte
has been seen covering Indian comics and its activities. Recently vr and ar enabled comics were seen apart from the long exploited 3d comics of past, TBS Planet comics devised vr comics where one can discover a hidden treasure box called 'treasure hunt" through the help of their smart phone pointing at the pages of comics, another example is from Kolkata Comics who made AR capable comics to translate comics from bangle language to English language on smart phone screen all these innovations, innovative activities makes recent years in Indian comics most dynamic and addressing the issues developed historically in Indian comics industry.

Webcomics Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books. Webcomics can be ...

have been a popular medium in India since the early 2000s. Indian webcomics are successful as they reach a large audience for free and they are frequently used by the country's younger generation to spread

social awareness Social consciousness or social awareness, is collective consciousness shared by individuals within a society.politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

and

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

. These webcomics reach a large amount of exposure by being spread through

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

. Also there were publishers solely dedicated to bringing licensed content to Indian comics market. Gotham Comics was such an example around 1997 to 2008. Gotham Comics made possible Spiderman India a version of western iconic character Spiderman. Dolton comics, courtesy to Chandamama had many DC characters published in India in various languages mainly superman and batman were staple products. publication of licensed characters in by Indian comics publishers has a long history which includes publishers like Amar Chitra Katha, Madhumuskan, Gowersons, lion comics, Egmont, euro kids and recent years regal comics, Fenil comics, Shakti comics and many more. Nagraj, Raj Comics, Manoj Gupta

India hosted its first ever

comics convention A comic book convention or comic-con is an event with a primary focus on comic books and comic book culture, in which comic book Fan (person), fans gather to meet creators, experts, and each other. Commonly, comic conventions are multi-day events ...

in February 2011. According to 2012 estimates, the Indian comic publishing industry was worth over 100 million dollars.

, Manoj Comics ,

Tulsi Comics Tulsi Comics was an Indian comics publisher in the late 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, and was a division of Tulsi Pocket Books - founded by Indian writer and author Ved Prakash Sharma. History Backed by Tulsi Pocket Books, a popular publisher ...

have gained immense readership and fan following in north India from 1980's because of their popular characters like

, Billoo, Pinki,

, Hawaldar Bahadur,

Angara The Angara ( Buryat and mn, Ангар, ''Angar'', "Cleft"; russian: Ангара́, ''Angará'') is a major river in Siberia, which traces a course through Russia's Irkutsk Oblast and Krasnoyarsk Krai. It drains out of Lake Baikal and is ...

Jamboo ''Jamboo'' is 1980 Indian Tamil-language action adventure film, co-written, directed and produced by M. Karnan from a story by Maa. Ra. The film stars Jaishankar, leading an ensemble cast that includes Major Sundarrajan, S. A. Ashokan, Thengai ...

and many more. Creators like Anant Pai, Abid Surti, Pran,

Pratap Mullick Pratap Mullick (1 July 1936 – 18 June 2007) was an Indian illustrator and comics artist. He was best known for illustrating Nagraj of Raj Comics which gained lot of popularity under him and was later handed to Anupam Sinha who made Nagraj an act ...

Enver Ahmed Enver Ahmed (1909–1992), pen name Ahmed, was an Indian cartoonist and creator of Chandu, the turbanned, paunchy central character of a popular cartoon strip in the ''Hindustan Times''. Life and career Ahmed was born in Rawalpindi (then in Indi ...

, Manu,

Ved Prakash Sharma Ved Prakash Sharma (10 June 1955 – 17 February 2017) was an Indian writer of novels and screenplays in Hindi. He was born in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, where he completed his graduation from NAS Degree College. After beginning his professional ca ...

, Parshuram Sharma, and many more are well known in north Indian comics due to their creations of various comics characters and volumes of works produced during their active period. The popularity of

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

and

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

in India has led to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese manga-inspired comic books, such as ''Mythology'', a comic book based on

Hindu mythology Hindu mythology is the body of myths and literature attributed to, and espoused by, the adherents of the Hindu religion, found in Hindu texts such as the Vedic literature, epics like ''Mahabharata'' and ''Ramayana'', the Puranas, and reg ...

that has been released in India,

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. ''Batu Gaiden'' is a manga fantasy series which incorporates

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

into mythology. From 2005 to recent times there are many attempts by recently ventured and old comics publishers to revive the Indian comics industry including initiatives from Level 10 Comics,

, Holycow Entertainment, Chariot Comics, Ayumi Comics, Red Streak Comics, Rovolt Comics, Vimanika Comics and TBS Planet Comics, UFC, Dream Comics, Swapnil Comics, Vaishnavi Comics, Fenil Comics, Dhaansu Productions and the surviving Raj Comics itself. Amar Chitra Katha, Raj Comics and Diamond Comics has ventured into other entertainment media like feature films, web series, games, mobile applications etc. since late 1990s and continuously attempting to widen their impact on the comics-reading population. By the end of 2019, many new comic-making companies have shown a great interest in the upbringing of the Indian comic industry and are fighting to make a mark in the industry.

Indian comics publishers

Balabhumi ''Balabhumi'' (Malayalam: ''ബാലഭൂമി'') is a Malayalam comic magazine published by Mathrubhumi Publications. It was launched in April, 1996 by the Calicut-based Malayalam newspaper Mathrubhumi. The magazine became a weekly in May 1 ...

Balarama (magazine) ''Balarama'' () is an Indian weekly comic magazine published by M. M. Publications, of Malayala Manorama, Malayala Manorama Group from Kottayam, Kerala in Malayalam-language, Malayalam language (digest-sized, on every Friday). It is one of most ...

* Champak *

Chandamama ''Chandamama'' was a classic Indian monthly magazine for children, famous for its illustrations. It also published long-running mythological/magical stories that ran for years. Originally, "Chandamama" was started in Telugu by Chakrapani and ...

Chitra Bharti Kathamala Chitra Bharti Kathamala was a popular Indian comic book publication during the early 1980s. It was the comic publication line of one of the India's biggest publishers of Engineering and technical books - S.Chand and Company Ltd, New Delhi. They fin ...

King Comics King Comics, a short-lived comic book imprint of King Features Syndicate, was an attempt by King Features to publish comics of its own characters, rather than through other publishers. A few King Comics titles were picked up from Gold Key Comic ...

Kiran Comics Kiran Comics was an Indian comics, Indian comic line that published a variety of US comics in India in English & Hindi from 1979-1990 by Kiran Publications and distributed by India Book House (IBH). Like many other Indian comics of the era, Kiran ...

* Lalu Leela *

* Lion Comics *

Lotpot ''Lotpot'' is a bilingual comic magazine published by Mayapuri Group. ''Lotpot'' title was registered by Mr. A.P. Bajaj in 1969 and the first issue came out in the same year and has been published without a break since then. Popular characters of ...

Madhu Muskan ''Madhu Muskan'' (meaning ''Sweet Smiles'' in English) was an Indian weekly comic magazine from the Gowarsons Group of Companies, which had a circulation of up to 100,000 in the late 1970s. History and profile ''Madhu Muskan'' was started by ...

* Manoj Comics *

Radha Comics Radha Comics was an Indian comics publication in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was published by Radha Pocket Books, Meerut, India. It was published on a monthly schedule with usually four to six comics in each monthly comic-set. The comics ...

*Radiant Comics *

*Shakti Comics *

Star Comics IBH Star Comics was an Indian comic line published by IBH (India Book House) popular during the 1970s and 1980s. Because the publication had few original characters, it relied heavily upon the license to print comics of popular international characte ...

* Vimanika Comics *

Yomics World Yomics World, or 'Yomics' is the comic book division of Yash Raj Films Studios, specializing in creating comic books predominantly based on Yash Raj Films movies and suitable for readers of all ages. These comics are available across the print and ...

Notable figures

* Abid Surti * Anant Pai *

Dheeraj Verma Dheeraj Verma (22 October 1967 – 7 June 2021) was an Indian comic book artist and creator. He is often credited with being the first Indian to enter the US comics industry. Early life Dheeraj Verma was born on 22 October 1967, in Delhi, In ...

Manoj Gupta Manoj Gupta (born December 23, 1967) is an Indian publisher, editor, and the President and Co-founder of Raja Pocket Books and its subsidiary Raj comics. He established the most popular and longest running comic book company Raj Comics together wi ...

* Narayan Debnath *

Annual events

Comic Con India Comic Con India (CCI) is a series of annual comic-based conventions held in India. The first edition was held in New Delhi in 2011 and over the years has expanded to other major cities in India such as Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad and Ahm ...

Comics Fest India Comics Fest India (previously known as Nagraj Janmotsav) was a comic-based convention held in India, annually at New Delhi. The event began as an annual birthday celebration for Nagraj. But the increasing number of fans and participants made t ...

New Delhi World Book Fair The New Delhi World Book Fair, hosted at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi, is India's second oldest book fair after the Kolkata Book Fair. The first New Delhi World Book Fair was held from March 18 to April 4, 1972 in roughly 6790 m2 area with 20 ...

References

Bibliography

* Dastidar, D. Ghosh. “Prospects of Comic Studies in India,” ''Gnosis'' 3 (2019), 113–128. * Hawley, John Stratton. 'The Saints Subdued: Domestic Virtue and National Integration in Amar Chitra Katha' in ''Media and the Transformation of Religion in South Asia'', eds. Lawrence A Babb, Susan S. Wadley, Motilal Banarasidas, 1998. * MacLain, Karline. ''India's Immortal Comic Books: Gods, Kings, and Other Heroes'', Indiana University Press, 2009. . * Pritchett, Frances W. 'The World of Amar Chitra Katha' in ''Media and the Transformation of Religion in South Asia'', eds. Lawrence A Babb, Susan S. Wadley, Motilal Banarasidas, 1998. * Lent, John A., ''Comic Art of Africa, Asia, Australia, and Latin America Through 2000: An International Bibliography'', Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004.

External links

GraphicShelf
- India's first Graphic Novel Database
CulturePOPcorn – Indian Comics and POP Culture News Channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Indian Comics Indian comics artists Indian literature