Arun Prasad is an historian specialised in the history of karnataka, a comics archivist and a pannapictagraphist (comics collector). He is also a researcher, freelance writer and columnist on the

heritage Heritage may refer to: History and society * A heritage asset A heritage asset is an item which has value because of its contribution to a nation's society, knowledge and/or culture. Such items are usually physical assets, but some countries also ...

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

and presently the Project & Research Head of ''Discover Bengaluru'', an organisation documenting the

city's heritage and history. His comics collection includes more than 17,000 rare and old Indian/Western comics including rarest of

Amar Chitra Katha Amar Chitra Katha (ACK Comics) is an Indian comic book publisher, based in Mumbai, India. The company was founded in 1967 by Anant Pai. Most of its comics are based on religious legends and epics, historical figures and biographies, folktale ...

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

Tinkle ''Tinkle'' is an Indian weekly 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, stories, ...

Mandrake the Magician ''Mandrake the Magician'' is a Comic strip syndication, syndicated newspaper comic strip, created by Lee Falk before he created ''The Phantom''.Ron Goulart, ''The Encyclopedia of American Comics''. New York: Facts on File, 1990. . pp. 91, 249 ...

and

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 char ...

. He also possesses the complete collection of

(published by Bennett, Coleman).

Awards and recognition

* He was described and called as "''one of India's most serious comic collectors''" and "''India's comic king''" by the

Mid-Day ''Mid-Day'' (stylised as mid-day) is a morning daily Indian compact newspaper. Editions in various languages including Gujarati and English have been published out of Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Pune so far. In 2011, the Delhi and Bangalore ...

Magazine in December 2013. * In August 2014 he was one of the featured collectors on ''The Great India Collectors Ride'' (

History Channel History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney General Entertainme ...

). * He won Indian Comics Fandom Award 2014 for Best Comics Collector in November 2014. * One of the featured Pannapictagraphists (December 2014 - February 2015) in daily e-paper World Comics & Graphic Novels News(WCGNN) published by Freelance talents.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Prasad, Arun 21st-century Indian historians Writers from Bengaluru Indian columnists Comic collectors Living people Year of birth missing (living people)