Chitrakatha ''(lit: Picture Story'') or Indian comics are

comics a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

graphic novel A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...

s originating from

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

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 sells 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 six decades Diamond Comics,

Raj Comics Raj Comics is an Indian comics, Indian comic book publishing, publisher based in New Delhi, India. It had published a line of Indian comics, Indian comic books through Raja Pocket Books since its foundation in 1984 by Rajkumar Gupta, Manoj Gup ...

, Tinkle,

Balarama Balarama (, ) 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, Baladeva, Balabhadra, and Sankarshana. The fir ...

and Amar Chitra Katha 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, Aabid Surti, Uncle Pai, Ram Waeerkar and cartoonist Pran Kumar Sharma, Neerad and famous characters are Chacha Chaudhary, Bahadur, Meeku, Motu Patlu, Detective Moochhwala, Nagraj, Super Commando Dhruva, Doga, Suppandi and Shikari Shambu 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 " Amar Chitra Katha" 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'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...

'' launched

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 ...

. 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 char ...

Mandrake A mandrake is the root of a plant, historically derived either from plants of the genus '' Mandragora'' (in the family Solanaceae) found in the Mediterranean region, or from other species, such as '' Bryonia alba'' (the English mandrake, in 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'' ...

, Rip Kirby 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 Amar Chitra Katha (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 is 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. Supe ...

. 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 during the early Classical Hollywood cinema, Classical Hollywood era of American cinema, consisting of Englishman Stan Laurel (1890–1965) and American Oliver Hardy (1892–1957) ...

, 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

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, Chariot Comics, Arkin Comics, Nila Comics, Yali Dream Creations, Cheeseburger Comics, Fiction Comics, Comix Theory, Green Gold, Jr. Diamond, Diamond Books, and Diamond Toons 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. Counter to claims, many innovations had been introduced in which Indian publishers have tried many ways to promote comics such as animation, film, television, digital comics, VHS films, audio films, and mobile apps by Raj Comics, Diamond Comics, and Amar Chitra Katha. A very innovative attempt was made by Indian publishers to reach out to 236 Indian

Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...

members by sending postcards with a request to promote the reading of books and comics by world record holder Niand Jadhav, in conjunction with Indian comics publishers Comix Theory and Comics Byte, along with comics art workshops, massive comics giveaways programs, and the Pulp Gulp Talk Show, which were launched by Comix Theory to promote comics digitally and bring out various topics of discourse in mainstream comics which had not been present before, like philosophy, history, fine art, theatre, and new artists. A dedicated news portal, Comics Byte, has covered Indian comics and activities related to them. Recently, VR- and AR-enabled comics were seen as being distinct from the long-exploited 3D comics of the past. TBS Planet Comics released VR comics in which a hidden treasure box can be discovered by holding a smartphone over the pages of comics. Kolkata Comics also published AR-capable comics and translated comics from Bengali to English for viewing on mobile drvices.

Webcomics Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on the internet, such as on a website or a mobile app. While many webcomics are published exclusively online, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or ...

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 on topics such as

politics Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

and

feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

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

social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...

. There were also publishers solely dedicated to bringing licensed content into the Indian comics market. From around 1997 to 2008, Gotham Comics published Spiderman: India, a version of the character

Spider-Man Spider-Man is a superhero in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appearance, first appeared in the anthology comic book ''Amazing Fantasy'' #15 (August 1962) in ...

. Dolton Comics, courtesy of Chandamama, had many DC characters published in India in various languages, mainly

Superman Superman is a superhero created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, which first appeared in the comic book ''Action Comics'' Action Comics 1, #1, published in the United States on April 18, 1938.The copyright date of ''Action Comics ...

and

Batman Batman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. Batman was created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on M ...

were staple products. The publication of licensed characters by Indian comics publishers has a long history, which includes publishers like Amar Chitra Katha, Madhumuskan, Gowersons, Lion Comics, Egmont, Euro Kids, and in recent years, Regal Comics, Fenil Comics, Shakti Comics, and many more. India hosted its first ever comics convention in February 2011. According to 2012 estimates, the Indian comic publishing industry was worth over 100 million dollars. Diamond Comics, Manoj Comics, Raj Comics, Diamond Toons, and

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 fanbases in north India since the 1980's because of their popular characters, like Chacha Chaudhary, Billoo, Pinki, Nagraj, Super Commando Dhruva, Hawaldar Bahadur, Angara, Jamboo and many more. Creators like Anant Pai,

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

, Pran, Pratap Mullick, Enver Ahmed, Anupam Sinha, Manu, Ved Prakash Sharma, Parshuram Sharma, and many more are well known in north Indian comics for creating various comics characters and producing volumes of works during their active period. The popularity of

manga 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 history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

and

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

in India has led to

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

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

Hindu mythology Hindu mythology refers to the collection of myths associated with Hinduism, derived from various Hindu texts and traditions. These myths are found in sacred texts such as the Vedas, the Itihasas (the ''Mahabharata'' and the ''Ramayan ...

that has been released in India,

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

and

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

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

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

into mythology. From 2005 up to recent times, there have been many attempts by recently-ventured and old comics publishers to revive the Indian comics industry, including initiatives from Level 10 Comics, Yali Dream Creations, Cheeseburger Comics, Holycow Entertainment, Chariot Comics, Ayumi Comics, Red Streak Comics, Rovolt Comics, Vimanika Comics, 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, Diamond Comics, and Diamond Toons have ventured into other entertainment media, like feature films, web series, games, and mobile applications since the late 1990s, and have continuously attempted to widen their impact on the comics-reading population.

Indian comics publishers

*Diamond Comics *Amar Chitra Katha *Bal Bharti (Kids Magazine) *Balabhumi (Kids Magazine) *Balamangalam (Kids Magazine) *Balarama (Kids Magazine) *Campfire Comics *Cartoon Plus (Kids Magazine) *Champak (Kids Magazine) *Chetan Comics *Chandamama (Kids Magazine) *Chitra Bharti Kathamala *Chitragatha Comics *Diamond Comics *Durga Comics *Fenil Comics *Fiction Comics *FlyDreams Comics *Fort Comics *Ganga Chitrakatha *Goel Comics *Gowarsons Comics *Guneet Comics *Holy Cow Entertainment *Indrajal Comics *Jain Chitrakatha *King Comics ( part of Raj Comics) *Kiran Comics *Kumar Comics *Kuttikalude Deepika (Kids Magazine) *Lalu Leela *Level 10 Comics *Lion Comics *Lotpot *Madhu Muskan Comics *Manoj Comics *Nandan (Kids Magazine) *Nanhe Samraat (Kids Magazine) *Nutan Comics *Pawan Comics *Pitara Comics *Pinwheel Comics *Prabhat Comics *Prampra Comics *Qissa Comics *Radha Comics *Radiant Comics *Raj Comics *Regal publishers *Sadhna Comics *Shakti Comics *Star Comics IBH *TBS Planet *Tinkle (Kids Magazine) *Trishul Comics *Tulsi Comics *Vimanika Comics *Yali Dream Creations *Yomics World *VrindKavi *Cheeseburger Comics

Notable creators

* Anant Pai * Anupam Sinha * Dheeraj Verma * Manoj Gupta * Narayan Debnath * Pran Kumar Sharma * Pratap Mullick * Sanjay Gupta * Lalit Kumar Sharma * Tadam Gyadu * Saahil S Sharma * Harsho Mohan Chattoraj * Dildeep Singh * Alok Sharma * Shamik Dasgupta

Annual events

* Comic Con India * Comics Fest India * New Delhi World Book Fair

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

Indian Comics: Medium, History, Genre
by Pia Mukherji, IWE Online, 5 April 2022. * CBR: https://www.cbr.com/professor-ashwatthama-saahil-s-sharma-interview/ {{Indian animation industry