New verse or a plethora of verses for Pandora to explore
India is a country with diverse cultures, with around 1000+ tales with varying genres. Yeah, as the Western world rose with aliens, advanced techs, and mainly the superpowers, the Eastern worlds played similarly but primarily connected to the myths. And Indian ones were more stereotyped, as the comic was kid’s material. They may remake the same old mythology thousands of times.
Amar Chitra Katha, Gokulam, and a few with their numerous characters tried to upskill the level, but they didn’t succeed much. Almost at the same time, give or take some years, there came Diamond Comics which had Chacha Chaudhary, Billoo, Pinki, Suppandi, Shikari Shambu, and so on. While in the South, Mayavi, Dinkan, and many others. In the North, Nagraj, Doga, and all rose. But most of them lacked the right amount of magic required to entice mature readers properly. Sometimes they had too much of fantasies, or sometimes too much foolishness, and sometimes too much adult content. (And in earlier 90s, English movies were considered ‘Not Suitable for Family’ as there could be a kissing scene [Yeah, yeah, Indians had all kinds of taboo things, even now they do {but, as far as we know, 90-95% is only for show off}])
I still remember when I was in the hostel, doing my Visual Effects and Animation studies in ‘07-‘10, one day most of my comics that were at my home were brought to my hostel room. As I and a pal who was interested in comics were going through them, my that time’s roomie came and pushed us aside and began to look for something. I and my pal looked at each other dumbfounded, as he never showed interest in comics as we did, and asked him curiously, what was he looking for and he said, “Don’t you have Nagraj?”
TBH, that was the first time I heard that name and I was totally perplexed, and it was then my other pal told me about Nagraj, Doga, Super Commando, Dhruv, and a few. The only Indian comics I heard were Chacha Chaudhary and all and a TV series, Shaktimaan! It was coz the area where I grew up. I grew up reading and watching Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, Jean Grey, and Hulk and was lost in venturing out into Themyscira and Gotham. In front of all these, Nagraj and others didn’t have value, at least in my school days when I was there. And that is what has happened with many Indian comics. In India, they lost their popularity or became kid-oriented due to people’s stereotyped beliefs.
Another incident is how in one of my previous companies, I convinced the client to a comic within their company’s internal magazine which had just some silly self-boasting textual content. The client decided to go after I gave him an explanation of how comics are an easy source to reach people, and his people were Americans and comics are not a stereotyped product in other places like India. My client was a typical Keralite who was in the US, so convincing him and changing his mind took some time. But he used to crack some stupid lame jokes phrasing comics as comedy shows (only he laughed at his silly joke, making himself a laughing stock, because everyone was with me in the same office and I had educated them or shared my perspectives on comics and were clever unlike this guy), and I am fucking glad that I could slap the power of comics on his stupid grinning face as it was well received and the company wanted a comic version for some other activity to implement their new software. He was just one, but there are many in India with the same silly mindset and to convince all it might take some time. Yali, Holy Cow, Aayumi, Graphic India, and Mythy Comics can help people wake up.
Funny thing: Some of these people who laugh at us comic lovers, can be seen during Comic Cons and when a new DC/Marvel movie is out. They don’t have much idea, but want to show off or could be there, coz someone they are with has dragged them there; what it is, they do go! Some bloody hypocrites!
In the Indian market, a few like Yali Dream Creations (The Caravan series), Holy Cow (Ravanayan), Aayumi (Item Dhamaka), and Graphic India (18 Days) have bought the right amount of everything in them. And now worthy to join their rank enters, Mythy Comics in association with Boardstory Studio. Mythy Comics is looking to captivate readers of all ages with their stories.
I started with their 7th book The Haunted Tales of Sree Krishnapuram. It was a bit fast, but still, they were able to capture the essence, which is sure, they’ll improve soon. Because of this, this book has entered my Pandora and has joined a few Indian titles I have. This year, at the Bengaluru Comic Con, they came forward and introduced themselves to make a change. Thomas Mathew and Sabu Sarasan are the mentors or heads of a fantastic team of game changers, leading the entire house into a fantabuloustic path!
Note: Just coz we have not read other regional language books, doesn’t mean they don’t have, they might be having, I have only mentioned a few that came to my mind.
So, before we end this, we just have to say what many people don’t have the sense to comprehend:
- Starting with the elephant in the room, comics are for kids. This is one of the most-silliest sentences ever spoken out by some dim-witted fool. Comics are not just for kids. Yeah, there are cartoons, but at the same time, they deal with complex narratives by fine illustrations. They deal with present-day issues. They help break stereotypes
- They boost the power of imagination & creativity to a whole new level. As it has people do unbelievable stuff now and then. It also helps the reader to grasp new words and new ideologies
- It is not far from reality, they make/take reference to/from most of the present-day situations and use it in their story
- They explore psychology, physiology, madness, morality, crime, war, racism, sexualism, and the fine line that differentiates heroes from villains, they are not just black & white
- And finally, but not least; comic books don’t promote unhealthy things or sex (There’re adult comics for that, and if by chance they had to be shown in regular comics, it’s not in detail or mass, like the ones shown in movies/TV shows), drugs, or violence
- Adult comics like Savita Bhabhi are just like erotic novels, are for people who want to accept their sexuality without engaging in regular porn, and moreover, it’s not like they don’t exist in this world and is something of a taboo. Open your eyes and look around, from the latest TV ad to the small column in the city paper, one of these three is almost there, and if I have to say, if these things were a lot in Hollywood or other earlier, now they are in Bollywood and every other regional woods too
Well, that’s all folks!
Pic Credits: Mythy Comics/Instagram
