A quick word with Abhijeet Kini, doodler extraordinaire!

Hi Abhijeet. Its great to have to speaking to us today hopefully we'll get lots of info out of you on whats ahead!

So its been almost nine months since the Delhi Comic Con, and we are now edging towards Comic Con Express - Mumbai. Excited?

Totally! Having the comic con come to my city was something I had always been waiting for, and here it is!

The horror... (Click to enlarge)

What made you decide to take a booth this time around at the convention and what can your fans expect to find there?

I had a lot of interactions with people at the Delhi Comic Con, without a stall to start with, and it was nice to see people finally being able to put a face to the names they’ve read in bylines - mine being one of them. So I decided to go for one this time around and have people know where to come and find me. Also, I’m going to be having some limited edition merchandise, featuring my artworks on it. Also on sale is an ambitious project I have been working on along with talented Delhi-based writer Anupam Arunachalam, called “Milk and Quickies”. We are completely looking forward to have people read this one!

Whats next after UBiMa? We have heard rumours of a sequel and there are definitely fans of the character looking to see more Bee-hari action – any light on the horizon?

Haha, I have heard similar rumours about the sequel too. And if they are true, well, the Bee-hari hunk would be back soon…we’ll have to wait and see. Besides this, I have been busy over the last few months with a couple of comics for Tinkle (more on that soon) along with the usual Tinkle stuff I do (Butterfingers, Defective Detectives, Sea Diaries, etc), and also some independent projects, one of them being “Milk and Quickies”.

The game is afoot! Comic Con Express, Mumbai - Cosplay Chaos and Coolness!!

Dear Addicts,

Click to view in it's full-sized glory!

If you thought that Batman, Scarecrow, Wonder Women, Wolverine, Jafar, Joker and all the other awesome character - wonderfully donned by our very sporty Cosplayers in Delhi - were good, then you're in for a joy ride my friend, coz Comic Con Express Mumbai has declared the gaming season!

If the response in Delhi was a pleasant surprise for you, this one will be nothing short of Brahmic Bliss.

Mumbai's first ever Comic Convention - Comic Con Express has announced the Costume Contest open!!!

Click for full, glorious detail!

Oct-22 and 23, 2011, Mumbai will be the culmination of the glorious cosplay culture from all across India.

You will not only get to meet like-minded geeks, fellow fanboys (and girls, of course), be popular and cash in your 15 minutes of fame - as Mr. Warhol predicted - and overall have super fun, you can ALSO win some totally mind-blowing PRIZES!!!

Yes, you heard me right! So if you yell Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and break into a jiggy jazzy dance, I wouldn't really blame you. I'd have done the same, if I wasn't dance impaired!

So take out those threads, those sewing needles and machines, spandex rolls, capes, hats, overcoats, swords, guns, claws, lasers and anything else you have been stashing for years and get down to it, coz one thing is for sure! None of us Addicts are going down without a hell of a fight!

Wonder Bai and I'll see you there Bub.

Yours,
Fellow Addict. 

EXCLUSIVE: From the desk of Vivek Goel...

AMAZING!! 

Dream a dream...

The only word that comes to my mind when I think of the Indian comic convention is “Amazing”. Trust me when I say this, Comic conventions are probably the best thing that have happened to the Indian comic industry in the last 10+ years.

Project Ravanayan and the minds behind it were totally unaware of it during the 1^st Comic Con at Delhi and we, along with so many of our peers from outside Delhi, were not planning to visit it. But things totally changed as out of the blue an invite came to team Ravanayan (Vijayendra Mohanty and me) to attend the Comic Con and to conduct a workshop and an autograph signing session there. I spoke to my partner Vijayendra and decided that this is probably the best platform Ravanayan could ever get. I did not have any firm plan worked out to start Holy Cow Entertainment (HCE) by that time, I mean it was a bit dicy… I can now proudly say that it was the one of the few but best decisions that I took, that changed my position in the world of comics.

The Con is on!

Hello everybody and welcome to Mumbai’s first ever Comic Con. Not exactly, though, that’s a better part of the month away but for me, it can’t come soon enough. And now, let me explain why.

When I was a seven year old kid, somewhere in streets of Mumbai, I read in a newspaper about Superman’s death. Now, I wasn’t deluded --- I knew that Superman is a fictional character; I wasn’t deluded into thinking that a real person had died. But he was real enough to mean something to people; so real that his death was news. And why not, if a man can fly, evade speeding bullets and melt lead with his eyes, doesn’t that make him human? Well, at least the papers thought so.

A year later, at a second hand book store, I found two issues of that storyline. I was elated! Inside that issue was a subscription form. Not knowing what a dollar is, I gingerly filled out the subscription form in that issue, and gave it to my father, who then told me about America, dollars, old subscription forms and shipping. There was another ad – for something called Chicago Comic Con (to the best of my memory) which advertised itself as the largest comic convention in the country. Whatever hopes I had of attending one of those were promptly crushed.

Calling all Vimaniks! Your leader speaks!

HELLO ADDICTS!!

Excited? You should be, Comic Con Mumbai is inching closer and closer with every passing second, minute, hour and day! 

And in the continuing spirit of comic-camaraderie and sharing the joy, we have managed to secure an interview today with Mr. Karan Vir - the envisioner of and man behind Vimanika Comics. He takes time from his busy schedule to share some of his insight and thoughts on comics and the convention(s) and even was good enough to provide quite a few lovely art samplings from some of the beautiful books Vimanika has in the works and on the stands. 

So enjoy it all folks and remember: you keep reading, we'll keep writing!

 (And as always, remember the images can be clicked for big-ness!)

Comic Con through Campfire and brimstone!

Campfire’s experience at the last Comic Con

At Comic Con Delhi '10

Fifteen thousand comic book fans gathered together in Delhi for India’s first ever comic con. The two-day convention was a phenomenal success, far exceeding the expectations of both the organisers (Twenty Onwards Media) and the participants.

Campfire graphic novels, for example, raked in more revenue during the first day of the comic con than in 10 days at the 2010 Delhi Book Fair.

Mumbai Comicon Express : A roundup with Comic Addicts

Welcome addicts, to more inside news for the Comic Con Express! Today we speak with the organisers behind this event, the brains and the brawn making it all happen, and we bring it fresh off the note-pad to you! 

1. We were there at the last con and it was a huge success, a sortie of comic addicts from around India! Did its success spur you to create Comic Con Mumbai or was it always on the cards?


   The decision was certainly based on the reaction of the fans and the participants, we felt we were in a position to make it happen and we did.



2. Is it going to have a different flavour from Comic Con Delhi or is it essentially the same dish in a different city?


   Its bit of both actually. The format is essentially the same, with exhibit spaces and workshops/sessions taking place every half hour or so. However, the feel of the event will be very different, unlike Delhi/dilli haat, this is an in-door venue in the heart of South Mumbai, we are trying to bring in local flavor. As Comic Con India we believe in promoting local talent and a lot of our talent is based in Mumbai


Apart from local flavour, the focus of Comic Con Mumbai is different from Delhi since we are incorporating  the entertainment and advertising industries into the con since both of these industries are big in Mumbai.

You'll find the confirmed/announced participants on our site. Again, our approach is the same as it was 6 months back, the focus is on Indian comics, on the Indian industry. And this will be the first such event for Mumbai so like the first ever convention in Delhi, we'd like to highlight what’s happening in India, showcase the talent here.  

C.C.E.MUMBAI Cometh!!!

It was some seven months ago I found myself roaming through New Delhi's “Dilli Haat”, dressed as a cheap homemade version of Batman with a paunch, along with my little brother who was a much more convincing Wolverine. Some people were even staring at us as if we were recently let loose from an asylum and were being allowed to mingle with the general public!

Most of the stares openly showed their displeasure at this freedom being given to delinquents like us, but did we care? At that point in time we wouldn’t have cared if the public had started stoning us or even if the cops locked us up.

We were on our way to The Indian Comic-Con!!!

India’s FIRST ever Comic Convention!!!

This was something I had dreamt about for several years but had expected it to turn into reality in at least my lifetime! But hey, what do we know? Dreams have a almost nasty habit of being realized overnight, when you least expect it!

Something magical had happened a few months ago. Facebook had informed us that there was a plan for a potential Comic-Con in Delhi. The word was enough to get me interested and I started following it up. Joined the page, asked the questions, responded to each post, argued, gossiped and spread the word, forced people to join, made them aware and pretty much everything I could think of doing – short of walking on the roads with a biggammajammi banner over my head! And I’d have done that too, but just didn’t think about making/finding a banner soon enough.