THE COMIC CON HANGOVER

By ObiWayneK

It has been exactly been 23 hours: 34 minutes: 42 seconds since The 2nd Annual Indian Comics Convention (aka Comic Con Delhi) got over and even after such a span most of my body parts hurt, my head is spinning a little, there is some sort of a pain culminating in a void-like feeling in my stomach (probably because of all the momos I had) and the only thoughts that fill up my mind are my memories from the past 3 days. 
I am actually having a classic comic con hangover. 
But despite being in such a physical and mental state I can hardly wait to start digging into all the reading material that I have procured from the convention, start working on my costume/get up for the next convention and conjure dreams about all the beautiful female cosplayers I saw and interacted with. (oops did I just mention that!!?)

The comic con may have its dilapidated definitions which are coined by corporate tools and capitalists, but for us, the comic addicts and comic book geeks, the comic con is not just a platform for comic book releases and a forum for us fans to meet, but an event symbolizing a unique amalgam of perseverance, passion, patience and resilience. So how did the 2^nd edition (technically the 3^rd) of this almost-sacred gathering exactly pan out?

Well to describe the experience, apprehensions, appreciation and complains in a generic and regular paragraph would be an absolute blasphemy and a crime on my part. 
Thus we should proceed to the 3C categorical analysis of The 2nd Annual Indian Comics Convention and its offerings.

Comic Con Special Review : Daksh 1-4

Courtesy the fine people at Level 10 comics, the Indian comic book geek finally has something to hand the irritating buggers who follow the retarded notion of comic books being for kids. After the success of the first issue in the independent creator-owned edition of the Comic Jump anthology, and the subsequent excellent fan reception of the second issue, we now have our hands on the first four issues, thanks to the launch of the Daksh Graphic Novel at this year’s Comic Con India.

Wishing Well : Indian Comics in 2012

 In a lot of ways, the future will remember 2011 as the year the Indian comic-book geek came out of the closet. The success of the first ever comic-book conventions in the country being held in Delhi and Mumbai went a long way in illuminating fanboys in regard to the presence of their fellow comic addicts.

It’s a year that saw Ravan’s side of the story, the beginning of an indigenous Martial Arts epic, Shiva finding his way back into comic books, the conclusion of India’s first home-grown Zombie comic book series and an arguably ballsy move from print to digital (and free), among many other exciting prospects.

Keeping in mind all these developments, It’s difficult not to imagine what this oh-so-beautiful monster, currently in its infancy, is going to grow into tomorrow. Bear in mind, however, that this is all just speculation and wishful thinking, but its fulfillment would make this little geek very happy:

A Shared Universe

In my mind, this is the one thing from a creative point of view that needs to happen soon. We are already seeing the seeds being sowed for this, with Yumi coming to a computer screen near you soon, as a Shaurya spinoff, but there is still quite a long way to go. The reason a shared universe is important is that it opens a whole world (literally) of literary possibilities, and helps give multi-dimensional looks at a character and settings. If the upcoming Avengers movie can’t convince you it’s awesome, I don’t know what will. Picture the cast of Shaurya stuck in a zombified Bangalore or a Daksh-spinoff Ravana escaping from hell into the modern day, keen for redemption.

Comicon Express Mumbai : A Comic Addict's journey from Delhi to Mumbai

It was a Friday night (yesterday, apparently) and the world was partying, while I was in the office, trying to wrap up my work as soon as possible so that I could go back home and finish my packing. After all, I was leaving Delhi early morning for Mumbai to attend the Comic Con Express – Mumbai representing Comic Addicts

Try hard as I might, it was 11.30pm before I could leave my office and reached home at 12.15am, past midnight, and was dead tired. Took an hour to pack up, another hour to grab a bite and rest my feet for a while and do my part of the preparation for the Comic Con. It was almost 3.30am by the time I was done, and the reporting time for our flight was 5.30am, so I decided not to close my eyes, coz if I did, I was pretty certain that I would miss the flight.

 At 5am I called Mayank and from his greeting it was certain that he had just got up!!! I told him to hurry up and left for the Airport. I reached at 5.30am and strolled around a bit and try to get some fresh air, for a change. I was expecting these guys to arrive any second. At 5.45am I called Mayank and he told me that he was just leaving his house!

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.

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.