Comic Addicts Presents: The First Indian "Minicon"

If you have been following our social media platforms ( Facebook/Twitter) then you are already aware of the minicon. If you aren't , before proceeding to tell you all about it , let me ask... Why aren't you with us on our social media? See the link on the right there ... yep , the facebook page pluggin, click and join us!

Now, self promotion done. Lets talk about our little project that we call "Minicon" .

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!

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!)

I am Kalki - The Silver Book - a review



After I got the book in my hands, I decided to first re-read the Golden book to refresh my memory in case there was any continuity involved, but since the Golden book was only a Preview Title, there was little or nothing in the way of a story line. This is particularly helpful for people who don’t have the first book. You can simply pick up the Silver Book and start from here. It all starts here!

The overall art work of the book is excellent and the print and paper quality meets the standard Vimanika has set for them in the industry today. I was a little surprised to find no artist name for the book, I am sure many people would be interested in knowing the artists behind the amazing artwork.

"I am Kalki - The Silver Book" Cover

Cick to view high quality image

Double Take: Review of LOK II

Editor/Script: Deepam Chatterjee

Art: Hemant Kumar

Cmpositing: Tabish Shaikh and Deepak Rawat

Cover Art: Amit Tayal and Abdul Rasheed

Color: Abdul Rasheed

Publisher: Vimanika comics

Take One: Review by Anirudh Singh

Andy is a veteran western comic/Manga geek. With the rise of Indian comic scene, he has ventured back into indigenous comics from his self posed exile to speak about Indian comics

Ah finally Indian comics are foraying into territory left alone for so long, using source material handed down over the ages in the history of our own people. There are so many stories and tales of unsung heroes in our mythology, it would be a sin to ignore them for too long. Amar Chitra Katah tried it once long ago. Capturing glimpses of wonder and amazement as they told the epic of Mahabharta. Vimanika does it again with the Legend of Karna. 

The book rightfully titled “The Sixth” takes us back across the ages and eons. Into an era when darkness and light were not defined by science, rather were defined by magic. Before anything else even impacts the reader the artwork does. It is magnificient in all aspects. Character designs blend seamlessly into the narrative and the visual imagery is quite stunning. 

The story is also an eye opener. This is not the tale of Karna as we remember it from Ramanand Sagar's televesion epics. No there are layers to this story. The start is fantastic, with a begining embroiled in primal legends of a demon who sought and won a great blessing from the Sun God. The story churns on and familiar faces start to appear imbibing you with a sense of mystery. It is after all a story of how deception and intrigue created a rift between two brothers. And how the destinies of these fated heroes embroiled even the Gods in their tangles.

One scene which truly stood out was the birth of Kauravas. The idea of a hundred sons being born from one mother was always fantastic concept but “The Sixth” takes this concept further, the feeling of unease is thick within these panels. And you can instantly tell that the product of alchemy as foul this has to be foul itself. It is no wonder that the sons of the Kuru clan turned out filled to brim with malice. Shakuni is a character to watch for, the schemer from the epic takes on a new visage as he is shown to be a man in command of nefarious powers. Part necromancer, part sorcerer Shakuni can be seen taking an eerie interest in his nephew's lives from an early age. In contrast the birth of the Pandavas is heralded by the presence of a God. For indeed it was the union between God and human that gave birth to the five princes. The contrasting births and the contrasting destinies of the kindred princes is set up beautifully drawing in the reader and setting up for an epic launch.

However,just as I was getting engrossed into the amazing narrative and artwork. The story decided to skip. And when I say skip, I mean skip completely to the modern age. Now, I like clever narratives, I like scene switching, multiple timelines the works. But to pull it off you have to really careful. You see whenever you skip from one time to a completely different one you break off the flow of the story. To reconnect the flow one has to place a few familiar elements, or gradually introduce you to the new characters elaborating the relationship with the old ones. This book doesnt have that. The time – skip hits you in the face with all the politeness of a brick wall. And stops u short of enjoying the story

.The story afterwards is not in any way lacking than the one before the skip. Its interesting, has the same artwork and a lot of interesting characters and I'm certain given time and more books in the series I would enjoy that part too. But right now with the book as it is, It reads off more as two separate stories in the same jacket than one continuous one. 

Legend of Karna, The Sixth is no doubt a classy book in a classy series. But it suffers sometimes from glaring abruptness in its narration. The artwork though fantastic,  blended in perfectly when the story was somewhere in the BC, it does not go so well with the mordern setting. Perhaps as I read more of this series the narrative will right itself and once more build up its pace to perfection, 

A valiant effort,  might one day evolve into a work of art.

Double Take: Review by Nishkarsh Chugh

Nishkarsh is a veteran Indian comic blogger and fan and the youngest member of our team 

The awaited Legend of Karna Book II has been launched recently at Comicon but as they say; "देर आये दुरुस्त आये"..

During the Con, it had great sale, due to which Vimanika was sold out on Day 1.. The trend continued on Day 2 and that was when, I got my copy.. 

The cover was extraordinary, by Amit Tayal (who is an illustrator for Campfire too) and Abdul Rasheed. However, the first main difference between LOK Book I and LOK Book II was the inside art. Amit Tayal was replaced by Hemant Kumar, but I still feel the former was better.

Nevertheless, the story was AWESOME and continued from where it left, when Karna was abandoned in River Charmanwati. However, there was a short (7 pages to be more precise) introduction about the demon Dambhodbhava and Nara and Narayana, a prologue to how Karna got his armor.

 The main story began with Chapter 2: Childhood featuring how Karna was adopted by Adhiratha and his wife, Radha and the life of Karna as a child. It also featured the birth of Pandavas and Kauravas and 

associated stories.

The main feature of LOK Book II is that it revealed the villains of the present time, who were none other than the Kauravas- Dusshala, Duryodhan and rest of the gang.

The story ended with Dev Daljit Singh, beating up some guys who came to kill Karan Vir. Amazing action, I must say.

Now coming to overall rating, I really liked LOK Book and I think this has a great future potential and if the series continues like this, it may live upto the expectations of the fans..

Vimanika in Action: A Comicon India retrospective

We sat down with Karan Vir Arora (Vimanika Comics) to take his perspective on recently concluded Comicon India.


Q: What did you think of the first edition of Comicon?
A: Well we just loved the 1st annual comic con in Dilli Haat ! we knew and believed in it from the day one that Jatin and his team could pull off such magnifico event , not only pull off but manage it superbly !

It was profitable for everyone ,we sold out! I mean people were ready to buy our wet posters and comics too!!(Post rain).

Not only did publishers and retailers get a chance to showcase their stuff but Aritists and writers too!


Q: What were your experiences during the con?
A: Well to start with as I landed at my stall and took out our comics people started to flock around and the stuff started to sell out like hot cakes like they were hungry tigers waiting for their hunt to arrive ,only this time comics were the hunt! I did not even get a chance to set up our stall!!

We also did quite a few workshops - how to write comics -was brilliantly presented by Kshitish and how to draw comics by Ratnakar singh and his team.And finally i did a interactive session with the fanboys and gals, post that i aswered loads of questions , Roamed around with Kalki in flesh and blood! -where people were holding on to him to get a shot with him,the model btw came all the way from Chandigarh to do this :)

It was lot of fun i was not free for a sec also ,selling comics,fans getting their pics clicked with us,signing autographs,taking workshops,interacting with the Media electronic and print and finally interacting with the Vimaniks!!! z

loved every bit of it ! Thats life!

Q:What are your plans for the next con?
A: Oh you gonna love what we got for next year ,its going to blow your mind ,lets just keep that a secret for now :)

Cause its only the beginning for Vimanika and Comic con India!!!

India Ink - Talking Indian comics

Thanks for a great feedback on the previous article on Indian comic scene.... as promised the beginning of exclusives from the Indian comic scene....

What’s Hot?
In last article we discussed Virgin comics. What we missed out on was that Virgin comics had shut down in 2008 (Thanks to Alok for pointing that out ) and has presently been reformed as Liquid comics with the same management. One of the writers of erstwhile Virgin comics – Shamik Dasgupta (Ramayan 3392 AD/Reloaded, Virulents, Sadhu) – is getting ready to launch his own creator owned series in India.  Here is the Teaser poster for it.

Details on the comic itself are sparse, but insider info is that this type of comic has never been done in India before. I also understand that this is going to be a one off initially, possibly followed by a five issue miniseries and would then become a regular depending on the demand. The best piece of news about this comic is that a twenty-one year old Indian boy has done the art, and it is rumored that this guy is going to surprise a lot of people when the comic comes out! I have had the opportunity to look at a couple of interior pages, and let me tell you they are Fantastic!

Warms my heart to see such bold experimentation being done in India.

This is going to come out by end of December and the publisher is just about getting ready to announce this title. Watch this space for more on this

Comic Convention
Last time we discussed a possibility of a comic convention happening in Mumbai. Well that has just been confirmed. I understand that the organizers are in final discussion with the dean of a reputed college in Mumbai. We may get this event as soon as January! This would be a milestone in Indian comic scene if this happens. I am cheering for this. Hope this is a big success

Comic Watch

Comic to read this month is Jump #5. This is the season finale of the comic anthology produced by Level 10 studios. And let me tell you, the twist at the end of “Rabhas incident” ( one of the series running here) makes this a must buy! This is how comics should be. Kudos for Level 10 for introducing new concepts in Indian market.
I would be doing an in depth comic review of Jump, and tell you why they are so important to the Indian comic scene.

Publisher Watch

Vimanika Comics is going global! They are launching their comic series – Moksha and Kalki at Twelve Gates Art Gallery, Philadelphia, USA. Always good to see Indian comics make a mark outside India. I wish them all the best in their endeavor. Catch the review of their comic Kalki soon on my blog.
For more information you can visit the link. 


This wraps up the quick 10 minute tour of Indian comic industry.I would be very interested in hearing from you all. What are your thoughts about this initiative and if there is anything specific you want to see via this column?

Indian Comics - Hope for the future

-By Manks
(This is second part of an article piece on Indian comics. The first one can be found at : here )


In the first article, we looked at what went before in the Indian comic scene. Now we are going to go a step further and understand what Indian comic scene looks like currently.

Present Scenario

 

Illustrated Orchids

Recently many more comics have started cropping up, some even backed by big business house, while Amar chitra Katha and Raj comics continue to hold ground.

Fluid Friction comics have partnered with an Indian firm to publish comics inspired by Indian mythology.
Illustrated Orchids , a company operated by Indian Singaporean diaspora has launched comics based on Indian mythology and culture. The artwork is based on Manga like art and is sold in Malaysia, Singapore, India and Europe.

Vimanika comics

Another company Vimanika has launched comics , again based on Indian Mythology for Indian and foreign markets, which are very good.

Do we see a pattern here? Yup, everyone seems to love Indian mythology. But enthusiasts  question the overabundance of such comics. However I cannot deny that Indian religion and allure of Indian mysticism sells, especially now that many Indians are settled abroad. They are also appealing to children in India, as they retell/ re-imagine the mythos that they have grown up reading about. So for business houses it makes sense to go with the safe and sellable product especially on foreign shores where there already is a comic culture. But what of our own comic culture? Will we never be able to look beyond religion and myth? Even Indians deserve variety. If the product is good, it will sell. Japan’s Manga industry is proof of this.

As if to answer this question, Campfire publications entered the market in 2009. They are publishing classics, biography and originals in graphic novel format.

Corridoor

Some Indians have also started independent foray into the world of graphic novels.
Corridor by Sarnath Banerjee is such an example.

Two more noteworthy additions to Indian comic scene are– “Jump” by Level10 studios and Comix.India who are trying to develop unique Indian content. The quality is debatable, though it’s a step in positive direction.

I am given to understand There are more on the way. Adventures would help unveil some of them as well :)

The picture is not all rosy however, and there is a long winding road to cover before victory.

An artist working freelance for one of these companies told me that by and large it is quite difficult for someone to work for Indian comic scene because they are not paid nearly enough. They need to have a full time job apart from comic industry to sustain them. Most of them are working in the growing Indian Animation scene as well. This is not true for all artists as some larger companies do pay well. But for a wider majority it is. Which I guess is true in any country. You need to have a certain level of skill before you can enter mainstream.

Additionally, Anime and Manga like everywhere else have caught up in India. With Anime associations forming in major cities. Though this is still at a nascent stage, their future is bright. I have randomly met two children of 8 years old who read Manga but are not aware of any other comics out there. Manga is catching them young. A feat that  may make many companies jealous. The reason is their free availability over Internet.

Manga

Companies like Dark Horse/Tokyopop/Viz may scowl at sites like Onemanga, but it helped introduce manga to country like ours where there is no availability of such items. When you contrast it to companies like Marvel and DC, not many people know beyond what they see on the silver screen.
Manga has infact started pouring in through select stores, especially in the south, and they are selling like hot cakes because of the readymade audience thanks to online availability.

The biggest news yet is an attempt at organizing a comic convention. The first ever for India. From what I know, currently the organizers are looking out for sponsors. But the thought is there and it may be very soon when we see it materialized.

For me, the icing on the cake was when I met an Indian artist working for TOP COW publishing, which clearly told me, we do have the talent, and we know readers seem to be growing. All we need is a big push from some more corporates to get Indian comic scene going again and things does seem to be going in the positive direction.

Here’s hoping for the best.


-Disclaimer: This is a reproduction of the article published at Bleedingcool.com by me. All attempts were made to be faithful to timelines and publishers. I also realise that I might have missed out on some publications from South India. However If there is some inconsistancy or some periodical that you think should be mentioned, let me know and I would sort it out.