Chitrakatha | The Indian Comic Book Journey

Back in 1947 when India was fighting for its independence, Indian Comics, or as we know today in India as ‘Chitraktha’ were an alien concept to the mass at that time. But all was going to change in 1964 when an imprint of a comic book named "Indrajal" was launched. Under the Indrajal imprint, India's first comic book-Phantom’s Belt (Vetal Ki Mekhla in Hindi) was released in March 1964. The adventures of Phantom became an absolute rage with Indian readers, he was rechristened Vetaal in Hindi and Oronyo Deb in Bengali. People were flocking near the stores to buy just a single new issue of the comic book. But this was only the spark of the comic revolution in India. The epic revolution was yet to come.

An issue of Indrajal Comics from 1964
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The Indian Comic Book Revolution

In 1967, a man who dreamt about making Indian comics with stories drawn from Indian history and culture and drawn by Indian artists was watching a quiz show on television where he saw none of the contestants could answer who was the mother of Lord Ram whereas they were able to answer the questions about greek gods. This made him more determined to achieve his dream. This man went on to become the founder of Amar Chitra Katha comic books and is known to us as Uncle Pai. Anant Pai,  popularly known as the Uncle Pai is widely regarded as the Father Of Indian Comics. Amar Chitra Katha's first comic book titled 'Krishna' was a smashing hit with selling over a record 5 million copies and went on to become their best selling comic book to date. From then there was no looking back. More authors started coming out with fresh content and characters for comic books.

                Two Tinkle comic issues cover featuring Kalia The Crow(on the left) and Shikari Shambu(on the right)

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The New Contenders 

With Amar Chitra Katha's success, Indrajal came out with their first hero-centric comic book named 'Bahadur'. Meanwhile, a cartoonist from north India- Pran Kumar Sharma introduced one of the most famous comic book characters of all time and it was none other than 'Chacha Chaudhary'. The Chacha Chaudhary comic books were a roaring hit. Other notable comic books included characters like Shikari Shambhu, Supandi, etc which came from the mind of Anant Pai. These characters were featured in Tinkle comics which is a subdivision of Amar Chitra Katha imprint. Some of the characters were also portrayed as animated features for children. But then was the time for another wave in Indian comics.

Spiderman: India issue cover page feat Pavitr Prabhakar aka Spiderman
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The wave of Indian superheroes

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, which was created during the 1960s by Narayan Debnath, whose early comic strip Handa Bhonda, inspired by Laurel and Hardy had been launched in the magazine Shuktara in 1962. More superhero characters introduced were Nagraj who fought terrorism with his mystical snake power. Then there were characters like Fauladi Singh, Doga, and many more.

Spider-Man: India was another comic book that was originally published in India by Gotham Entertainment Group in 2004, retelling the story of Marvel Comics' Spider-Man in an Indian backdrop. The series was developed by Sharad Devarajan, Suresh Seetharaman, and Jeevan J. Kang with Marvel Comics. The Indian version was gestated by Indian great director Satyajit Ray, who had once met Stan Lee in New York to discuss creating an Indian version of the superhero. However, this was not done during Ray's lifetime.

                                     

A panel from Devi comic featuring Devi in her celestial warrior form from the first issue of the comic series
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However, in the 90s with the arrival of cable TVs and video games, there was a downfall in the popularity of comic books in India. But the launch of Virgin comics(now known as Liquid Comics) in 2006  helped in the revival of Indian comics. The company was founded by Sir Richard Branson and his Virgin Group, author Deepak Chopra, filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, and entrepreneurs Sharad Devarajan, Suresh Seetharaman, and Gotham Chopra. Virgin comics developed comic books revolving around Indian culture. A comic book named Devi who was a celestial warrior goddess created by the gods to fight the renegade god Bala in the 2nd century of man. Another comic book from virgin comics was Snake Woman which deals with the re-invention of India's ancient Snake (Naga) legends, in which the soul of the serpent reptile is reborn in the form of a beautiful and unsuspecting female. Other virgin comics include The Sadhu, Ramayan 3392 A.D., India Authentic, The Tall Tales of Vishnu Sharma, The Asura Analogues, and much more.

A cover page of the comic book Snake Woman
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In February 2011, India hosted its first Comic Convention and it continues every year.  Indian Comic Book industry is estimated to have a worth of over a billion dollars. As a comic book enthusiast, it seems that the Indian Comic Book industry has much more to give both as a publishing industry and also as a digital entertainment industry.