FEATURE

Comic Explosion

Vinod Varma

During the movie, what we realized is how comics are the one art form that are universally accessible. Everybody loves comics. Kids, teens, young people, old people, men, women, Asians, Europeans, Americans, Africans… there is no group of people anywhere in the world who doesn’t or hasn’t at some point loved comics. What is it about comics? We dunno… we just love them, is all!

And so here is our nostalgic rambling on comics… a small selection of personal favourites for you to explore and some online goodies that you might already be aware of!

So, where do we start? With the kiddie comics, of course! And there is a lot to pick from here: Mickey & Donald and their bunch of Disney friends, Winnie The Pooh, Tigger and all their friends from The 100-Acre-Woods, Richie Rich, Henry, Suppandi, Popeye The Sailor (who we never really liked), the Champak books… a whole lot that we’ve read and a whole lot we never got to read. Our personal favourites? Henry! We always thought the bald and silent Henry was a reliable laugh on any kind of day. As kids, we used to get comics in India under a brand name called Indrajal comics and Henry used to be this isolated single-page strip at the beginning or the end of the comic book and very often the only reason for wanting the comic book in the first place. Henry is syndicated by King Features and you can check out some of his strips on www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/henry/about.htm

Moving on to older comics, there were a few distinct kinds we remember. First was the Archies series, alone in its genre, with no competitors. Personally, we last touched an Archies book over 20 years ago but even now, after all these years, we still don’t understand what it was about the Archies series that made it such a huge hit globally. The most interesting thing for us back then was the ads for all the “cool” gadgets and toys we’d see from time to time in the Archies Digests but other than that and Jughead, we didn’t much warm to these. But check their site (www.archiecomics.com) and tell us what you think.

The next lot was the Indian comics brigade spearheaded by Amar Chitra Katha and their graphic reproductions of Indian mythology and folklore. We didn’t know back then that the Amar Chitra Katha books would leave lasting (and dare we say nostalgic) impressions! But they did! And for that alone and the quality of their illustrations, we recommend these heavily! You can check their website on www.amarchitrakatha.com. The Indian comics genre also had characters like Chacha Choudhury who and his alien friend Sabu were published by Diamond Comics alongside other characters like Billoo and Pinki . We didn’t like these much but they made comics accessible to a whole generation of non-urban Indians and for that they deserve to be acknowledged. You can check out Chacha Chaudhary on his creator’s website (www.pran.in) or on the Diamond Comics site (www.diamondcomic.com). Another Indian comics publisher was Raj Comics who had characters like Nagraj and Vyom who are going strong in pockets of north India especially even today. You can view their entire roster on www.rajcomics.com.

The third in the grown-up-er section is our favourite: the characters from DC and Marvel. Batman, Superman, Spiderman, Iron Man, The Avengers, The Hulk, Thor, The X Men, The Justice League Of America… all of them superheroes we wanted to be! No, scratch that… we still wanna be one of them! And if we got to take our pick, we pick The Dark Knight himself – Batman, scourge of all criminals in Gotham and the ultimate superhero in our eyes. And the accessories man! The Batmobile, the Batbike, the Batbelt, the Batarang – we want it all! You can check out all the DC comics and characters (including Batman and the Man of Steel Superman) on www.dccomics.com. For the Marvel heroes – Spidey, Ironman and the gang, log on to www.marvel.com.

Then came the big fight – Tintin or Asterix? We were firmly on the side of Tintin and a lot of friends were devoted to Asterix. But in the end, we settled for reading and enjoying both. And they really were fun. Check them out yourselves on www.tintin.com/en/ and www.asterix.com (yes, we HAD to put Tintin first).

The last set of our growing up years comprised of characters brought to us by Indrajal Comics – Phantom, Mandrake, Bahadur, Flash Gordon, Rip Kirby, Garth, Kerry Drake and many more – and we loved all of them. Most of these were characters syndicated from King Features and therefore might still be available for younger readers. But Bahadur, India’s first comic book action hero, man you lot missed him. His strips were campy but fun. Use your netsurfing skills to see if you can land some old ones. Or ask your fathers to dig out the old, bound comic collections.

After that, come the graphic novels with the WWII ones being first followed by the classier ones from Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman. But you kiddies won’t be interested in those or in the more mature funny strips like Pearls Before Swine or Calvin & Hobbes or corporate or political strips that interest us now.

Remember the online goodies we mentioned? Here are some more links to comic sites and literature. Go wild! Track down as many of your favourites as you can or make a few new ones!