Comicology: Indrajal Comics

World is mourning the loss of an icon, famously known among his fans as the “King of Pop”, Michael Jackson. Even though I have reservations over his life at large, the fact remains that no one can deny the popularity and respect he enjoyed among music fans world over, whom he inspired and commanded for decades through his famed blockbuster albums. With that said, I hope he finds his joy in his afterlife.

In the World of Comics, the month of June was a pleasant surprise, as some of our fellow comics bloggers achieved important milestones in their respective means, garnering media attention too. This post is to highlight some of them, in the process honouring their efforts towards our unique passion shared towards The 9th Art.

#1: Toonfactory’s Chitrakathaa Rolls-On

Good friend and fellow comiker Alok Sharma, who is famously known on blogosphere, under his nickname Toonfactory, has finally restarted his most ambitious and dream project, Chitrakathaa. Chitrakathaa is a documentary which hopes to map the evolution of comics medium in India, with enough spotlight thrown on the creators who revolutionized this art form, which often is deprived of its fair share of accolades.

As part of this great project, Alok has scheduled a line-up of interviews for days to come, in the process meeting up with some of the famous creators Indian comics scene has ever seen.

The first-up from his side, was the news that he indeed met Mr. Pran Kumar Sharma, known simply as Pran among Comics World. Pran was instrumental in creating a series of locally drawn and inspired comic characters, who looked at the day-to-day lifestyle of typical Indians, with a jolly-good humour attached to them. Some of his legendary creations include Chacha Chaudhary, Pinki, Billoo, which still continue to be syndicated and serialized on a variety of Indian languages.

There was a time (even now) when Diamond Comics wholly relied on Pran, for their in numerous titles, which still continues to find the reprints quite often, along with newly drawn series, which Pran continues to create for Diamond.

Pran was decorated with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Indian Institute of Cartoonists in 2001, It was my childhood dream to meet up this famous icon, who was once named even as the Walt Disney of India.

Good that Alok was able to achieve that feat for all of us. Alok has promised a big write-up and news about other creators whom he would be meeting for his project. Makes for an interesting wait.

You can learn more about Pran, and the art institution he runs on his official website.

#2: Comic World on Press

Nobody is a stranger to the fact that comics blogs in India, are mostly dominated by fans of erstwhile brand Indrajal Comics (IJC). People found their happiness in sharing what they have in their collection, in the process introducing these wealth of titles to new comics readers, as well for the older ones to cherish their childhood passion.

Even though, I have my reservations over releasing a comic in toto on net, I had to appreciate this bloggers enthusiasm in keeping up the comics reading passion alive.

Recently, the speed of these blogs had reduced significantly, as the number of IJC issues which are left un-scanned have reduced to a meager numbers. Many of the blogs have switched over to provide different content to enthuse the visiting readers. One such blogger, is long time friend, and fellow IJC blogger Zaheer, more famously known under his nick-name Comic World.

Recently, he started to venture on newer avenues, by discussing the pulp fictions of India, when Pocket Books based Novels ruled the roost. Many Comic friends would remember that, it was the publications which were publishing pocket books, who eventually started publishing Comics too. Most famous of among them are Raj Comics and Diamond Comics.

One such post at Comic World, which ignited this novel topic, was considered the best ever by many who commented on the topic.

Eventually, Comic World made its way to be featured in an article on a National Daily Newspaper called Hindustan Times.

The article talks about the childhood habit of many who have drooled over these pocket book novels, and comics in general, and their impact on modern society, and literary world. Kudos to Zaheer, for achieving this wonderful feat. Keep Rocking, Bro.

#3: Comicology draws Attention

Well, I generally try not to blow up my own trumpet. But, it’s a matter of honour to mention that our blog was referred over at ComicBitsOnline, during one of the Interviews with CineBook’s
Olivier Cadic.

CBO’s Terry Hooper, a comic creator himself, and the Keeper of the Black Tower, has always been a good old friend and staunch supporter of Comicology, which is highlighted by the fact that he used to feature posts now and then about our blog in his most visited website (Ref. these pages). I am grateful, to Terry for his support towards this long journey through our favourite Genre.

Not only that, everyone who is fan of British Genre of Comics, would remember the name Steve Holland. A comics historian on his own rights, who has a host of comics titles credited to him, runs a Rolling News section on his official blog, Bear Alley.

Recently our Lucky Luke post has found its mention among the list, which is generally reserved for comic creators and visionaries. I am thankful to Steve for giving this great recognition to our blog.

For me, these two references in blogs, rate over and above any media article published in newspapers, for the sheer reason that they are written by someone who share the same passion towards Comics, like us Comikers.

By saying that, I don’t decree the occasion, when Comicology was featured in a Tamil Weekly magazine, Ananda Vikatan. I am thankful for them to have allotted a space for us in the esteemed magazine. For other language friends, the article is part of the series, where each week a new blog is introduced to the readers, and this one talked about the various faces of Comics as available in our blog. (Scan Courtesy: Arun S)

Undoubtedly, when you talk about comics bloggers making news, there is no way we can forget that the evergreen Muthufan was the first to feature on a Newspaper article, which was syndicated in a handful of newspapers, including Deccan Chronicle and Asian Age.

The only problem that time was that the content left much to be desired, starting from the title (The title starts with the word Kitsch, can you believe it?). You can read more about it in Viswa’s blog post over here. A sheer case of how a reporter could conceive a topic, without knowing head and tail about the subject. (Scan Courtesy: Viswa)

Wasn’t I right in saying that a mention in comic blogs, rate over and above the media articles written by some unknown faces. Well you be the judge :).