Wednesday, August 08, 2007

The Indian Comic Book Revolution

This is the link that takes you to a journey which promises action, adventure, ground breaking artwork, god-level production standards and torn pockets that ruefully complain the lack of companionship of jingling coins. It is the world of Indian superheroes launched by Shekhar Kapur, Deepak Chopra and a host of artistes and designers both from India and elsewhere. The artwork, in particular is groundbreaking and way better than any comic book artwork I have encountered anywhere (yes, this includes those sleek Batman Comics and similar stuff). All of this for a price of 30 rupees an issue, which is, I think juuuust right (any more and I could not have afforded it!)

The titles are called Devi, The Sadhu, Snake Woman, and Ramayana 3392AD (yes, fellow Science Fiction freaks! Ramayana in a dystopic nuclear war devastated earth).

Though I had seen them at Blossoms in Bangalore just before I was to graduate and come back home to Lucknow, I decided to buy them when I saw them at Landmark at the East End Mall in Gomtinagar. I checked out some of the artwork, decided that Devi's was the best (it truly is! Believe me!) and hastily bought issues 2, 3 and 4. Some days later (today, that is!) I brought issues 2, 3 and 4 of The Sadhu.

I showed them to Ra (who had come over for the weekend) and Pandu and both of them agreed with me as to the brilliant artwork and the ultra high production standards comparable (if not better) to any in the world.

My personal favourite of them all is Devi. It has the best artwork and Sitapur, a random district in UP is portrayed as a futuristic New York meets Mumbai. Gawd, is it uber cool!

Check them out if you're the comic book fan. Highly recommended.

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