The Indian Comics

The day began just like a typical vacation day. I woke up at a time not perfectly suitable for a breakfast and was going through the usual chores at a speed befitting of a snail. There was an air of lazy hapiness all around me. Disintrestedly i switched on my computer . And while i was about to watch Lord of the rings part1 for the 39th time my eyes fell on a documentory tracing the origon of DC comics. It looked interesting so i began watching it . After 24 hours and three viewings of the documentory here i am with no choice but to pen down my thoughts.




The documentory was an absolute delight. It just did not stop at tracing the origon it went on to elaborately explain the changes that DC went through and the social as well as phsycological reasons behind that. I was unfortunately exposed to these comics very late; after i completed my school and so while my friends were busy chatting with their present or potential girl friends i was lost in the world of comics and novles much to every one else's ridicule. For guys like me this documentory was like salvation . It made you feel proud that the years you spent were not wasted on some random cartoon picture on a colored paper. That what i read was something special and by reading it i became a tiny part of that something special. Anyway as always is the case after this sudden burst of happiness a wave of sadness hit me when i compared it with the Indian Comic books.





Indian comics does not stand anywhere close when compared to their foreign counterparts. I posted this as a status message on facebook and got a very intresting reply by one of my friend Vaibhav Kediya. He talked about how a comic series carries a brand equity that is conspicuous in its absence in the Indian counterpart. This was a very valid point when it comes to the sales of the comics but i was not born with the fittest of the bussiness brains nor do i have that gifted knack of putting my finger on the pulse of the common people.





So keeping these frailities in mind i will just discuss whats wrong in the Indian comics contentwise. The general opinion seems to be that the Indian Comics lack the detailed graphics that the american one has. Most of them have not probably read a single Indian comic book in a long long time. As a self confessed die hard fan of comics i am yet to miss even a single comic of Super Commando Dhruva and i will stick out my head and say thet in the last two to three years the graphics and illustrations have been at par if not better than the likes of DC , Marvel etc.

The reason which i would like to give is based on my sister's reply on my fb status "Lack of character devlopment". My sister reasons that since most of the characters have been lifted off straight from soewhere else their character devlopment has not taken place . While i do not doubt that the lack of character development has been the biggest problem with the Indian comics i do not particularly agree with the explanation behind.

Even if most of the characters are rip offs a lot of work has been done to usher them into Indian enviornment. And i think one of the biggest character of Raj Comics "Naagraj" is actually pretty origional. And if my memory serves me right there were a lot of comics in the series trying to trace back his origon such as "khajaana" etc and there were also comics dedicated to scientific explanation of his powers such as "snake park".

The reason i believe for the lack of character development is Indian adults absolute denial of a kids emotional intelligence. While they will sometimes over accomodate the fact that Indian kids are intelligent ( I have read a Nagraj comics titled "Raj ka Raj" when i was in class 5 . In the comics Nagraj slows down the radioactive reactions inside the mutant with the help of heavy water (D2O). In another comics "dracula" Super Commando Dhruv suffers because he fails to take into account the static charge present on the Earth's surface Anyone who has done a physics problem where one has to always neglect the charge present on earth's surface will understand it)

The problem is that they absolutely have no connection with the day to day life . Instead of the thin line thats normally present there is a 12 lane highway seperating right from wrong in these comics. All the super heroes have a set of principles which they always follow . Not once will be a super hero caught in a moral conflict as to what s right and what is wrong . The most intresting and fascinating of all concepts "the concept of the greater good" is conspicuos by its absence in the Indian comics.

Moreover the super heroes are always good and villians are always bad. They do not have villains like double face who is constantly at battle with himself as to choose his path. Every indian super hero is as sure as the superman . There is no spiderman with an ever compelling urge of hanging his suit and spend rest of his life with his girlfriens as Peter Parker.

Its not just the comics though a glance at Indian kid movies will tell you that story is the same . In fact much worse . Most movies even dont take into account the intelligence level of kids. People fail to understand that kids are innocent but that does not mean that they are dumb nor do it means that they are ignorant ; definately not in the age of internet .

The reason to their failure to adapt can also be attributed to the carrer driven society . In abroad people have the luxury of pursuing their passions. So the first generation who was fed the comic book diet introspected about what was wrong with them and then joined the industry to make changes. Meanwhile that generation in India included guys like me who will write a blog and then will join a multi national company because a comic book industry will never give them the amount of money that they can earn elsewhere.

Slowly though the thinga are changing . The new generations being "economically relaxed" (i coined it) do not share the burden of inferiority that was evident in their previous generations. They are setting out to pursue their passions. The latest movies directed by young blood are a testament to that. The kid movies too are slowly evolving . "Stanely ka Dabba is probably the first kid movie where the kids are intellegent without compromising at all on their innocence. Not even Vishaal Bhardwaj was able to do that in yesteryears "Makdi".

I hope the trend catches up and go strong and the effect spills onto the comic book industry as well . Till then we will keep on discussing "why did batman did not kill joker to avenge robin's death "