Warrior Series comic books in the offing

New Delhi: With an aim to reach out to kids and teenagers, the army is in talks with India's top comic book publishers for a ‘Warrior Series’ depicting the life of men in uniform who have performed extra-ordinary deeds while fighting for the country.

While Indian War Comics already have a series on brave hearts of the force, the army has been getting requests from different comic book publishers. This is in addition to the Central Board of Secondary Education's plan of introducing supplementary study material for Class IX to XII on unsung war heroes of Army, Navy and Air Force. Army sources said the force is in talks with publishers of 'Tinkle' and 'Amar Chitra Katha' for a series.

"The army is not getting it published. Requests have come and the army is providing stories and research material," one of the sources said. The latest to hit the market is 'Aan Comics', which has been coming out with a series on gallantry award winners.

"The books are available in most bookshops and online store Flipkart," Aan Comic publisher Rishi Kumar said. Kumar admitted that the major sales happen due to the forces itself as the books are quite a hit in the units. It is not just the army which is trying out of the box ideas to catch them young. Air Force had last year launched a mobile game aiming to attract youngsters to the force. Later, it also launched a second version of the popular game.

Across the world, especially in the US, comic books on military are famous and a lot of emphasis is laid on quality control and accuracy. While India has got several comic books on military, most of them are stand-alone on specific incidents or battles.

"What is missing is a series that will offer children with regular book on heroes," the source said. The army is hoping that with big publishers in play, the marketing of the comic books would be better and will help it reach out to more people.