Buy more Indian comics, urges Shamik Dasgupta

Comic Book Celebration Week
We do have people buying our books at the venue, especially if the story is good. But, I feel that events such as this should focus more on the comics industry instead of events like cosplay that don't really do much for us (as authors)

Comic books and superhero culture may still be a niche spectrum of entertainment in India, but Comic Con India (CCI) is doing everything it can to celebrate this sub-culture. In this regard, CCI hosted the first ever ‘Comic Book Celebration Week’ in India, which concluded on Sunday.

As part of the Week, an exclusive workshop was held for comic enthusiasts at Purple Talk in Kondapur, which focused on technical aspects of comic art and digital painting. Hosted by Shamik Dasgupta, one of India’s leading comic book writers, who explained about the situation of comics in India, America, Japan and elsewhere around the world, the workshop elaborated on the use of software for developing comics.

On the sidelines of the workshop, the authors spoke to The Hans India on the significance of comic books in India. “Most people still think that comics are for kids. And then there are the distributors who are a difficult lot. They mark up their costs to 50 per cent of the sales and that is an expensive proposition considering most publishers of comic books are small players,” says Dasgupta.

“Going by the books they continue to unspool, it is obvious that these story-wallahs are willing to take a gamble now if only more readers actually bought Indian comics instead of just swooning over cosplayers and TV show stars at Comic Con,” he adds.

On platforms like ‘Comic Book Celebration Week’, Shamik Dasgupta’s measured stance is, "We do have people buying our books at the venue, especially if the story is good. But, I feel that events such as this should focus more on the comics industry instead of events like cosplay (costume play) that don't really do much for us (as authors).”

Talking about his career he says, “When I was out of college, I had no direction of what to do. All I knew was that I really love comic books and I wanted to write that; that’s how I started my career. I always prefer thrillers, horror and action stories, not superheroes so much; I am not very fond of superheroes. I am just okay with reading international stuff.”

Bollywood inspiration
The appeal of superheroes has been steadily growing from the last decade; all we need is a well done superhero befitting the modern youth of India. Through there is no doubt that the new breed of superhero breeders are increasingly. Most of them are concentrating on original content, a parallel trend of taking up characters and theme from Indian. What we read in comics is also shown in movies; but comics are stationary.

Adding a note on Indian mythology he says, “It already has a rich bank of archetypes and theme to draw from. It takes less of a ‘leap’ from a reader (or a writer for that matter) for a story. There is no place for Chacha Chaudhary’s happy ending and Shikari Shambhu’s innocent antics anymore.”

Elaborating on his graphic novel, ‘The Caravan’, a horror/action/adventure piece published by Yali Dream Creation, which follows in the trend of the Robert Rodriguez directed ‘From Dusk Till Dawn’ and copiously coated with spicy Bollywood masala that will make you smack your lips with the taste of bloody curry, Dasgupta says, “I wanted to bring an element of entertainment to the vampire universe, which is often very serious and dark.

So, I took Bollywood elements from movies and made it graphically appealing. It is like a masala entertainer of the comic book world, which was inspired by the Ramsay Brothers’ movies.” Dasgupta is working on his upcoming project; a horror, thriller graphic novel ‘The Village’, which is set for release in 2017.

On his parting note after a much-enjoyed workshop, he says, “I love people over here. They were interactive during the session. I would like to give advice to new vibes be a little brave, trust the creative who are working for your company, try to not just stick into comics. Think about stories you are creating and how it can transform into different mediums like animated games and movies.”

By Rashmi Kumari