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Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics

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Comicology: comic books as culture in India

Ritu G. Khanduri
a a

Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Texas, USA Available online: 15 Dec 2010

To cite this article: Ritu G. Khanduri (2010): Comicology: comic books as culture in India, Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 1:2, 171-191 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21504857.2010.528641

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Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics Vol. 1, No. 2, December 2010, 171191

Comicology: comic books as culture in India

Ritu G. Khanduri*
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Texas, USA (Received 18 June 2010; nal version received 10 October 2010) Building upon the intersection of anthropologys and Indian comic books focus on culture, this article addresses two questions: How do comic books in India represent culture? And, what insight about mass media, representation and interpretation can be gleaned with the comic book readers emerging role of creator? To trace continuities and shifts in comic books engagement with culture and to convey the different scene contemporary readers experience, this article focuses on the comic brands Amar Chitra Katha, Indrajal Comics, Liquid Comics and Vimanika. Indian comic books highlight distinct cultural globalization processes and social media networks as a space for history, and for pedagogy that teaches how to read comics and how to make comics. Keywords: comic books; blogs; convergence; culture; digital; fans; history; India; internet

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Introduction: historiphoty In 1988 Hayden White, who coined the term Historiphoty, persuasively argued the idea that visual narratives are as much historical truths as historiography. This was echoed by Joseph Witeks inuential Comics Books as History (1989). Meanwhile, in India Amar Chitra Katha (ACK), Indrajal Comics, which began publication in the 1960s and 1970s, and Disney comics were already rmly grounded popular comic book brands narrating history and replete with adventure. Drawing their plots from myths, religion and contemporary battles of good over evil, these comic books were available in English and also translated to Hindi and other regional languages.1 Although ACK continues to hold sway in India and among the Indian diaspora, it vies for readers attention along with the new generation comic brands in contemporary India, such as Liquid, Vimanika (Ancient Indian Aircraft), and Level10. In ACK and the new generation comic brands in contemporary India, culture remains a resilient organizing principle. Culture offers a route to frame Indias past and present while also staking claims for the Indianess of their plots and narrative. Indian comic book proprietors engagement with culture forges a kinship with anthropologists, who study the human experience as culture.2 Visual culture in all its facets, as symbols, art, and media images, holds a particular interest for anthropologists. Despite this attention to visual culture, anthropological interest in comic books remains scant. Building upon the intersection of comic books, history and anthropology, this paper addresses two questions: How do comic books in India perceive culture? And, what insight about mass media, representation and interpretation can be gleaned with the readers emerging role of critic
*Email: khanduri@uta.edu
ISSN 2150-4857 print/ISSN 2150-4865 online 2010 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/21504857.2010.528641 http://www.informaworld.com

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and creator? To trace continuities in comic books engagement with culture and to convey the different scene contemporary readers experience, I focus on ACK, Indrajal Comics Bahadur (Brave) series, Liquid Comics and Vimanika Comics, while also referencing other comic book brands such as Raj Comics, Diamond Comics, Manoj Comics, Vivalok and Level10.3 Although culture, superheroes and mythology are among continuities since the 1960s, digital media and the increasing interface with fans mark Indias new generation comics. There is also a strong presence of alternative comics that focus on development, Christianity and sexuality space constraints prevent me from dwelling on this theme in this article and I have explored it elsewhere.4 The comics scene today includes new superheroes, transnational collaborators, digital media, manga stylistics, comic books-based animation lms, readers in the diaspora and a growing youth and adult readership. It also includes a vibrant constituency of fans and collectors who grew-up on comics in the 1980s. The ongoing trend of downloadable comic books as iPhone content, translation into animation lm and the participatory role of fans through blogs (Figures 1 and 2), Facebook,

Figure 1. Phantom and the Pirates (issue number 51). Indrajal Comics Phantom series was translated in Hindi and various Indian languages. It was also exported to neighboring countries such as Sri Lanka. Fans blogs such as Comic World upload old issues and comic book covers to generate a history of Indian comics and a social network of Phantom enthusiasts. King Features, reproduced here with their kind permission. Source: Comic World Blog. http://comic-guy.blogspot.com/

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Figure 2. The blog Comicology has a busy trafc of fans and discussions on comics of all genres. Source: http://www.comicology.in/, with permission.

Twitter and social media websites, makes comic books in India an entry point to analyze culture as convergence culture (Jenkins 2006). Two aspects of Indias comic book culture help to situate my article. First, a title search for comics in the Registrar of Newspapers for India records yields a substantial list in various languages. Given Indias linguistic diversity, this should not surprise: The Indian Constitution recognizes 22 ofcial languages. This regional language-based print culture, dees attempts toward a single narrative history of Indian comic books. Furthermore, regional language comics also had their own distinct mix of indigenous and of licensed comic books from the West. For example, Muthu Comics in Tamil, which syndicated from the British Fleetway Publications was popular in Tamil Nadu and among Tamil readers.5 Beginning in 1964, Indrajal Comics began marketing in various Indian languages comic books of King Features Syndicates comic-book heroes Phantom, Mandrake, Flash Gordon and Buz Sawyer (Shedden 2006). In 1976 it introduced the indigenous comic book Bahadur created by Aabid Surti and Govind Brahmania. Comicology and Comic World, popular discussion forums for fans and collectors, are among sources that evidence the diverse regional comic books culture in India and its multiple trajectories connecting US and British comic book syndications. Due to the multiple linguistic and regional contexts, a history of Indias comic books culture would require several beginnings, which is beyond the scope of this article. Secondly, scholarly interest in comic books in India is recent and a potential area for further research. My more modest goal in situating ACK as a historical precursor to new generation comics is to analyze the pervasive sentiment about a change in Indias comic books culture. As a contribution to scholarship on Indian comic books, this article also serves to connect with literature on the subject in other socio-political contexts.

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This article proposes the concept convergence history to mark the multiple forms of historical writing central to my research. It highlights the disparate online and ofine sources that include interviews, blogs and writings by fans, journalists, comic book producers and artists critical for accounting for the diversity of comic books in India. A part of the analysis draws upon my interactions with Aabid Surti and Karan Vir Arora of Vimanika Comics. Additionally, my own reading of ACK and Indrajal Comics Bahadur, Mandrake and Phantom series when growing up in India, congure the contours of this paper. This combination of sources echoes the anthropologist Ruth Benedicts preference for texts to constitute a scrappy ethnography, which feminist anthropologists situate as a critique of anthropologys fetishism of eldwork (Babcock 1995, p. 210). To situate the links among comic books culture in India in a historical context, I begin with a discussion of culture a concept evoked by leading comic book brands in India. Next I elaborate on the popular and successful ACK and Indrajal Comics brands that made their mark in the 1960s and constitute the old generation of comic books. While ACK was an indigenous production, Indrajal Comics was owned by Indias leading newspaper press, the Times of India and included both indigenous series such as Bahadur and licensed series such as King Features and Lee Falks Phantom (Figure 1). ACK continues to be popular in India and abroad, among the diaspora. Thereafter I discuss Liquid Comics and the mythology oriented Vimanika to illuminate the cool vibes of new generation comics in India. Finally, I explore digital comics to signal new modes of reading and the participation of fans.

Comics as culture
But comic books are not a global medium; they have very different niches in the cultural ecologies of every region where they are found, and they rarely translate well. (Historian Anne Rubenstein 1998, p. 7)

Comic book producers in India pay particular attention to culture.6 To authorize the cultural claims of their comics, Indian publishing houses frequently inform readers of a historian or cultural expert among their staff, who ensures the accuracy of the research for their narratives. As early as 1967 Anant Pai, the founder of ACK comics presented his comics for children as a route to your roots. Pai emphasized that its comics were a product of primary research and the script was not arbitrary (Figure 3). ACKs scripts were based on the publications of Gita Press in Gorakhpur, the foremost press for Hindu texts. Critiquing ACKs narrow perspective of a mainstream Indian culture and gendered stereotype, Vivalok, an alternative comics brand present a subaltern perspective folk stories and local plots that present Indias diversity. Shekhar Kapur, a co-owner of Gotham Comics envisioned his collaborative initiative with the spiritual healer and medical practitioner, Deepak Chopra, as a response to culture: Comics are becoming the new pop art. The new pop communication. The new drug. This is not just comics, but a breathtaking new multi-media format. Comics are the new culture (DeMott 2004). Gotham Comics (now titled Liquid Comics) tapped into Indian mythology to articulate a new pop art and culture that included readers in the diaspora. For Aroras recently-launched Vimanika, culture rests in pride in Indian mythologies. Constantly compared to ACK and Liquid Comics, Vimanika distances itself from both and strives for authenticity in its representation of Indias Hindu culture and history. Such imbrications of culture and religion and nostalgia for authenticity as a hallmark of the modern self, echo scholarly recognition of distinct forms of modernity, namely, specic cultural histories that make for necessarily other modernities (Rofel 1999, p. 15).7 Accuracy is key to claim

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Figure 3. In an earlier version of its website, Amar Chitra Katha deployed the comic book format to illustrate the integration of research and primary sources when producing their comics. ACK Media. Reproduced here with their permission.

authenticity, a point Arora repeatedly emphasized in our conversation (phone interview, 9 June 2010). Vimanika Comics boasts of Deepam Chatterjees counsel: Deepam has more than 1520 years of experience and is considered among one of the hundred odd scholars in India who actually know The Mahabharata (Madhukar 2009).

Amar Chitra Katha: immortal tales Due to the tremendous success since its launch in 1967, which boasts of a print run of 80 million copies in 38 Indian languages, and 400 titles,8 scholarly attention to Indian comics has focused on ACK (Hawley 1996, Pritchett 1996, Nayar 2006). Two signicant studies highlighted ACKs historical narrative construction (Chandra 2008, McLain 2009). Chandra unravels the interesting problematic that in ACK comics the classic became the source of the popular (2008, p. 3). Pictorial representation of the classic and its circulation as a comic format endeared ACK to a wide-reading public as well as a pedagogical tool for children. McLain approaches ACK comics as a form of public culture that are, a crucial site for studying the ways in which dominant ideologies of religion and national identity are actively created and re-created by ongoing debate (2009, p. 22). Thus ACK is a source to tap culture as a process of active production. This framework complements recent work on Latin American comics and extends Jess-Martin Barberos concept mediation, as a space where it is possible to think the relationship between production and reception (Barbero 1993, L Hoeste and Poblete 2009, p. 2). Such attention to the social production of meaning contrasts with Ariel Dorfmans and Armand Mattelarts (1991) inuential political economy framework that emphasized Disneys ideological apparatus in Chile. This

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analysis fruitfully extended to the post-war context of Disney Comics to show that foreign challenge to US hegemony was met with military force, economic sanctions and the exportation to Third World countries of US capitalist values and artifacts, even as the culture of those countries was appropriated by means anthropological, ethnographic, artistic, touristic, etc. (Kunzle 1990, p. 159). The story of how Pai rst thought about ACK is now legendary and encapsulates the cultural gap comics brands in India posit as the logic for their business:
I have great reverence for Indias heritage and culture and I am deeply rooted in its rich tradition. Once while working for The Times of India, I had the opportunity to witness a quiz contest on Doordarshan. There I saw that the participants could answer questions on Greek mythology but could not tell the name of Lord Rams mother. I was bafed and it is then that the seed was sown. Now my aim was to acquaint Indian children with their heritage.9

Critics have responded to Pais perspective by pointing to the Hinduization of Indian heritage as well as reinforcing stereotypes about good and evil, beauty and gender. Sandhya Rao, a publisher of childrens books questioned ACKs cultural project: The worst blow, however, is that Amar Chitra Kathas make the readers, young and old, feel they know it all, they have culture (2000).10 Raos critique is problematic as it does not interrogate the mediation of culture. The dissonance among Pai and his various critics offers an opportunity to reect on the claims on culture. It also invites thinking about pleasure as an analytical space, which makes it difcult to dismiss readers claims of acquiring culture and experiencing pleasure through comics. But plotting Indian heritage was not an easy task. Pai began with an issue on the Hindu deity Krishna followed by another on the historical gure Shakuntala. Although since its rst appearance, approximately a million copies of various editions of Krishna have sold, the initial reception was not encouraging. Since 1969 the titles grew to encompass a broad range of individual biographies and events that included myth, religion and history. However, in the earlier years, Indian heritage was framed within a Hindu context. Even this approach to heritage was not without complexity. When approving scripts for ACK issues, Pai remained acutely conscious of multiple textual and oral narratives in Hindu texts that make it difcult to claim one correct rendering. Acknowledging the challenge, Pai admits to his own role in deciding the version he felt best suited his comics. But Pai quickly asserted his attention to historical facts and details by citing several examples, including the dilemma he experienced about representing Swami Vivekanandas famous address in Chicago:
In the story of Vivekanand, his address to the Parliament of Religions was readily available, but when we got down to doing the illustration of the time when he rose from his seat to speak, we realized that we did not know who was sitting to his left or to his right. We could not have put illustrations of just random people there. Now began the challenging of nding out exactly who he was sitting beside at that time and in what order were they seated.11

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Two years following Indian-American astronaut Kalpana Chawla and her crews tragic death in the Columbia accident in 2003, ACK issued a comic on Kalpana (Figure 4). This was the rst time ACK issued a title on a contemporary happening. I was in India during this episode. Chawlas death ignited public sorrow and shock; it also blended pride and honour. The story of a modest girl from Karnal, Punjab making it big in NASA and her life ending in a heroic death, gripped public imagination.12 ACKs Kalpana issue became news:
I knew Kalpana Chawla just like anyone else did through the media and I was zapped by her, says Margie Sastry, author of Amar Chitra Kathas latest offering, Kalpana Chawla. A

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newspaper photo of Chawla, soon after she died, had Sastry wondering how someone so petite could undergo the rigorous training required of an astronaut. But now after researching her, I feel I know her better than a lot of other people Ive met. The book on Chawla was inspired by a press conference held at Nehru Centre by the families of the seven astronauts, a few months after the tragic Columbia space shuttle crash (Mumbai Newsline, 12 September 2005).13

A few years ago, I began my faculty appointment at the University of Texas at Arlington, Chawlas alma mater. The newly-established student dormitory, Kalpana Chawla Hall,

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Figure 4. The Kalpana Chawla issue, introduced the idea of a citizen of the universe, thereby reconguring Amar Chitra Kathas project route to your routes. ACK Media. Reproduced here with their permission.

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reminded me of the force of Chawlas biography on the UTA campus an institution popular among students of science from India and more broadly, South Asia. By producing the Kalpana comic book, ACK appropriated Chawla as a part of its repertoire of great and heroic biographies which include Mahatma Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, Rani Lakshmibai, among many other makers and markers of modern India. Simultaneously, this timely title constructed a particular biography which not only initiated the process of Chawla becoming a part of the Indian cultural memory but also promised a long shelf life in the cultural memory of the Indian and diasporic public. Adult readers repeatedly observe ACKs crucial role in shaping their cultural knowledge. The memory of reading ACK during ones childhood intimately connects to an acknowledgment of its role as a form and source of knowledge. ACKs fan base is well-represented on its new Facebook page. Anil C.S. Raos post is among several that point to the emotional entanglement of memory, knowledge and ACK14 :

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God! (s) Where would I be without ACK my aunt bought me several mythological and historical titles to me when I was a 9 y...living in Toronto Canada the story of Buddha made me weep, the stories of Prithviraj Chauhan and Rana Pratap were educational and entertaining to the point I wore out the pages after rereading at least a zillion times...

With the Kalpana Chawla issue ACKs motto Route to your roots and avowed goal of bridging a cultural knowledge about the past took a new dimension. Chawlas comic book made new bridges connecting a present to Indias past. By celebrating Chawla as a true citizen of the universe, the source of Indias immortal tales shifted to include a diasporic and global context (Khanduri 2005).15 Charukesi, a fan, notes in her blog indsight.org, featuring the real and the present marks a shift in ACK and is a signature of the Kalpana issue:
It is very interesting to see the way Amar Chitra Katha has kept in touch with the changing role models for kids of this generation; no longer kings from the distant past or even freedom ghters from the recent past but real people with real achievements (I also noticed on their list JRD the quiet conqueror). I wonder what other titles they will come up with in future.16

After a time of nancial uncertainty in 2003, ACK is now a part of ACK Media led by the CEO and Founder Samir Patil, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Although ACK enjoys extreme success and now resides as a part of ACK Media, its critics have responded by designing their own comic brands. ACKs critics sit broadly in two camps, proponents of activist comics such as Vivalok that focus on subaltern plots and local stories critical of an overarching Hindu paradigm and the new generation comics such as Liquid and Vimanika that focus on Hindu mythology, digital interface and cool stylistics that endear readers in India and abroad.

Phantom and Bahadur: Indias superheroes Among Indrajal Comics various series, Phantom and Bahadur have an eager fan following. The Phantom comic books plots drew upon on imagined hybrid location of India and Africa. References to Bengalla and Singh Brotherhood were soon modied to appeal to Indian readers.17 Built around the adventures of Mr Walker, who in his role as Phantom protects the inhabitants of a dark continent, the comic book is replete with colonial perspective of a civilizing mission and orientalism. Despite this framework, which postcolonial

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theorists critiqued, paradoxically fans embrace Phantom as a pleasurable childhood memory. Fans comments suggest that despite his super human powers, a close examination revealed that Phantom exemplied Indian culture:
If we closely examine Phantom then he is a perfect Indian role model having all those qualities which we Indians adore. For example Phantom is a complete teetotaler, strictly one woman man, never kills anybody, always ready to ght for justice, never abuses or mouths foul words, a loving and caring father, honest, brave and just and above all he is a common human without any imaginary super powers due to which a common man identies himself with Phantom more rather than with any other so called super heroes.18

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Indrajal Comics series based on the character Bahadur (brave) was created by Aabid Surti and Govind Brahmania. The comic book launched in 1976 with Jagjit Uppal as scriptwriter. During our meeting in Mumbai in 2003, Surti informed me that during the years when Bahadur became popular, there was no copyright. Explaining the team-work, Surti told me that he was busy and collaborated with Brahmania. Surti used to conceive the idea, divide the shots and give directions. Based on the bandits and cops theme, this comic book emerged from the context of the 1970s, which was a time of intense crime in central India.19 The comic book narrates tales of Bahadur, the son of a slain dacoit (Figure 5). Upon realizing the heinous ways of the Chambal Valley bandits, including his own dead father, with the police ofcer Vishals timely intervention, Bahadur resolved to be a good citizen and formed a Citizens Security Force (CSF) to combat crime and violence. Attired in jeans and a saffron kurta (tunic) symbolizing the fusion of modern Indian ideals and sacrice denoted by the saffron color Bahadurs karate chops, his companion and love interest Bela also skilled in the martial arts Vishal, the village headman, Mukhia and CSF members Sukhia and Lakhan coordinated their efforts to maintain peace in their village, Jaigarh (Figure 6).

Figure 5. As part of their recent efforts to revive Bahadur, Aabid Surti and Pramod Brahmania launched a website with digital uploads of old issues. Aabid Surti and Govind Brahmania, reproduced here with their kind permission. Source: http://www.bahadur.in/

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Figure 6. Bahadur and Bela. An autographed sketch by the artist Govind Brahmania. Reproduced here with the kind permission of Alok Sharma.

Although the Bahadur series was not based on a mythological theme, it evoked a sensibility of Indian culture. For fan-blogger DesiGuru, Bahadur exemplied an Indian superhero. Blogging on an issue Seeds of Poison that was scanned and posted in the Comic Book Project blog, DesiGuru noted:
Just nished the comics, and would like to comment on the story too. This is so far one of the best Bahadur Comics I read. The story is touching and in true Indian tradition, involves human emotions too. Bahadur is the rst Indian Super Hero to appear in a comic. And he is sure one of the best. I dont like the current trends of Super Commando Dhruv or Nagraj, etc., as like Phantom, Bahadur does not have any super power, but still he is a Super Hero. Now, he is no more published, but somehow I think they should revive him again into Comics or maybe a TV Series.20

Although with Indrajal Comics closure in 1990, Phantom was marketed by Diamond Comics, Bahadur ceased publication. Nevertheless the series continues to have a strong fan base and is a collectors item. Triggered by an attractive website, Bahadurs Facebook, an enormous fan-following and through the interest of both Aabid Surti and the late Govind Brahmanias son, Pramod, Bahadur comic books are witnessing a revival; there is growing interest in reviving the series both in animation and in print. A recent poster of the rst Bahadur comic book cover signals a new beginning with Pramod Brahmania collaborating with Aabid Surti (Figure 7).

New generation comics: Liquid Comics and transcreation

Spider-Man, they call him. But the next time he unmasks, an Indian boy named Pavitr Prabhakar will be revealed (Srinivasan 2005). The guy is a mind-medicine smoothie for the Oprah set. What is he doing in a genre that (a) targets young men, and (b) is lled with pain and ultra-violence and a whole lot of Thwackkkk? (David Segal, Washington Post, 2007).

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Figure 7. A recent poster featuring the rst Bahadur issue cover. Aabid Surti and Govind Brahmania, reproduced here with their kind permission.

Media analysts share growing enthusiasm that after a dark age for Indian comics between 1997 and 2003, a dramatic change is underway. This dark age symbolized a bleak time for Indian comics when declining sales forced established brands such as Manoj Comics to cease production. The sentiment of those years is well-conveyed in the words of Darshan Singh, proprietor of the Ludhiana-based Jyoti News Agency (Bhagria 2005):
Earlier we used to receive large number of children fond of reading Chacha Chaudhry, Billu, Pinky, Amar Chitra Katha, Parbhat Comics and Tulsi and Manoj Comics, etc. Along with these, there was also a great demand for Champak , Nandan, Lot-Pot, etc., but now children hardly know their names. They just ask for Batman and Superman.21

Considering the projection for Asian entertainment to be a signicant generator of revenue, Liquid Comics, a collaborative venture between spiritual healer Deepak Chopra, his son, Gotham Media producer Sharad Devarajan, and Hollywood/Bollywood director Shekhar Gupta, intended to produce a fusion comic book brand that would connect with a global readership. They achieved this goal with Spiderman Peter Parkers reincarnation as Pavitr Prabhakar in Mumbai. The Indian Spiderman marked a twin process of making a global superhero a local while simultaneously taking a local hero and making him global (Khanduri 2005). Gotham Comics foray into comics was as a South Asian publishing licensee of several comic book brands such as Marvel, DC Comics and King Features. Moving beyond their role of translation, with Pavitr Prabhakar Gotham Comics introduced a transcreation. This fusion superhero drew upon magic and mythology to

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unfold the Mumbai-based Pavitr Prabhakrs adventures. Explaining his notion of transcreation, Devarajn noted: For Indian readers to see for the rst time, this new version of Spider-Man bouncing off rikshaws and climbing local monuments like the Gateway of India will be great fun and hopefully bring in many new readers to experience this great character for the rst time (Singh 2004). Liquid Comics (now owned by Marvel) and its earlier incarnations Gotham Comics and Virgin Comics, in partnership with Richard Branson, might offer a persuasive case for thinking about the global trafc in cultural forms mediated by large corporations. Cast against Indian comic books longer history of alliances with Western comic book syndicates, a closer look at Liquid Comics foray into mythology and comics would complement Ian Condrys call to recognize the diversity of paths that can lead to global cultural connections (2006, p. 207). Despite its unexpected slow-down and change in proprietors, Liquid Comics marks a new generation of comics in India. Recent additions to this genre include Vimanika. Pavitr Prabhakar has also morphed into a reference point against which readers and comic book producers such as Vimanika imagine authentic Indian comics.

Vimanika: cool comics inspired by the Vedic text Vimanika Shastra, a treatise on aeronautics
Look at the breathtaking artwork exhibited in Issue 1 of the series. The plot-work follows the storyline, as it is told either by the protagonist or the narrator. Thus we get a chance to peek into the minds of the character which gives us a rst-hand account of the action as it happens. The plot is aptly assisted by the artists, who breathe life to the concept with the exhibition of art, color and inking, not seen so far in Indian Authentic Comics. (It was once promised by erstwhile Virgin Comics, before it was reduced to a state of oblivion.) (Blogger Raq Raja, Comicology, 2008.) Vimanikas USP is authentic (Vimanika co-founder, Karan Vir Arora, 2010) (phone interview, 9 June 2010)

Arora and Kanika Choudhary co-founded Vimanika in 2008. It aims to create stories based on characters related to Indian, Asian and Celtic mythology. It also aims for the portrayal of virtues that were common during that era but are looked upon with amazement and fear today.22 When Arora and I spoke about his comics brand, he informed me that he was never really into comics; he is really a movie buff. However, upon hearing about Virgin Comics coming to India, he wondered at the paradox of a UK-based business promoting mythology and comics in India. This left him to consider the potential of Indians themselves creating authentic and beautiful comics about their own mythologies and heritage. To refute what Arora perceives is a mistaken but popular notion in India, that comics are about comedy, Vimanika demonstrates that comics, in particular, mythologies are a serious business. In an interesting twist to Pais description of ACKs pedagogical role, for Vimanika mythologies are history and scientic: we should focus on the past to learn about the future (phone interview, 9 June 2010). Citing archaeological claims about the Ram Setu bridge and scholarship on the Mauryan empire in India, Arora believes the past was scientic the weapons and physical abilities of the people of the past attest to that truth. To ensure the veracity of the history depicted in their comics, Vimanika is guided by two scholars, Dr Deepam Chatterjee and Dr Rajaram. Arora informed me that Chatterjee is among 37 scholarly experts on the Mahabharata. Rajaram is a scientist who has worked with NASA and has collaborated with Dr David Frawley in writing about Indias history. Frawley, also

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known as Pandit Vamadeva Shastri, is the founder and director of the American Institute for Vedic Studies in New Mexico. Spiritual healer Deepak Chopra, the co-founder of Gotham Comics, is among individuals who endorsed Frawleys expertise. Claiming that past conquerors have changed our history into myth Vimanika comics re-connects myth as history. But this history holds import for Arora because the values and character of people from the past serve as role models. Those values are eternal, yet forgotten today and realizing where we come from connects us to culture. Arora wants his comics to reawaken these values. Comics offer an ideal medium for education. When Arora read the Gita, there was some to which he could not connect. Comics will forge that connection. So is Vimanika another version of the successful ACK? Arora dismisses the idea and insists his comics are cool (phone interview, 9 June 2010) (Figure 8). For Arora, his comics provide a foundation for a longer term plan to transition to animation lms. When Vimanika comics are thrown out in the market, there will be a market for the lm even before it is launched. Negotiations are also underway for licensing with mobile phone providers in India, signaling the logic of multiple formats that mark contemporary comic book production. The comic books website features photographs of a prominent Bollywood actor, Milind Soman, in a launch of his comics. Arora informed that his friends in Bollywood appreciated his comic book, indicating a wider ambit of readers and the endorsement of media workers in the lm industry. Vimanika readers are referred

Figure 8. Cover of Vimanikas graphic novel, Dashavtar. Vishnu is shown with two-arms instead of four as is the convention in popular iconography. Arora pointed to me his emphasis on Vishnus face being handsome, and his gaze: he is looking at you. Marketed as the rst Indian graphic novel the U.S., Vimanika aims to reach Indian Americans and a broad readership in India through its claim of authentic renderings of Hindu mythology. Vimanika, reproduced here with kind permission.

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to as Vimaniks and Arora reaches out to his readers through blogs such as Comicology and the Vimanika Facebook page. Participating in online forums that accommodate anonymous comments means Arora receives both public praise and criticism. Arora situates his comics as re-tellings which create evolution and not a revolution. Vimanika Comics insistence on a heritage, history and culture built around Hindu myths and comments on Comicologys readers forum suggesting a toning down of the Hindu mythology ethos prompted me to ask Arora about his comics reecting Hindutva, a controversial brand of Hindu politics in India with strong transnational links (Khanduri Forthcoming). In response, Arora criticized the association people made between his comics and Hindutva because he felt such critics have a wrong impression about religion. Such reactions to religion are becoming a mind set. To clarify, Arora asserted that his comics are not about politics, mythologies are written universally; he was a proud Indian rather than a proud Hindu (phone interview, 9 June 2010). Such articulations of mind sets bring into sharp relief that the notion of religion as a comfortable aspect of secularism and modernity is deeply enmeshed in public conversations about comics of Hindu mythology. Cool identities are in a comfort zone where manga stylistics, the historical context of Hindu mythologies, the depoliticization and authentic culturalization of nation creates a distance from the not-cool ACK. This implicit re-classication of ACK by critics rests on the renewal of the category of the authentic with a new graphic style.23

Digital comics and cyberspace

Siddhartha: wow everyone is a critic! Akshay : well...yes. that is the beauty of the internet :) (Readers review of Level 10s Shaurya, 2010, see note 27)

Since 2008, leading comic publishing houses Diamond Comics and ACK media have turned to transforming their popular comic brand into animation lms. Vimanika Comics too has potential collaborations brewing. In the face of scant competition, proprietors such as Gulshan Rai of Diamond Comics believe they have a promising future: Till now, we have seen only foreign characters on cartoon channels. There is no Indian character that Indian children can relate to. Our desire is to create an Indian channel, which will show content of Indian relevance and stories of Indian culture through Indian characters (Turakhia 2008). Once again, culture is evoked as the social and capital logic for animation lms. While animation invites considerable attention, digital comics and the internet opened up new possibilities for comics. Business analysts estimate that the comic publishing market in India is worth 300 crore Indian Rupees (3 billion USD).24 This projection is expected to grow dramatically over the next decade (Vats 2010). New business models and vertical formats extend comics as digital media accessible through cell phones, iPods, Kindle and computers. Comics have become a multimedia: their digital les are popular as VAS (value added service) for cell phone subscribers of Airtel, Vodaphone and iPhone and can be downloaded or purchased online via Kindle. For Raj Comics, the leading Hindi comic book brand, collaboration with digital providers has opened new opportunities. Not only are their comics downloadable on the internet and on cell phones but also the publisher is digitizing older issues and re-inking them for a fresh look. Digital comics hold promise; their future is being tracked in the US too. Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel and AT&T offer GoComics, owned by Uclick. These providers offer a separate subscription for manga and their comics include, the Hindu folklore inspired Devi (Twiddy 2007). The economies of production, distribution and VAS make

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digital comics a potentially viable business. According to Robert Hernandez, the senior vice president of Disney Publishing Worldwide, digicomics will become the new gold standard.25 However, in Indias expanding market, digitization produces uneven access to technologies and media forms. Publishers are eager about the process but its results are yet to be seen. iPhones and Kindle are expensive gadgets and as Raj Comics readers noted in their messages on the publishers forum, these cater to the NRIs (Non-Resident Indians) and people who travel they can afford expensive gadgets26 :
Moreover these are not targeted on us readers, who can easily purchase paper-comics but those who are either dont get these due to non availability (like NRIs), or those who travel a lot, or those who have a love for gadgets, and such people are usually capable enough to purchase, a 12,000rs devices (iPod touch). For others paper comics are good enough as after all, a person used to reading paper comics can not get the same pleasure while reading an e-comic...(Raj Comics reader, Abhi9, 2009).

The class dimension of digital comics and the gadgets which channel this content is unmistakable. Readers forums frequently observe the disjuncture between a passionate fan following at home and the comic books producers wooing a global audience i.e., the diaspora. Abhi9s comment about the good interface digital devices and e-comics offer also reminds everyone that the pleasure of digital comics is not comparable to reading paper comics. Such critique of digital texts also constructs a new category of the authentic and truly pleasurable: paper comic books. Comics producers now boast attractive websites and readers forums. Through such forums readers can express their candid observations about specic issues and general trends. These forums signal the shift from individual media consumption to consumption as a networked practice (Jenkins 2006, p. 244). In addition to comics brands own websites, fans also host independent blogs and create a social network. Among these Raq Rajas Comicology has a strong following and is an excellent archive of comics. This forum serves as exchange about comics and their history in India as well as the world of comics more broadly. For proprietors of new comics brands, browsing Comicology can offer insightful perspective on their productions. Comics proprietors engage in these forums by responding to readers comments. For example, Arora of Vimanika is active on the Comicology blog. Readers have offered their appreciation and criticism of Vimanika comics, pointing out among other things an over-reliance on religious themes. When inviting reviews, comic book producers also have to be welcoming, engaging and appreciative of the feedback. On their public interface through Facebook, Level10 asked viewers to comment on the pros and cons of their Shaurya issue. To a particularly in-depth response which scored the issue 3/5, Rajesh, the artist, had to engage the critique27 :
Whats with the coloring issue? Well if you read the issue more carefully you will notice that things are happening in different timelines and we are looking at different characters. So we thought it was prudent to have the current timeline of the narrative in color while the ashbacks in thematic tones for each character. It was done to make a clear distinction to avoid confusion. (Rajesh Sharma 2010)

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Two themes are predominant in Indian comic book websites that invite readers participation: Indian artists for Indian comics and the reader as potential artist and co-narrator. Various comics invite readers to submit their artwork to harvest the possibility of launching a career as graphic artists. Comix, an independent comics-related website keeps fans and artists posted about opportunities.28 With Vimanikas Sketch Karna contest, Arora wanted to encourage people to draw mythology. Furthermore, with the winning drawing becoming part of Vimanikas repertoire, the winners would get a start to a career in comic book

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Figure 9. Vimanikas Sketch Karna Contests winning entry by the reader Dildeep Singh. For Arora this was a winning entry because of the movement and emotion depicted in the scene. Vimanika draws upon the Manga style and fuses it with Indian mythology. Vimanika, reproduced here with kind permission. Source: http://www.vimanika.com/

art. The winning entry and a few deserving a special mention are hosted on their website (Figure 9). To get a sense of cool graphic sensibility, I asked Arora how he picked the winning entry. Arora identied three elements: anatomy, style and emotion and explained, Anatomy basic anatomy we look at has to be good. Artwork has to connect with the dilemma of the character. [In the winning drawing] Indra is in tears (phone interview, 14 June 2010). Compared to other submissions to the Karna contest, Arora claried, those drawings were all posing they had style but were missing emotion and authenticity. Authenticity was a key theme for Arora because he believed it was critical for specic comic book genres, namely, mythology. Conclusions: a new scene Complementing the proposal that comics merit critical analysis as history and culture (Witek 1989, McKinney 2008), this paper situates shifts and continuities in comic books in India. Comics as mass media embody a creative space and show the pedagogical processes at work and the imbrications of culture with protable business. Thinking through the conceptual lens of culture a framework shared by comic book producers, and readers in India and the anthropological perspective, I show the multiple ways in which culture is constructed and serves as a sign for claiming identity and difference in new generation comics such as Liquid and Vimanika. Due to its linguistic diversity, in India comic books have carved distinct regional histories. A review of discussions on Indias comic book scene suggests diverse opinions: on one hand, a need to bring more energy into indigenous comic books and on the other hand to encourage emerging artists and comic book proprietors to address regional markets of non-English readers. Alok Sharma of the comic blog Chitrakatha, summarizes it eloquently:

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There are couple of players in Indian market even now, but all of them are busy playing in their niche markets Raj Comics still has a grip on the northern and central belt, Diamond having a wide distribution across India concentrating on kiddie stuff, Vimanika and others are still conned to big cities, thanks to the language of publication English. To have a wider reach in India, publishers have to publish these comics in Hindi.29

The comics landscape in India, which scholars tended to prioritize through the popular ACK (1976present) and Indrajal Comics (19641990) comic books, is fast-changing. A surge of new series that marks the change in comic books culture ties to the liberalizing of Indias economy in the late 1990s, emergent technologies, transnational production networks, and adults in a growing middle-class market. Transnational business and artistic collaborations, the emerging market in graphic novels and digital formats of print comics all indicate a growing visual literacy in and market for comic books, which is geared toward adult readers. In this new moment, the more successful brands ACK and Diamond Comics also re-invent themselves by morphing into digital comics and exploring animation lms. For struggling brands such as Raj Comics, the digital interface might provide a new lease of life. In particular, I offer three perspectives on Indias comic scene: First, I show that beginning with the earliest comics in India ACK, culture continues to be a central concept providing creative, social and capitalist logic for comic publishers and readers. Readers engagement with comics as culture offers a space to think through the ways in which dominant frameworks of race, gender, and Hindu culture are re-interpreted. For example, readers enthusiasm for Indrajal Comics Phantom series shows that fans interpret colonial narratives civilizational mission to construct positive images of Indian culture. Similarly, though analysts critiqued ACKs overarching Hindu framework as part of a process that marginalizes other cultural experiences, readers remember these comics among their pleasurable childhood moments. The duality between textual analysis and readers reception in the context of Indian comics echoes a persistent anxiety about the role of comic books.30 Newly kindled debates on the social role of comics in India as well as its growing relevance as adult reading material that involves diasporic audiences and transnational production, further extends the use of culture as focal concept for addressing comics. Recently, unease with the anti-Semetic tones of the re-issued 19301931 comic book, TinTin in the Congo led the British Commission for Racial Equality to consider it unsuitable for children.31 Secondly, I contend that the current digital scenario will need new analytical framework for studying media production, reception and mediation. The plethora of readers forums emerging either as an element of comic book publishers websites or as individual blogs has resulted in an unprecedented engagement among readers as well as with comics producers. Blogs such as Comicology, the Comic Project, Comic World, Indsight, Phantomhead, ACK-India, World of Devil, Indrajal Comics Club, Chitrakatha, ickr images of Indian comics, and Facebook pages of Raj Comics and Bahadur are among the several fan sites that attest to the internet as the medium for networking about all things cultural. Finally, comic book readers now have an interesting array of roles: they review comics, engage with other fans and submit their own artworks and scripts. Comic brands such as Vimanika invite the public to contribute scripts, drawings and their own comics to herald a new generation of Indian comics. Through their acuity, analysis and immediacy, comic book readers in India critique scripts and artwork and present themselves as potential comic book artists. Mediated by the internet, as part of fan network, readers publicly share their insight and are attuned to comic trends and its diverse history in India. In Indias new comic scene, blogs such as Comicology are a space for pedagogy, teaching how to read comics and how to make comics. This makes the internet an ethnographic site for studying Indias comic book culture.

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188 Acknowledgements

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A version of this paper was presented in 2005 at the South Asia Institute, University of Texas at Austin. In past years, several individuals related to the world of Indian comics engaged with me and shared their thoughts. In particular, I thank Aabid Surti for an informative conversation about his creation Bahadur and Karan Vir Arora for sharing details about his publication, Vimanika. For their generosity in permitting use of their images, I thank Aabid Surti, Pramod Brahmania and the management at Vimanika. Nia Parson, Sharada Sugirtharajah and Alok Sharma offered valuable comments for which I am grateful. Time constraints prevented a discussion with Nandini Chandra and I want to thank her for informing me of her recent article and for her support. I am grateful to Savio Joseph, Manoj Gujjaran and Savita Pai for their help with obtaining permission to use ACK Media images. Special thanks to Alok for permitting me to use the late Govind Brahmanias sketches of Bahadur and Bela. I am grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their comments and helpful suggestions. Finally, I want to acknowledge and thank the many bloggers who recorded their memories of the early years of Indian comics.

Notes
1. 2. 3. For a fascinating selection of comics in India see the Comicology blog: http://www. comicology.in/2009/04/media-article-disney-comics-bACK-in.html For a perspective that critiques the culture concept, see Abu-Lughod (1991). For a succinct summation of the debate, see Allison (2000, pp. 59). Each of these comic brands deserves attention. I do not discuss these brands in-depth due to space constraints. I am grateful to Alok Sharma for alerting me to the fact that Raj Comics sales are larger than all Indian comic book brands added together. While researching for his documentary on Indian comics, Sharma observed that Raj Comics usually published 50,000 copies of their A-list characters (Nagraj, Super Commando Dhruv and Doga among others) and 30,000 copies of their B-list characters (Bankelal and Parmanu among others). However, other comic brands barely crossed the 10,000 copies mark. (Personal communication). Khanduri 2010a and 2010b. Comicology blog. Drawing upon Anne Rubensteins critical reading of anthropological studies of culture and its impact on popular and ofcial perception of the social role of comics (1998), I discuss links between anthropology, culture and comics in more detail in Khanduri 2010b. Rofels analysis highlights the contributions of postcolonial scholarship in formulating the multiplicity of modernity. Space constraints limit me from including a substantial body of literature on this subject. These statistics are from a 2004 report cited in Nayar (2006, p. 116). Ahuja (2007). Rao (2000). Ahuja (2007). In various interviews Pai often recalls ACKs beginnings and the Vivekananda episode. At the time I was in India for my eldwork. Newspaper accounts and television coverage attested to the emotional response to Chawlas death. http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=148173 http://www.Facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1015024&fbid=1337439151296&op=2&o= global&view=global&subj=75907274697&id=1090643819 Chandra (2008) has written in-depth about the diasporic market, which preceded the Kalpana issue. McLains insightful discussion of the Kalpana issue situates ACKs script within the Virangana tradition of sacrice (2009, p. 86). http://indsight.org/blog/2006/01/06/immortal-picture-stories-or-amar-chitra-katha/ Friese (1999) details this dimension of Phantom comic books.

4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17.

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29. 30. 31.

Comment by Comic World in http://indrajalbengali.blogspot.com/2010/06/why-i-readindarjal-comics.html#more In our 2003 meeting Surti informed me that he also worked with the artist Pratap Mullick for the series on Inspector Azad. Chandra (2010) discusses aspects of Bahadur in comic realism. http://thecomicproject.blogspot.com/2005/05/comic-9-bahadur-seeds-of-poison.html http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=140965 http://www.vimanika.com/aboutus.html Here I am drawing upon Shelly Erringtons analysis of the commodication of art through categories such as authentic and primitive (1998). India does not match the numbers John Lent noted for East Asia (1995). Indias recent boom is connected to digital media and devices, especially cell phones. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=avSQbBUEODks. In the US context, Schott (2010) notes the role of the internet in the readers interface with comics. http://www.rajcomics.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=124&t=2761 http://www.Facebook.com/topic.php?uid=371500427252&topic=16311 http://www.comixindia.com/blog/. In the US context, Schott (2010, pp. 2021) also points to the internets role in diversifying fans activities. http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?vid=153893846552&topic=10963. Rubenstein (1998), Friese (1999) and Chandra (2008) discuss this problematic. I explore this theme in detail in Khanduri (2010c). McKinney (2008, p. 4) elaborates on the recent debate regarding the re-issued TinTin in the Congo.

Notes on contributor
Ritu Gairola Khanduri is an assistant professor of cultural anthropology at the University of Texas at Arlington. Her research foci include media, history, colonial and postcolonial India and the diaspora. Supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundations Richard Carley Hunt Postdoctoral Fellowship, Khanduri is currently working on her book manuscript titled Caricaturing culture: cartoons, history and modernity in India.

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