Calcutta Skyline

An interesting entrant to the comic blog. The comic story " Patient Beware" written by Arunava Sinha and illustrated by Sarbajit Sen is a contemporary story describing the plight of a patient suffering from hear ailment and how he goes about visiting several Kolkata doctors and the witchhunt that he is subjected to as each doctor tries to not only cure him..but also extract as much monetary gains that they can from this helpless patient. An interesting and a very relevant plot but dealt with a quirky and satirical touch..

Target!!!

The illustrator Ajit needs special mention a his work comes with a breath of fresh air in The Bengali comic scenario as his style is quite differentt from what we were used to. But it is not only the styl but also the sense of humor that he brings about that adds this freshness in the comics. He has a clean style to his work which is a faint reminder of the European cartoons. More on his work shall be posted but for now..couple of these spreads from Target edition would give the viewers a nice introduction to his work.

Batul at War

Had to write about this one. Rarely do we come across Propaganda comics in India, and this one presumably

written during the Bangladesh War talks about Batul coming to the cause of the country and wreaking havoc in

the Enemy Camp. This one is similar in the lines of Bugs Bunny and Tex Avery animations that we know of. This

issue is surely special because rarely do we come across such material . This does speak vastly of Nnrayan

Debnath's work and considering the currrent scenario this issue surely is a collector's item..Do enjoy the spreads.

Shuktara Covers

Some brilliant cover pages which also double up as independent spreads of comic books for you to browse through...enjoy

Black Diamond!!

Bengali Dick Tracy!!

Black Diamond

story: Dilipkumar Chatterjee

illustration: Narayan Debnath

The crime thriller set in Kolkata is a part of a series of crime novels

involving Indrajit Ray,our protagonist and his recurring villain Black

Diamond who keeps coming back at each volume to provide sleepless nights,

An escape of inmates from the prison prompts a series of bank heists

around the city which results in the return of Indrajit Ray from his

hiatus and eventually capture the goons through his innovative technique.

This pulp fiction comic book would remind the readers about a "Dick

Tracy"ish style comics. Narayan Debnath's illustration and compositions

give the comic book an almost black and white film like feel to it,and

thus transcends the readers to believing they were watching a crime

thriller. The storyline it self is extremely pulpish although slightly

abrupt at some moments but alltogether it is an original sounding classic

comic literature which seems to be fading away in Bengal.

I'm posting a few images from the book, do enjoy!!

Batul!!

Batul the Great

narayan debnath

A bengali comic book remains incomplete without a mention of the unforgettable Narayan Debnath and his favourite character "Batul The Great". Thus here is a slight review of a Batul the Great comic whihc appeared in the 1978 May edition of Shuktara.The story unfolds in an island where two mischiveous nephews of Batul hatch a plot to extract treasure from an other adventurer who is also in the same place for that purpose.While meanwhile Batul who is on the island on a holiday manages to seek out the cries of Help from the adventurer who has been trapped by his evil nephews as they plan to escape with the treasure.As usual our favourite Batul manages to save the day with his histronics.

The small simple plot where two gun totting kids manage to scare away an old man and the sudden appearance of Batul is what classical Bengali comic book narratives are made of.

Mayukh Chatterjee and Africa..

Bonbashi Bondhu

Mayukh Chatterjee

Replete with beautiful artwork and an innovative narrative, Bonbashi bondhu by Mayukh Chatterjee is an adventure graphic narrative in its true sense. The badlands of wild Africa with poaching as its underlying theme provides an interesting setting for our story.

John Michael is a Game Warden in a post 2^nd World War Africa. He along with his faithful assistant Oriyangaka head out into the jungle to investigate a rampant case of Poaching. Along the way Oriyangaka is injured and heads back while John heads alone, manages to save a lion..but eventually is trapped by the poachers. What follows is a few more pages of intriguing story telling with some fascinating drawings which tells the story about John’s rescue from an unlikely friend..

This is as far as the synopsis of the story can be summed up but according to me what pushes this graphic novel in the list of those on the top is the fact that the illustrator manages to give a perfect essence of the adventure stories of the jungle which we are so very familiar courtesy Phantom and Tarzan, through his dynamic illustrations of the wildcats and ofcourse the climax which provides an interesting anecdote for the readers.

Mayukh Chatterjee manages to combine beautifully an adventurous setting and yet talk about an everlasting and underlying theme of friendship and loyalty.

Project Promotion Posters!!!

We open the comic book india blog with it's first set of promotional posters!!! Keep a lookout for this space as we'll be coming with new stuff..

This project does what it says on the tin. Sequential art in India has its own rich history - or should we rather say histories - and a huge body of work by Indian writers and artists exists that predates the proper graphic novel. At the School of Cultural Texts and Records, Jadavpur University, we are especially interested in comics that appeared in magazines and other, short-lived publications in various Indian languages (including Bengali, Malayalam and English) that are now out of print and in danger of being lost. We collect and archive such material and hope to bring them to the attention of scholars and students who want to delve into the history of comic art in India. We also note that we are fans and custodians only - the respective writers and artists who created the content we archive retain intellectual copyright.