Want to rekindle your nostalgia with an Amar Chitra Katha? How about go an adventure with Birbal, Supandi or Shambu? Yup, they are here and you can download them for free across screens, all week with the Comic Book Celebration Week! Needless to say, Bengaluru’s comic book junkies are kicked, and for good reason.
Initiated as a holiday in North America to make comics viral, this Comic Con India-pioneered movement is now seeing a toehold in the city too. With homegrown comics like Rakshak, Birbal, Suppandi 7, Shambhu 7, Beatles, DC Superhero Girls Finals Crisis, Avatar EX, Aghori, Ravanayan and Shaitaan, expect your childhood favourites to make their way into your download box.
“Comic books in India were once considered unconventional and juvenile, but this is changing over time, and such events are the reason why,” says Kevin Fernandes, a B.Com graduate, adding that it’s refreshing to see titles that are not from the house of Marvel or DC.
For people like 32-year-old Pradeepta Das who used to read them online, these free downloads are a welcome change. “This only means more comics to read and that too for free. It’s like having the cake and eating it too!” says the principal software engineer with Oracle.
“This is one form of art that has created and shaped many childhood memories. This also leads us to encourage our local comic book creators, bringing their talent to the fore,” he adds, even as he attempts to showcase his brand of humour in a meme making contest.
Thanks to the popularity of superhero flicks, enthusiasts are flocking to catch the series on comic books and this week, they can be downloaded on readwhere.com.
Aside of reveling in their favourite graphic strips, this allows enthusiasts to work up their imagination – Read: fan art, meme making and trivia contests. “If you’re lucky enough, you even get your own signed issue. It feels like my birthday,” says Karan Pappala, a data scientist at Mu Sigma.
“I haven’t read many Indian comics apart from Grant Morrison’s Ramayana and I hope to download Beatles and Avatar EX,” says the 23-year-old, who participated in the trivia contest to get his geek on. The idea was to reach people from all corners of the country and to get them addicted to comics again, relive their childhood and perhaps, introduce them to their kids too. And we think it’s working.
