On February 17, New Delhi will host the second annual Comic Con India. Inspired by the San Diego Comic-Con, CCI is already thriving, with ticket sales passing the 5 million rupee mark (roughly $100,000 US.)
India has an active comics culture all its own. Still, it’s often been a culture more prone to importation than exportation… “outsourcing” jokes aside, local cartoonists really do have to fight Superman, Archie and Tintin for Indian buyers’ attention. And its traditional comic book publishing business faces stiff competition from other media, just as it does in the States. Gotham Chopra’s Liquid Comics has approached that problem from the outside in, recruiting contributors like Stan Lee, Grant Morrison and Guy Ritchie to create work specifically for the Indian market.
But Jatin Varma, the founder of Comic Con India, is approaching it from the inside out. His company, Twenty Onwards Media, has produced eight titles through its Pop Culture Publishing imprint, and CCI is an apt showcase for his own efforts. But it’s much more than that. “We are trying to create content for people who are coming in. There will be over 70 different exhibitors and last time it was 35. So, we are doubling that number.”
Varma also plans to introduce the Indian Comics Journal at the show. There will be an awards ceremony, and a 50,000-rupee grant to the “Best Unpublished Work” of the year.
Whether Varma can retain such a central position in comics– owner of India’s biggest (only) convention, publisher, journalist, award-giver and financier– is an uncertain question, given the embryonic state of his new marketplace. (He’s also a TV producer.) That’s a level of media consolidation that most of his American counterparts would envy. And he isn’t sitting still– while he enjoys New Delhi for the creative community and the seasonable weather, he’s eyeing other Indian cities as potential additional venues in the years to come. (A scaled-down version of the con showed up in Mumbai last fall.)
Somewhere, Gareb Shamus is sighing. But for now, Varma is seen largely as a positive force in an industry that operates on a smaller scale than America’s. (His fan-cred must have gotten a boost when he showed up for his first con in a Star Trek: The Next Generation captain’s uniform.) For now, a strong central figure may be exactly what’s needed to lift Indian comics to their next level.
For a longer interview with Varma, go to moneycontrol.com.
Tags: Comic Con India, Convention, Gotham Chopra, India, Jatin Varma, Liquid Comics, Pop Culture Publishing, Twenty Onwards Media
About the Author
Written by T Campbell
T Campbell is a prolific writer, co-scriptwriter of Guilded Age, and writer of QUILTBAG, Fans, Penny and Aggie, Rip and Teri, and more. He's also the creator of the world's largest New York Times-standard crossword puzzle.
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