Collecting Indian Graphic Novels

Clyde D’ mello

Clyde D’mello explores the origin, transition and continuum of the medium of ‘graphic novel’ as the writer tries to answer the way to choose and own these ’designed leaflets of art’.

The idea of collecting the medium of Graphic Novels has taken an initial need for working on a diabolic attitude for knowing which author is doing what right now, but the problem lies in which ones should one keep? Should one collect every single announcement or should one go through reviews by newspaper and art magazines (which are at present the only place to know especially in the book review section). In fact there is a niche crowd for collecting this medium, those who strictly admire the comic book medium or those who collect them because a so called ‘ARTIST’1 is associated with it.
In the west the tradition of the medium began with America where they coined the term ‘Graphic novel’ (1964), as a marketing strategy to increase the sales of already existing comics of the era. A new wave of illustrators and writers came in to play especially with D.C (Detective comics- 1934{originally released in the name Allied comics} and its alter egos-(imprints) Vertigo comics , Minx, Elseworlds etc. that had a different turn of events in India i.e. they became successfully popular because of their thickened plot and an association with something to do with the adventures of white people and the unknown which fascinated us as kids.
A notable insertion in the comic book spectrum in India was the French charge, the Gauls (a French tribe during the Roman Empire) Asterix and Obelix who continuously fought against the Roman Empire, (Here Rome could also refer to The United States of America). The adventures of Tintin by Herge in which a reporter , his pet dog, a Scottish drunk Captain, two detectives form the British agency and a scientist with a name of a scientific methodology (Tinitn, Snowy, Captain Haddock, Thompson and Thompson and professor Calculus) travelled the world seeking mysteries of a lost civilization, sunken treasure and Political violence (to name a few). Along with that indigenous publishers like Raj Comics and Indrijal comics (a Times of India venture) saw a new change in comic books bringing in heroes like Doga (half dog half man), Super Commando Dhruv (a superhero that swings like Marvels Spiderman), Bhadur (a cop) and many more where the character remains the same but the stories go like the Marvel or D.C Universe.