Just what IS going on in the Indian comics business anyway? We’re always picking up stories about comics in India in our Google feed, but we never hear about any fans. Anyway here’s yet another mysterious story this one focusing on how two popular movie character — Minna and Circuit — are to become comics characters.
“And why just comic books? We’ve a large number of offers to turn Munna and Circuit’s adventures into animation films, cartoon strips, you name it,” Hirani said.
In fact, the blueprint for the comic strips has already been made.
“We’ve drawn some sketches for Munna and Circuit which would hopefully serve as illustrations in a series of adventures, and we like what we see. If things go well we’ll soon be putting out Circuit-Munna comic books for public consumption,” said Hirani.
The comic books and the proposed animation films will be marketed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra Productions, which had produced the two films as well.
Arshad is delighted by the idea. “Wow! To actually feature in comic books, like Superman or Spiderman! Imagine what my son Zeke will have to tell his friends in school. ‘My father the superhero!’
Heidi, there are not many fans of Indian comics here in India because, to put it frankly, these comics suck. There have been comicbook adaptations of Hindi films and film personalities before – one-shots on Lagaan, Hum Tum, Bhagat Singh, an 80’s series called Supremo with the filmstar Amitabh Bachhan as a superhero named – duh – Supremo. But in all these cases, the artwork and stories suck tremendously. Pavitr Prabhakar, the Indian Spiderman was a humongous joke – kids don’t go to school in India wearing dhotis. Virgin comics, advertised as Indian mythology repackaged, weren’t even released in India until this month.
Here’s an Indian comic (about India, written by an Indian writer, drawn by an indophile American artist while living with the writer) which was nominated for Outstanding Debut in the 2004 Ignatz Awards: “The Doppler Effect”
http://www.namingdistances.com/mutatis/doppler.html