As I’ve been searching around the internet for news and reactions to the Diamond Comics situation, my searches frequently come up with the OTHER Diamond Comics. Located in Delhi, India, it claims to be “the largest comic book distributor and publisher in India.” Founded in 1978, it publishes such local favorites as Chacha Chaudhary, Billoo, Pinki, Motu Patlu and many more. They also are official Hindi language licensees of Phantom, Mandrake, Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, He-man and James Bond.

As official as they may be, some of the comics that came across our feed are quite startling. 

These are the Bengali editions of Spider-Man, and the covers are clearly redrawings of beloved and famed issues – although Red Hulk may have had his secret debut at Diamond, and likewise, the nefarious YELLOW Goblin. 

This one has me stumped though:

At first the strange perspective and odd cropping made it look like TWO people were in the bed….but it appears to be a family anxiously gathered around a sick-bed…while Spider-Man plays Peeping Peter from above. I admit, I don’t know what famous Spider-Man story this is from so help me out in the comments. 

UPDATE: as revealed in the comments this is indeed based on the splash page to Spider-Man #121 the issue where Gwen Stacy (spoilers) dies. The original is by Gil Kane:

While searching for more info I found this informative blog post (remember those?) from Abhishek Kumar, covering all the major comics publishers in India. According to Kumar, 

Diamond Comics a Delhi based publisher acquired the rights to publish Spider-man in 1994, These were digest format books using famous Amazing Spider-man books as covers.

Here’s yet another variant edition:
Although the rough lettering and dialog are amusing, there’s also something very endearing about this….the power of comics and their best known characters to find audiences around the globe, and morph into different versions never fails.  

Comics are quite popular in India, Wikipedia tells us, under the name Chitrakatha (meaning picture story) and often covering mythological themes. In the late 80s-early 90s the most popular titles  “easily sold more than 500,000 copies over the course of its shelf life of several weeks.” Under competition from video games and TV, titles now sell only 50,000 copies. However, per my own reporting over the years, comic cons are now major events in India, and it’s not uncommon for North American creators and publishers to be guests (along with the requisite nerdlebrities, of course.) India has the second largest population of English speakers globally (preceded by the US and followed by Nigeria) so it’s easy for US-based entertainment to cross over, and of course, we’ve seen several US comics publishers attempt to cross over to the huge potential audience in India – and bring Indian comics talent to the US. 

Like every culture, India has its own comics icons. For instance, Chacha Chaudhary by the late Pran is Diamond’s most popular character, described as a wise old man who helps other solves their problems while cracking jokes. The ultimate low concept, but it’s all in the execution. When you throw in a low priced car, it’s irresistible. 

I could spend hours looking at these covers with their quirky approach to composition and unfamiliar characters. For instance this is some kind of vampire comic, apparently:

 

And of course there’s the popular “lion bites off a man’s arm while another guy jumps into flames on his motorcycle” genre. 

Anyway, Indian Diamond Comics is still going strong. If you know more about all this than I do (a very low bar) feel free to give more info in the comments. 

3 COMMENTS

  1. I grew up reading Chacha Choudhary, Dhruv, Nagraj etc. I read that vampire comic back in the day and completely forgot the name. Thank you for this post, I now know the name of the comic and will try to find it online!

Comments are closed.