Indian comics- scenario and publishers

Indian Comics - publishers( part one)
author- Tadam
Comic books have been a great medium of entertainment for numerous decades.
Comics is the way where one can tell his stories in the best way with less investment.
one thing that makes comic books unique are its two factors,which are words and pictures unlike the movies and novels, which have only one factor each.
The comics were popular in western countries around half a century ago. But They are popularand could be found in almost every part of the world because of its immense power of attractive graphics and mesmerizing stories. India is one of such countried where comics books could be found.
India is home to many establisheded and independent publishers who are bringing out the best books possible. India now even has its own comic con which is organisedfour times in four different places every year( Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai).
And every year the number of comics publishers is increasing by one or two new comers.  There are plans being made of a movie to be produced on popular comics character of Industry giant RAJ COMICS which will be directed by Hatke filmmaker Anurag kashyap. this is the present scenario of Indian comics.
Now let us go back to a few years back in the past-
The 90's are considered to be the golden age of Indiancomics by readers when publishers like Raj, ACK, Manoj,Tulsi, Nutan and many others were ruling the indian comic market. They used to sell around 50,000 - 100000 copies in a month.
and every new issue seemed to be a masterpiece to be collected by the fans.
but as the decade came to an end, new ways of entertainment, which were technologically advanced knocked the lives of young ones who were not as keen as their elders to read comics. They were too lazy to work their mind on reading.
they would rather watch cartoon shows on tv and play video games or listen to music.
the situations changed drastically and about all the major and minor publishing houses lost their readers immediately. They could not make new readers and old one were not sufficient to keep them running. Thus, this resulted in a sudden closedown of 90% of the publishers among which were popular names like Manoj comics and tulsi comics.
Only Raj comics and Amar chitra katha and a few more survived those years somehow
Raj comics and AMAR CHITRA KATHA found their own ways out to survive in this age of technology. Amar chitra katha converted their comics and E format first. Then it brought out DVDs of its popular mythological characters.
Raj comics brought out issues which were masterpieces. They gave best stories and artwork of those days in India. They even produced a three episode serial on their Flagship character Nagraj and made an animated movie on him.
Later they launched their own website and E-store which allowed fans to connect with the creatives thus re-uniting the readers also. they started selling their books online and they have shown a great development in their services thus increasing their readership.
In the past few years, social media such as facebook and twitter had played a very crucial role in promotions of comic books. fans now connect and help each other through facebook. they even gift each other on their birthdays.
When Raj and other survivors were reviving slowly, Indiancomics industry sawmany new independent publishers sprouting out with new age content. They had experimentak stories, mostly based on indian mythology and they got a very impressive respinse from readers.
VIMANIKA COMICS, HOLY COW ENTERTAINMENT, ORANGE RADIUS, CHARIOT COMICS, YALI DREAM CREATIONS, AAYUMI PRODUCTIONS, ARKIN COMICS, ROVOLT ENTERTAINMENT, META DESI COMICS, FENIL COMICS, SPEECHBUBBLE ENTERTAINMENT, LEVEL TEN COMICS and GRAVITY COMICS are the names of publishers which came up with most exciting and ppromising contents.
Most of them have found a huge base of readers and are now stepping towards huge success in and across India.
COMICS CON INDIA is giving a boost to independent publishers, where they can showcase their books and make humongous sales. Its likely that indian comics market will touch the heights of its past very soon.
(will come up with the next past soon where i will tell about the popular characters and series of comics which have made a huge fan base in short time)

Two Friends (short story)

TWO FRIENDS
A Short Story by Tadam
“Komu!”
“Komu! Komu! Where are you? Come baby,
come!”
Little Yaji called out to her pet—her best friend.
She wanted to go for
their regular evening walk a little earlier than
usual that day.
“Come soon, baby! We’re going to have lots of
fun today!”
Komu heard Yaji and came rushing out of the
house. He looked as excited as
Yaji was. He ran towards her and began licking
her outstretched hands, like
a child licks his favorite ice-cream. Yaji patted
him on his head and
scratched his neck—dogs love that, she knew.
Then, the two friends set off
down the road into the jungle.
*
Yaji was the only daughter of the headman of the
village. Tapin—that was
the name of the village—was nestled in a narrow
valley surrounded by
thickly-forested hills. It was a beautiful little
village, with lots of
greenery around and a river flowing nearby. Big
banana trees grew in the
fields that surrounded the village—that was what
Tapin was specially known
for.
Yaji thought Tapin was the best place in this
world.
*
Yaji was as sweet as the bananas of Tapin. Yet—
or maybe because of that—she
didn’t have many friends. The other village
children were just too busy
hunting dragonflies and climbing trees, looking for
eggs in mynahs’ nests
to eat (which she found horribly cruel), to bother
about her—and thankfully
so. Yaji would spend hours sitting by the river or
deep in the forest,
spellbound by the beauty of the nature around
her. The other kids found
that a waste of time, and so left her alone.
*
One day, while Yaji was ambling through the
forest collecting wild berries,
she befriended a dog, which followed her home.
Almost at once, she and Komu
accepted each other as best friends. From that
day on, they did almost
everything together. Every evening, they went
together into the jungle for
a walk, the highpoint of their day.
*
It had been three months since Komu had arrived
in Yaji’s life.
That day, Yaji was very excited. Her father had
bought her a new,
peacock-blue frock. She wanted to celebrate the
occasion with Komu, having
fun.
It was amazing how many fruits grew in the
forest! In just a short while,
Yaji’s little basket was overflowing with the fat,
red-hued berries that
she loved. Komu loved them, too.
“Komu, Komu! Papa’s so kind!” chuckled Yaji as
she popped a berry into her
mouth. “He bought me this wonderful frock today!
I always wanted one like
this but never asked him. So kind of him, na? I’m
so happy!”
“Here, have another berry,” she chirped as she
tossed a berry into Komu’s
mouth, which he quickly gobbled up.
As Yaji walked ahead, she flung berries high into
the air while Komu leapt
up and caught them, without missing a single
one!
You should have seen the two friends that day.
How very happy they were!
*
“Let’s rest for a while under that cotton tree,
Komu,” Yaji said after a
while. She was tired. “We better return soon.
Papa always tells me that we
should not go too far into the jungle.”
The two friends squatted in the generous shade
of the giant tree. Komu
jumped into Yaji’s lap and curled up into a ball—
he loved doing that. Yaji
looked on lovingly at this magnificent creature of
God, so full of love.
“Thank you Lord for giving me such a loving
friend,” she whispered.
*
The early evening sun was slipping down the sky,
spreading its magnificent
orange rays. A gentle breeze broke the stillness of
the forest, patiently
caressing the two friends as they lay hugging
each other, completely
oblivious to the world around them. The soft
whistle of the breeze as it
made its way through the trees sounded as if it
was humming a ballad in
celebration of their love.
It didn’t take long for Yaji to fall asleep. She
woke up—it was more than
an hour later—only when she heard Komu
frantically yelping. She couldn’t
believe her eyes as she quickly scampered to her
feet. In front of her were
three burly men, struggling to tie Komu up with a
thick iron chain. Komu
was screeching desperately, calling out to Yaji to
rescue him.
“Stop that! Stop that at once! Who on earth are
you?” Yaji screamed. “Don’t
do that to Komu!”
One of the men turned towards Yaji and barked.
“Ey girl, watch your words.
He isn’t yours. He belongs to us. We’re taking
him back come with us.”
“But he wants to be with me. Ask him and he’ll
tell you,” Yaji protested
innocently as she lunged forward to help her
friend. “What proof do you
have that you aren’t lying?”
“We don’t need to answer you, girl,” the man
snapped back, “but just to
satisfy your curiosity, you see that collar around
his neck with the number
1003 written on it? ...Well, that’s his ID number
that shows he belongs to
us. All our dogs have a number. This one escaped
three months ago and we’ve
been searching for him since then.”
Yaji didn’t doubt what the man said, but, still, she
just could not allow
Komu to be torn apart from her, especially not by
these gruff men. Goodness
knows how they would treat him! It must be
terrible living with them, or
else Komu would not have ever fled from them,
she thought.
Just then, Yaji thought of her father, the village
headman. Surely, he
wouldn’t allow the men to drag Komu off like
that. And so, she suddenly
bounced on her little feet and began racing
through the forest towards her
village. Seeing her, Komu gave one fierce jerk and
managed to loosen
himself from the grip of the man who was
holding him with the iron chain.
He ran as fast as his legs could carry him, till he
caught up with Yaji.
In a short while, they rushed into their home.
*
Taji, Yaji’s father, was sitting on the floor of the
verandah, weaving a
bamboo basket when the two friends darted
inside the compound.
“Ey child, what’s the matter!’ he cried out. “What
happened?”
“Papa! Papa! Help! Papa” Yaji wailed.
“Those...men...they are trying to
take poor Komu away!”
Yaji managed to regain her breath and explained
to her father what had
happened.
“Relax, relax my dear,” said Taji as he handed her
a glass of water to
drink. “We’ll handle the matter when the men
come.”
No sooner had Taji said this than the men
appeared at the entrance of the
compound, looking fierce and angry.
Taji had no idea how he was going to handle the
situation. On the one hand,
the dog ‘belonged’, as it were, to these men. But
he just couldn’t bear
letting Komu go with them. He had already grown
fond of Komu, but, more
than that, he knew Yaji would be devastated if
the men made off with him.
The men hollered at Taji. “Give back our dog, if
you know what’s good for
you.”
Taji thought it best not to antagonize them. He
knew what they were capable
of doing.
“My dear,” he turned to Yaji and said, “Remember
I told you a tale once,
that those who come to this world must one day
leave? I know you love Komu,
but he isn’t ours to keep. He belongs to those
people. And so we must
return him to them. He has to spend his rest of
his life with them. That’s
his fate. You are my sweetest dear, na? You’ll
listen to me, na? Return
Komu to them, dear, won’t you?”
Hearing her father speak like this, little Yaji burst
out crying, burying
her head in Komu’s neck, as if trying to take him
into her body.
The sight was so pathetic that Taji, who prided
himself on being a tough
man, was moved to tears.
“Papa,” Yaji managed to say between her sobs
after a while, “don’t you keep
reminding me that we all are children of the God
and that all of God’s
creatures have the right to live the life they like?
Komu doesn’t like
their company. Why don’t you understand that?
That’s why he escaped from
them. If he liked being with them, he wouldn’t
have come here. He doesn't
like to live with them. Please, I beg you, let him
be with us. Tell these
men off. Please, please, please!”
“I understand all that my dear,” Taji replied, “but
there is little we can
do. We must return him to them. And you won’t
deny my words, will you,
dear? You are such a lovely child.”
Yaji slowly lifted up her tear-soaked head.
“No, father, I won’t deny your words,” she
mumbled as she faced the
prospect of her best friend being torn apart from
her forever. She knew she
her father could not dare to antagonize the men.
She turned to Komu and kissed him on the
forehead.
“I shall love you till I die,” she whispered.
*
Taji lifted Komu in his arms and walked towards
the entrance of the
compound, where the men were waiting.
“I am sorry, sirs,” he said as he approached
them. “My daughter loves
animals very much and so she kept your dog,
unaware that it belongs to you.
Please take him. Here....”
Taji passed Komu to one of the men.
The man stretched his hands to take Komu. But
then, at that moment, his
eyes fell on Yaji, who was sitting a short distance
away. And, all at once,
his heart melted. It was such a heart-rending
sight, that little innocent
child and her tear-stained face.
“No uncle,” the man stuttered. ‘I just can’t! This
dog belongs to your
daughter now!”
Then, taking Komu in his arms, he marched
towards Yaji and placed him in
her lap.
“You both belong to each other,” he said, a
generous smile spreading across
his face as he patted Komu on her head. “I’ve
never seen such love before.
A fine lesson you have taught us today!”
THE END

TWO FRIENDS

A Short Story by Tadam

“Komu!”

“Komu! Komu! Where are you? Come baby, come!”

Little Yaji called out to her pet—her best friend. She wanted to go for their regular evening walk a little earlier than usual that day.  

“Come soon, baby! We’re going to have lots of fun today!”

Komu heard Yaji and came rushing out of the house. He looked as excited as Yaji was. He ran towards her and began licking her outstretched hands, like a child licks his favorite ice-cream. Yaji patted him on his head and scratched his neck—dogs love that, she knew. Then, the two friends set off down the road into the jungle.

                                                                          *

Yaji was the only daughter of the headman of the village. Tapin—that was the name of the village—was nestled in a narrow valley surrounded by thickly-forested hills. It was a beautiful little village, with lots of greenery around and a river flowing nearby. Big banana trees grew in the fields surrounding the village—that was what Tapin was specially known for.

Yaji thought Tapin was the best place in this world.

                                                                             *

Yaji was as sweet as the bananas of Tapin. Yet—or maybe because of that—she didn’t have many friends. The other village children were just too busy hunting dragonflies and climbing trees, searching for eggs in mynahs’ nests to steal and eat (which she found horribly cruel), to bother about her—and thankfully so. Yaji would spend hours sitting by the river or deep in the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the nature around her. The other kids found that a waste of time, and so left her alone.

                                                                             *

One day, while Yaji was ambling through the forest collecting wild berries, she befriended a dog, which followed her home. Almost at once, she and Komu accepted each other as best friends. From that day on, they did almost everything together. Every evening, they went together into the jungle for a walk, which became the highpoint of their day.

                                                                             *

It had been three months since Komu had arrived in Yaji’s life.

That day, Yaji was very excited. Her father had bought her a new, peacock-blue frock. She wanted to celebrate the occasion with Komu, having fun in the forest.

It was amazing how many fruits grew in the forest! In just a short while, Yaji’s little basket was overflowing with the fat, red-hued berries that she loved. Komu loved them, too.

“Komu, Komu!  Papa’s so kind!” chuckled Yaji as she popped a berry into her mouth. “He bought me this wonderful frock today! I always wanted one like this but never asked him. So kind of him, na? I’m so happy!”

“Here, have another berry,” she chirped as she tossed a berry into Komu’s mouth, which he quickly gobbled up.

As Yaji walked ahead, she flung berries high into the air and Komu leapt up and caught them, without missing a single one!

You should have seen the two friends that day. How very happy they were!

                                                                                                *

“Let’s rest for a while under that cotton tree, Komu,” Yaji said after a while. She was tired. “We better return soon. Papa always tells me that we should not go too far into the jungle.”

The two friends squatted in the generous shade of the giant tree. Komu jumped into Yaji’s lap and curled up into a ball—he loved doing that. Yaji looked on lovingly at this magnificent creature of God, so full of love.

“Thank you Lord for giving me such a loving friend,” she whispered.

                                                                                      *

The early evening sun was slipping down the sky, spreading its magnificent orange rays. A gentle breeze broke the stillness of the forest, patiently caressing the two friends as they lay hugging each other, completely oblivious to the world around them. The soft whistle of the breeze as it made its way through the trees sounded as if it was humming a ballad in celebration of their love.

It didn’t take long for Yaji to fall asleep. She woke up—it was more than an hour later—only when she heard Komu frantically yelping. She couldn’t believe her eyes as she quickly scampered to her feet. In front of her were three burly men who were struggling to tie Komu up with a thick iron chain. Komu was screeching desperately, calling out to Yaji to rescue him.

“Stop that! Stop that at once! Who on earth are you?” Yaji screamed. “Don’t do that to Komu!”

One of the men turned towards Yaji and barked. “Ey girl, watch your words. He isn’t yours. He belongs to us. We’re taking him back with us.”

“But he wants to be with me. Ask him and he’ll tell you that,” Yaji protested innocently as she lunged forward to help her friend. “What proof do you have that you aren’t lying?”

“We don’t need to answer you, girl,” the man snapped back, “but just to satisfy your curiosity, you see that collar around his neck with the number 1003 written on it? ...Well, that’s his ID number that shows he belongs to us. All our dogs have a number. This one escaped three months ago and we’ve been searching for him since then.”

Yaji didn’t doubt what the man said, but, still, she just could not allow Komu to be torn apart from her, especially not by these gruff men. Goodness knows how they would treat him. It must be terrible living with them or else Komu would not have ever fled from them.

Just then, Yaji thought of her father, the village headman. Surely, he wouldn’t allow the men to drag Komu off like that. And so, she suddenly bounced on her little feet and began racing through the forest towards her village. Seeing her, Komu gave one fierce jerk and managed to loosen himself from the grip of the man who was holding him with the iron chain. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him till he caught up with Yaji.

In a short while, they rushed into their home.

                                                                                                *

Taji, Yaji’s father, was sitting on the floor of the verandah, weaving a bamboo basket when the two friends darted inside the compound.

“Ey child, what’s the matter!’ he cried out. “What happened?”

“Papa! Papa! Help! Papa!” Yaji wailed. “Those...men...they are trying to take poor Komu away!”

Yaji managed to regain her breath and explained to her father what had happened.

“Relax, relax my dear,” said Taji as he handed her a glass of water to drink. “We’ll handle the matter when the men come.”

No sooner had Taji said this than the men appeared at the entrance of the compound, looking very angry.

Taji had no idea how he was going to handle the situation. On the one hand, the dog ‘belonged’, as it were, to these men. But he just couldn’t bear to let Komu go with them. He had already grown fond of Komu, but, more than that, he knew Yaji would be devastated if the men made off with him.

The men hollered at Taji. “Give back our dog, if you know what’s good for you.”

Taji thought it best not to antagonize them. He knew what they were capable of doing.

“My dear,” he turned to Yaji and said, “Remember I told you a tale once, that those who come to this world must one day leave it? I know you love Komu, but he isn’t ours to keep. He belongs to those people. And so we must return him to them. He has to spend his rest of his life with them. That’s his fate. You are my sweetest dear, na? You’ll listen to me, na? Return Komu to them, dear, won’t you?”

Hearing her father speak like this, little Yaji burst out crying, burying her head in Komu’s neck, as if trying to take him into her body.

The sight was so pathetic that Taji, who prided himself on being a tough man, was moved to tears.

“Papa,” Yaji managed to say between her sobs after a while, “don’t you keep reminding me that we all are children of the God and that all of God’s creatures have the right to live the life they like? Komu just doesn’t like their company. Why don’t you understand that? That’s why he escaped from them. If he liked being with them, he wouldn’t have come here. Please, I beg you, let him be with us. Tell these men off. Please, please, please!”

“I understand all that my dear,” Taji replied, “but there is little we can do. We must return him to them. And you won’t deny my words, will you, dear? You are such a lovely child.”

Yaji kept silent for a while and then slowly lifted up her tear-soaked head.

“No, father, I won’t deny your words,” she mumbled as she faced the prospect of her best friend being torn apart from her forever. She knew she her father could not dare to antagonize the men.

She turned to Komu and kissed him on the forehead.

“I shall love you till I die,” she whispered.

                                                                                      *

Taji lifted Komu in his arms and walked towards the entrance of the compound, where the men were waiting.

“I am sorry, sirs,” he said as he approached the men. “My daughter loves animals very much and so she kept your dog, unaware that it belongs to you. Please take him. Here....”

Taji passed Komu to one of the men.

The man stretched his hands to take Komu. But then, at that moment, his eyes fell on Yaji, who was sitting a short distance away. And, all at once, his heart melted. It was such a heart-rending sight, that little innocent child with her tear-stained face and disheveled hair.

“No uncle,” the man stuttered. ‘I just can’t! This dog belongs to your daughter now!”  

Then, taking Komu in his arms, he marched towards Yaji and placed him in her lap.

“You both belong to each other,” he said, a generous smile spreading across his face as he patted Komu on her head. “I’ve never seen such love before. A fine lesson you have taught us today!”

                         THE END