BOBC |
Resource type: Journal Article Language: en: English BibTeX citation key: Stoll2013 Email resource to friend View all bibliographic details |
Categories: General Keywords: Historical account, India, Kumar. Amitabh Creators: Stoll Collection: International Journal of Comic Art |
Views: 1/734
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Attachments | URLs https://www.academ ... cs_Medium_in_India |
Abstract |
Despite a diverse and long history of the comics medium in India, much scholarship has tended to focus on just a small sampling. As the most widely published and read Indian comics, books from the Amar Chitra Katha series are the ones that most scholars have focused upon, to the detriment of understanding the wider context of India’s comics, storytelling, and visual cultures. While Amar Chitra Katha would eventually transcend earlier comics and visual narratives in popularity, such works are important for their ability to engage local or regional arts and international comics culture. More importantly, few scholars have addressed the work of contemporary comics creators or the graphic novels and comics currently coming out of Delhi and the rest of India. This article provides a historical account of the path from comic books to the later rise of graphic novels grounded in one creator, Amitabh Kumar’s, experiences as an author and researcher on Indian comics and culture. As a comics creator and researcher, he celebrates the importance of other publishers and creators in maintaining comics as a narrative medium. Based on Kumar’s perspective, as he works to establish a historical narrative himself while engaging with that precedent in crafting his own comics, this article traces the roots of the comics medium in India, from political cartoons to superhero comics and graphic novels.
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