For all those who have missed out on the week-long celebration presented by Comic Con India and powered by ReadWhere.com, there is still time to enjoy all the benefits of the comic book activity since there are a few hours left where comic fans can download free comic samplers and participate in digital activities like Fan Art contest.
The online activity is open to fans till 12 am. Comic enthusiasts can upload their art and the winner will get a chance to showcase his art at Alto Hyderabad Comic Con. For the Fan Meme contest, one can upload memes and the winner will get a brand new Tablet.
Comic enthusiasts can also vote for their favourite artwork/memes and increase their chances of winning. Not only this, there will also be trivia contests. Winners will get awesome prizes like merchandise, graphic novels, comic books etc.
“The aim of this week-long activity is to purely promote Indian comics. We want more people across India to have more access to and know more about Indian comics that are being published. This is because these comics are not easily available in the market or online. We want people to know about the artists who are writing these comics. We also want the fans to have an outreach to the creators of these books,” Jatin Varma, founder, Comic Con India says.
He also tells you that while the Indian market for Indian comics is in its nascent stage, there has been a gradual shift that one has seen in people’s buying. “During Comic Con, fans still prefer to buy merchandise and English comics, but it has been our endeavour to promote Indian comics and push people to buy them,” Varma says adding that platform like theirs helps provide Indian artists a place where they interact with the fans.
“Then there is social media that helps creators to stay in touch with their fans. The industry is evolving. The creators are no longer sitting and waiting for the Indian buyers to suddenly start buying their work. They are looking at international market and some have done some great work which is being appreciated,” Varma says adding that the tie-up with Maruti Alto is apt since the young buy comics and it is the first car that most youth buy.
One doesn’t get to hear more about work by Indian creators because one needs to know about them or be available in the market. Since many book stores have shut shop, it is not possible for creators to find an outlet. Also, comics like Tintin have been in the market for very long, in India, the scenario is different, one is told. “Batman, Superman, etc are gigantic with tons of money, there are movies made on them and have been around for decades. There are few artists who are only two-three years old with 10 titles to their name and little money to publish their work and hence there is need to promote their work,” Varma says.