Indian Comics vs English Comics

Now don't get me wrong. I have been brought up on a healthy (some say more than required) dose of “Amar Chitra Katha”s and “Indrajal Comics”[1] and later Tintin and Asterix, among other comics. Even today, I have a normal book-lovers' obsession with comics (and have been teased by not a few of my so called grown-up collegues). What I am trying to say here is that I am a fan of comics and graphic novels. But, recently every time I have read Indian comics, my reactions oscillate between uncontrollable laughter[2] and skin crawling.


But when I think of it objectively, there are not that many differences between Indian comics and their US counterparts[3], apart from an obvious difference between picture and page quality (I don't know why). After all, under it all, Nagraj is a mutant. Super Commando Dhruv and Batman are both products of superior training, and not acquired superpowers. If we had “dhaad” and “sataik”[4] in Hindi comics, we have “pow”s and “biff”s in English ones (and both are equally annoying after a while). If most things in Hindi comics are explained away by “tantravidya”, there is mutation and technology (if not alien intervention) in english ones. So, what exactly is it in Indian comics of today that get my goat whenever I get my hands on them?

To answer this question, I tried to make a list of things which made me irritated in the comics I read recently, and came up with certain points/questions:

1. Errors: Shaolin monks called “ninjas” (collectively, not as name of one of them)? Chinese martial artist carrying nunchucks? I don't know the post-mortem rituals of shaolin monks or ninjas, else I would have said one of the earthquakes near Japan-China border must be caused by generations of ninjas and shaolin monks turning in their graves.
   And at the cost of sounding pedantic[5], I am pretty sure that the environmental conditions on Jupiter will make it impossible to have volcanoes there, much less android life forms. This might come under artistic license and fun, but after a while, it does get under your skin, and makes it impossible to see beyond these glaring mistakes/errors. Is this ignorance or simple misinformation?


2. Unintentional Jokes: When a person is supposed to come to “eastern corner” of a specific geographic feature, can we expect to find a board hammered in ground there proclaiming a particular spot as “Eastern Corner”?
   Should a private plane of a wealthy satellite channel owner in today's day and age be a propeller-driven piece of antiquity? What happened to all jets in India?
   I am pretty sure Hindi is not a language well-suited to communicate action-words. You can separate “biff” on different lines, but cannot have “dh-aa-d” on different lines, can you?


3. Copy: I am aware that US/UK comics are around for quite a long time, and they too get repetitive or sound like copies of each other after you have read them in sufficient quantities. But then, so many ideas in Indian comics sound like obvious copies of other comics (a league of superheroes in particular country is one such idea) that they get irritating pretty quick.

And don't even get me started on Indian Superheroes on television.

Of course, this is not an exhaustive list by any means, and is a list of my opinions after all. Do you think I have missed any points? Have I misinterpreted/misrepresented anything? What do you think about Indian comics and superheroes?



Footnotes:
[1](remember Phantom, Mandrake, Flash Gordon and Bahadur?
[2]After all, there is a “comic” in comics.
[3]I haven't been exposed to many comics from other countries, that's why.
[4]Can't spell it any other way, can I?
[5]Who said geeky?

Quote of The Day:

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.
- Albert Einstein