Virgin Comics - Indian characters with a western influence

India is a rapidly evolving entertainment market and has long tradition of comic readership (almost 60 years old) publishing around 10 crore copies a year, but despite that the industry still remains immature as compared to Japan, America and France. In the next 10 years, India is expected to have population of 55 crores which is under 20 years of age.

Virgin Comics, a venture between Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, writer Deepak Chopra and filmmaker Shekhar Kapur seeks to take advantage of this untapped potential. It would portray comics as a potentially mature medium with original stories and character which would be subsequently developed into films, television, animation, gaming, wireless content and merchandise.

The concept of comics in India was first introduced with ‘Chandamama’ and later Pran created comic strips like the popular Chacha Choudhary in 70s. But the readership was confined to children and content was largest conservative and un-intellectual. The concept of mythological Indian characters was first used in ‘Amar Chitra Katha’.

Seeing the scale and investment of Virgin Comics, the content would become more professional with better distribution and visibility. It would be something akin to the famous colourful and futuristic Japanese ‘Manga’ comics. The main characters would be from Indian mythology and history.

All series would have western style of comic storytelling and art, focusing on the typical 32-page full colour format rather than the Asian style of mass produced black and white comics that focus on superior content. It is also producing a series portraying Sachin Tendulkar as a super-hero and a film The Sadhu, starring Nicolas Cage.  Virgin Comics would sell Indian mythological stories in the west, much like how western comic characters Batman, Spider-Man and Scooby-Doo attracted Indian children.

Studio 18 (a TV18 company) in joint venture with Virgin Comics would publish graphic novels and movies based on teen horror, targeting the youth audience. This segment has been receiving considerable attention globally and is expected to attract Indian youth too.

Only time will tell how Virgin comics make inroads into the Indian households and cater to every age group and social strata, though world over comics are being interpreted as an intellectual adult medium of entertainment. The challenge really is in maintaining quality of the story and characters. With the growing digital and mobile content, the company may do well in making its offering available online, with a fees of course, to reach a wider section of audience.