The World We Live In!

If you are connected to any art related forum on social media, like comics or paintings, chances are, you may have read about this ongoing debate about banning AI created artwork. The artist community is very vocal about this, as they claim that AI engines are basically stealing their work and letting anyone create similar images based on their own art. Some of them tagged AI work as plagiarism as this new art created by copying existing artist’s work with no permission or compensation. Recently, Australian Supanova Comic Con banned AI generated arts from being sold at their convention. Kickstarter, a portal where new projects are listed for crowdfunding, suspended the project “Unstable Diffusion: Unrestricted AI Art Powered by Crowd” as they would wait for more clarity on AI generated artwork’s stand on copyright and plagiarism. DeviantArt changed the policy for its AI engine DreamUp to not use any of the member’s artwork for learning. Earlier, every member had to individually opt out...

Wonder Woman 1984 is just what superhero movie fans need today. This movie is a perfect break from the long absence of superhero movies. It's a warm, emotional and loving story. Being a solo superhero movie, the director had full scope of story development. But if you go with an expectation of Avengers or Civil War or a Justice League, you will be disappointed, as this movie relies on more emotions than action. Now, this is the strength as well as weakness of this movie. Being able to connect emotionally with audiences is good, but that needs more storytime and less action. Now, superhero fans who have expectations like recent multi hero movies will not be satisfied with this. They may like the movie, but will rate it lower on recent superhero movies.  There are few small loose ends, but nothing major. I won't go into details as this is spoiler free and don't want to get into the story. Maybe after a while, I will post details with spoilers.  So, if you are planning to watc...

I have already posted my spoiler free review for this movie, and here I am, back again, writing another post about the movie. This movie is so bad, that I could not control myself from punching the keyboard again to write this post. This time, I will put details of what did not work in the movie, spoilers included. I am also going to put my thought of how the same story could have been told differently, in much more entertaining way, still maintaining continuity with MoS and Justice League. So, if you have not seen the movie, and planning to watch it, please stop reading now. I will give you few more lines to skip this article before I go for analysis of this movie, on how bad it is. I am not going to repeat what I have already written in my earlier review, but going to give you the points why this movie is so bad that this series should be stopped right now. We need another reboot, or if not possible, stop it all together. I refuse to let fans like me taken for granted by DC/WB an...

This is one time watch movie for all fans of DC universe, as we have no other choice but to watch it for continuity of upcoming Justice League movie. But this movie does not offer anything new to us. It actually disappoints the fans at many fronts. Plus, the non-comics-reading-movie-goers will not like it either as it does not offer the superhero movie kind of entertainment to them. Let me give few details, but without any spoilers.  First of all, zero promotion of the movie here in India. I am not sure about the international promotion, but locally, people are not aware that the movie opens up today. I am not talking about fans who are waiting for last 3 years, but general public. In fact, I went to watch Neerja on Monday in PVR, and there was only one small poster of this movie, with no date, just “Next Change” written at the bottom. How can you invite people to watch this movie when it is not even promoted to the movie goers? And there was no trailer shown as well. ...

Artshake is a marvelous art book by Yogesh R Pugaonkar , the renowned artist in Comics Industry of our country. I have been a fan of his art since I met him in first Comic Con in Delhi, and I still cherish the sketch card he gifted me in our first meeting. Then I loved his work in Ravanayan series. He has been drawing and posting some of his work on Facebook, and we were enjoying his style. I love the way he draw eyes as they speak stories. I have always been fascinated by his art, and could not hold myself from buying this in recent Comic Con. The art book is fantastic as it features a journey of Yogesh’s artwork from his school days to sketches to realistic to caricature to digital art and making process. It even has a special feature “ Flicker Fun ”, which animate the characters once you flicker through pages. Each page holds you with its beauty and you will enjoy the visual art for some time before flipping the page. It is like walking into an art gallery and enjoying the arts ...

याली ड्रीम्स की अँग्रेजी में प्रकाशित और प्रशंसित ग्राफिक नॉवेल कारवाँ अब हिंदी में उपलब्ध हो गयी है। आजकल के सभी नए कॉमिक्‍स प्रकाशक अपनी किताबें अँग्रेजी में ही प्रकाशित करते है। यह उनकी विवशता है, क्योंकि नए प्रकाशक के पास उत्तम कहानी और चित्रांकन तो है, परंतु प्रकाशित पुस्तकों के वितरण का उपयुक्त साधन नहीं है। उन्हें कॉमिक कान या फिर ऑनलाइन स्‍टोर्स पर निर्भर रहना पड़ता है। फिर उत्तम श्रेणी की कहानी, कला एवं रूप-सज्जा देने पर पुस्तक का मूल्य भी अधिक होता है। हिंदी में पाठकों की संख्या तो है, परंतु अधिक पैसे खर्च करके नए प्रकाशक की कॉमिक्‍स लेने वाले पाठक कम है। ऊपर से बिना देखे, ऑनलाइन खरीदने वाले तो और भी कम है। ऐसे में अँग्रेजी के पाठक तुलनात्मक रूप से अधिक हैं। यही कारण है कि आज हरेक प्रकाशक अँग्रेजी में ही अपनी कॉमिक्‍स प्रकाशित कर रहा है। भले ही कहानियाँ शुद्ध देशी है, पर भाषा विदेशी है। यह एक विडंबना है, जिसे आज प्रकाशक और हिंदी पढ़ने वाले पाठक, दोनों को झेलना पड़ता है। ऐसा नहीं है कि हिंदी में कॉमिक्‍स एकदम प्रकाशित नहीं होती। राज कॉमिक्‍स आज भी हिंदी में कॉमिक प्रकाशि...

This poem is about the lines drawn by artists on paper. I am a comics fan, and this short poem is dedicated to the lines drawn by comics artists to create new and magical world on paper. Once these lines are drawn on black pages, these pages will tell you a story with heroes, villains, and the story will have its own world, with various emotions, drama etc. to entertain us. The artist simply creates a new world of possibilities with few lines. This message is expressed in the poem presented.  कुछ रेखाएँ कोरे कागज़ पर पड़कर, उस कागज़ का रूप बदल देती है।

I read both part of Taranath Tantrik - City of Sorrow , and to summarize it, I can only say that I just can’t wait for the third installment. Brilliant story, keeps you gripped till the last page in both part. I will not discuss spoilers here. The story is about a Psychic Taranath Tantrik working with his friends Shankar , a CID office, Sneha , a TV journalist and   Vibhuti , a horror novelist, in an investigation, where someone is trying to change the City of Joy Kolkata into City of Sorrows.  First part shows glimpse into Taranath’s past, and cut to present day for main story to develop. The second part again shows villain’s past, and then move to current day. So, the first one introduced TnT to us, and started chain of events which makes the story. Then second part introduced the villain to us, and the story progressed.  I liked this type of storytelling, which gives you a glimpse of main character’s past, and then jumps directly to the story. Shamik Dasgupta ...

Why am I writing about this digital graphic novel? Two reasons, the first one is to let everyone knows about this gorgeously illustrated web comic, and the second is about my association with it. Daniel wanted if anyone can translate it in their language, to get in touch with him. I contacted him about translating it in Hindi, and got immediate go ahead from him.  I really liked the way he has managed this translation part, where various people across the world are working to translate this into their language, Daniel has created an Google Doc Spreadsheet, with first column in English, and assigned one column to each of us, for filling our language translation of that column’s caption. This is a great way of collaboration effort, using free web! Nice idea Daniel!

Yes, it’s shocking news for all Comic Fans in India! Uncle Pai is no more with us! He was 81, and was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award this month at India's first ever Comic Convention held in New Delhi on February 19-20. He was supposed to be at the event on 20th Feb, but a week before, he was admitted to hospital for treatment of a fracture after he fell from a staircase. Today morning, he suffered a massive heart attack and breathed his last around 5 pm. He is loved by children across nation, but never had any of his own. 

What is Comic Con? It’s a convention about Comics! But its not just limited about Comics! Yes, primarily its about Comics, but as we all know, that Batman, Superman, X-men, Spiderman and all these have already taken over our entertainment in a big way. They are not limited to just Comics, but are in Movies, TV series, Books, Merchandise, games and what not! Comic Con, or Comics Convention, started in San Diego way back in 1970, and still goes one as one of the biggest event every year! But hey, Comics fans are everywhere and no one can stop them to organise their own Comic Con in their cities! So, we have Comic Con happening in New York, Baltimore, London, Emerald City and more.

“चाचा  चौधरी का दिमाग़ कम्यूटर से भी तेज़ चलता है।” (Chaha Chowdhury’s brain works faster than computer) --> Remember the above phrase? I am sure a lot of you will, and not only that, this was the only knowledge of a Computer we knew back in 70s. Who knows that we Indians will reach out to the world using this computer, and become the king of IT Industry! Back then, I mean, before Chacha Chowdhury, Bahadur, Amar Chitra Katha, Indrajal Comics, Billo, Pinky and many more, before Comics really arrive in India, before the golden 60s, comics were not much in vogue in India. The selection that was available was in the form of imported digests and books like Tintin (originally French private detective), Asterix and Obelix (superheroes of Gaul, erstwhile France), Archie (American School Boy) and Commando (war stories of World War II) etc. A costly product for an average Indian, these comics were rather available to the children of the wealthy.

The Phantom  is an American adventure comic strip created by Lee Falk, also creator of Mandrake the Magician. A popular feature adapted into many forms of media, including television and film, it stars a costumed crime fighter operating from the African jungle. The series began with a daily newspaper strip on February 17, 1936, followed by a color Sunday strip on May 28, 1939; both are still running as of 2009. The strip was at the peak of its popularity read by over a hundred million people every day. If you don't know who I am talking about, this post is not for you. But if you know, read on! There are many of my friends who post Phantom Comics on their blog, so I will not repeat the same, and encourage you to visit their blog for Comics, specially now unavailable Indrajal Comics! Try finding Indrajal Comics on Google, or thy their blog search, and I am sure you can find lots of links for blogs posting Indrajal Comics. So, what am I bringing on the table? Below is the deta...

Just finished reading Superman - The Last Son. The five part story arc's first three parts were published in  Action Comics  #844 through #846. The next parts were delayed to give Kubert sufficient recovery time from health problems he did not wish to disclose. Because of this, the fourth part was delayed and released with issue #851. The eleventh annual of  Action Comics , released in May 2008, completed the story-line. Because the better part of 19 months passed between the publication of the first part and the final installment of the story, much criticism has been centered on the creative team and DC Comics in general. I read the first part in Gotham Comics, published in India, last year. I liked it, but after that issue, Gotham Comics stopped publishing comics in India. They have done it earlier and they did it again! We in India don't have any other option but to get the comics online, if you want to read it. An all Indian creative team is creating comics lik...

My fascination with comics is a bit more than you could stand! And don't tell me I didn't warn you. Now I present a Comic Hero, which was another first of India. Yes, you guessed it right from the title of this post, SUPREMO! Published by Star Comics, an unknown publishers now in India, but back than (in 80s), they were HOT! Star Comics published India's first ever 3-D comics. The 3-D Comics craze died after a few issues, but these were in high demand back then. I am still in possession  of few issues of those 3-D comics with me. Someday, I will scan one of them, just to keep a piece of history. Now, back to Supremo! Yes, it was a comic about costumed hero, with a falcon who talks to him. And he is someone else when not in Supremo disguise. You can ask, what’s new about it? This seems like any other costumed hero, but beholds, the personality he is when not Supremo is the catch. It was a comic featuring our very own Superstar, Amitabh Bachchan. Yes, Amitabh played hims...

Bahadur first appeared in 1978. Written by "Abeed Surti"and later on continued "Jagjit Uppal". It was illustrated by "Govind Brahmania"who usually also illustrated the Indrajal comics covers at that time. First published in 1978 and was named "Laal Inter Bari" (The red brick house) where Bahadur (son of the notorious dacoit Vairab Singh) made his first appearance. Phantom comics were also published in the Illustrated Weekly, until the publication discontinued. In Bengali it was published daily in Anandabazar Patrika (along with Mandrake on Sundays) and also in the then weekly "Desh" magazine. Abid Surty also written a couple of non-Bahadur Indrajal-comics based on real stories. One was about "Sultana" the dacoit who was also called "India's robin hood". Bahadur's father was one of the most dreaded dacoits of Chambal named Vairab Singh Sukhia's son Deena was brutally killed by Shaitan Si...

I post the below part as a comment, to reply of another, which asked about how Bahadur 2040 could be imagined. As I am a little over beer at the moment, my imagination ran wild and I came up with a theme for Bahadur in 2040, or maybe the current avatar of Bahadur. 2040 Bahadur, hmm, son of a terrorist, who has been rehabilitated, and now work along with Police, on a small town of India, which is a satellite town, having all the latest tech and fashion available. He uses physical and mental abilities as well as lots of gizmos to catch the bad guys. He runs a centre which train common people to combat terrorism and prepare them on how to react during emergencies. Bela, his girlfriend, is a victim of terrorism, whose parents died during a terrorist attack, and she is all alone in this world, of course except Bahadur. Later on, there could be one story which oepns up the secret that it was Bahadur's father who killed Bela's parents. Hey guys, it’s Friday night, and with some b...

[The below article is posted by someone else on a different forum, but I put it here, as this is a great information about Bahadur, and need to be spread across. Although there are few corrections needed, which I did not do in the article, but mentioning it here – Bahadur was created by Abid Surti, in 1976, and later taken over by Jagjit Uppal, not as it is mentioned below that Jagjit Uppal was the creator of Bahadur. Also, Indian Comics is not limited to Bahadur and Mahabali Shaaka, as mentioned below, as we all know about Chacha Chowdhury, Amar Chitra Katha and a lot more, but I will have to write a full article on History of Indian Comics someday. Please note that the below is not my write-up, but reproduced from net, as Bahadur deserved a place on net.] Mention Indian action comics and this conjures up the images of gaudily drawn adventures of jungle lords like Mahabali Shaaka, a cross between Tarzan and Phantom, and hugely successful in circulation, or superhero spinoffs lik...