Comic fans in Delhi Delhi Comics Kala Samagam | The DelhiPedia

Delhi Comics Kala Samagam | The DelhiPedia To Know more about Delhi city, Subscribe to the link below https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTik3D3joMhQObPgSSsVR0Q?sub_confirmation=1 If there ever was a group of people that needed a peer review group, it's comic-book writers and artists in India. I say this because firstly, there aren't that many (non-superhero) comics being produced in India. If you're not part of the Raj Comics/Amar Chitra Katha biggies, you're probably looking for someone, anyone, to buy your (self-published) comics. And though homegrown names like Campfire and Pop Culture Publishing have been doing well in recent years, bringing out new and edgy graphic novels for a mature readership, it's still a very lonely world out there for the indie comics artist in India. This is why I was glad to stumble upon the group Delhi Comics Kala Samagam recently, on Facebook. The group — an open one — is meant for comics artists and enthusiasts to get together and offer feedback on each other's works, dream up fantasy comics and generally yak about all things comics-related. There are also offline meet-ups where creators meet up and discuss the state of the industry, opportunities and projects in the pipeline. For instance, it was recently decided that a cheap, printed edition of collected Kala Samagam artworks will be sold at the upcoming Comic-Con in February. And there are some pretty impressive works up on the group already, believe me. One standalone sketch, a mug-shot of an angry-looking man stands out; it has the caption "Where's my coffee?" The lighting, the expression and the eyes are flawlessly done. So what if it's a "shameless rip-off of Eduardo Risso's 'Graves' from 100 Bullets", as the artist (Ram Venkatesan) puts it? I have lost count of the number of insanely prolific artists who developed their distinctive style by painstakingly aping their favourite characters. Adhiraj Singh, the 25-year-old comics artist best known for Uud Bilaw Manus, a graphic novel published in 2011, is one of the people who made the Kala Samagam happen. I'd read individual stories featuring the anthropomorphic sea-otter ("uud bilaw" in Hindi) vigilante in the short-lived Random magazine, what seems like aeons ago. (The great God Google tells me that this was circa 2008) Even Singh's protagonist seemed to echo the underdog-against-all-odds ethos that lies at the heart of indie collectives like the Kala Samagam. As the man himself said, in a Time Out interview from 2011, "He can't fly, he doesn't have X-ray vision, he isn't dashing, smart or a genius but he still tries. His heart is in the right place.

Added 4 May 2026