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Bringing comics to life

Abhijeet Kini, westcoast resident and the creator of Angry Maushi, one of the newer comics in the Indian market, talks about the importance of storytelling while drawing a comic

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In the last five years, India has seen a gradual rise in the number of comic book artists. While growing up, the names that many of us associated with comic books were the likes of Anant Pai, who popularised mythology through his Amar Chitra Katha comic book series. A few years later, Pai introduced Tinkle with the idea of combining learning with fun.

Even today, Pai inspires a number of comic book writers and illustrators. Santacruz resident Abhijeet Kini is one of them. Providing a snapshot of his comic book journey, Kini says, "I've grown up reading Amar Chitra Katha and Tinkle. Today, I do a bit of work for Tinkle and have my own comic book series titled Angry Maushi."

Kini is also part of the comic book drawing workshop organised by Comic Con India at He Said She Said, Andheri (W). At the workshop, the 31-year-old artist covered various aspects of comic creation, story writing, development and insights on his own comic book series. "For independent artists in India, Comic Con India is a much anticipated set of events, where we use the platform to be able to reach out to our target audience and get feedback from them directly. Initiatives like these interactive workshops that the Comic Con team puts together are fantastic and establishes a connection with readers and budding comics creators," he explains.

As part of the workshop, participants were asked to create a page-long comic on a topic of their choice. "It is wonderful being here," gushes Danny, one of the workshop participants, "I am a big fan of Angry Maushi and this was a learning experience."

Mehul, an event manager, says, "It was a creative outing, which was due for a long time. The tips he (Kini) gave were very helpful and I look forward to some rocking stuff at Comic Con."

Angry Maushi, who is a sari-clad vigilante, was created by Kini after fans fell in love with a magnet of an angry woman that he had made in 2011 featuring her now famous face. "Fans kept on asking us for the Angry Maushi magnet and that's how the character went into a comic book," elucidates Diksha Kini, Abhijeet's wife, who also handles the marketing pertaining to his merchandise.

Interestingly, Kini wasn't considered an artist by his drawing teacher at school. "He would get exasperated with my style of drawing and scream that cartooning wasn't art," sighs Kini, "He would then erase my work and redraw the entire thing. Last year, when we met at a school reunion, he joked that I had forgotten him and had become a 'big artist'."

Another comic book artist, Vivek Goel, who was also present at the workshop, spoke about how his comic book company, Holy Cow Entertainment, plans on creating an entire universe, much on the lines of DC and Marvel. "We already have a character called Aghori and we plan on expanding his universe. It's going to be a challenge but we look forward to it," says Goel.

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