Indian Comic Books Take off with ‘Graphic India’

Liquid Comics, which owns one of the world’s largest comic book libraries based on Indian characters by Indian creators, announced the launch of Graphic India, a new digital platform to promote comic books in India and showcase young artists and writers in the country.

Graphic India intends to be India’s premiere graphic novel platform and community, leveraging Liquid’s large library of high quality content created by Indian creators, while also aggressively commissioning and showcasing numerous original stories by India’s greatest new visionaries.

“India is home to some of the most creative minds in the world, and we believe that the next Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, JK Rowling or Stan Lee exists somewhere in this country – ready to change the world through their stories. Through Graphic India, we want to find, nurture and promote these creators, leveraging the power of digital media to potentially reach millions around the world,” added Liquid Comics Co-Founder & CEO, Sharad Devarajan. “In the same way Japanese anime and manga redefined a generation of audiences worldwide, we believe the creativity and rich storytelling potential of India is ready to take the world by storm.”

“There has been no greater experience than to have worked closely with some of the planet’s most talented young story-tellers and artists in India. I really believe that to channel all this talent now into Graphic India promises to be one of the most exciting endeavors of my life,” commented Liquid Comics Co-Founder and prolific author, Gotham Chopra, who will be writing and editing a number of original stories featured on the platform.

Initially, the platform has been launched as an online site at http://www.graphicindia.com/ that features free daily digital comic book chapters, interviews with creators, educational resources for aspiring artists and writers and pop culture film, television and game reviews. Digital comics featured on the site can be embedded and shared across social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

To further spark young Indian creators to look at graphic novels as a meaningful profession, the site is featuring a “Create A Comic Contest,” where the winning idea submitted will be awarded a contract to publish their Graphic Novel and win One Hundred Thousand Indian Rupees.

Over the next few months, Graphic India intends to expand its digital platform across mobile through various partnerships and apps. Beyond digital comics, content will soon include episodic animated shows, digital trading cards and social games based on Liquid’s leading character properties.

Episodic digital comic books featured for free on the site will include long running international hits such as, “Devi,” created by acclaimed filmmaker, Shekhar Kapur; “Ramayan 3392 AD,” a futuristic story inspired by the classical Ramayana myth which is also now being developed as a theatrical film in Hollywood with Mandalay Entertainment; “The Sadhu,” created by Gotham Chopra and also in development as a feature film; “Myths of India,” featuring retellings of original Indian myths presented by bestselling author Deepak Chopra; “Mumbai Macguffin” an action-espionage story by Saurav Mohapatra and Saumin Patel; “UnHOLI” by Indian writer, Samit Basu and artist Jeevan J. Kang, which centers on a zombie attack in Delhi that takes place during the Holi festival; and many other stories. Graphic India intends to commission as many as 20 new graphic novel stories to be exclusively featured on its platform in 2012.