the popular culture of India and comic books

01/08/2005 05:00:00 PM
Many believe that the new creative renaissance will emerge from the Indian market, making the country a leading global cultural exporter. The presence of comic books and comic book culture will be an important catalyst.

In many countries the comic book has been translated and adapted to fit the needs of diverse cultures, whether it's the exporting of an American superhero or the importing of Japanese Manga. NPR's Fresh Air recently aired the program, Spider-Man, Swinging Through India.

In partnership with author and spiritualist Deepak Chopra, Gotham Entertainment has licensed their Marvel Comics characters to be distributed in South Asia. Their intention was to recruit artists from India to create original characters and content for publishing and licensing. Their first publication is Spider-Man India, featuring Pavitr Prabhakar as Peter Parker.

Spider-Man's origin as been reinvented so that he is an Indian boy growing up in Mumbai and deals with local problems and challenges. India is already a country rich in mythological stories depicting gods and heroes with supernatural abilities, so any cultural barriers to the characters' essence is nearly obsolete. This exercise of understanding the comic's cultural translatability isn't unlike what any U.S. brand going global must do.

The Collector Editions is hand signed by the artist and includes sketchbook pages, character designs, pencils and commentary from Indian artist, Jeevan J. Kang. The book also features a foreword by Deepak Chopra.





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