Comics and Graphic Novels

in India:
Models of Citizenship
 Comics and graphic novels:
is there a difference? Let’s first look at some of the
commonly earmarked differences between comics
and graphic novels.
 Comics Graphic Novels
• Books small in size, short narratives • Books larger in size, long narratives

• Simple and formulaic subject matter • Complex and thought-provoking subject matter

• Assembly-line production by a team of writers, • Writing and art by the same person or two
artists, colourists, letterers, etc. people in a working partnership

• For children • For adults

• Mainly liked by boys • Less gendered

But in practice, the differences aren’t as
clear-cut. Batman for instance has
been classed in both categories.
 Let’s try to see instead if there’s a difference between comics and
graphic novels by looking into the history of these genres.

Rudolph Töpffer, Swiss teacher and cartoonist (often, in retrospect, considered to be the
mid-nineteenth century founder of modern comics) in 1845: “the picture-story appeals mainly
to children and the lower classes ”
(quoted in Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics, 1993)

So comics, in recent Western culture at least, have been associated with unsophisticated,
relatively illiterate readers who need pictures instead of words for a story to be interesting.
Have a look at comics artist and theorist Will Eisner’s observations below.

“Between 1940 and the early sixties the industry commonly accepted the profile of the comic
book reader as that of a ‘10-year old from Iowa.’ In adults the reading of comic books was
regarded as a sign of low intelligence.”

“The future for the graphic novel lies in the choice of worthwhile themes and the innovation of
exposition.”
(Will Eisner, Comics and Sequential Art, 1985)

Will Eisner appears to have seen graphic novels as a more mature and original form than
comics, with deep “worthwhile themes” and “innovation of exposition”.
A Contract with God (1978) by Will
Eisner
Indeed, the term
“graphic novel”
came
into vogue after
this book by Will
Eisner was
published in 1978
(the subtitle
appeared on
the paperback
not the hardcover
version). However, experts
on the history of publishing say that the term
“graphic novel” had been used before Eisner’s book
came out.
Sometime afterwards, the Pulitzer prizewinner
Maus (1986) by Art Spiegelman came out. The
winning of major literary awards like this helped
the graphic novel gain respectability as a serious
and artsy genre..
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986) by
Frank Miller also blurred the boundaries between
comics and graphic novels through the depth and
complexity of its subject matter.
Watchmen (1987) by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, initially published as a comic-

book series by DC Comics, received critical acclaim for its parody of superheroes
popularised by the comics industry .
Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis (2000), an autobiographical narrative
set in Iran, was one of the first major graphic novels by a woman
writer. In a way, the field of graphic novels has been less male-
dominated than that of comics.
So, the answer to the question of whether there’s a
difference between comics and graphic novels is “Yes,
and no.” There are broad differences between the
genres, but the boundaries are fluid. Some find the
distinction unnecessary, and see the term graphic novel
as a publishing gimmick. See the words of writer Alan
Moore below on the “graphic novel”:
"It's a marketing term ... that I never had any sympathy with. The term 'comic' does just as
well for me. ... The problem is that 'graphic novel' just came to mean 'expensive comic
book' and so what you'd get is people like DC Comics or Marvel Comics — because 'graphic
novels' were getting some attention, they'd stick six issues of whatever worthless piece of
crap they happened to be publishing lately under a glossy cover and call it The She-Hulk
Graphic Novel.”
A glance at
which countries
we’ll be looking
at under the
rubric of South
Asia, though the
focus will be on
India as the
largest country
in the region.
We’ll look now
at a very short
introduction to
the history of
comics in the
region
The satirical political cartoon, a form
similar to comics, goes back to 19th
century British colonial India. The
“Avadh Punch” derives from the
British 19th-century satirical magazine
Punch.
Subsequently, some indigenous comics
series certainly developed in India. Here is
“Chacha Chaudhury,” the turbaned
old man, created by comics artist Pran
in 1969. The word “Chacha” means “uncle
In Hindi, and signifies basically a term of
respect for the elderly. Chacha
Chaudhury’s “brain works faster than a
computer,” and the frail old man, leading
the giant alien “Saboo” in this picture,
represents a “trickster,” i.e. an apparently
weak underdog who gets the better of
those seemingly stronger than him by dint
of his cleverness (think of the Tom and
Jerry cartoons and how Jerry the mouse
plagues the mightier Tom all the time).
Western comics from DC and Marvel have
been popular in India for a long time, but
Aabid Surti and his associates created some
local superheroes based on Western models
in the 1970s. To the left is
Bahadur (meaning brave in Hindi) and
Inspector Azad (Azad meaning free in
Hindi/Urdu).
The Amar Chitra Katha
(Immortal picture-
stories) series is
another major comics
series, (created by
Anant Pai and
associates from the
1960s onwards. The
series features
characters from
ancient Indian
mythology
“Shakuntala,” left, is
based on a Sanskrit
play by Kalidasa
(admired, incidentally
by Goethe). The series
also features and
modern historical
heroes like Gandhi
(right).
There are also of
course comics
series in languages
other than in
English, which is
mainly used by the
educated upper and
middle classes in
India. Here’s a
newspaper cartoon
by comics artist
Toms (active since
1950) in the
Southern Indian
language
Malayalam, spoken
in Kerala.
Here are two
comics series
for children’s
magazines,
created in the
1960s by
writer/artist
Narayan
Debnath:
“Bantul the
Great” (left)
and “Nonte
Phonte”
(right). These
are in the
eastern Indian
language
Bengali
Here’s a recent comics
series, Virgin Comics. This
was founded by
entrepreneur Richard
Branson, spiritualist Deepak
Chopra and film maker
Shekhar Kapur in 2006. The
series featured modern
reworkings of ancient Indian
mythology: the gods and
goddesses populated a
secular world.
Simultaneously, the graphic
novel entered the Indian
book market too. Orijit Sen’s
River of Stories (1994),
although not explicitly called
a graphic novel, was
probably the first one
produced in India, given its
theme and context. The
book, published by a non-
profit organisation, talks
about the displacement and
dispossession of tribal
people owing to a planned
hydroelectric power project.
Sarnath Banerjee’s
Corridor (2004), published
by the major publishing
house Penguin, was
subtitled explicitly as
a “graphic novel.”
Amruta Patil’s Kari (2008) was a
graphic novel by a woman writer and
talks about lesbianism, potentially a
provocative theme in cultural terms.
Homosexuality is legally punishable
in India (technically speaking, that
is—the law has been subject to
debate). However, an increasing
number of people have started
accepting same-sex relations as
normal as well as “coming out.” In
practice, the book doesn’t seem to
have raised much controversy—after
all, the graphic novel, as an
experimental genre, is still
read/produced in India mainly by a
select audience of cosmopolitan,
highly educated people probably
exposed to alternative
lifestyles/cultural artefacts already.
 Group activity: Topic and themes

Please read the pages assigned, paying attention to both images and
words (if any). Try to answer the following questions:
• What is going on in this section?
• What issues does the section raise? What themes in the section
can we discuss? Look at the packaging of the book if this helps.
• What examples from the section can you bring in to discuss these
issues and themes?
• Does the section have a message?
• Could you condense the section into a topic sentence? What would
that sentence be?
• Are there elements in the section that contradict or challenge that
topic sentence?
Some useful resources for reading about
comics and graphic novels
• Will Eisner, Comics and Sequential Art (1985)
• Will Eisner, Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative (1996)
• Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art (1993)
• Scott McCloud, Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels (2006)
• Roger Sabin, Comics, Comix & Graphic Novels: A History Of Comic Art (2001)
• Paul Gravett, Graphic Novels: Stories To Change Your Life (2005)
• Hillary L. Chute & Marianne DeKoven, Introduction: Graphic Narrative
MFS Modern Fiction Studies - Volume 52, Number 4, Winter 2006, pp. 767-782

• Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics

• http://shc.stanford.edu/workshop/graphic-narrative
• Pramod K. Nayar, The Indian Graphic Novel: Nation, History and Critique (New York: Routledge, 2016)