Comic Con India

The first annual Indian Comic Con wrapped up last weekend and the event as a whole was extremely successful. The event was held in the Dilli Haat (a permanent market) area of New Dehli on February 19th and 20th. A startup called Twenty Onwards Media is behind the creation of the event and they started it as a way to preserve and promote the comic and graphic art mediums. The group also wanted to help support Indian artists, illustrators, and writers through the event.

Comic book publishers in India sell about 125 million copies, which includes copies sold in regional languages. One purpose of the comic con was to bring publishers and artists together to try to determine strategies for increasing retail sales via creating content that appeals to young adults as well as content that appeals to people in smaller cities and villages.

Many Indian comics are centered on their culture’s ancient mythologies, but publishers are now realizing that they must break out of their current themes in order to reach their target age group of 8-14 year olds. Some publishers are also hoping that bringing more publishers into the digital age will help increase their overall reach.

Many comic book bloggers that were at the event said that in spite of the rain, it was a total success. All of the stalls available for exhibitors were sold out and many of the exhibitors sold out of the product they brought over the course of the weekend as well.

Throngs of people showed up to the convention that varied drastically in age. The promoters of the event wanted to bring the young and old together through a common bond, and those who were there say the event definitely had something for every age group. The promoters are confident that the event is in India to stay, and any way that the love of comics can spread internationally, the stronger the industry as a whole will be.

Tags: India, Comic Con, Convention