Inking a milestone

Comic Con Express taking place in Mumbai 10 years ago. Varma says the event usually witnessed a footfall of 35,000 to 40,000 people

If you were a college student in the city in the 2010s, you'd recall the excitement that arose during November-December about having to head to Goregaon's Bombay Exhibition Centre. It was where Comic Con India (CCI) would be held - quite the trek for the collegians down in SoBo, but one that would definitely be worth it. It was then, and is still, arguably the largest pop culture convention after all. And you wouldn't want to miss out on catching a glimpse of or meeting the greatest personalities in the comics world - from David Lloyd, the illustrator of V for Vendetta, to Mark Gatiss, the co-creator of BBC's Sherlock.

Adhiraj Singh and Abhijeet Kini's Uud Bilaw Manus released in the first edition of Comic Con in 2011. Kini will be a part of the virtual celebrations this week. Pics/Facebook

This week, amidst the pandemic, CCI turns 10. And the celebratory spirit is very much on in the virtual space, for they are set to host a week-long extravaganza that is an ode to their first edition that kickstarted in Delhi in 2011, before expanding to Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Mumbai.

Panels with creators will be held online and a special commemorative piece by artists Abhijeet Kini, Saumin Patel, Savio Mascarenhas and Sumit Kumar, who have been an integral part of the first show, will be released. In addition, video testimonials by prominent faces in the Indian comics scene including cartoonist Aabid Surti, and executive editor of Amar Chitra Katha Reena Puri, will be uploaded.

Legendary American cartoonists Robert Crumb and Aline Kominsky-Crumb inaugurate the convention in 2012

Recalling the first edition of the convention, CCI founder Jatin Varma confesses it was chaotic. "Now, everything is streamlined and every contingency is thought of. I didn't even think beyond the first show, which was being done as a personal project," he says. Varma informs they were in the process of planning a 10-year special for this year, when the Coronavirus surfaced. "I'm still hopeful that we will be back later this year, if not sooner," he shares.

CCI has been instrumental in not just the rise of independent comic creators in India but also giving space to cosplay artists; in the first show, Varma informs, there were only 30 cosplayers in comparison to an average of 2,000 to 3,000 now. He also recounts how the team would land big, international names like Lloyd and Gatiss at the convention. "In the early days, we had a very different pitch. We'd write to them on the lines of, ‘Why don't you come to India and visit the Taj Mahal, for instance? And it just so happens that on the same weekend we have CCI so you can be there.' Through a lot of convincing we got people such as Robert Crumb, a legendary artist. I remember picking him up from the airport, and being so nervous that I couldn't speak to him for a few days."

Jatin Varma

This week, to shake things up, the founder himself will be part of an Instagram live where followers can ask him virtually anything. Even though 10 years doesn't seem like a long time, Varma sheds light on the fact that a generation grew up with Comic Con: "There are teenagers attending the convention now who were toddlers when that first show took place. It will be fun to see their reactions to the older, ‘vintage' stuff that we put out."

Till: February 21
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