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This pioneering book presents a history and ethnography of
adventure comic books for young people in India with a particular
focus on vernacular superheroism. It chronicles popular and youth
culture in the subcontinent from the mid-twentieth century to the
contemporary era dominated by creative audio-video-digital outlets.
The authors highlight early precedents in adventures set by the
avuncular detective Chacha Chaudhary with his 'faster than a
computer brain', the forays of the film veteran Amitabh Bachchan's
superheroic alter ego called Supremo, the Protectors of Earth and
Mankind (P.O.E.M.), along with the exploits of key comic book
characters, such as Nagraj, Super Commando Dhruv, Parmanu, Doga,
Shakti and Chandika. The book considers how pulp literature,
western comics, television programmes, technological developments
and major space ventures sparked a thirst for extraterrestrial
action and how these laid the grounds for vernacular ventures in
the Indian superhero comics genre. It contains descriptions,
textual and contextual analyses, excerpts of interviews with comic
book creators, producers, retailers and distributers, together with
the views, dreams and fantasies of young readers of adventure
comics. These narratives touch upon special powers,
super-intelligence, phenomenal technologies, justice, vengeance,
geopolitics, romance, sex and the amazing potentials of masked
identities enabled by navigation of the internet. With its lucid
style and rich illustrations, this book will be essential reading
for scholars and researchers of popular and visual cultures, comics
studies, literature, media and cultural studies, social
anthropology and sociology, and South Asian studies.
This pioneering book presents a history and ethnography of
adventure comic books for young people in India with a particular
focus on vernacular superheroism. It chronicles popular and youth
culture in the subcontinent from the mid-twentieth century to the
contemporary era dominated by creative audio-video-digital outlets.
The authors highlight early precedents in adventures set by the
avuncular detective Chacha Chaudhary with his 'faster than a
computer brain', the forays of the film veteran Amitabh Bachchan's
superheroic alter ego called Supremo, the Protectors of Earth and
Mankind (P.O.E.M.), along with the exploits of key comic book
characters, such as Nagraj, Super Commando Dhruv, Parmanu, Doga,
Shakti and Chandika. The book considers how pulp literature,
western comics, television programmes, technological developments
and major space ventures sparked a thirst for extraterrestrial
action and how these laid the grounds for vernacular ventures in
the Indian superhero comics genre. It contains descriptions,
textual and contextual analyses, excerpts of interviews with comic
book creators, producers, retailers and distributers, together with
the views, dreams and fantasies of young readers of adventure
comics. These narratives touch upon special powers,
super-intelligence, phenomenal technologies, justice, vengeance,
geopolitics, romance, sex and the amazing potentials of masked
identities enabled by navigation of the internet. With its lucid
style and rich illustrations, this book will be essential reading
for scholars and researchers of popular and visual cultures, comics
studies, literature, media and cultural studies, social
anthropology and sociology, and South Asian studies.
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