The Comic Project

Michael Jackson, King of Pop: Gone too Soon

2009-06-26T05:09:00.004+05:30

Michael Jackson. R.I.P.

Gone too soon

Born To Amuse, To Inspire, To Delight
Here One Day
Gone One Night

Like A Sunset
Dying With The Rising Of The Moon
Gone Too Soon

Some Memories:

Back when there was no MTV in India, music got many of us hooked on to "western music", the first pop album I ever purchased was "Bad", couldn't understand the lyrics but loved the music. It was under a label called CBS who sold audio cassettes for Rs.33 Only, and it is among the best things I ever bought.
"Dangerous" came out in 1991, I think some time in December and I couldn't wait to buy the cassette, finally got it somewhere in Santacruz or Goregaon in some chhota sa music store while waiting with my friend for his girlfriend.
"Black & White" was so popular, the morphing sequence at the end, and yeah, for us Indians, that little Bharatnatyam piece was special
"Remember the time" with its amazing special effects
MJ and "Slash" in "Give in to me" - Awesome
The sexy video with Naomi Campbell "In the Closet"
This evening, my iPod's shuffle mode played "Dirty Diana"

Too many memories...

The Heimlich Maneuver

2009-05-17T07:45:00.001+05:30

Timely intervention. Thanks.

The horse always wins

2009-05-16T06:32:00.001+05:30

Exit polls, TV pundits and the 40-something % who voted don’t matter anymore. Let’s hope that the horse-trading is as free and fair as the elections.

More about The Great Indian Comic Project

2009-05-06T03:10:00.001+05:30

A couple of months ago, I blogged about “The India Project”, which was then renamed to “The Great Indian Comic Project”. It is time to disclose a little more about this project.

I have had this concept for about 5-6 months now, when I was grappling with my anger and frustration post-26/11. I thought about many things but nothing seemed practical and when it did, I realized I didn’t have the means, skills, energy and maybe the motivation to pull it off.

I was also shocked by how short public memory was, how quickly we forgot the previous tragedy only to be hit by the next one. How easily we ignored the good things and focused on the bad ones. How we chose to only see “truths” that represent a point of view that was close to our hearts, our ideology, justified our prejudices and trashed the others as nonsense even when it wasn’t.

This was also a time for me to reflect upon what I knew, what I believed in, the gap between truth and news, facts and propaganda. I realized that events that dominated the minds of an earlier generation were not as relevant to me and how issues relevant to me would be less relevant to those born a few years later. I either chose to dismiss the past or to have a selective memory of it, at times giving it more importance than it deserved and at other times, trivializing it.

The past, these events, are important but should they dictate everything we do or believe in? When I look around, that’s the strongest vibe I get. And the more I look, I realize that we cannot afford to be prisoners of the past, that we must move on. But before that, we need to understand what we are moving on from, and why. And if it is really possible to break these chains.

So, what does all this have to do with The Great Indian Comic Project?

The Great Indian Comic Project is a quest to retrace my steps, re-examine what I think I know, confront my own prejudices. It is … personal and it’s not. My limited knowledge of India has been through books, newspapers, television, the Internet and comics (Amar Chitra Katha). The Great Indian Comic Project will attempt to use two of the mediums – The Internet and Comics – to tell stories about events that changed our lives, for better or for worse.

These events are what I like to call – Game-Changers - Events that gave us hope, made us leap with joy, filled us with pride and events that made us sad, weep, feel ashamed of ourselves and what we stood for.

And what will this look like?

To be honest, this is ambitious and looks like more than I can handle. I am not an artist, I don’t draw, paint and so I will use images, screenshots, etc. to recreate these events to the best possible extent. I am not a writer and there is no suspense as we already know about these events, but I will try to tell these stories anyway. I am not the academic type but I will do my best to research well enough to be accurate. Assumptions, opinions will be stated as such, and sources revealed whenever available.

These are not disclaimers, only facts and limitations. At some point, if it looks unfeasible, I will have to give up.

How is this relevant to the reader?

I am not really sure but I can only hope that you will hop along with me on this ride, challenge the stories I tell, contribute your thoughts in retelling a piece of our history.

Finally, when and where will this be available?

More details very soon. Including the scope, format, etc. Promise :-)

TCP Toon: The Third Front

2009-04-23T09:26:00.001+05:30

A couple of other posters available on the Facebook page.

Comic #236: Mandrake – The Claws of Treachery

2009-04-15T03:11:00.002+05:30

The comic posted today is the last Indrajal from my collection, it’s almost 4 years since I scanned the first one. Thank God for that power cut and the Canon LiDE 30 scanner. Can’t believe this is almost over.

The first 2 pages (Cover + Captain Vincible) and last few pages (page 28 onwards) were sent by Prabhat to complete the comic as I only had the story. Have fun reading. The next comic and the last published Indrajal will be posted on Friday (contributed by VenKIT).

Comic #235: Phantom – The Gold Fetters – Part II

2009-04-14T03:27:00.002+05:30

Here’s Part II of the comic posted yesterday. Enjoy!!!

Something interesting happened yesterday. In the heat of Lok Sabha elections, the Prime Minister, Dr.Manmohan Singh, rode into town and proclaimed “We will make Mumbai a global city”. Well, here’s what I think about that!!

Not very difficult to figure out what I’m trying to say I hope? There’s another image on TCP’s facebook fan page – a movie poster. Feel free to check it out. Link is in the right sidebar.

And

Happy Vishu and Happy Baisakhi and Shubho Naba Barsho

Comic #234: Phantom – The Gold Fetters – Part I

2009-04-13T03:34:00.002+05:30

Celebration time!!! All are welcome for a full week of comics - 4 to posted this week, starting with Part 1 of Phantom – The Gold Fetters. This comic was sent to me by Prabhat (of Books & Comics) and scanned by Misraji, so that I could post 4 comics to celebrate the 4th anniversary of this blog. Thanks Prabhat & Misraji.

Some milestones have been reached during the last year, I am sure you have noticed but in case you haven’t, I will revisit them in the next few posts. I also know that I haven’t posted too many details about “The India Project” and those details will be up in the next 1-2 weeks.

So, enjoy this comic and join the celebrations - leave a comment, let a friend know…throw a shoe or whatever!!!

Next week…

2009-04-10T18:05:00.002+05:30

is a big week. TCP (started April 17, 2005) will complete 4 years of existence if you ignore the 9 months of silence and another few months of thanda thanda posting. Last year, at this time, I had no idea there would be another year of blogging and I am glad I did return for this has been an eventful 4th year. A year of a mini comeback, change, anger, defiance, new friends, redesign, commando comics, milestones, Mr.India, collaborating, original content and a year of slowly falling back in love with this blog after the ugliness of the past. But more than that, this was a year of understanding the importance of having a voice and using it.

And during the next week, I am planning to complete the pilot episode of The India Project, or “The Great Indian Comic Project” as it’s likely to be called.

Next week is..also anniversary week :-) but this will be a relatively quiet one compared to the parties we have had here in the previous years (see #121, #122, #123, #124, #125, #126, #127 and #200). I will post 2 comics – one is a Mandrake title “The Claws of Treachery” and the other is a contribution sent in by VenKIT – the last Indrajal ever published.

Next week…is a week of planning, of decisions.

Many thanks for visiting TCP. You have been a great support.

TCP Toon: Dodging Shoes

2009-04-07T23:54:00.002+05:30

Update: Read more on Shoegate:

Eat Show, Tyrant - Fly You Fools
Shoe Shame, Media Game – Who’s to Blame? - Anurag Batra
Just Shoe It: A journalist’s revolution - Arcopol Chaudhuri

Doodh Ka Karz :-)

2009-04-03T06:10:00.002+05:30

A random web/newspaper article and a conversation around that can lead to some funny things. This one titled “BJP forms panel to milk Varun Gandhi issue” led to a TCP Toon on the vote milking panel (click here to visit the TCP Facebook page). But as it often happens, someone had a better idea. @manuscrypts sent me the poster of a film called “Doodh Ka Karz”. What happened in the next 15 minutes was fun for me. Hope you enjoy it too :-)

Will update this tomorrow with my take on Sanjay Dutt and Samajwadi Party.

Comic #233: Garth – The Mystery at Kanchenjunga

2009-03-30T06:39:00.002+05:30

Still working on the yet-to-be-finalized-name project. Got some interesting responses, and one of them got it right :-)

I will be first posting a “pilot” episode and then seasons, each season with multiple episodes. It is based on not-so-current events, the idea is to relive the events that have impacted us. More details to come in this week, decisions are pending, some tough ones.

Also coming up is a landmark Indrajal within a couple of weeks.

Posting a Garth title after a very long time for your Monday reading. This one was sent in by Desiguru (an old contributor) ages ago and I had it in my posting folder, scheduled but never posted. Enjoy.

The India Project – Sneak peek

2009-03-26T13:28:00.002+05:30

As promised a few hours ago, here is a sneak peek of the first episode of The India Project. Deciding the format, frequency, # of pages per episode, sequence and a lot of other things and the announcement is a bit premature but got to kick it out of the door or I will never start.

Naming suggestions are welcome. Well, not just naming but any suggestions but then, you don’t know much about this to suggest, do you? hmm..

Hint: It will be a comic, a story. Content will be images (sketches if possible).

More details to follow. And while I am at it, show me some of that old TCP love. And some link love and spreading the word around is always welcome :-)

And any guesses what I am talking about in this preview?

Also coming in the next few weeks, a landmark Indrajal Comic.

Coming Soon: The India Project

2009-03-26T08:51:00.002+05:30

I was not quite sure what to call it, so settled on “The India Project”. It is .. ambitious..to say the least, and I fear I may be overreaching but have to give it a try and see if it survives my short attention span and limitations. I will try to make this as interesting to you, as it is exciting to me. Also trying to publish a sneak preview sometime today, it’s not much but it’s a start as I may finally have an idea on how to approach this.

Stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks.

Preview coming up very shortly

Feverishly working on the preview, but one suggestion already:

From Vishwas : The Great Indian Comic Project .. (that was brave considering he has no idea about what I am doing) Thanks a lot for the encouragement.

Hint: This is not Indrajal or Amar Chitra Katha or any of published comics

Suppandi on The Comic Project

2009-03-24T07:19:00.002+05:30

Suppandi is a comic character that was featured in Tinkle, a servant whose masters changed very regularly, probably because he always did something foolish. He is not one of the cute looking characters we are used to, dressed in a half-chaddi and shirt/T-shirt, long nose, weird hair (like it’s oiled and combed flat). The fun about this character was that we knew that he was going to do something ridiculous but we always wanted to know “how bad is it going to be this time?”

Many of the Suppandi strips in Tinkle were ideas sent in by readers which was then illustrated by an artist. Can’t get more collaborative than that :-)

Check out this great write-up by comicology on Suppandi, Kalia, Shikari Shambhu, etc.

I found these Suppandi strips sent to me some months ago in an email chain that I usually avoid reading. Whoever scanned and put this online – thank you. So tell me, do you have any favourite Suppandi stories?

Another one

Here’s one Suppandi story by a reader Suspended Animation:

I remember he once ironed his master's legs.. because he wanted Suppandi to press them.

Reaching a milestone (500,000 page views)

2009-03-22T08:35:00.002+05:30

For those who land up at TCP in the next few hours, I just thought of letting you know that sometime in the next 5-6 hours, this blog will reach 500,000 page views (260K visits). Half a million page views. Now, this mark was probably crossed a few weeks ago had the tracking code had not gone missing for a couple of months or if the blog had not been inactive for 9 months and in a slow moving mode for another 8 months after that. That doesn’t matter. What matters now… is getting there.

It has taken about 4 years to hit this number and I know that blogs/sites get as many views/visits in a month or even a day. But hey, I will gloat while I can :-) considering TCP was never promoted much and certainly not aggressively – partly because I didn’t and also because I couldn’t (anonymity has its pitfalls). 500K page views would be reached because of readers spreading the word, the new readers who stumble onto the blog looking for comics and contributors. The comments section which was so lively is now not as interesting and many have indeed moved on. But the blog will be here for a while I think. So here’s hoping that you keep coming back for more.

For the support, the comments, the visits – Thank you.

Have a great Sunday

P.S: I have recently noticed some followers to TCP – Thanks. Also to all those sources and sites that link to TCP. And to my followers on Twitter. (psst..Happy 3rd Birthday Twitter)

P.P.S: I have also updated contact details at the bottom, included a twitter feed and there’s a Facebook page for the blog too. Do check it out.

P.P.P.S: Readers from 170 countries have visited TCP in the last 4 years, barring Greenland, some countries in Africa (Ethiopia, Somalia, Angola, Congo, etc. who have more important things to worry about) and Turkmenistan.

Comic #232: Bahadur – The Savage Family

2009-03-18T07:29:00.004+05:30

It’s good to know that some of you did enjoy the Commando comic posted last week, so there could be more in the future.

Election time in a month and things are heating up. BJD in Orissa has dumped BJP. Laloo Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan have shown Congress the finger. Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh are bickering when they should be trying to win an election. Sharad Pawar and Narendra Modi are lobbing water balloons at each other. Varun Gandhi has joined in and made some supposedly inflammatory remarks (the video I saw “beeps” out sections that will help determine if his speech was indeed “hate speech”. A soap opera in progress.

And to spoil all the fun, the BJP has done something meaningful and unveiled an IT Vision document. The PDF can be found on Dudaji’s blog - BJP IT Vision and Venkatesh Hariharan says on his blog Open Source India:

I did a quick read of the 40 page document and am impressed with how thorough and comprehensive it is. As a long time supporter of free and open source software, I am delighted to see a major Indian political party endorse it. However, I am even more delighted to see that this endorsement is rooted in a comprehensive vision for India's development

This is probably the first time a political party has unveiled an IT vision for the country. What do you think about it? And if you can’t be bothered much it, enjoy this comic by VenKIT (again!!). Have a great Wednesday and keep your eye out for a landmark comic in the next few weeks.

Comic #231: Commando – One Man’s Courage

2009-03-12T14:58:00.002+05:30

Hope you all had a great Holi.

I had been thinking of posting a different comic for a few weeks, but after a bit of prodding by AKNYC (who blogs at Chammak Challo) I went ahead and scanned one. This is one of those amazing World War II comics that I enjoyed reading, featuring Brits (Heroes), and the Germans, Japanese who were the bad guys. Stereotypical but great stories of fighter planes, dog fights, anti-aircraft guns going ACK-ACK-ACK, tanks, soldiers fighting on beaches, in cities and in jungles, stories of espionage, courage, betrayal, defeats and victories against all odds.

So here’s the comic. Hope it rings a bell :-)

Just as I am about to post this, there’s a news flash on CNN-IBN that a “Third Front” has been formally announced to provide an alternative to the Congress and BJP. The Third Front will be formed of parties that would otherwise have supported the BJP or Congress, parties have enjoyed power without much responsibility. What do you think? Will they be able to provide good governance, handle the economic situation we are facing? Will they be able to provide stable and strong leadership?

Bloghopping:

Checkout Sketchpad by Shivani Ramaiah for some nice sketches.

Comic #230: Flash Gordon – Many Centuries Ahead

2009-03-07T08:30:00.002+05:30

Things got a bit busy after I returned from Bombay. I had time, but couldn’t squeeze out enough to post about several things that I wanted to. And no better way to start off an interesting month than to post a comic, sent in by our contributor VenKIT like the previous ones. He has also sent in a very interesting comic last week that I plan to post later :-) Any guesses?

Have a great weekend with this Flash Gordon comic. Links have been posted at the usual location.

Comic #229: Phantom – The Little Princess

2009-02-22T20:14:00.002+05:30

2.5 weeks. Met very interesting people – Ragda pattice with @sanjay_mehta. Blog meet with @bombaylives @sanjeevsarma. Fun at Kala Ghoda with @ideasmithy @jhayu @blipblip @asfaq + Yorick. Tried to get people interested in my favourite sandwich – bread, butter, chutney, jam, toast. Conversations, some masti, dhamaal, timepass. Thank you all. Ate mom-made khana. Street food. Caught up with friends and family. Roamed around a bit (not as much as I wanted). Took some pictures (very few and will try to post later). Didn’t watch a film in a standalone theatre. In fact, didn’t watch any film. But it’s time to go now.

I was asked “How did Bombay treat you?”
My response: “The way I wanted to be treated. Slow and easy at first and then hurled me into the chaos. Awesome”

Thank You Bombay.

The next post will be from Amsterdam.

TCP Blog Meet: 13-Feb?

2009-02-10T17:54:00.002+05:30

Anyone up for a meetup in Bombay? Friday, 13-Feb at Barista, Phoenix Mills, 6 – 8 PM? Would love to say hello, shake hands. If I don’t hear anything in the comments, I won’t be there. Let me know please.

We can all stay anonymous. :-)

Confirmed:
Sanjeev Sarma of www.blogibberish.com
Satish Vijaykumar of Bombaylives.com (check out his interview at Blogadda)
TCP of TCP

Tentative:
Toonfactory

Excuses:
Saad from www.flyyoufools.com says he will be anonymous
Rafiq Raja from www.comicology.in is preparing for destroying Indian Culture (14th..tsk tsk)
Obi Wan as he has to work till 9.00 PM on Friday

I might also be at Kala Ghoda Film Festival on Saturday.

BLOG MEET OVER. Met Sanjeev Sarma and Satish Vijaykumar. Of course, no pictures were taken :-) Thanks for dropping in – had a great time.

Some other time.

TCP in & around Bombay

2009-02-06T08:55:00.002+05:30

Filter Coffee – Check
Goodday & Bourbon Biscuits – Check
Ganesh Temple - Check
Mom-made Khana – Check
Rickshaw ride – Check
Tap water – Check
Nariyal paani – Check
Puran poli – Check
Chivda - Check

Today: Vada pav, Pani puri, Sugarcane juice, Local train travel, and I will be Indian again.
Tomorrow: Friends, Jack Daniels, Glenfiddich Single Malt Scotch Whisky (they drink, I watch)

Adapted to the heat, well, it’s not so hot but had a 30 degree temperature increase to deal with. Got a prepaid Tata Indicom wireless USB card and it’s just ok. Works on Windows XP, does not work on Windows 7 – driver issues. Vodafone GPRS does not work on my phone, only opens Vodafone site, nothing else. Have to deal with this – solve it or turn the mental clock back to 2003.

Hopefully some ideas will come out of this trip. And energy to turn ideas into reality. Lots more to do and too little time.

8.30 AM
Filter Coffee – Check

:-)

For Phantom Lovers – Interesting Links

2009-02-04T05:54:00.002+05:30

I will be away in India for a couple of weeks and not very sure about internet access. But will try to visit whenever possible. And maybe post a comic.

But I leave you with these interesting links that I found:

Toonopedia Phantom Page:

Originally, Falk planned for readers to discover that The Phantom was actually a member of the first story's supporting cast. But before he made that revelation, he had a better idea

Dr. Hermes’ review:

Review of all 15 novels published from 1972 to 1975, based on Lee Falk's original stories and adapted by Falk himself, Ron Goulart (as Frank S. Shawn), Basil Copper, Bruce Cassidy (as Carson Bingham) and Warren Shanahan.

Throw the Constitution away – Part 2

2009-02-01T07:32:00.002+05:30

This conversation isn’t going away

More people have written about this issue since it “broke” :-) – Calmer, less emotional. It prompted me to post these thoughts based on what I read, spoke about in the last couple of days.

Barkha Dutt / NDTV have a right to defend themselves, but in my opinion, the response was disproportionate and showed contempt for a medium that is being used by people of all shapes, sizes, genders, professions, interests to express their views, and in the process eliminating the middleman – a role that until a few years ago was played by the mainstream media (MSM). Don’t get me wrong – this is not a “Chyetanya Kunte, the Hero” episode. It is about MSM wanting trying to make the rules, to “regulate” the medium because it is “irresponsible”. But is that the real problem? No. It is deeper than that.

Many of us are casual bloggers writing about our political/social views, or taking our real life passion to the internet, not in it for making money or get paid for it. The language is casual (not all), sometimes emotional, angry, funny depending on circumstances and little thought is given to legal implications. We are not journalists but people sitting in one “dark corner” typing away at our computers, writing “letters to the editor” except the editor is another person sitting in another dark corner typing away at his/her computer. And we are having an almost public conversation that is open for everyone to join in.

I am not saying this conversation is perfect or will always end well, but it has room for everyone - like what @vimoh says about a blog post written by “the sort of man I have been at odds with my entire life”:

his blog post made me happy. I am happy because he wrote that blog post and I am happy that that blog post exists on the web along with this blog post by me and this one by Amrutha.

Blogs are not monologues like news channels, where anchors perform for the camera while we watch and listen. Instead, blogs enable a dialogue between people who would never have known of each other’s existence or ideas or thoughts.

So, again, what is the real problem? In view of some in the MSM, it is probably this conversation we are having. A conversation that is chaotic but also structured in its own way, uncontrolled but mostly civil. And it takes MSM out of the equation. So I urge the MSM to try and understand the medium and to join this conversation. Not for the heck of it, but to listen, learn and understand their audience, away from TV studios and cameras. There are bigger issues confronting us. But if the contempt does not go away, let me point out that this conversation isn’t going away either.

Finally, this freedom we have is precious - it must be protected from those who want to suppress it, and also from ourselves. No drinking and driving :-)

Some other blogs that have covered this issue:

Falstaff – The further adventures of Hark Da Butt (Hilarious)
The Mad Momma – We, the bloggers (good roundup of many other posts)
Placid Freedom – Freedom of Speech - challenged yet again
Listen to the defiance – by kuffir at Blogbharti
Mridu Khullar – Engage your viewers, don’t sue them

And while I go on and on about rights, here’s someone talking about responsibilities.

Infinite Canvas and Mr.India

2009-01-30T12:44:00.002+05:30

Infinite Canvas is a Microsoft Live Labs project – a new way of looking at comics on the web, developed by Ian Gilman.

Infinite Canvas is a JavaScript application that frees visual storytelling from the usual comic format of squares on a page. It started to take off when Neil Gaiman (whom Ian describes as “one of the gods of the sci-fi/fantasy world”) tweeted about a piece he put up called “The Day The Saucers Came.”

Take a look at Infinite Canvas and see if you see the future of comics on the web.

Thanks to @pdileepa who tipped me off on Infinite Canvas, I tried out this cool application on Mr.India – The Comic Book that was recently published on this blog.

Please have a look at Mr.India on Infinite Canvas and let me know what you think.

Controls: To zoom up/down, use the mouse wheel. There are buttons at the bottom to move from one slide to next but the size of this comic is not very optimal, so click and drag the mouse to move around.

This won’t be taking over as a new format for TCP as it is experimental and you never know when projects such as these get scrapped, but it is the most exciting way to view comics on the web and I had to explore it.

You can also go to the Infinite Canvas Home Page and look at other comics. Thanks Microsoft Live Labs.

Happy Birthday Motku

Btw, today is also the day when Gandhiji was assassinated.