Six Thousand Kids and Youngsters gathered for the Raj Comics annual drawing and painting competition.

Art by 14 yr old student Tanya Paul

Christmas 2005, six thousand kids gathered at New Delhi's national stadium. The occasion was the annual drawing and painting competition organised by Delhi based comic book major Raj Comics.

A month later and the winners for the competition have been announced. The 12 winners from three age group demos (5-9, 10-14, 15-18) get free admission to Raj Comics training arm, Rtoonz Illustration and animation academy.

The significant thing about this whole excercise being that it encourages kids and youth towards art.

Speaking to Animation 'xpress Raj Comics President Manish Gupta said,"There has always been a huge shortfall of creative talent in the various aspects of print media and publishing. The situation has turned even more drastic with the emergence of India as a favorite hub for outsourced publication services. Furthermore there has been migration of illustrators to the allied creative fields like animation and gaming"

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"Raj Comics, as a market leader in Comics and illustrated children books, is always looking for ways to bridge this gap and has invested heavily by opening up a dedicated academy for nurturing illustration and animation skills in art graduates. “Rtoonz Academy of Animation and illustration” is the only such institute in India where aspiring artists can learn the intricate art of comic illustration. The annual painting competition is one such effort wherein we are trying to catch them young. We are looking for ways to nurture drawing and painting skills in our kids and youth and to encourage the usage of illustration as a medium of expression." he added.

Another interesting thing about the competition was that it also hosted India's largest comic strip 5 feet by 130 feet which Raj Comics has submitted into the Limca book of records.

The Giant Comic Strip

Raj Comics publishes 18 different series of comics and close to five new titles every month with each title having an average circulation of 40,000 copies while the best sellers such as Nagraj reach between 75 to 80,000 copies.