Films made on the Indian Army and the struggles they go through while battling hardships and war is done to death. But what is refreshing to see is a comic based on our soldiers created by Aan Comics founder Rishi Kumar.
A book launch in 2003 led Rishi to meet several war heroes and their families. It was then that he found out that the public were unaware of military matters in general. Therefore he thought of setting up his own graphic novels/comic book company based on real life events of Indian wars and war heroes – Aan Comics.
The two year old enterprise has already published nine titles but the journey has not been easy. “The main problem I faced was getting publishers to agree. They showed no interest in publishing these comic books and hence I had to self-publish it with my savings,” reveals Rishi to AnimationXpress.com.
He is rather delighted that his comics have managed strike a chord with the domestic audience. Apart from his own venture, he is also involved in illustration for others such as Roli Books, Bloomsbury etc.
A lot of the details that he got in writing the comics were provided by the Indian Army. On this he elaborates, “I have read plenty of commando comics on British and American war heroes but I realised there were hardly anything on graphic on Indian war heroes, depicting their achievements who sacrificed their present for our tomorrow. It is my endeavour to introduce these heroes to youngsters so they value freedom, legacy of loyalty and love for their country.”
The reason for delving into comics as a medium was because it is a quick read for people who don’t find time to go through thick books. At the same time, the medium can educate, entertain and communicate a message effectively.
“My upcoming project is an Airforce comic on Kargil war. This comic depicts the role of our aircrafts and helicopters. How they successfully conducted operations under tough conditions against the enemy who was holding the commanding heights in the Kargil Mountains,” highlights Rishi.
The Kargil war comic will be around 80 pages long and will be available in print format. Around 5,000 copies will be accessible in all major cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Gurgaon and Bangalore. Previous books are already available on Flipkart.
The books are being supplied to Army schools directly by him but the public and private schools are handled by Eureka Bookstore.Rishi explains: “These comic books are meant for general reading of children. They contain accurate and fact based historical information but is in no way connected to their syllabus.”
Recently Rishi was also part of a workshop which was held at Delhi Public Library for under privileged children, where he spoke about his books and their impact. Apart from these fact based comic books; Rishi is also working on a fiction comic which is an action adventure story and revolves around India based in the 20th century.