To capture real life events and turn them into a cartoon is not an easy job. And to be a cartoonist it definitely takes a lot! To be a good cartoonist, one should have a knack on the subject and what they want to portray via their drawing. Along with that they have a comic perception, sense of humour and the utmost important quality is that they should have a good hand at drawing.
And to honour these unique species, 5 May is celebrated as the Cartoonists Day as it’s the anniversary of the publishing of the first ever colour cartoon, The Yellow Kid in 1895. A cartoonist doesn’t have to necessarily be an editorial cartoonist but can be anyone who creates cartoons in any medium.
On Cartoonists Day we list down few Indian cartoonists who are currently ruling the hearts of people with their beautiful artwork and thoughts.
Vikas Sabnis
Vikas Sabnis is a political cartoonist who’s been in the industry for a long time and has worked with Balasaheb Thackeray. He was a freelance cartoonist for Marmik and Loksatta and has been associated with The Afternoon Despatch and Courier. Over here on the 27th anniversary a special launch of an e-book of cartoons by him took place wherein the book is packed with around 300 cartoons following Mumbai on his peregrinations around the city, as he negotiates life in the fast and the slow lanes. We can see a glimpse of the great R.K.Laxman and Balasaheb Thackeray’s style of sketching as they are his inspiration in the comic journey.
Mukesh Singh
Mukesh Singh is one of those artists who with his hard work, sheer determination and talent has gone out to become an International artist. Born in Mumbai, this artist has been working as a freelance illustrator, motion graphics artist, senior game artist, CG modeler and animator, and senior illustrator and concept artist for various comics, game, and film and television projects. He began his comic journey with Virgin Comics (now Liquid Comics) and was selected by Marvel comics to design an armor for Indestructible Hulk. He has gone out to come up with various covers for Marvel and has been working actively with Graphic India for their YouTube series 18 Days. Recently he produced the cover image of Holy Cow Entertainment’s Ganga and Bhishma. His sketches reflect intricate details and bring out the character’s emotions seamlessly.
Charuhas Pandit
He’s the man who came up with the popular Marathi comic strip Chintoo back in 1991 that went on to become a popular comic strip across all ages. Along with Charuhas Pandit, late Prabhakar Wadekar was also the pioneer of this comic that appeared in Sakal newspapers and earlier used to appear in Loksatta as well. Pandit strongly believes that regional languages should be promoted. In this digital age, Chintoo got himself a FaceBook page that’s performing extremely well. Pandit with his simplistic yet effective drawing and strokes conveys the life of a young boy in a hysterical manner.
Paresh Nath
Master cartoonist and caricature artist, Paresh Nath has a list of achievements to his name. He has 22 years of experience in editorial cartooning. His forte lies in drawing cartoons on world political issues, business, economy and U.N. related issues, humour cartoon strips and caricatures of world personalities. He’s been working for the daily newspaper Khaleej Times, published in English in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates since 2005 and has also drawn in the Herald Tribune in India from 1990 to 2005. He won the UN award (New York) in 2000 and 2001. His cartoons are published in various international publications around the world : the New York Times, International Herald Tribune (Paris), Los Angeles Times, World Press Review, The Guardian, Ouest France, Time, Courrier International.
Sumit Kumar
Sumit Kumar is a cartoonist based in New Delhi who’s first graphic novel ‘The Itch You Can’t Scratch’ has gained a strong cult following and his Kashmir Ki Kahani for Newslaundry.com has gotten mainstream acclaim. He has also worked on third part of Kashmir Ki Kahani and webcomic Aaapki Poojita (on FaceBook). Recently, he came out with Amar Bari Tomar Bari Naxalbari, a graphic novel that focuses on the dark history of two facets of the communist movement in India – the Naxalbari uprising and the current Maoist conflict in central India – in the form of a comic book. Currently, he practices storytelling on his webcomic Bakarmax where we see how boldly with his satirical writing and sketches he comments on the current happenings in our country.
Though we have listed down only five cartoonists, there are many more out there who are doing an amazing work via their sketches and are bringing joy and being the mirror not just to the dirtbags of our country but also the common man.
AnimationXpress is grateful to these brilliant cartoonists and we wish them luck for their future endeavours.