Artist Vishwajyoti Ghosh has always been interested in comics. So when he visited Lahore on a ‘reporting visa’, a journey filled with intriguing interactions with locals, and rendezvous with Pakistani intelligence and the police, Ghosh decided that the anecdotes needed to be related not just in words but also graphically. That’s when Lahore Reporting was born.
Ghosh is one among many who are turning to graphic novels to tell a story, a format fast gaining popularity among avid readers. A spokesperson from the Oxford Bookstores informs us that over the last four years, there has been an increase in the number of graphic novel titles, and the market for them has also grown by about 15-20 per cent. Lipika Bhushan, marketing head, HarperCollins Publishers India Ltd, says, “There is a consistency in the number of titles in this category being published by us and we do see a rise in the number of copies that sell year after year. There has been a growing interest in this category and we get a lot of enquiries from young students.”
The most popular Indian graphic novels are Corridor and The Barn Owl’s Wondrous Capers by Sarnath Banerjee, Kari by Amruta Patil, Kashmir Pending by Naseer Ahmed and The Hotel at the End of the World by Parismita Singh.
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