India gets comic relief

We explore how worldwide comic favourites have been given a desi flavour 

When film-crazy Raj Patel showed up in Riverdale four years ago, little did Archie Comics fans realize that their favourite freckled redhead and his pals would soon make a trip to India. In issues No. 9 and 10 of World of Archie, the gang travels to Mumbai with Raj, where they have a brush with Bollywood, get a taste of samosas and vindaloo and wear kurtas, saris and lehengas. Archie and Co. aren't the only iconic comic book characters to get an Indian flavour. Last year, the entire Tintin series was translated into Hindi; and in 2004, Spider-Man came to India in the form of Pavitr Prabhakar. But how well does giving comic characters a desi twist work?

Maha market
Suresh Seetharaman, CEO of an animation company, says this is a smart way for Archie Comics to tap into a country like India, where they have a huge presence. "I assume that India is a key market for them. It looks like Archie is aggressively getting their product out and making inroads into different markets where they have a brand presence. Moreover, one of the most influential communities in the US is the Indian diaspora. So if you've introduced an Indian character to the series, it makes sense to have the characters travel India," he says.

Full report here Times of India 

Hindi Lessons for Tintin

The Tintin comic series is finally being translated into Hindi

“A Big Bag of Blue Blistering Barnacles,” thundered an infuriated Captain Haddock in the Tintin comic series. But that was before he learnt a lesson in Hindi. From now, he will vent his fury by shouting, “Karor Karoro kale kasmasate kachuye.” For Tintin has now come to India, talking in Hindi and exclaiming, not “Great Snakes”, but “Baal ki Khaal” and “Shaitan Ke Kaan”.

After decades of talking in English and 50 other languages globally, Belgian artist Georges Remi or Hergé’s popular comic book series is being translated into Hindi.

Delhi-based publishing house Om Books is introducing the young reporter in Hindi after getting permission from Casterman — the original publishers of the comic series.

Full report here Indian Express

Tintin comes to India, speaking Hindi

Karod kasmasate kaale kacchuve! Yes, that’s what our Tintin's short-tempered best friend Captain Archibald Haddock would say if you angered him.

Surprised? Don’t be. It is only the Hindi translation of his famous abuse, 'Billions of bilious blue blistering barnacles'.

Translated into 50 languages across the globe, Tintin's latest stop on his world tour is the Indian shores. The Belgian reporter has undergone a desi makeover in his latest avatar, 80 years after the much loved comic character was born, and Indian readers will now be able to read his adventures in Hindi.

"The adventures of Tintin are the best comics in the whole world and I'm glad that having the books in Hindi makes them available to a wider range of readers," said Puneet Gupta, translator of the comics.

Tintin comes to India

karod kasmasate kaale kacchuve! Yes, that’s what our Tintin's short-tempered best friend Captain Archibald-Haddock would say if you angered him. Surprised? Don’t be. It is only the Hindi translation of his famous abuse 'Billions of blue blistering barnacles'.

Translated into 50 languages across the globe, Tintin's latest stop on his world tour is the Indian shores. The Belgian reporter has undergone a desi makeover in his latest avatar, 80 years after the much loved comic was released, and Indian readers will now be able to read his adventures in Hindi.

"The adventures of Tintin are the best comics in the whole world and I'm glad that having the books in Hindi make the comics available to a wider range of readers," says Puneet Gupta, the translator of the comics.

Full report here DNA

Tintin in India

The last time Tintin and his friends were confronted with Hindi, they looked pretty baffled. In Tintin in Tibet, published in 1960, Captain Haddock faced the wrath of a Nepali porter whom he bumped into accidently in the street. “Kya dekhte nahi ho?” the man yells in a rebuke rendered in Devnagari. However, the next time Haddock in confronted by an angry coolie, he’ll have developed the vocabulary necessary to snap back at him. Only, instead of barking, “billions and billions of blistering blue barnacles”, he’s likely to holler, “Karodon karod kasmasate kaale kachhuve” – millions and millions of squirming black turtles.

That alliterative phrase will make its debut this month when Om Publishers releases eight Tintin books in Hindi. To begin with, Hindi readers will be able to savour the boy reporter’s adventures in Tintin in the Congo, Tintin in America, Cigars of the Pharoah, The Blue Lotus, The Broken Ear, The Black Island, King Ottokar’s Sceptre and The Crab with the Golden Claws. The remaining 16 comics in the series will come on the stands at the rate of two every two months. “I have always been a fan of Tintin,” said Ajay Mago of Om Publishers. “We wanted to bring this comic to the people of India who couldn’t possibly have read it before as it was in English.”

Full report here Timeout Mumbai