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Niche titles find many takers at Comic Con by mira nalini
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Niche titles find many takers at Comic Con |
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Now in its third edition, the Comic Con seems to be settling into a routine of sorts, developing regulars. Desi representation this year was taken care of by the usual suspects from last year — Campfire graphic novels, Vimanika Comics, Sufi comics and the staple - Amar Chitra Katha. However, international publishers like Vertical Inc and Top Cow, that the Comic Con has pushed so aggressively this year, seemed to be for an audience seriously into the graphic novels scene. And they weren't disappointed. Approaching the Indian market with some apprehension and curiosity, the international sellers were pleasantly surprised by the Indian response . While there were a fair number of curious onlookers, those who knew their comics, came hunting single-mindedly for specific titles. Peggy Burns of Canadian publishing house Drawn and Quarterly says she sold 12 copies in the first hour. "That's more than I would sell at an American convention," she says. Burns doesn't keep track of online sales but says she "doesn't think" they get a lot of orders from India. Though they do have a distribution network here, it is limited, thanks to the small market. Ed Chavez of Vertical Inc, known for its Manga publishing , said he was surprised to find that people were aware of the brands. The Mangas (Japanese comics) at his stall, with some of them designed to be read from right to left, got a lot of amused looks. "Japanese content seems to have just begun getting popular here. We could look at sub-licensing and translations in the future ," says Chavez. Quite a few of these publishers , like Top Cow and Fantagraphics , do not have an active distribution network in India, and their visit was something of an experiment. "There has been some unintentional distribution. I discovered some of our books available here on websites. I think books that were made into video game series, like The Darkness, have helped popularize these comics," says Matt Hawkins of Top Cow, who has authored the comic series Think Tank. And it isn't just the bestsellers that are made an awful lot of noise about that stole the show. "Surprisingly, the more popular books didn't get asked for as much as the niche ones. A lot of people picked up Lilli Carre's Heads and Tails. It was the 30th anniversary of the Hernandez brothers who did the Love and Rockets series , and Delhiites were aware of it and came asking for it specifically ," says Jacquelene Cohen of Fantagraphics. The prices, however, remained prohibitively high, capable of burning holes in the deepest of pockets. A single book can set you back by anything between Rs 1,200 to 2,200, if not more
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