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Pune to witness Indie Comix Fest today
The Indie Comix Fest is a forum that brings together comic creators and readers to share and showcase comics as a genuine form of cultural expression
Comic creators Chaitanya Modak, Bharath Murthy, Kailash Iyer and Aniceto Pereira have come together to organise the Indie Comix Fest. They started off by connecting with local comic creators who came together in Mumbai last year in October for the first event. This was followed by the second successful run in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru earlier in May this year. Now in its third edition, they have added Kochi, Goa, Kolkata and Pune one the list of cities.Modak says, “When we say the word comics- the immediate reaction is always ‘something for children’ or ‘superheroes’ or ‘mythology’ in the Indian context. We want to break out of these norms and create a society that celebrates strong, original content that creates powerful and compelling narratives through words and pictures. we need to add points relating to Indian comic content creators here.”
The Indie Comix fest, organised with the help of a bunch of volunteers on a non-profit basis, is the first step to a forum that brings together comic creators and readers to share and showcase comics as a genuine form of cultural expression. It gives creators access to a direct market where they keep 100% of what they make.
Punekars can look forward to the main exhibition area, which is a contemporary cultural melting pot with over 22 comic book artists, writers, illustrators an self-publishing labels displaying their publications. Alongside there are events, workshops and talks such as five years of Indian politics – a cartoon journey by Sunil Nampu, Gekiga: a guide to alternative Japanese comics by Bharath Murthy, Making comics in a group with the Comics Jam by Chaitanya Modak, a session for upcoming comic creators by Vinay Brahmania and a two hour live sketching session with the Urban sketchers group.
Chaitnanya adds, “Anthologies, serialised floppies, hand-pressed zines, fold-pot comics, screen printed comics, posters and a ton of other self-published content will be seen at the fest.”
An indie bookmaker who publishes original, true-to-life stories. Chaitnaya is interested in the narrative potential of multiple realities – bitter brown, black or blue and have published nine co.mix till date. “I will be featuring two of my latest releases - ‘Sleepsutra’ stories of sleep and ‘Disturbing’ concrete poems on Love. Also available would be ‘Comix Epidemic’ an anthology of tales made by residents of Dharavi, ‘Saturday Co-Mix’, my second anthology with first-time comics creators and ‘Be a Man’ luxurious, limited edition, deep black, hand bound serigraphs on handmade paper.
