sarquyn beacher lyzabette
Finnis Springer
Sankar is the artist behind the signature painting of the Vikram and Vetala series, -showing the sword-wielding King Vikram carrying the corpse on his shoulder through a cremation ground- which is often
synonymously remembered with the stories.
He was the only surviving member of the original Chandamama design team. Born in a small village near Erode, Sankar shifted to the city with his younger brother to study in a corporation school when he was 10.
May 2012, I subscribed to Ambuli mama (Tamil version of Chandama) again. It came to be a sad ending in June 2013. They closed down their subscriptions, though I had paid fully in advance for my subcription.
To name a few of the most popular children magazines from that genre, would be: Tinkle, Balamitra, Gokulam, Champak, Poonthalir, and Ratnabala, which all had a unique set of followers and readers group.
Each of them also excelled in a specific way in which they originate their stories from, which was experienced by young and adult, during a period when what we see in TV media were controlled by state-owned TV channels, and there were not much other things to divert upon.
Even though, they could not match up to the stardom and world-fame which DC & Marvel garnered with their releases, they enjoyed a fan-fare of its own for decades, eventually falling out of reckoning as their younger readers grew, and India witnessed the growth and varieties of other Sports and TV Media. Now only handful of them are still in publication, having adopted to live with a small number of readership and changing their content to match the modern expectations.
The cash-rich backing,and the unique selling point of basing stories based on Indian mythology and folktales, took Chandamama to a wider acceptance and it enjoyed a steady growth in sales, with their magazines being publishing in Multiple Indian Languages (12 + 1 English Edition) concurrently.
The fame of Chandamama could be exhibited from the fact that Disney, once was looking to acquire it for foraying into Indian Publishing. Eventhough that ultimately didn't materialize, it was acquired by a Technology Company called Geodisc in 2007, and since has started to concentrate on digitizing its artefacts and old issues of its publication. This was originally available to be downloaded for free on their corporate website, but now it is only available to be read online at their site.
In the same year 2007, Chandamama also celebrated their 60th Anniversary, and recently have come up with a Collectors Edition - Coffee Book, which takes us back to the inception and various stages of publishing scenarios during the Chandamama's Golden Era.
The Collectors Edition contains some breathtaking artwork from the past and photographs of the publishing house and their erstwhile staff at their prime. Eventhough, Chandamama isn't a much interesting proposition at present, this will be an item the collectors and old fans can possess and cherish to share with the loved ones and nears.
The Books is A4 Format, with waxed papers, in a Neatly Bound package, priced at INR 449/-. It is currently available on Chandamama's website with a 20% discount, for those who cherish to collect this treasure.
As with the other children magazines of its period, Chandamama also fell out of reckoning due to the change in taste and choices of young and modern India. They are still continuing their publishing legacy by maintaining the same number of language editions, albeit with a limited print run. They also have another magazine called Junior Chandamama, aimed specifically for kids.
Recently, Chandamama have ventured onto Graphic Novels, a field which they never really concentrated in the past, by tying up with the publishers of The 99 Comics series from Middle-East. Read more about them, in our The 99 exclusive review at Comicology.
Dear Visitors, Please spend a moment from your precious time to leave a footprint here, so as to let other blog visitors, to feel your presence.
My humble request to you while commenting, is to respect and consider others views. Kindly refrain from posting defamatory remarks, and keep your points/views to the context of the post. Also please do avoid requesting any unethical/anti-copyright content. Comments breaching the above points, may be moderated.