International comic artists eye Indian talent at New Delhi Comic Con

New Delhi: International comic distributors and publishers are keen to explore the emerging market in India and open to work with local artists.

“I am looking forward to working with the Indian comic artists. I want them to come forward and engage them in my projects,” British artist David Lloyd told PTI at the recently concluded fourth edition of Comic Con here.

Llyod is the illustrator of the popular comic series “V for Vendetta”.

“To have partners from India will be great. We are ready to collaborate with the artists over here and work together,” he said.

Reiterating Lloyd’s view, writer of ‘Spider-man’ character Mark Waid said he wants to see more of local talent.

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[caption id=“attachment_75703” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The response from Indian audience for their works has been great the artists claim. Photo: Comic Con India Facebook[/caption]

“I want to see local talent here. I would love to work with them in the future on my international projects,” said Waid.

The artist says he is even in talks with some of the Indian comics artists on his international projects.

Describing the work of Indian artists as “great and wonderful”, John Layman, the Eisner Award-winning writer known for his work on Marvel Comics Captain America series, said Indian comics are much more diverse than the American ones.

“I think Indian comics are much diverse. I would want to incorporate some of its diverse elements into American comics. That would be great,” he said.

Waid, who is visiting India for the first time, said he is surprised to see the huge number of young comic fans here unlike the United States.

“I am pleasantly surprised to see the turn out of children here. In the States its the older lot who seem to be interested but here it is just the opposite,” he said, adding people here are more enthusiastic about comics at an early age.

Waid even said Indian Comic Con is no different from American Comic Con in terms of its grandeur.

“I think this (Comic Con) is no different than what I have seen in the States,” he said.

Talking about the growing Indian market, Llodd, who is best known as the illustrator of the story ‘V for Vendetta" said India offers huge scope for digital comics unlike America.

“I think the Indian market is growing and it offers space to digital comics…and digital format will be the new way of reaching out to people,” he said.

“People in America are very resistant in switching to digital format. They still like papers…So it is very tough there to build a market for digital comics,” Lloyd said.

He even said though digital medium is not financially viable he feels it would be successful.

“Digital medium is very easy to operate. There are no hassles involved. So slowly it will pick up,” he said.

The response from Indian audience for their works has been great the artists claim.

“The response here has been terrific so far. I am very happy to see the kind of enthusiasm being exuded by Indian audience here,” Waid said.

“We have recently released a book here and the feedback has been phenomenal…very positive,” said Gabriel Ba, a Brazilian comic book artist.

Speaking on comics as a genre, Llyod said comics should be treated as movies.

“Comics are a great medium. It should be treated like movies. It is a great medium for communications,” he said.

The fourth edition of Comic Con was held in New Delhi from February 7.

PTI