In the 1970’s and 80’s there were comics in black and white for a general adult readership in some of the most popular magazines. Here are some examples from the Tamil weekly magazines Kalki (founded 1941) and Kumudam (founded 1948). Kalki is also known for serialising the popular historical fantasy Ponniyin Selvan. Most of these comics were serialized stories, with each issue containing a 2-page episode from an ongoing story. The themes were wide ranging– adventure, romance, mystery, crime, family dramas, courtroom dramas, history, comedy and satire. The drawing styles varied too, from cartoony exaggeration to realistic rendering. It reminded me of Japanese manga from the same period, specifically ‘gekiga’, which were realistic adult comics stories. Some of the artists are Ramu, Ramani, Surya, Veenu, Chellam, and Vijaya. In the 2000s and later, many of us comics artists were trying to tell the public that comics are not just for kids and that it can be a medium for adults too. Here were Tamil comics doing it in the 1970’s, and it was read by millions of people. It is astonishing to think that comics were a normal part of people’s general reading experience. This is true of Hindi, Bengali, Malayalam and other language magazines as well. Comics sections in popular magazines largely disappeared by the 2000’s. It’s time to revive comics in magazines and also to create new fully comics magazines.
