Abid Surti, a six-year old child at time of the World War II, witnessed in Mumbai the British soldiers passing in trains from Bombay Docks to the VT station on their way to Burma. The kids ran after the train to collect food items, confectionery and coins the soldiers tossed off to them. Once, they threw a comic book — a Walt Disney Mickey Mouse. That inspired Abid Surti to be a cartoonist for the rest of his life. He created Bahadur, a superhero who saved villages from dacoits. Alok Sharma has produced a documentary on Indian comics called Chitrakatha : Indian Comics beyond Balloons and Panels. Abid’s story forms the crux of this documentary. It has shaped the genre in India. It dates back to 1961. Apart from Abid Surti, Anant Pai and Pran, the other comic artists are Anupam Sinta ( Raj comics ), Dilip Kadam and Govind Brahmania ( cover artist for Bahadur and Shuja ).Abid also crated Dhabbooji for Dharmyug.He has written several books. Right now he works for water conservation and fixes leaky tapes himself to save water.

Shamik Dasgupta writes Daksh meant as he says ‘not for kids or the faint-hearted.’ They are for 18-30 age group which is quality conscious and has the ability to invest in hobbies. It is a nostslgic attachment for the people who grew up on them. The stories must also grow up. Comic Jump is monthly magazine published by Level 10 comics. Deepak Sharma is its studio head. Their offerings are Daksh, Batu Gaiden and Shaurya. These comics have characters that are more real. The connect is thus established. Diverse generes have entered comics apart from mythologicals, e.g. horror, high fantasy, science  fiction, and Hind film industry. Pop culture publishing is another company that publishes adult comic books.

On  14th November, 2014, Tinkle comic turned 34. There are characters such as Shikari Shambu, Supandi and Tantri the Mantri. Tinkle covers a wide range of subjects. In the early days, the content consisted mainly of folktales, original stories around the characters and GK. Readers too contributed stories. Tinkle was launched in 1980, by a 12 year old girl ElaineD’Lima. There was no issue for December that year. It started having monthly editions from January 1981. It turned a fortnightly from 1982. In 1990, they came out with special holiday editions. The Tinkle Digest was launched in 1996.Savio Mascarenhas was the creative hand behind Shikari Shambu. Mascarenhas took over the illustrations from Shri V. B. Halbe in 1997. Tinkle today reaches through print, online and mobile. The two things that remain the same are the Indian essence and appeal to all age groups. Luis Fernandes is the editor of Amar Chitra Katha. Pradeep Sathe is the co-creator of Kalia the Crow and has beenworking with Fernandes for the lasr 20 years.

In animation education, it is not enough to learn the tools of animation, say mastering software like Maya and 3D Max for 3D animation and Flash, Toon and Boom for 2D animation. It is also necessary to understand the whole process starting from an idea, which is nurtured to a concept, creating characters, planning a layout, scripting and a lot more. A person who wants to master animation must have good drawing skills, imagination and a basic understanding of motion mechanics. A qualification in fine arts is an added advantage.

Too many Indian animators come from IT background, and do not understand the basics of art, drawing, film making, camera work, animation or lighting. According to Ram Mohan, the father of Indian animation, it is an advantage if you can draw.

Animation started as a promising area in 2ooo, but has faltered along the way. The total revenue generated by animation industry is Rs. 1200 crore which is shared by at least 50 active companies. The US studioes were the first to source from here due to cost advantages. Today, many units have closed down. The remaining have remained medium-  or small-sized. Malaysia and China have emerged as competitions. There is no industry body exclusively for animation industry. It is represented either by Nasscom or Ficci. It takes five years for an animation unit to break even. During the gestation period, the unit needs handholding. Animation industry is run by creative people not well-versed in business. Local animation content has not gone beyond mythology and grandma stories. The odds appear stacked against the industry. There should be digital policy and promotion of animation beyond entertainment in the education sector. High-end projects still come to India. The low-end jobs go else where. There shuold be funding available for the animation industry. There will be mergers and acquistions. The quality of training must improve to take care of the high-end work.

Popularly known as Shankar, he is considered the father of political cartooning in India. He founded Shankar’s Weekly, a counterpart of Punch. He was awarded Padma Bhushan in 1976. Shankar followed the British style that was close to David Low.

St Luc, L’Ecole Superieure des Arts, Belgium conducts a course of comic strip making. Herge, the creator of Tintin met the principal and suggested a training course (1968). Comic books are not only about drawing but telling a story through drawing. The story telling part cannot be taught. The techniques can be taught. The pictures are at the service of the narration. Comics are a way of thinking that is neither writing nor drawing, but both are at the service of each other.

According to Ajit Ninan, every newspaper cartoonist has to fight for space and the reader’s attention where editorial matter competes with a cartoon. In the black-and-white era, the cartoonists fell into two schools —

• those who arrest the attention by the use of white in contrast to the grey textual matter and
• those who establish the contrast through the use of black.

Abu, for example, used minimal lines to accentuate the white. American cartoonists tend to favour the heavy use of black. Mario could use both black and white in roughly equal proportions in an illustration to create harmony of clutter. In a party scene, he could accommodate a hundred people without it looking overcrowded. He may put a white-suited man in front of a black-gowned woman, who stands against a white door. Each person and element thus stand out in sharp contrast.

Mario was born in 1926 in Daman as Mario Joao Carlos do Rosario de Britto a Miranda, better known as Mario Miranda. His family moved to Goa when Mario was eight.

Miranda first began at Current at the instance of Karaka. Mario joined the TOI group in 1953, and worked for the Illustrated Weekly of India and other publications. He was in his twenties. Mario was to the magazines of  the Times of India what Laxman was to the daily paper . It was really remarkable that two great cartoonists were working together in the same publishing house — Laxman handled the newspaper and Mario the magazines. Laxman was primarily a political cartoonist and Mario excelled in the social cartoon. Mario did his schooling at St. Joseph’s High School, Bangalore and did his B.A. in history at St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. He attended the Sir J.J. School of Art in 1943 only for a day and decided not to take any formal training for the rest of his life. He left for Lodon in 1960 and returned to Goa in 1961. He then rejoins the Times group. He married Habiba Hydari in 1963. She was from one of the noble famililies of Hyderabad. He has painted murals on the walls of Mondegar Cafe, Mumbai. He regularly travelled abroad in the 1970s. His works then were based on his observations there. He produced by far the largest and most influential images of Goa of all the artists.

Mario Miranda expired in his ancestral home at Loutolim, Goa in the early hours of Sunday, the 11th December, 2011, at the age of 85.He is survived by his wife Habiba and two sons Raul and Rishaad. Raul is a hairdresser who lives in New York.

I had the privilege to meet Mario at Loutolim village  in 1987. He was a very vivacious person.

Mario Gallery is located seven kms north of Panjim close to Alto Povorim. It is next to the Museum Houses of Goa. It is an off road on the main Panjim-Mapusa toad. The Gallery has 2500 visitors each year. It now carries 10,000 works of Mario. The Gallery sells prints and postcards of Mario’s work. There are plans to turn the Gallery sells prints and postcards of Mario’s work. There are plans to turn the Gallery into a full-fledged museum into a full-fledged museum in the the future.

Online Website

Mario’s works were collected and digitised into an offline repository. Mr. Bhatt has now put all this on the website http:// www.mariomiranda.com. It is in fact an extension of the Gallery. It also sells Mario’s works.