From eco-conscious Shikari Shambhu to tech-savvy vetalas, India’s comic-book icons are getting a reboot to keep pace with AI, anime & short attention spans
Tinkle aunty. That’s what her kids’ friends call wildlife filmmaker Akanksha Sood Singh. The nickname came from her father, a navy man in Colaba who grew up reading Indian comics. “In 1980, the hoarding for Tinkle comics went up on top of Regal Cinema in Colaba. I was born the same year that it was launched, and so he would call me Tinkle,” says Singh, who credits the cowardly khaki-sporting moustachioed hunter Shikari Shambu for shaping her interest in wildlife, and still remembers laughing at the goof-ups of “that bald guy” whose name now escapes her memory.
Today, that bald guy — Suppandi — has evolved from a towel-clad village simpleton into a blazer-sporting city freelancer whose mascot drew crowds amid snazzy Marvel heroes at Comic Con Mumbai recently.
Today, that bald guy — Suppandi — has evolved from a towel-clad village simpleton into a blazer-sporting city freelancer whose mascot drew crowds amid snazzy Marvel heroes at Comic Con Mumbai recently.