Mr and Mrs Crumb at Comic Con India

All the biggies are here. The lights are set. The table is laid. Settle those creases on your suits gentlemen, ladies avoid heels. Comic Con India kicked off yesterday with their 2012 Awards at India International Centre. Was interesting to see the makings of a strong high impact powerhouse. Presentation format, the hostess etc reflected something from a school annual day auditorium. You could feel the newness of the concept in India. As Aline K Crumb mentioned, she just came from an event in France where she was surrounded by twenty five thousand people to IIC here, modest but touching. RK Lakshman was presented the lifetime achievement award.

The Crumbs were especially amused by a notorious print of Need More Love, a graphic memoir that my colleague Shone bought the same day from Lajpat Nagar in order to own a signed copy. Apparently, and Shone did not notice, the size of the book along with the length of the stories has been cut. They have never seen that copy. They did not know it existed. Is it home made? We will find out.

The person you are looking at is Rakesh from Blaft Publications. What a surprise to see that hairdo at India International Centre. Fifty points to Blaft. Seated next to him is Yukichi Yamamatsu  from Japan who’s launching his book Stupid Guy Goes to India. He doesn’t speak English but will answer questions in Hindi if put across delicately.

And man to look out for, Author and illustrator of Satya Police who won the category for Best Unpublished Work and a grant and a publishing deal. Wow. And he’s got a good sense of humour  because he was the only one to point out that the music played before the announcements could have been responsible for him having a heart attack!

More from Comic Con India on this weekend. I’d like to thank my genius Art Director for sending me out of office. What a treat.