BBAW: Forgotten Treasures

Welcome to Day 4 of Book Blogger Appreciation Week! Thursday’s theme is Forgotten Treasure:

Sure we’ve all read about Freedom and Mockingjay but we likely have a book we wish would get more attention by book bloggers, whether it’s a forgotten classic or under marketed contemporary fiction. This is your chance to tell the community why they should consider reading this book!

For today’s topic, I would like to introduce not one, but a series of comics. That’s right, comics.

It’s a genre of reading that is not very popular with book bloggers, but even within that genre, there are some hidden treasures. I am of course, referring to Amar Chitra Katha – a series of comics that deal with topics from Indian history and mythology. All Indian children (of my generation) have read some sort of AMK comic or the other – be it from the Panchatantra series, mythological stories about Krishna, or Rama, and many historical stories.

I probably got a better idea of Indian history and mythology better from these comics than from my actual text books.

These days, these comics seem to be falling by the wayside. Competition from TV, video games, and more sophisticated western comics seem to have done some damage.

However, recently I was pleasantly surprised to learn that they are now available digitally through the Apple iTunes store. You can also buy Amar Chitra Katha comics online from their website.

A similar effort to increase the popularity of Indian comics is being undertaken by an LA-based animator/director. His site Pushpuck is interesting for sure. I enjoyed the one comic that he had created and uploaded, and I am looking forward to more.