33 Comic Cuts 53 – News 53: A Discussion on Tamil Comics & Latest Advertisement

Dear ComiRades,

Welcome back to TCU. Though the first 100 Posts were in the language of our earlier masters, It’s been Almost 2 years since we blogged in English. May be this is the right time to come back to that in order to cater to a larger audience. When we say larger audience, what we mean by that is the comics reading community from places like UK, France, USA, Singapore and Sri Lanka etc etc.

For a blog like this, language can be a double edged sword. Ideally it should be in the regional language or the language of the content (That is, Tamil, since we talk mostly about Tamil comics only). However, when we sculpt articles on characters that cut the national and linguistic barriers, people want to know more about that and Google is not helping in that area as Language converter from Tamil Language to others is only in the initial stage.

When Yours truly wrote an article on Modesty Blaise some time back, it reached many researchers and they are still in contact through mail and update on their front whenever there is a news about Modesty Blaise. That was made possible because the article was penned in English language and hence it catered a wider target group. Later on, when we did a similar post on Chick Bill , we did it in Tamil Language and the reason being our change in blogging style, Some of our fellow ComiRades mailed me stating the fact that though they could enjoy the Pictures in the Post, they were unable to comprehend the post with language being the barrier. One ComiRade went to a level saying that seeing the post & unable to read is like getting nectar and realising that your mouth is sealed, thereby preventing you from drinking it.

Throughout our visits during the Comic con in Mumbai, Delhi etc, people started sort of complaining about the language barrier. To start a new blog and trying to translate the same content in Tamil language was one of the ideas suggested to yours truly. However, such a task will be not only improbable at the moment but humanly not possible as well. So, from now onwards, you’ll find our posts being in English only. Apologies to my Tamil Reading friends.

Deccan Chronicle – Chennai Chronicle Cover Story: Today’s Deccan Chronicle news paper (Chennai edition) has a wonderful cover story in the Chennai Chronicle supplement. Thanks to Kedar Koushik, Reporter / Sub Editor, we have this news article on Tamil Comics. Yours truly Thanks the Editor and the management of DC for such a honour. Here is the cover page of Chennai Chronicle. You can click on the image to enlarge it or go to this link to see it online.  Here is the detailed cover story with fantastic interviews from Artist / Creator Gaman and Mr S.Vijayan, Editor / Publisher of Lion & Muthu Comics, Sivakasi. To read it, You can click on the image to enlarge it or go to this link to see it online. For those who came in late, Here is the link to Editor S.Vijayan’s Official Home page and his Blog.

Without sounding like promoting myself, which will be tough for a third person to realise the difficulties, i’ve been trying to paint a sketch and pave a small way for Tamil Comics’ awareness. Under such circumstances, articles like these do really Help. A Big Hug, Brother Kedar, Thanks a Ton.

Comics Advertisements: Last paragraph was about non promotion and this one is about promotion. Though the idea was to create awareness about the re launch of Tamil comics, the write ups in magazines, interviews in TV and more than 60 blogs to promote Tamil comics, we felt that the sum is not equal to the individual parts. Hence the idea to give advertisements in print media. With that in our mind, the 1st comeback advertisement of Tamil comics was published in last Saturday (27th September 2013) in Junior Vikatan, Tamil’s No.1 Political investigative Bi weekly magazine.

The logic behind choosing Junior vikatan was simple. The Kid who was reading comics in the 80’s would have graduated to reading Novels (Both Tamil & English) in the 90’s and by this time he would have been in his mid-to-late thirties or 40’s. So the gradual reading curve would have taken him to this type of reading habit and hence the choice of Junior vikatan as our advertising medium. Here is the initial design of the advertisement.

This initial design was later on changed to this final design with the addition of the evergreen super star of Tamil comics, Steel Claw and the latest entry in to the ever growing world of Tamil comics heroes, Kid Lucky. The re launch concept was highlighted with “Comics in Full Colour” being the Tag line of the advertisement.

Response for the Advertisement: Though initial response for such an advertisement will be tough to analyse, the number of phone calls and new enquiries to the publishers office indicate that the investment was really worth it. Keeping with this in mind, the next few advertisements will be released in this month and early part of next month, with Diwali festival being the  focal point of our advertisements.

 

Well, that’s all for this post and TCU will be back with another post on Monday (Comics Time 3) and will try to be as regular as possible from here onwards. As usual, post your comments in the comments section. For those who want to Pen their thoughts in Tamil, Kindly Use the Option Provided in the Widget section or Click Here.

Thanks & Regards, 
King Viswa.