Tamil Pulp Update, Alien Landings Press, Etc.

We haven't updated the blog in a long while. Our latest releases Stupid Guy Goes to India and The Obliterary Journal have been in stores in India for a couple of months now. We hope you'll pick them up and that you'll enjoy them as much as these reviewers. (They're not available outside the country yet, but they will be soon.)

Even more exciting, Pachanana Moharana's illustrations from The Obliterary Journal have been sparking long-overdue speculation on the 1947 Odisha alien robot landing in mainstream publications like The Hindu and Zee News and Deccan Herald, which of course has us just tickled.

Meanwhile -- We often get calls from journalists asking about the popular fiction market in India. A lot of these journalists seem to take it for granted that the regional language pulp fiction industries are dead or moribund, and that all new exciting work is happening in English only.  However, while readership may be down from the 1990s peak, in Tamil at least, the scene is alive and thriving--as proved by a recent visit to the Besant Nagar newsstand outside Words & Worth.

Rajesh Kumar, the most prolific writer in the world, is still hard at work as ever -- these three novels all came out this month. The back covers are good too:

"Mythological crime thriller" author Indra Soundar Rajan is still publishing short novels, and longer works in installments:

 

And, perhaps most exciting, we saw a bunch of unfamiliar names: Akhil Kumar, "Crime King" Thennilavan, and Maheshwaran...

That's nine novels for Rs. 135, kids. Hard to beat. Of course, if you only read English, you'll have to spend the big bucks on one of our translated anthologies. (Available soon as eBooks! Watch this space.)

The Obliteration Continues

At the launch of The Obliterary Journal yesterday at Comic Con India, contributors Vidyun Sabhaney (author of "Gurk") and Amitabh Kumar (author of "") led a workshop in which they encouraged participants to make comics out of a variety of strange materials, including x-ray paper, frisbees, cotton balls, and surgical gloves. Each participant was given an action ("running", "flying", "shitting", etc.) and asked to create a "comic" to represent that action.

Pictured below are some of the wonderful results (Thanks to Vidyun for the pictures!).

Go ahead... guess which "comic" represents which action.

Sneak Preview: The Coming Obliteration

Here's a sneak preview of "Memories of the Nayagarh Incident", one of our favourite sections of The Obliterary Journal, a collection of comics, street art, and illustration from Blaft Publications in association with Tranquebar Press -- two traditional yantra-purusha tala pattachitra, or "machine-man palm-leaf engravings", by award-winning artist Sri Pachanana Moharana from Puri. The pieces are inspired by the nearly-forgotten 1947 UFO landing and close encounter in Nayagarh, Orissa -- just weeks before the famous crash in Roswell, New Mexico.

 

The Obliterary Journal, which also includes work by Malavika.PC, Zen Marie, Subrata Gangopadhyay, Aarti Sunder, Amruta Patil, Orijit Sen, Bharath Murthy, and many others (see the full table of contents here) launches at 3:30 pm on Friday, Feb. 17th at Comic Con India, Dilli Haat, New Delhi. We're also having a release party at Yodakin Bookstore on Monday, Feb 20th. Please come if you're in Delhi!

Available for pre-order soon!

Delhi Book Launches!

The Obliterary Journal Stupid  Guy Goes to  India Blaft in association with Tranquebar is very excited to announce the upcoming release of TWO NEW BOOKS! We will be launching both titles at events during the 2nd Annual Comic Con India, in Delhi, Feb. 17th - 19th 2012. Blaft will be in stall No. 13A. Drop by and say hai!   The Obliterary Journal edited by Rakesh Khanna and Rashmi Ruth Devadasan LAUNCHING ON FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17th, 2012 TIME: 3:30pm VENUE: COMIC CON, DILLI HAAT, NEW DELHI A collection of comics, street art, typography, and illustrated stories from India and beyond. Includes: *) A classic Bengali gangster comic in translation *) Traditional Odisha palm-leaf engravings of alien robot invaders *) 12th century Sanskrit algebra problems *) Bus painters from Suriname *) New work from Vidyun Sabhaney, Amitabh Kumar, Roney Devassia, and Aarti Sunder *) and much, much more!     Stupid Guy Goes to India by Yukichi Yamamatsu translated from Japanese by Kumar Sivasubramanian LAUNCHING ON SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19th, 2012 TIME: 1:00pm VENUE: COMIC CON DILLI HAAT, NEW DELHI In 2004, having never before left Japan, 56-year-old manga author Yukichi Yamamatsu travelled to India, armed with little money, less English, no sigmoid colon, and absolutely no idea of what to expect. He did, however, bring with him his formidable art skills, a missionary zeal for spreading Japanese comics culture, and a keen pair of eyes -- through which we are treated to a hilarious, brutally honest look at India as it presents itself to the foreign visitor. This is the true story of Yukichi’s adventures -- playing marbles, searching for bathrooms, betting on horses, visiting a brothel -- and his madcap mission to sell Hindi translations of samurai manga on the mean streets of the nation’s capital. Yukichi Yamamatsu will be travelling to India from Tokyo for the 2nd Annual Comic Con! Come meet a legendary mangaka, and get your copy signed! BLAFT WILL BE IN STALL No.13A   2nd Annual Comic Con Dilli Haat, New Delhi  Feb 17th-19th 2012  We'll also be having an event with several contributors to The Obliterary Journal at YODAKIN 2 Hauz Khas Village New Delhi  at 6:30 PM on Monday Feb 20th 2012 See you there!

The Obliterary Journal - Table of Contents

Here's sign painter S. Venkataraman again, starting work on the Table of Contents for The Obliterary Journal.

Note the N.S. Brand asoefetida T-shirt.

Here's the Table of Contents a little farther along:

Here's the nearly-completed wall with some neighbourhood donkeys cavorting merrily in the foreground.

Finally, here is the completed Table of Contents in its full glory.

And here's a close-up:

The book is releasing along with Yukichi Yamamatsu's Stupid Guy Goes to India during the Delhi Comic Con, Feb 17-19, at Dilli Haat. Yukichi Yamamatsu will be flying in all the way from Tokyo to do a manga workshop, and Vidyun Sabhaney, Amitabh Kumar, Roney Devassia and other contributors will be there too. Do come by the Blaft stall!

Unbound forms of Stupid Guy Goes to India stacked up at the printers

Yukichi Yamamatsu's Stupid Guy Goes to India... releasing next month yougaiz!

 

Coming Soon: The Obliterary Journal

We've been delaying the announcement because we weren't sure it would be ready. But now it's confirmed: The Obliterary Journal, a book-length collection of short comics, street art, typography, and assorted other wacky strange visuals by many extremely talented contributors will be released at Delhi Comic Convention, Feb 17-19 (exact date of event to be announced.) We will most likely also be having a gathering to celebrate the launch at a Delhi bookstore on Monday, Feb 20th.

That's Kolai Kathirikkai there on the cover, a psychopathic killer brinjal who is a character in one of the stories in the book. We would like also to draw your attention to the fact that the title of The Obliterary Journal has been actually painted on a wall by virtuoso sign painter S. Venkataraman.  This is what it looked like when he first did it:

(Note: Straatkunst means "street art" in Dutch.  चित्र कथा means "picture stories" in Hindi. Tipografia means "typography" in Spanish, though technically it's supposed to have an accent over the second i. And ஓவியக்கலை means "painting" in Tamil.)

This is what the wall looked like shortly afterwards, with an auto parked in front of it:

This is what it looks like now.

As you'll notice, it's been totally obliterated.

Watch this space for further announcements about the book and the launch!