Maharaja of Tamil Pulp steps up output

Rajesh Kumar, the most insanely prolific of the many Tamil pulp fiction authors whose work we featured in The Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction Vol. I and Vol. II, has apparently begun writing even faster. The Coimbatore-based writer has been averaging three new titles a month since he got started in 1968, and was reportedly up to a lifetime total of around 1500 books. Now, however, our local tea kadai proprietor tells us that he's stocking eight or nine new Rajesh Kumar novels every month.

Let's repeat that: Eight or nine novels. Every month.

If you aren't familiar with the Rajesh Kumar yugam, peruse this profile by Samanth Subramanian.

Also, check out this interview of G Asokan, one of Rajesh Kumar's publishers, where he reminisces about the eighties when television had not yet taken over people's lives.

Here are a few of this month's Rajesh Kumar covers:

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.)