English Feluda Comics: In my post from 2012, I had written about the English Feluda comics that were created by illustrator Tapas Guha and writer Subhadra Sengupta. Sengupta has scripted the comic series from the original in Bengali with Tapas Guha illustrating them in almost a Tintin-esque style. There were 6 titles published by Penguin (currently out of print but available on Google books and Kindle).
The same comics were originally published in Telegraph Kolkata weekly supplement for children called TeleKids over the better part of a decade in the early 2000s - the first one was in 2004 I believe. The names were different though - in TeleKids Joto Kando Kathmandu Te was called “Chaos In Kathmandu” whereas the Penguin comic album was called “A Killer In Kathmandu”. The duo of Sengupta and Guha worked on 1 title each year.
“Our aim is to introduce the new generation to the genius of Satyajit Ray by bringing his stories of Feluda, the professional detective with a super-sharp brain, in comic book form. Satyajit Ray's adventures of Feluda have been avidly read by children for years. Now this sleuth with a razor-sharp brain appears in an exciting new comic book series,” said Subhadra Sengupta at the launch of “Murder by the Sea” in 2010.
Tapas Guha gave an insight into his illustration process as, “Ray had already illustrated the character of Feluda and other prominent characters in the series, like his cousin Topshe and friend Lalmohan Ganguli. I tried to make illustrations colourful, smart and uncluttered. The style was absolutely mine. The figures were contemporary and I made the detective look young.”
Feluda, Topshe and Lalmohan Babu shed their 70s garb and language in the pages of these comic books. Sengupta explained why, “I have given him a contemporary look. His clothes are 21st century and in some of the books - which I am working on - he also uses the cellphone. His nephew, Topesh, speaks like a modern-day teenager and the language is today's. I was inspired by Satyajit Ray's son Sandip Ray's movies which had contemporised Feluda. But I did not touch the plots or the landmarks that he described in the book - though I have changed some locations to make it more visually appealing.”
Here’s how the process worked:
In TeleKids, there was an additional seventh story called “The Boy Who Knew Too Much” (Noyon Rohossho) that wasn’t published by Penguin - some panes from this comic below:
Bengali Feluda Comics: I am also a huge fan of the Bengali Feluda comics. These comics are published by Ananda Publishers every year. Half of the stories are now available in this format. The gorgeous watercolour art by Abhijit Chattopadhyay makes them a visual treat. These are typically published in Anandamela Puja Barshiki editions every year and then published as an album in February the subsequent year.
However, I wonder if it's just me, but I think Feluda drawn on the cover of Hatyapuri (see photo below) does resemble Bollywood actor Siddharth Malhotra, isn’t it?
Apart from Anindya Chattopadhyay, I found someone else who had sketched a few pages of Kailasher Kelankari and posted it on their blog. I don't know the person's name but comments on the post seem to suggest it's Anando. What a talent! See below:
For full size, please visit the artist's blog
