A Passage To India!
- Ron
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
A Passage to India
In two weeks I’ll be in Chennai, India for my first convention appearance of the year, Feb. 14 and 15 with Comic Con India. This will be my third trip to India, having visited Hyderabad (where I had easily the best dinner of my life at Falaknuma Palace) and Bangalore previously.
India is unlike anyplace else I’ve been in the world. Overwhelming, serene, alien, familiar, beautiful, all of those things at once. The closest comparison to India I can make is Nairobi, Kenya. India is alive like few other places, the cities teeming with humanity in all its guises. You know immediately you are in a different place.
If I’m being honest, my previous appearances for Comic Con India were mobbed, with lengthy lines. Everyone wants an autograph and a selfie. Everyone. I wasn’t allowed to walk the con floor by myself in Bangalore, because it would have created a traffic jam in the aisles (which actually happened in Hyderabad). Instead, I was accompanied by a security phalanx everywhere I went. All the comics and prints I brought to Bangalore sold out within a few hours. It is, as a number of my creator friends have learned, a rock star experience. The Indian fans are universally kind, polite, and excited. I feel so fortunate to be able to have these experiences.
I don’t say any of this as way to pat myself on the back. The enthusiasm is not for me, per se, but more because I’m a Western creator visiting the other side of the planet. The audience appreciates that you’ve journeyed all that way, and they’re keen to learn about a career that seems almost impossibly far away.
I’ve done a fair amount of work for the Indian market, including editing and writing for Liquid Comics and its predecessor Virgin Comics, as well as acting as story consultant for the Indian TV series “Fireflies: Parth aur Jugnu,” which was a bit of an Indian “Stranger Things.”
I mentioned last time I recently wrote a short story for Indian publisher Alpha, which Tadam Gyadu has drawn.
These trips also give me the opportunity to catch up with Indian collaborators like Sid Kotian, Alok Sharma, Saumin Patel, and more. I expect to be doing some more projects for the Indian market.
The weekend after Chennai, I’ll be in Fairbanks, Alaska for Alaska Comic Con, which sounds like it’ll be the biggest weather shock I’ve ever experienced. Yes, it’s a lot of travel, but life is experiences, and I want as many of them as I can get, so the international shows especially are huge attractions for me. There’s another international appearance coming up in April that will be announced soon.
Minty Fresh
I recently appeared on the Near Mint Podcast with my pals Uncanny Omar and Joe Pruett of Desperado, where we talked about the return of the Negative Burn anthology via a crowdfunding campaign on the Zoop site. I’m doing a Western story with artist Tom Raney for Negative Burn. The conversation sprawled to a lot of other subjects as well. Give a watch here:
Near Mint Condition also broke the news that a new Silver Surfer: Infinity Gauntlet Omnibus is due in November, collecting Jim Starlin’s Surfer run, the Infinity Gauntlet mini-series, and almost 20 Surfer issues that I wrote at the beginning of my career. Go here for those details:
The cover to Silver Surfer # 55, drawn by Ron Lim, will apparently be used as the main cover of the Omnibus.
Hopefully I’ll have time to get another update written and posted while I’m in Chennai.
