Thursday, December 31, 2009

So how did the Legend of Karna come about?

Quite a few Vimaniks are right to wonder about how The Legend of Karna came about. Well, here is the secret, as revealed by Karan Vir Arora, the man behind the new graphic novel that brings the legendary warrior of the Mahabharata alive, like never before.

An encounter with a sage in Bihar took Karan Vir Arora, the conceptual director of Vimanika Comics, on a journey through Mahabharata. It was through the pages of this epic that he came across Karna, the sun warrior, who really inspired him.

Thus began a news article in Bengaluru's Deccan Herald, during the launch of the novel in the same metro recently.

“I was totally bored with the same old Batman, Spiderman and Superman kind of comics. There’s actually a whole genre of comics that people have not even heard of so when I came across Karna, I thought he would be a new and colourful character for the Indian reader. Moreover, each time we hear only Krishna’s version. Through this novel, we would like to show people Karna’s version,” explained Karan, as he spoke about the genesis of the mythological character.

Read the article here

And here's wishing you Vimaniks a great new year ahead!

Thursday, December 17, 2009

The Vimanika Online Sketching Contest is on from Dec 18!


Vimanika Comics and Chitrakatha Documentary Project, in association with Animation Express brings you a once-in-a- lifetime chance to create your own version of Vimanika’s Karna and win an exclusive and impressive Karna Statue crafted for the winner of the contest.

Become a part of the Legend himself by drawing your own version of India’s very own superhero and send it to us. Winning entries will be published in future issues of Vimanika Comics and if we like your drawings you can also win some quite a few awesome Vimanika gift hampers.

All you have to do is, sketch your version of the Vimanika's legendary warrior Karna with a background, adorn him with his divine Kavach and Kundals, any two of his weapons 1) Bow and Arrow or 2) Metallic whiplash.

Mail your entry to us on sketchkarnacontest@vimanika.com


Here are the rules:

a) Your entries should be in 300 DPI resolution and maximum of 5 MB in size.
A participant can send as many entries as he/she wants.

b) Do not forget to mention your name, age, contact no., email and postal address along with your masterpiece.

Do not forget:

Contest starts on Dec 18th; final date for submission of entries is Jan 10th, 2010

So what are you waiting for, pick up your tools and create your own version of Vimanika’s Karna the legendary warrior of all time!

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Vimanika’s graphical tryst with Karna


The December 8 launch of the 'Legend of Karna' received some excellent media coverage. Here are some excerpts from the many nice things Bangalore Mirror said about
Vimanika Comics as well as Karan Vir Arora, its tour de force:

"The scene is the present. The protagonist is from way back. Karna, the unfortunate hero of The Mahabharata, comes back as a contemporary reincarnation in the form of business tycoon Karan Vir. Never mind that it is also the name of the man behind the latest graphic novel The Sixth: The Legend of Karna. Karan Vir Arora, editor-in-chief of Vimanika Comics, hopes to give Indian mythology a graphic novel treatment.

He explains, “Graphic novels are visually appealing with very colourful pictures. They are in book format and have thicker pages than comics. I realised that there was a vacuum of new concepts as big publication houses continued with the same old style of comics. I felt that readers were getting bored and so decided to introduce mythology in this form. I aim to create mythology and comic cult in India.”

The report goes on to explain the scenes behind the creation of this graphic novel, dwelling upon the efforts of Deepam Chatterjee, its writer as well Amit Thayal, the man in charge of the graphics themselves.

karan Vir himself shed light on the upcoming issue saying: “The next book will pick up when Karna is 12-years-old. The story of Karna is unravelled to his present day reincarnation,
Karan Vir."

Tryst with graphic Karna: Read the complete article here

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Legend of Karna, now in Bangalore!

Following its November launch in Mumbai, The Sixth: The Legend of Karna will be released in Bangalore today. Acording to Karan Vir Arora, the driving force behind Vimanika Comics, the publishers of 'The Legend...', Bangalore has long been a nerve centre of graphic comic culture.

Priced attractively at Rs 150, 'The Legend of Karna' is undoubtedly a good buy, feels Karan.
The latest edition features an advanced graphic version of the life and times of Karna, as well as his re-incarnation, a multimillionaire do-gooder named Karan Vir Oberoi.

Where in Bangalore: Oxford Book Store, Leela Galleria, Leela Palace