Book fair: The icon of Bengali comics is back

Jan 31, 2013 - Santanu Chowdhury |

Age Correspondent

At the age of 88, the creator of famous Handa Bhonda, Batul The Great and Nonte Phonte, Narayan Debnath can still mesmerise the Bengali comic book lovers with his comical speaking and typical adda-style language. Almost six decades have passed but his comic characters simply refuse to fade away.

Unveiling his latest comics collection at the 37th International Kolkata Book Fair, Mr Debnath was the same man who once took notice of the unruly boys of his locality which later became inspiration for the creation of Handa Bhonda and others.
“The characters in my comics are still childlike as they were 50 years ago when they first appeared in the pages of Shuktara and Kishore Bharati Magazine. I an rather surprised to see that they are still popular and their names are spoken along with English comic characters in the same breath,” Mr. Debnath said while signing his new books.
According to the publisher of his comics’ collection, Lalmati, Mr Debnath still draws the dialogues of his comics without taking help of modern technology.

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