Tintin-inspired Timpa in Kolkata adventures
A new spin-off of popular Tintin comics takes the adventurous childhood explorer and his goofy grandfather to Kolkata. Created by Jhangir Kerawala, The Adventures of Timpa is a comic strip inspired by the legendary cub-reporter Tintin.
The 14-year-old Timpa, whose character is modelled on the lines of the young Belgian reporter Tintin, is a school student whose father works as an inspector in the Kolkata police.
“This is how he gets to know about the various criminal activities going on in the city. It is his inquisitive and adventurous nature that takes him around the city to solve those cases,” Kerawala told PTI.
The first in the series Operation Rescue was launched in 2011 by Pop Culture Publishing while Red-hooded Gang and Legacy of the Gods will be released at the second annual Indian Comics Convention in Delhi later this month.
The story of the Red-hooded Gang is inspired by the real-life tales of the series of bank robberies that rocked Kolkata in 1983-84. “The cops were at a loss as to how to solve that puzzle when a series of banks were being robbed in Kolkata apparently by the same gang. Covering their faces with a red cloth, they robbed many a banks in the city,” Kerawala recalls.
Legacy of the Gods, on the other hand, is based on Eric Von Danikan’s theory of intelligent aliens residing on our planet long ago. “Danikan was kind enough to write me a letter acknowledging the base story of the comic in 1987,” he says with pride. When asked on the differences between the two characters — Timpa and Tintin — the artist said his creation is more local in nature.
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