Care for some mobile manga? It is time you plunge into comics in the palm of your hand. Comic buffs can now read their favourite strips on a screen two inches wide. After books, now it is comics that can be read on your mobile phone. Already a big hit in Japan and China, momics (mobile comics) as they are called, are all set to capture the Indian market as big comics publishers here have tied up with various mobile service providers. Customers are charged Rs 10-25 per week for 10 or more for m-comics, depending on the service provider.
“I used to be a big fan of comics in my school days, but later stopped reading them due to the paucity of time. Twinkle, Manoj and Raj Comics (Hindi), Chacha Chaudhury used to do the rounds in my school and we spent hours talking about a new release. I am happy that I can have them again,” says Nikunj Aggarwal, an ex-pilot.
Amar Chitra Katha and Raj Comics are already providing strips on mobile phones and joining them is Diamond Comics with its set of seasoned comics. Sanjay Gupta, studio head, Raj Comics says that they launched comics on mobiles around four months back and the response has been phenomenal.
“People of all age groups have been subscribing to m-comics. Different mobile service providers charge differently. While with Airtel, one doesn’t need to download any software, with other networks and some handsets, a special software is installed depending on the applications,” he adds.
Rashmi Pawar, a teacher finds it an amazing concept, “I love entertainment on the move and it is anytime better than those irritating forwards and promotional messages that haunt you day and night.”
Comics had always been an artform blended with commerce and plagued by slumping readership, the industry had to embrace it someday to give a support to the sagging sales. “But I just wonder how are they going to deal with such a small screen. The experience of reading a book on a mobile cannot exactly be the same but I am still upbeat about the idea of finding my lost travel companion,” says Anupriya Karmakar, a content developer.