Where you could go all crazy and yet blend in perfectly

Comic Con Express Bengaluru edition happened on September 8th and 9th, 2012.
This has been my first experience at a comic con, and it has been as colorful as expected. And there has been a lot more crowd than expected.

It is a pleasant feeling to know that so many people keep their minds open to the lines, colors, and the imaginary worlds they create. At one point comics fans were flowing in such large numbers so that even a queue formed outside the entrance. There was all varieties of comic artists and stalls. Collectible bobble-heads shared part of the awesomeness with (an overload of ) creative t-shirts.

There were serious artists, mysterious ones, simple ones, and the humble and friendly ones. It has been a joy ride to talk to the bunch of them. The ongoing cosplay contest resulted in real life cartoon characters roaming all around the venue. There was Batman, Catwoman, and Spiderman. Then there was also Velma, Daffny, and Rorschach who brought along his baby :)

Okay, picture time.

Wolver Anna - mutants Indianized



The complete Comic Con Bengaluru art. Click for better resolution


Yes that's right! Throwable knives, removable hat, AND the V-dialogues playback


Desi digital art :D


Alicia Souza, a really awesome illustrator, just got awesomer as she starts drawing cat stuff!


Got hold of Auto Pilot, Book #1. Trivia: This work is done by three guys from Kerala


For the hardcore cricket fans

A cartoon by Mario Miranda. Nice treatment of theme and colors


My friend trying out the Wacom

There were some unique art styles all over the place





See the big picture ? (It's a girl)


Bonus: A witty ad board at the entry


-- fin --

The rage of today's comics

Any idea that successfully relates closely to people has found its popularity in history; Rage comics isn't a different story. It has further accelerated through hundreds of comics posted everyday by the Internet populace. But where is it heading now?

What started out as a four panel comic in 4chan website featuring the 'FFFFUUUUUUU' guy in 2007, what climbed to booming popularity in 2009 with Reddit's dedicated f7u12 section, has now spread through all possible social media and humor websites to the point that you can't use the Interwebs without stumbling upon one of these comics or the rage faces.


Going a step ahead of other Internet memes, rage comics have crossed boundaries of language and culture. Once in a while we come across rage comics specific to a country, or a more specific geographic region. Rage comics has even crossed the boundaries of Internet and appeared in advertisements and posters in the real world.

Every time I read a book, it's like, the author stole a part of me that I thought only I knew. 
Someday I'm gonna write a book and I'll do it to somebody else
~ The Number 23, 2007



When these comics were all adored and shared around the web, they won hearts by delicately associating to common events which were never before considered for discussion.


But then there were more than a couple of online rage comic makers, and people started attempts at being more creative. Here the subtle element which initially propelled its popularity was starting to diminish.


More and more trivial but individual events were converted to rage comics. Here the general theme was being killed. People, though, with their inertia and the general agreement that rage comics are funny, continued to spend time on scrolling through the increasing number of them. Everyone was now looking at random events from other people's lives presented as a mash of Google image search results and spontaneously chosen rage faces.


The fact that people continued to follow the usual rage comic hubs coupled with the fact that people continued to make more comics keeping the present ones as standard, essentially lead to further downfall. The Googled images were selected with even less bother, and so were the rage faces.


Finally, the storyline ceased to matter. Rage comics are now a set of panels which have rage faces and text which you may or may not bother to read.


At this moment, even more comics are being made, a bunch of them are being read by a large audience, and probably liked and upvoted? Rage comics aggressively replaced occasions where regular comics might've been used. When proper comic art with properly written text became less important, the conclusion as to where the rage comics is headed seems only predictable.

If you're still spending a considerable part of your Internet time reading rage comics, may be it's a good time to pause and reflect, and reconsider. Often it is the case that you go in search of humor, and you're desperately searching for them in the general amalgam of text, images, and rage faces. The normal comics still exist out there, and they're still continuing with their own unique styles. Your perception of humor and creativity might badly need a reboot by now if you've been a rage comic addict. Look around, find something fresh. Let rage comics be created when they are really the best choice for the occasion. Let's do not make it just because it's supposed to be cool.