BENGALI COMICS AND THE BENGALI LITERATURE.

Bengali literature (Of West Bengal) erstwhile Bengal before the division of British rule, was the
pioneer of literature in the Indian subcontinent and one of the richest literature of the world. The
strength of Bengali literature was its language which is the third sweetest language in the world and
the stalwarts born in that time. Bengali literature is ahead of English as English took thousands of
years to reach from verse to prose ( From Caedmon-7th century to Robinson Crusoe-1719 almost
1100 years ) whereas Bengali literature took on a few hundred years to reach versification to prose
(From Charyapada - 10 to 12 century to Durgesh Nandini by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee--700 years).
After that, there was gushing of the literary deluge. There was no dearth of literature for children in
Bengali. From Rabindranath to Upendrakishore Roychowdhury, from Sukumar Roy to Satyajit Ray,
From Sunil Ganguly to Lila Majumdar, and continues. In the form of Comic Strips, like the French,
another Godgifted and legendary cartoonist descended in the Bengali literary field. Narayan Debnath,
whose immortal figures like Bangul The Great, Handa Bhonda, Nonte Fonte, took the Bengali kids of
the 60s, 70s, and 80s by sweeping. I shall discuss those immortal creations to the international
community, many of them have been translated into Englsih. 

Only a few comics’ writers/artists can have a record of continuing their gigs single-handedly for more
than 60 years. Narayan Debnath is one of them. Born and living all his life in Shibpur, a suburb in the
city of Howrah, 9 km west of Kolkata, this veteran artist’s characters Bantul the Great, Handa
Bhonda, Nonte Fonte, Bahadur Beral, Detective Koushik Roy among others, are an inseparable part of
the life of every Bengali kid born prior to the internet age. Regularly published, primarily in Shuktara,
a then dominant Bangla magazine from the house of Deb Sahitya Kutir Publishers, Narayan Debnath,
the only comics artist decorated with a D.Litt. has ruled the Bangla comics and illustration scene since
1962.

In spite of reluctance from his father Hemchandra Debnath, a goldsmith, Narayan Debnath, born in
1925, pursued his passion and started drawing from age 12–13. A student of the Indian College of
Arts and Draftsmanship, Kolkata, Debnath, in his early career, was greatly influenced by the then
renowned Bengali illustrator Pratulchandra Bandyopadhyay.

Earlier in his career, just like other budding artists in those days, Debnath made artworks for
advertisements of cosmetics and titles cards for films. Later after joining Dev Sahitya Kutir, he did
numerous book and magazine covers and illustrations for stories, novels, rhymes, poems, word
puzzles, board games etc. and of course, comics.

Major Comics-

Bantul The Great: (Dwarf the Great)

His most popular cult character and in his own words his favourite child. Bantul comics have been
appearing in two colours (pink and black) on the 2nd page of the summer edition of Shuktara since
1965. Debnath here was inspired by Superman and Desperate Dan and created this pink vest and tight
short clad Bengali superhero that fights the evil, catches thieves and brings justice in his locality.
Since Bantul was created in the scorching heat of Bengal summer, Debnath may have decided to dress
him sparsely. But unlike occidental superheroes, Bantul is not a distant, out of reach character, but
your brawny, next-door boy! His goonish nephews Bhawja and Gawja often accompany him.
Debnath occasionally incorporated other characters here, like Lawmbokawrno, a boy with special
hearing power, Bantul’s pet ostrich Uto, his pet dog Bhedo and his good old aunty.

Bantul comics were not that popular during its earlier days. With time, Bantul turned political. In the
’60s, during the Bangladesh (Debnath’s ancestral home, then East-Pakistan) war, Bantul chased the
Pakistani army with their own tanks and brought down their fighter plane with a lasso, just like
Superman did during World War II. Since then Bantul comics gained immense popularity and that
continued till date.

Debnath’s second most popular strip and his first one, which appeared even before Bantul. In this
black and white comics, he introduced two naughty but lovable teenagers- Handaram Gargari, a
wicked little child, better known as Handa (means a fool in Bangla) and Bhonda Pakrashi, a good
Samaritan, better known as Bhonda (in Bangla, means callous). Their uncle Becharam
Bakshi accompanies them in most stories. First appearing in 1962 in Shuktara, these stories were
basically inspired by Debnath’s observation of kids around his home in Bengal suburb. Though some
critics saw inspirations of Laurel and Hardy here, Handa Bhonda is so Bengali at its soul that it
achieved two hundred thousand Bangla readerships around 1982. This series later was adapted for the
television.

I should mention here that in the 1950s, as a result of Dev Sahitya Kutir’s head Khirodchandra
Majumdar’s request, it was Pratulchandra Bandyopadhyay, and not Debnath, with an illustrated
hornet in the space for the credit, first made 4-panel Handa Bhonda strips.

Nonte Fonte:

Another favourite of Debnath’s, which appeared in Kishore Bharati magazine in 1969. In this strip,
revolving around boarding hostel life in Bengali suburb, Nonte and Fonte, two clever chaps fight the
odd deeds of naughty Kelturam, better known as Keltuda (first appeared in 1973, inspired by a film)
and generally at the end the latter is punished by Patiram Hati, the fat, pot-bellied hostel
superintendent.

Goyenda Kaushik Roy: Detective Kaushik roy

Bengali readers love detective thrillers, be it Feluda or Byomkesh Bakshi. Debnath too has a detective
of his own. Unlike his other funny comics, this comic is rather serious, and so is the illustration style.
First appearing in 1976 in the front cover of Shuktara, in comics called Sarparajer Dwipey (In the
island of the Snake-king), Kaushik Roy is a no-nonsense secret agent of the detective department of
the Government of India. He is an expert in boxing and martial arts and his metallic right hand, which
has an inbuilt transmitter, can spit bullets, laser ray and gases. He often uses his sharp metallic nail as
a knife. A character reminiscent of James Bond, 14 Detective Kaushik Roy comics is cinematic in
every action-oriented and realistic illustrated panel of this strip.

In this context, it can be mentioned that Debnath made illustrations for another similar comic series
called Detective Indrajit Roy and Black Diamond which was written by Dilipkumar Chattopadhyay.
Debnath also made another detective graphic novel called Hirer Tayra (in the shadow of Sherlock
Holmes) in 1965 in Navakallol magazine and Rahasyamay Abhiyatri (The Mysterious Expeditionary)
in 1972. Debnath made a few more serious adventure series with irregular characters. In this genre,
his contemporary was another master of anatomy of that era, Mayukh Chowdhury.
Bahadur Beral: (The Brave Cat)

In usual practice, magazine covers are filled with a summary of inside contents, but not in the case of
Narayan Debnath. First appearing in 1983 in the whole front cover of Shuktara, Bahadur
Beral (translated as the smart cat), a humanized cat, is a four coloured comic strip by Debnath. This
strip actually appeared as a replacement of Detective Kaushik Roy comics due to a labour strike in
Kolkata and the magazine authority decided to print the issues from Delhi. In these simple funny
strips, Bahadur usually gets into trouble and makes a way out at the end.

Other Comics-

Daanpitey Khandu aar taar Chemical Dadu: (Foolhardy Khandu and his Chemical
Grandfather)

Tales of naughty Khandu, a troublemaker kid and his scientist grandpa who invents weird machines
those end up in funny situations. This strip first appeared in Chotoder Aasor magazine in 1983 and
later in other Bangla magazines and as a book from Golden Comics. Though Debnath himself
conceptualized it, his son Swapan Debnath drew the earlier strips.

Itihaase Doirath: The Duel in History

Translated as ‘Duels in History’. From 1974 to 1975 Debnath did a series of comics
in Kishorebharati magazine on barbaric duels based on true incidents and set in international locales.
Apart from duel fights in European families, there are stories of fights in Mexico, battles of a
lieutenant and pirates, fights among border securities and a grizzly bear.

Shuntki Aar Mutki (The Thin and the Fat).

In 1964, just like Handa Bhonda, Debnath started a strip about two female friends, Shuntki and
Mutki in Shuktara, though it did not continue for much longer than 2–3 years.

Pawtolchand, the Magician:

One of the many headpieces of Pawtolchand, the Magician

First appearing in 1969, in Kishorebharati magazine, this magician can do the unimaginable. Just like
Mandrake, Pawtolchand can hypnotize you, turning an ordinary rag into a magic carpet and other
strange things to solve problems. Later in 1978, it again appeared in Pakkhiraj magazine in 2
colours. Pawtolchand’s appearance changed a lot with time.

Petuk Master Botuklal:

A panel of Petuk Master Botuklal

A schoolteacher, Botuklal is notorious for being a foodie. He often steals his students’ delicious tiffins
and that leads Botuklal into trouble. This regular strip first appeared in Kishoremon magazine in 1984
but did not continue for long. The other regular characters in this strip are the gatekeeper of the
boarding school (who is as crazy as Botuklal in case of good food) and three students who get hold of
the food at the end in almost every strip. This is the last regular character Debnath created.

Apart from these regular strips, Debnath created numerous 4 pager one-shot strips and filler comics
with new characters every time. They appeared in the early 60s in Pujavarshikis (the special editions
Bangla magazines publish during Durga pujas) of Dev Sahitya Kutir and later in 1973 was published
as books. In 1994 he made comics out of the stories from Jataka in a serialized format.

In 1961 his first realistic serious comics and first published book, Rabichhobi (a comics on
Rabindranath Tagore’s life), written by Bimal Ghosh was published in Bangla and Hindi from
Banaras. The year after he did two more biography series — Rajar Raja and Swami Vivekananda and
also Chitrey Durgeshnandini (penned by Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay).

All his comics are in Bangla but he occasionally made short comics in English. Nowadays, most strips
of his major comics- Bantul The Great, Handa Bhonda and Nonte Fonte are available in English.
Occasionally, he made comics for brands too.

Since there was no computer/software in those days and Debnath still does not use them, all the
speech bubbles and letterings of his comics are hand-drawn. In the dialogues of his characters,
Debnath frequently has used rhymes.

In the case of exclamatory words, Debnath Indianised the phrases that are often used in American and
European comics, e.g.- Irk! Oofs! Oulk! Guulbb! Etc.

Just like funny names in Asterix comics, Debnath’s characters’ names too often mirror their nature,
e.g.- Bitkelram, Dr Bibhishan, Boxer Henpo Bakshi, Khune Khyanda etc. Like Captain Haddock,
Debnath’s characters too have a huge collection of funny Bangla curses. According to the demand of
the time, Debnath often incorporated Hindi and accented Bangla dialogues for his characters. It is
noteworthy that, Debnath is a foodie and most of his funny, non-serious comics,
from Bantul to Botuklal revolve around good food and the adventures surrounding it. Delicious food
is always like a character in all his works.

Illustrations-No Google in the 1950s. So he was a regular at libraries and bookshops in College Street
and Chowringhee in Kolkata for consulting anatomy and other references for story illustrations.
American illustrators like Alex Raymond, John Prentice, and Milton Caniff influenced him. In
Debnath’s Black Diamond comic series, though completely Indianised, we can see sparkles of
Prentice. Debnath drew all these realistic comics in cinematic, retro Hollywood style with great use of
light and shadow. In his illustrations for adult fictions too, there is a great eye for detailing.

Debnath’s experiment with anatomy and light and shadow in an illustration

In 1972, Debnath gained huge popularity for his cover and illustrations for Upendrakishore Ray
Chowdhury’s books Bhoot Petni Raja Rani and Tuntunir Boi published by Nirmal Book Agency. He
continued decorating this author’s other books, like Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne (filmed by author’s
grandson Satyajit Ray) and his son Sukumar Ray’s nonsense classic Abol Tabol. In these books from
Ray family, who themselves had a knack for illustrations; Debnath developed a brand new style of art,
distinct from the Rays.

Debnath worked intensely on ghost stories, but relatively less on mythological stories. He showed
great expertise in realistic figures in his works in translated classics such as Frankenstein, Alice in the
Wonderland, Ben Hur, Gulliver’s Travels, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, published from Dev Sahitya Kutir in
Bangla, dubbed as Onubaad Series.

His genius found a new muse in the stories of Tarzan. This Edgar Rice Burroughs character was
Debnath’s childhood hero, whom he used to imitate. This fantasy helped him to draw faultless
anatomy for Tarzan stories, published in Shuktara in 1951 and later as books, which continued for the
next 42 years.

Since 1965 Debnath started to make cover and illustrations for Swapankumar’s detective Deepak
Chatterjee. With cinematic illustrations of European characters and bright colours, those charismatic
covers and illustrations took this rather dull second-class thriller to another level and helped the sales.

Discussions on Debnath’s works need volumes. Sadly this immense talent of popular art succumbed
to poverty in his late life. With the recent publication of the collection of his entire works as Narayan
Debnath Comics Samagra in 5 volumes, his popularity has revived in Bengal and his genius has been
rewarded, albeit too late in the day. At 94, this living legend of Bangla comics is still
drawing Bantul comics for Shuktara and other magazines.