Drighangchoo

Drighangchoo (Bengali: দ্রিঘাংচু) was an independent magazine published from Kolkata (earlier Calcutta), India and it was the first print magazine in India to deal exclusively with "mature" comics and sequential graphic art. The magazine devoted most of its contents to comics for "mature readers", and its name draws inspiration from a fable of the same name by Sukumar Ray, which is about a troubled king's search for a mystery crow. The magazine started off in 2009 when six comics enthusiasts from Jadavpur University and an alumnus got together and decided to start a not-for-profit print magazine on comics for Indian readers. The first issue of Drighangchoo was published in July 2009.

Unlike the focus of "mainstream" Indian comics which heavily borrows from the syndicated superhero comics of the North, the issues of Drighangchoo encouraged local artists and the use of serious story-telling through black-and-white sequential art in the traditional comics format, and the use of experimental and indigenous Indian artistic styles. The narratives in Drighangchoo mostly used Bengali or English as interface languages, and also the wordless form. The magazine was published bi-annually from "under the (crow-infested) trees" of one of the student canteens of Jadavpur University, and had a small number of devoted and enthusiastic readers from the city of Kolkata, and outside. The magazine folded just after three issues in 2010.

External links

• Drighangchoo's blog

Reviews of Drighangchoo

• "Inspired by a crow" in The Telegraph, Calcutta, 9 August 2009.
• "Comic Relief" in The Indian Express, 3 July 2009.