Kolkata Book Fair concludes, graphic books the new rage

In sync with the global trend, readers were treated with Bengali graphics of popular adventure, thriller and ghost tales in the 41st Kolkata Book Fair which concluded today.
The popular hunting tales in jungles, an all time favourite of Bengali readers, by Hemendra Kumar Roy as well as exploits of sleuth Dipak Chatterjee by Swapan Kumar were all reproduced as comics with illustrations in the stall of popular Bengali children's magazine 'Sandesh'.
The magazine bears the name of Bengali limerick creator Sukumar Ray and his filmmaker son Satyajit Ray.
"More than 30 illustrations including Goenda Dipak Chatterjee, a.K.A Bajpakhi (the hawk) by Swapan Kumar have been served on the platter of Bengali fiction-adventure tale lovers and vanished from selves in past 11 days. We are doing this on such scale for the first time," Biswadev Gangopadhyay said on behalf of Book Firm.

Book Firm also introduced coffee mugs where pictures of popular comic characters 'Batul The Great' by well-known children's writer Narayan Debnath were embossed.
"We have plans to do lot more merchandising with the consent of Debnath's family," he said.

In another stall 'Taranath Tantrik', the 'tantrik' character created by eminent Bengali writer Bibhutibhusan Bandyopadhyay, makes a comeback in a Bengali graphic version Taranath Tantrik TNT - Adhar Nagari (the city of sorrows).
"This is our tribute to Bibhutibhusan where we have taken forward the tales of Taranath Tantrik weaved by the writer of Chander Pahar giving a contemporary spin in graphic format.

"We have also introduced a character Shankar keeping in mind Bibhutibhusan's immortal protagonist-adventurer in Chander Pahar," writer Shamik Dasgupta said on behalf Speechbubble Entertainment, which had earlier launched the graphic series in English.
Rivu Chatterjee, a 14-year old, was seen more hooked to the colourful illustrations than other paperbacks on offer.