Spit bubbles, speech bubbles, and COVID-19: creating comics in the age of post-infection India

Abstract

Positioning this essay at intersection of comics studies, visual literacy studies, and information literacy studies, we investigate an interdisciplinary liaison between crisis in the age of COVID-19 and its awareness campaign through Indian comics. With a focus on awareness programme, Indian artists designed comics to demonstrate their vital position in social engagement through this visual medium. Following impending threats and growing concerns, people of all ages glued themselves to social media, newspapers, and television to keep them updated on the impact of COVID-19. Indian comics e.g. Nagraj Strikes: The Attack of Coronaman (2020), Priya’s Mask (2020), Kids, Vaayu, and Corona: Who Wins the Fight? (2020), and ‘Be aware of Droplets & Bubbles!!’ (2020) aimed to help children comprehend the precautionary steps to be taken to save themselves from getting infected with Coronavirus. While the first three comics showcase spit-bubbles primarily as the source of COVID-19, infusing the content with a tinge of superhero fantasy, ‘Be aware of Droplets & Bubbles!!’ (2020) unveils the microbiological evolution and mutation of the pathogen in comics format. The objective of the article is to show how Indian comics on COVID-19 can be an advantageous communicative medium to nurture knowledge and edutainment in post-infection India.

Keywords:

• Indian comics
• COVID-19
• awareness programme
• pathogen
• graphic medicine

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Within the signs and images of comics, information can be shared by the Transmediation process. The students can understand the transmission of the information from one sign system to another sign system. Marjorie Siegel defines, ‘Transmediation involves this very question of how to "translate" from one sign system to another…’

2 Metaliteracy involves creating, communicating, and sharing useful and valuable information.

3 Lingua Franca or Link Language is a language that is used to communicate between two different groups of people who do not share a same native dialect.

4 Here, I have single-quoted the word ‘reading’ because eminent comics scholar Emma Dawson Varughese (2018, 2019, 2020) has emphasised on the ‘linguistic’ as well as ‘sociocultural decoding’ which ‘take place as a ‘reader’ when we encounter the graphic narrative’ (Varughese 2020).

5 The graphic narrative is mentioned in the Official website: https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/

6 Ravindra Khaiwal shares this information which was published in The Hindu, 17th March 2020. https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/kids-vaayu-corona-who-wins-the-fight-dr-ravindra-khaiwal-dr-suman-mor-corona-virus-covid-19-ministry-of-health-cbse/article31090315.ece, Acccessed on 24th September 2020.

7 Primarily, Vaayu means wind or the energy of wind. Vaayu or Vayu is the Lord of Wind according to Hindu Mythology and He is the Spiritual Father of Hanuman in The Ramayana and Father of Bhima in The Mahabharata. Considering the power of the Lord, the superhero in this comic is branded as Vaayu who can fight the spread of Coronavirus and save the children from panic and unrest.

8 This quotation is taken from ‘‘Priya’s Mask’ Launched in Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam: India’s First Female Comic Book Superhero Tackles Covid-19.’ https://in.usembassy.gov/priyas-mask-launched-in-tamil-kannada-malayalam-indias-first-female-comic-book-superhero-tackles-covid-19/

9 Nagraj is a Hindi word which means Snake-king or King of the Snakes. Nag means Snake and Raj means one who is the King or rules over the others.

10 Mahanagar is the Hindi or Bengali translation of Metropolitan city. Here it is a fictional setting where Nagraj lives as a normal human being.

11 Chhoti Chhoti Magar Moti Baatein is a Hindi phrase. It means sharing some valuable philosophy within less words.

12 Shaktimaan is an iconic Indian superhero. He fights all the odds and forces of evil. Veteran actor Mukesh Khanna played the role of Shaktimaan. Having nearly 520 episodes, the TV series was aired between (1997–2005).

13 The data has been taken from the report (2020, 40), published on TRAI’s website—Link: https://trai.gov.in/sites/default/files/PIR_30062020.pdf