Gotham Entertainment Group
Gotham Entertainment Group LLC was a US-based company established in 1997 to establish a leadership position in the Indian comic magazine and children's book market. The Company was established by a number of media luminaries, including the former CEO of Time-Life, the former President of Warner Music Media and former President of Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) Direct and the former Regional Creative Director of J. Walter Thompson-Asia Pacific. Gotham's CEO, Mr. Sharad Devarajan, is an entrepreneur with prior media experience at MTV Networks, Ford Modeling Agency, Elektra Entertainment, and DC Comics.
History
Gotham comics started publishing comics in India in the year 1998. They published comics in serial number from 1 through issue number 16, then started reprinting their old issues with different covers again. This led to a decline in sales which in turn led to Gotham comics disappearing for the next two years until their revamp in 2002. In 2002, they added Marvel comics to their array of comics and published comics in "pocket-size". At one point they had as many as 28 monthly comics. This was a big hit all over India and continued to be until Gotham comics changed the quality of paper to a very thin and delicate kind which didn't have much color as the quality of printing declined for unknown reasons. Following this, in 2007 Gotham comics would again stop hitting book shelves and newsstands and no new issues have been seen ever since.
In the early to mid-2000s, Gotham established itself as one of the leading providers of international comic magazines in India, securing publishing relationships with DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Dark Horse Comics, MAD Magazine, Panini, S.p.A. and Warner Bros. Worldwide Publishing. Through these arrangements, Gotham had access to a large library of publishing content, featuring over 10,000 character properties and more than 700 monthly comic magazine titles including Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Hulk, X-Men, Tarzan, Scooby-Doo, The Powerpuff Girls, The Flintstones, and Wonder Woman. Gotham's products were available in English, Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam, and other regional languages, reaching readers in South Asia.
Perhaps their most significant partnership was with Marvel Comics to create an Indian version of Spider-Man, which incorporated India's ancient, mystical heritage[1] and coincided with the launch of the second Spider-Man film in India.[2]
In July 2008, Gotham announced a partnership with Richard Branson's Virgin[3] empire to launch Virgin Comics in India. The first three titles that were made available in India were: Devi, Snake Woman and The Sadhu followed by Ramayan 3392 AD, a futuristic sci-fi story inspired by the original Ramayana mythology.[4]
Staff
- Sharad Devarajan - President, CEO, Director
- Suresh Seetharaman - Chief Operating Officer, Director
- Christopher Linen - Chairman
- Raju Puthukarai - Vice-Chairman
- Peter Feldman - Vice Chairman
- Jeevan J. Kang - Studio Chief
- Nagavito Chophy - Asst. Studio Co-ordinator & Digital Artist
Format
Gotham Comics was usually published in three varying formats: standard issues (usually 22 pages in length); double issues (48 pages in length, sometimes a combination of two separate stories); and giant specials (six standard issues in one volume).
See also
- Indian comics
- Spider-Man: India
- Virgin Comics
- Raj Comics
- Indrajal Comics
- Amar Chitra Katha
- India Book House
- Level10 Comics
References
- ↑ Srinivasan, S. (2005-01-03). "Spider-Man Spins a Magical Web in India". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2009-03-15.
- ↑ Van Gelder, Lawrence (2004-07-05). "Arts Briefing". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-03-15.
- ↑ "After Flying, India will now get to Read Virgin". Indian Express (Reuters). 2006-01-09. Retrieved 2009-03-15.
- ↑ "Gotham Entertainment Group to launch Virgin Comics in India". International Federation of the Periodical Press. 2008-07-22. Retrieved 2009-03-15.