We have all felt the need to bond with others in the face of adversity at some point in our lives, reaching out to a friend, a colleague, perhaps even a teacher. Now, in the age of social media, connecting over online portals — cozy pockets within the vast expanse of space and time, separate from realistic responsibilities — and meeting people with similar interests has become the norm. This is what Henry Jenkins, fan-scholar, termed a ‘weekend-only world’: a space co-habited by fellow enthusiasts finally able to reach out from the margins and share their love for a television show, a movie, an actor, a musician, or anything that make them feel like they belong.
Spaces like these let people who don’t fit in elsewhere flourish. Comic Con is one such space. The comic book convention began as the San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) in 1970, and the idea has since spread across the world, including India. Comic Con India (CCI), was started in 2011 in Delhi by founder and managing director Jatin Varma. Held over 2 days, the exhibitions attracted close to 5,000 visitors. Now, the latest edition has just ended, and it was held not in one of the eight major metros but in Visakhapatnam (Vizag). With a reported 12,000 attendees, the Vizag edition of the Comic Con was the first of its kind in the city, inviting fans of comics, video games, film, and anime, among other fandoms. Gone are the days when participating in global fandoms was the luxury of only a select, privileged few. With outreach driven by social media, smaller cities are now able to not only participate but contribute. Cumulatively, the CCI has garnered a total of 200,000 participants and over 1,200 exhibitors since its inception.
Although the CCI started as an independent venture, in 2014, they began a collaboration with ReedPop, the company behind New York Comic Con and MCM London Comic Con, allowing them to increase their scale and outreach. CCI is the place to be for all things comic book related; but its most awaited event is the Indian Championship of Cosplay. Winners from the various regional Comic Cons — such as in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Ahmedabad — participate in the national finals, and the winner progresses on to participate in the Crown Championships of Cosplay, held in Chicago. Not only do participants show up in cosplay, but a large part of the CCI culture is for attendees to show up decked up as their favorite characters, from Luffy of One Piece to Nezuko Kamado of Demon Slayer.
While CCI has brought out guests such as Archie Comics artist Dan Parent and author of the 1980s version of the G.I. Joe comics Larry Hama, it also gives space to Indian creators, such as Abhijeet Kini, an illustrator for Tinkle, Saumin Suresh Patel, better known by his alias Pictorial Cinema, and Sailesh Gopalan of web comic Brown Paperbag. Shefali Johnson, chief executive officer of Comic Con India, speaks on the warm welcome Comic Con received in its Vizag edition: “Much like Andhra Pradesh’s rich food culture, known for its bold flavors and vibrant spirit, the city brought its own flavor to our maiden edition. From fans discovering Indian comics and artwork at Artist Alley to the crowd cheering for Telugu hip-hop artist Roll Rida, there was a lovely mix of local culture and fandom.”
Vizag isn’t the only Tier-2 city in India home to the Comic Con. 2026 also brought Comic Con to Kochi, with its maiden edition held from February 28th to March 1st. CCI has also just announced an edition in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, to be held from 19th to 20th December 2026. There is a growing wave of such events across the country, from Nagpur, to Ranchi, Bhubaneshwar, and more. Coscon (previously known as the Orange City Otaku Con) was Nagpur’s first ever film and anime convention, held back in 2015 and organized by the Nagpur Anime Club. Samarth Thakral, founding member of the Nagpur Anime Club, says: “When I had asked Sonal [Varma], who was part of Comic Con India’s management, to have one in Nagpur back in 2015, she said it would take at least ten years to happen. So we decided to host our own version.”
We can trace the growing interest of East Asian entertainment in India to a few origins. The initial curiosity started back in the late 90s and early 2000s, with television shows like Pokémon, Beyblade, Dragon Ball Z, Shin Chan, and Doraemon becoming every Indian child’s afternoon pastime. Dubbed and translated versions of Japanese and South Korean dramas on Netflix and Amazon Prime then widened the scope of consumption across the Indian subcontinent. Crunchyroll, the world’s leading anime, manga, and East Asian drama on-demand streaming service, came to India in early 2024, ushering in a new wave of demand in the Indian market.
Regardless, India has always been of the fandom public. We have never shied away from expressing our infatuation with a certain celebrity, with cinema hall chants becoming synonymous with every Friday evening release and entire villages gathering in front of a singular television set to watch Sachin Tendulkar thwap another six-er into the sun. The first real change came about with the introduction of social media, affording Indians the opportunity to explore and rave about a whole other subsect of pop culture — anime, manga, Marvel, D.C., American pop, K-pop, et cetera. The next came as fans shifted from passive consumers of culture, to active producers of it. Varma discusses fan-led creation in his piece for The Indian Express: “Earlier, you expressed fandom by showing up at theatres, stadiums, book signings. Today, you also create…When fans in India demanded better subtitles for anime streams or when gaming creators lobbied to bring BGMI back after its ban, they were consuming and shaping.”
A report by MYFANDOM further discusses this production capacity. Characterizing this trend as an “emotional capital economy”, the report notes how 45% of fans now prefer purchasing official merchandise. Not only are fans participating in fandom, the will to demonstrate this participation has grown. Infrastructure that was restricted to metropolitan cities in India is now reaching more and more members of fandom, those who reside in smaller cities.
Participation in organized fandom comes with its own stereotypes. The depiction of global fandom culture remains one of ridicule, with members assumed to be anti-social and even childish. A study by Jasdeep Kaur Chandi and Kulveen Trehan, published in the IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies, echoes findings of stereotyping and isolation: “The core frustration that Indian anime fans experience is that they are often a target of infantilization by their parents, relatives, and even friends…Most responses affirmed a lack of physical fan communities as the fans are scattered throughout the country.”
It is in spaces like conventions that these fans find a home away from home. Events such as Ichi-Go in Bhubaneshwar, Anifest in Ranchi, and Coscon in Nagpur allow online communities to expand offline, giving fans the physical community they crave. Thakral says: “The people I met at the Comic Con Thyagraj Stadium in 2015 and became friends with, attended my wedding…the community I formed through anime is strong.” Jenkins’s ‘weekend-only world’ was once a pocket of the internet, kept apart from real life. In Vizag, Nagpur, Ranchi, Kochi, Bhubaneshwar, and other cities, it now has a physical address. The convention may last a weekend, but the community remains.
Leave a Reply