Narayan Debnath

Narayan Debnath (25 November 1925 – 18 January 2022) was an Indian comics artist, writer and illustrator. He created the Bengali comic strips Handa Bhonda (1962), Bantul the Great (1965) and Nonte Phonte (1969). He holds the record of longest running comics by an individual artiste for Handa Bhonda comics series which completed its continuous 53 years of running. He was the first and only comics artist in India who has received a D. Litt. degree. Debnath was awarded Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in India, in the year 2021. His other creations like Rabi Chobi was published to celebrate the birth centenary of Rabindranath Tagore in the May 1961 issue of the weekly magazine called Anandamela. The full length 50-page comics were first published in the book format by Sarvodaya Sahitya Prakashan, Varanasi. Rajar Raja (was published in 1962), it was illustrated by Narayan Debnath and written by Bimal Ghosh to celebrate the birth centenary of Swami Vivekananda. Narayan Debnath was born and spent most of his life living in Shibpur, Howrah, India. His family hailed from Bikrampur in what is now Bangladesh but had migrated to Shibpur before his birth. In an interview published by Laalmati Publication in Narayan Debnath Comics Samagra, Debnath confessed that he was interested in visual arts from a very early age. The family business was retailing gold and he had ample scope to design patterns for jewellery. During the time of World War II, Debnath would study fine arts at the Indian Art College for five years. He did not continue to get his degree but instead discontinued in his final year. For the next few years he freelanced for advertising agencies creating movie slides and logos. Debnath recounts in Narayan Debnath Comics Samagra, Vol. 2 that on the day of his wedding Gandhi was assassinated, which caused much inconvenience to the guests. The four volumes of Narayan Debnath Comics Samagra provide rich information about the life of the author.