Tinkle

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Tinkle
Tinkle logo.gif
Tinkle1980.png
The first issue of Tinkle in 1980
Editor Anant Pai (1980 - 2010)
Rajani Thindiath (2010 - 2020)
Gayathri Chandrasekaran (2023 - present)
Categories Comic book
FrequencyPrinted Weekly
First issueNovember 1980
CompanyTinkle
Country India
Language English, Hindi, Malayalam, Assamese
Website tinkle.in

Tinkle is an Indian weekly magazine for children in English, published from Mumbai. [1] Originally owned by the India Book House, the Tinkle brand was acquired by ACK (Amar Chitra Katha) Media in 2007. [2] The magazine contains comics, stories, puzzles, quizzes, contests and other features targeted at school children, although its readership includes many adults as well. It is published in English and syndicated in many Indian languages like Hindi, Bengali, and Malayalam.

Contents

The magazine was published at a monthly frequency until July 2016 when Tinkle announced its first fortnightly issue. Currently, from June 2020 it has been published weekly. [3]

The first issue of Tinkle was released in November 1980. The magazine carries comics, stories, and regular columns of interest to school children. Tinkle enjoys great popularity in India — as of 2019, Tinkle had a circulation of 3 lakh copies per issue. [4] It has been an integral part of growing up in India in the last two decades and characters like Suppandi and Shikari Shambu that were created in the early years of the magazine have nationwide recognition among all age groups. Readers send more than 200 letters with stories and other features to be considered for printing in the magazine. The wholesome combination of education and entertainment that defines Tinkle has many celebrity fans in India, including the former Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. [ citation needed ] The official website of Tinkle contains puzzles and games.

Background

Anant Pai, the founding editor of the magazine, is known to his readers as Uncle Pai. The idea behind starting a comic book series devoted to Indian culture and history came to Pai from a quiz contest aired on Doordarshan in February 1967, in which participants could easily answer questions pertaining to Greek mythology, but were unable to reply to the question "In the Ramayana, who was Rama's mother?"

Pai left his job at Times of India, and started ACK (Amar Chitra Katha) the same year, with the help of late G.L. Mirchandani of IBH, (who also took charge as the command of Tinkle late when it was formed), when most other publishers had rejected the concept. Later, he took on the role of writer, editor, and publisher. The series went on to become a publishing milestone for the Indian comic book scene, selling over 90 million copies of about 440 titles (as per the last count until the end of 2008). [5] He has also launched the popular series.

In June 2018, Tinkle Comics reprinted the Original Series in three volumes, with Tinkle stories and features from issues #1 to #18, originally published between December 1980 and April 1982.

Rajani Thindiath took over as editor-in-chief in 2010 and ran the magazine for a decade before moving on from the role in January 2021. During her tenure as editor, she created two brand-new series for Tinkle. The first was SuperWeirdos, a series about a set of teenagers with super-weird powers, The series encouraged readers to embrace their uniqueness. The second series she created was YogYodhas, centered on two siblings, Bir and Bala, who are the latest in a long line of yogic warriors who can manifest spirit creatures called praanis. These praanis come to their aid in the YogYodhas' fight against evil. Rajani was also responsible for opening up different genres within Tinkle; she launched Tinkle superheroes like WingStar and the aforementioned SuperWeirdos, introduced horror comedy for the first time in the form of Billy the Vampire (and later, Buchki and the Booligans), and created space for a boarding school series as well called NOIS!

Apart from one-off stories, Tinkle also has regular characters that appear in a stand-alone fashion. Some of these characters are:

Currently on Tinkle

Evergreen Stars

  • Suppandi: Probably one of the most famous characters of the comics, amuses everyone with his stupidity. (Artists: Archana Amberkar [current], Sanjiv Waeerkar, Ram Waeerkar). Initially brought out as a village simpleton in 1983. [8]
  • Shikari Shambu: The faint-hearted well renowned hunter, ends up being lauded for everything he did not achieve. Wild animals keep running into self-made traps as he sleeps before them. (Creator: Subba Rao; Artists: Savio Mascarenhas [current], Vasant Halbe)
  • Tantri the Mantri: An evil sinister Mantri (minister) who tries to dethrone the king, Raja Hooja by his clever plans. However, the naive king who loves laddus trusts his minister more than anyone or anything in the world and never suspects him of any activity to kill him. Every episode sees Tantri hatching an elaborate and seemingly foolproof plan to eliminate Hooja, however, for some reason or the other, all his plans backfire. In Tinkle Magazine No. 712, a bomb was thrown at Raja Hooja's palanquin and he was declared dead. Tantri was crowned king in Tinkle Magazine No. 714. Tantri's happiness was not long-lasted as Hooja's cousins were causing chaos in Tantri's mind and in Tinkle Magazine No. 730, Hooja was presumed alive, the cousins were in prison and Tantri again became a Mantri. Tantri again makes plans to usurp the throne of Hooja again. This plot seems to be based on the popular Iznogoud. (Artists: Prachi Killekar, Savio Mascarenhas, Anand Mande, Asit, Seema Mande, Ramanand Bhagat, Ajit Vasaikar, Ashok Dongre, Vineet Nair [current])
  • Ina, Mina, Mynah, Mo: Four sisters who enjoy adventures. They have a father, Jagganath, (nicknamed Jaggu) who is a miser, and a mother, Bina.

Adaptations

Rather than being just comic book characters, some of the characters from Tinkle have been made into cartoons, movies, and books.

Discontinued

See also

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References

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