He was an Indian comics artist, writer, and illustrator. He was the creator of the popular Bengali comic strips of Handa Bhonda (1962), Bantul the Great (1965), and Nonte Phonte (1969).
He holds the record of longest-running comics by an individual artiste for the 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.
𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐝
Narayan Debnath was born and spent most of his life living in Shibpur, Howrah, India. His family hailed from Bikrampur in what is now in 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 jewelry. 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.
In 1950 he was introduced to Dev Sahitya Kutir, a major publishing house through a friend. People such as Pratul Chandra Banerjee, Shailo Chakraborty, Balaibandhu Roy, and Purnachandra Chakraborti were associated with the press at the time. From 1950 to 1961 he illustrated several children's books including adventure novels and Western classics in translation. His journey in comics started in 1962 with 'Handa-Bhonda' in Shuktara.
He began as a freelancing comics artist and soon went for comics on his own. However, when still a struggling freelancer, he was instructed by the publisher to adopting 'well accepted foreign comics' to make comics for their magazine(s) to get easy business.
𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐫
He gave birth to eponymous cartoon characters, Note and Phonte in 1969, and since then, stories that revolve around them, have been regularly published in “Kishor Bharati”. He had started his freelancing artist career in 1950 in Suktara magazine and did the record of doing the highest number of illustrations in Bengal. He was a renowned illustrator during his time. His work for Tarzan stories (continuous for 42 years), Bengali translation of foreign novels, etc. are among his great works of illustration.
Selected creations
Handa Bhonda also referred to as Hada Bhoda, Handa-Bhonda and Hada-Bhoda [হাঁদা-ভোঁদা] (First published in 1962)
Batul The Great, also referred to as Bantul The Great [বাঁটুল দি গ্রেট] (First published in 1965)
Nonte Phonte, also spelled as Nonte Fonte, Nonte-Phonte, and Nonte-Fonte [নন্টে-ফন্টে] (First published in 1969)
Black Diamond Indrajit Roy [ব্ল্যাক ডায়মন্ড ইন্দ্রজিৎ রায়]
Patolchand The Magician [পটলচাঁদ দি ম্যাজিশিয়ান]
Detective Koushik Roy [ডিটেকটিভ কৌশিক রায়]
Bahadur Beral [বাহাদুর বেড়াল] (First published in 1982)
Daanpite Khandu Aar Tar Chemical Dadu [ডানপিঠে খাঁদু আর তার কেমিক্যাল দাদু]
Petuk Master Batuklal [পেটুক মাস্টার বটুকলাল]
Sutki-Mutki [সুটকি-মুটকি]
Hasir Atom Bomb [হাসির এটম বোম]
𝐀𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
Padma Shri awarded by the Government of India on January 26, 2021. He was 95 at that time and was needed to be explained several times before fully comprehending that he indeed was chosen to receive the award. His first reaction was, "Finally, they have chosen me?"
Sahitya Akademi Award, 2013
Banga Bibhushan, 2013
𝐃𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐡
Debnath died of heart-related ailments in Kolkata, at the age of 96
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