Narayan Debnath, a famous Indian Bengali comic’s artist (Biography)

Narayan Debnath

(Biography)

Narayan Debnath (25 November 1925 - 18 January 2022) was a famous Indian Bengali comics artist. The famous cartoon characters like “Handa Bhoda”, “Bantul the Great”, “Nante Fonte”, “Bahadur Beral”, “Danpite Khandu and His Chemical Grandfather”, “Kaushik Roy” got alive with the touch of Narayan Debnath.

For more than fifty years, his written and drawn comics have fascinated young and old Bengalis. In addition to comic-strips, he has written children's novels. Comics have been published in small volumes in Calcutta based children's magazines like Shukatara, Kishore Bharati etc.

Birth and Childhood of Narayan Debnath

Narayan Debnath was born on 25 November, 1925 and raised in Shibpur, Howrah district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Although the family originally resided in the Bikrampur area of Bangladesh, the family moved to Shibpur before he was born.

From an early age he had a penchant for art. As the family profession was goldsmith, there was an opportunity to design ornaments etc. During World War II, he started studying for a five-year degree at the Art College, but did not continue until the end of the year. After that he worked for various advertising agencies for some years.

The arrival of Narayan Debnath in the world of Bengali comics

The editorial board of Dev Sahitya Kutir inspired Narayan Debnath to arrive in the world of Bengali comics. The name of his first comics was also suggested to them. At that time, Bangla comics were the only “Seyal Pandit” (Fox Scholar) by Prafulla Chandra Lahiri or Kafi Khan, which was then published in Jugantar, an esteemed daily magazine. “Handa Bhoda” gets the respect of the readers as soon as it is published and is regularly published from Shukatara. In the beginning, Debnath himself used to draw and put ink on Handa Bhoda. Arrangements were later made to publish it in grayscale. Handabhoda has been in the Shukatara newspaper for 53 weeks.

“Bantul the Great” was Narayan Debnath's first color comic strip. He had created “Bantul the Great” in 1975. According to Narayan Babu, on his way back from College Street in Calcutta, he imagined Bantul and immediately drew his figure. Though, he did not give any superpower to Bantul in the beginning.

Later, the group of Kishore Bharati Patrika reached out to Narayan Babu about the special pujo number. Premendra Mitra was the editor then. Later, Dinesh Chandra Chattopadhyay offered Narayan Babua detective-story (strip) as the editor, which later turned into the character of 'Black Diamond Indrajith Roy'.

“Nante-Font” was created by Narayan Debnath in 1969. The first serial comic strip he drew in Kishore Bharati was 'Magician Patalchand', a number of which came out. Bantul was first translated into English in 2012.

Remarkable comic characters by Narayan Debnath

👉 Bantul the Great (first published in 1975)

👉 Handa Bhoda (first published in 1972)

👉 Nante Fonte (first published 1989)

👉 Bahadur Beral (first published in 1982)

👉 Black Diamond Indrajith Roy

👉 Magician Patalchand

👉 Danpit Khandu and His Chemical Grandfather

👉 Detective Kaushik Roy

👉 Gourmet Master Batuklal

👉 Shuntki and Mutki

👉 Atom bomb of laughter

Rewards of Narayan Debnath

For his notable comics’ characters, he was awarded some worthy awards. In 2021, he was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India and the Government of West Bengal. Besides, some other worthy awards that added the feathers in the crown of his fame in the field of comics include President's Special Recognition Award (2006), Sahitya Akademi (2013), Bangabibhushan (2013) etc.

Death of Narayan Debnath

Due to his geriatric disease for a long time, he was hospitalized for better treatment. His lung and kidney problems were getting worse; his blood oxygen level was decreasing. Blood pressure was fluctuating. He was not responding to the doctors’ treatment. He was kept on ventilation. His condition was getting worse and worse.

At last this great Indian visual artist, Narayan Debnath died at 10:15 a.m. on Tuesday, January 18, 2022. At the time of his death, he was 96 years old. He was admitted to Bellevue Hospital in South Kolkata on December 24.

*****

👉 Milkha Singh, ‘The Flying Sikh’ – (Biography)

👉 Mr. Bean, the world famous comedian - (Biography)