Nepal.
चित्रकथा
Nepal
1977
चित्रकथा
Nepali comics grew mainly out of political cartooning in newspapers and magazines.
Durga Baral, who signs as Batsyayana, began drawing for the weekly Naya Sandesh in 1964 under a pen name and later drew comic strips such as Chyangbaa and Pale Punya Bahadur. The press boom after 1990 made editorial cartoonists such as Batsyayana and Abin Shrestha national figures, and since 2019 anthologies such as Virangana Comics have opened space for longer comics stories.
11
6
1977
1970s
Artists from Nepal in the archive.
Comics from Nepal in the archive.
Chyangbaa, the earliest comic from Nepal in the archive.
The decade when the most new comics from Nepal began.
चित्रकथा
Nepal in 3 chapters
A short history you can leaf through. Click a page, use the arrow keys, or press Turn the page to read on.
Nepal.
चित्रकथा
3 chapters
Chapter 1
1964
to 1990
Cartoons under the Panchayat
1964
to 1990
Chapter 01
Cartoons under the Panchayat
Durga Baral, a Pokhara painter and college teacher, drew cartoons for the weekly Naya Sandesh from 1964 to 1967 under the pen name Batsyayana, because teachers could not comment on politics, and censorship kept many of his cartoons out of print. Cartoonists of the Panchayat era often hid behind pseudonyms, and Batsyayana went on to draw the strips Chyangbaa for Prangan (1977 to 1978) and Aveyentar for Suruchi in the 1980s.
1990
to 2006
Chapter 02
Press freedom and the cartoon boom
The media boom after the 1990 restoration of democracy made editorial cartooning an important part of Nepali newspapers, and party-aligned papers could be told apart by their cartoons. Abin Shrestha started in 1993, Subhas Rai drew for Himal Khabarpatrika and Nepali Times, and Batsyayana drew front-page cartoons for Kantipur and The Kathmandu Post; a 2005 cartoon of his led to the arrest of both papers' editors, and cartoonists' ridicule of royal rule fed the 2006 uprising.
2006
to today
Chapter 03
Republic-era satire and new comics
Batsyayana and His Barbs (2006) collected his post-1990 cartoons, and Abin Shrestha revived the Cartoonist Club of Nepal as its president from 2014 to 2021. Cartoonists such as Rajesh KC, Basu Kshitiz, Rabin Sayami and Rabi Mishra kept up daily satire of governments and press laws, while the Virangana Comics anthology (2019) and comics stories by illustrators such as Bandana Tulachan brought longer narrative comics.
The comics to know
- Chyangbaa1977 · comic stripBatsyayana. Comic strip for the literary magazine Prangan, 1977 to 1978.
- Pale Punya Bahadurcomic stripBatsyayana. 1990s strip for UNICEF's magazine Nawadrishya.
- Peace Keeping2003Subhas Rai. Cartoon collection on peace and non-violence.
- Batsyayana and His Barbs2006Batsyayana; compiled by Ajit Baral. Collection of cartoons on post-1990 Nepal.
- Gajab Chha Ba!गजब छ बा !comic stripAbin Shrestha. Daily single-column cartoon in Kantipur.
- Virangana Comics: Self Love2019Kanchan Burathoki, Shraddha Shrestha, Bandana Tulachan and others. First issue of a women's comics anthology from FinePrint.
The people to know
- Batsyayana (Durga Baral)वात्स्यायनBorn 1943Pokhara painter and Nepal's best-known political cartoonist, active since 1964.
- Abin ShresthaKantipur cartoonist; president of the Cartoonist Club of Nepal from 2014 to 2021.
- Subhas RaiCartoonist for Himal Khabarpatrika and Nepali Times.
- Rajesh KCPolitical cartoonist for Baahrakhari.
- Basu KshitizCartoonist for Annapurna Post.
- Rabin SayamiCartoonist for Nagarik.
- Bandana TulachanIllustrator whose comics story Shanti: Beyond the Veil portrays an indigenous feminist activist.