Thanks for the excellent info. This is just a starting on this
subject. There is a reason why I started discussion on this topic.
I was going thorugh several books to dig out the history of
cartoon drawing and cartoonists in Andhra dESa and I could not
find anything on these aspects. I have a collection of old cartoons
which I wanted to redraw them with English captions. I could not
stop laughing at them. e.g. Two boys (10 years old) were smoking
cigarets under a tree and watching a bus passing by emitting thick
black exhaust smoke. Witnessing this, one of them was telling the
other one "cooDura'! emta daridramaina poga vadalutOmdO a' bassu.
da'nnEm cEyalEru ka'nii manalni sigareTlu ta'goddamTa'ru." That was
a good one. I could not figure out who drew it. Then I wanted to do
some work on the history of cartoon drawing in Andhra. But I wanted
to know the details about each and every artist. First of all, I
want to know who is a cartoonist. Now you all have started answering.
Please don't stop. I want the following from you (or suggest where
I can get the info.).
1) Who were the first (pioneers) of Andhra cartoons?
2) Are there any women (lady) cartoonists?
3) Are there any child (boy or girl) cartoonists?
4) Who are the political cartoonists?
Based on their cartoons can you categorize them such as:
5) Who make fun of students
6) Who make fun of women
7) Who make fun of men
8) Who draw cartoons on husbands
9) Who draw cartoons on wives
10) Who draw cartoons on Gods and Godesses
11) Who make fun of doctors (dentists; veterinarians; and human docs)
12) Who make fun of scientists
13) Who make fun of teachers:
e.g. Father (a teacher) is in a deep ba'ta'Kanii with his
next door friend. His son came there facing his dad
and showed him the slate saying :
"na'nna'! ii lekka correctO ka'dO ceppu."
It is written on the slate "nanna'! amma a' pakkimTa'yanni
pampEsi lOnaki vacci tiPin tinamamTOmdi."
14) Who make fun of cine stars
15) Who make fun of politicians
16) Who make fun of India and other nations:
When Appollo 13 reached moon, there was a cartoon in Andhra Patrika.
This simply was a globe with India and America on it.
America was shouting "Apollo" and India was shouting "appulO".
That was something.
17) Who make fun of hair styles and dresses and fashions
e.g. One time during 1970s, boys used to wear shirts with designs
like flowers, twigs, branches, leaves and all the green world.
Also they used to have bushy hair (like the one I have).
One boy was wearing a shirt with flower branch design with
birds on them and a real bird was nesting in his hair.
My dad used to bring that example whenever I used to wear
a flower design shirt.
18) Who draw cartoons on in laws (son, daughter, mother, father)
19) Who draw cartoons for all festive occassions - samkra'mti,
deepa'vaLI, uga'di, samkra'mti, hOLi etc.
This is unique in our Andhra dESa.
ta'ta' pasa'damoo! You gave some good examples like ra'gati
pamDari and appaDa'la karra etc. But who is this Ragati Pamdari.
Could you give some history or sketch on this artist. What are
these appaDa'la karra cartoons. Could you explain them a little
more. Same way, Jampala ga'roo! Who is this Satyamoorty?
What is the speciality of Dumbu? How did Bujjayi pictures
come into limelight?
I got some books (about 10 of them) written by Dr. Jandhyala
Papayya Sastry (Karunasrii) entitled "kaLa'ga'yatri" with
subtitles such as "daLitaBa'rati", "a'rshaBa'rati" etc.
Three people drew the cartoons for the stories in side and
they are Bali (ba'li), V. Kameswararao, and V.S. Prakash.
Their cartoons are excellent and they made the Karunasri's
stories more attractive. The book has the back cover
with Karunasrii's picture and a detailed biographical sketch.
But, there is no account on these cartoonists who were equally
important for the book to come in black and white. Those
cartoonists are forgotten artists. A picture is worth more
than a million words. Who drew that picture?
Tata Prasad talked about vapa' (vaDDa'di pa'payya). For a long
time people did not know who this vapa' was until someone
came out and said that he was vaDDa'di pa'payya. There is a
Siva temple on the river bank (Nagavali) in Srikakulam.
There is a Siva painting in that temple. It was painted by
vapa' (ma' vaDDa'dODu). Candamama got the glitterry look
as Vaddadi drew his pictures for the stories. Of course,
Chitra took over afterwards. Who is this Chitra? I don't
know. Neither the Candamama publishers did talk about their Chitra.
Bhogaparapu Bhadrachalam (of Parlakimedi), known as Chalam or BChalam
(who is the art director in Film industry, Madras for movies such
as Nippulanti Manishi etc), used to draw pictures for Chandamama
also.
We have forgotten our painters and sculptors. I don't hear of
any noted paintings or painters of the present day Andhra dESa.
Same way, our cartoonists are also forgotten and go unrecognized.
Thanks to Tana and especially Sri Jampala who took all the pains
in falicitating Bapu at the 10th TANA festivals. His paintings
were displayed and (re)published. Above all, Bapu is a different
story and he is a savyasa'ci. What about vapa', chitra, chalam,
and Bali? These are forgotten artists - as good as the story
writers, poets, and philosophers.
Last but not the least, I would like to bring a recent cartoon
here as a very good example. This is on the front cover of
cEra'talu (cEkoori ra'ma'ra'u ra'talu) - sa'hitya vimarSa -
para'marSa. The cartoon is :
the telugu alphabet "a" is lying on the hospital bed as it
is sick. The doctor (cEkoori ra'ma'ra'u) is examining the
sick telugu "a" with his stheth. Now you get the picture
of the present day diplorable state of telugu literature.
---pa'lana