Disney launches comic books in India

Disney Publishing Worldwide (India), a division of Walt Disney Company (India), has announced a licensing agreement with local publisher Junior Diamond to publish Disney comic books, both in English and Hindi.

Featuring Disney's characters, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, the 32-page comic book will be priced at Rs 25. Roshini Bakshi, regional director, Disney Consumer Products said, "Every month, we will print 50,000 copies for each character and launch 2 titles under Mickey and Donald respectively per month." Disney is gunning to reach 10,000 points-of-interest within the first month of launch.

Disney also plans to launch comic books on its proprietary character of Princess, which includes titles such as Snowhite & Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella among others.

"While we are not producing content from India, we won't rule out the possibility in near future to localise the comics' content for our readers," said Bakshi. Also on the cards are comic books in regional languages for the south India market.

Disney Publishing Worldwide, which publishes 274 million copies of children's magazines worldwide, sells nearly 120 million children's books annually. Bakshi said, "Our internal research tells us that kids aged between 6 and 14 years are receptive to reading comic books provided the content is engaging enough."

Diamond Comics, who also publish four monthly magazines, will distribute the comics to leading bookstores in time for the April school holidays.

The New York-based Disney Publishing has over 340 regular titles available in more than 80 countries around the globe.