Bibek Sengupta’s Cartoons: A Visual Treat with Humour
A non-fiction writer, a cartoonist, a traveller… multi-faceted Bibek Sengupta was brought up in Kolkata and now stays in Bengaluru. Features on wide range of subjects written by him appeared in various magazines across India since 2007. He often sets sail to travel to different parts of the world. Each of his subjects comes alive from his personal experience through travel-trove explorations, making use of the opportunities to visit legendary places, all followed by exhaustive research.
The outcome so far has been the 3 books authored by him published from Times Group Books (A division of The Times of India). These are the collections of anecdotes from the history of FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games topped with delightful cartoons and caricatures. Some of these trivia were published as ‘Olympics Short Stories’ daily in the sports page of The Times of India during the Rio Olympic Games in 2016. His football books were highly appreciated and added to FIFA World Football Museum Library in Zurich.
Like his writings, Bibek’s cartoons too received acclaim from the readers. Coming from a completely different background, he never thought of taking cartooning as a career option. Self-taught Bibek grew up with the regular dose of MAD and other humour magazines and newspaper comic strips. It was R.K. Laxman’s thought-provoking cartoons and Mario Miranda’s intricate works that attracted him towards cartooning. He started contributing humour illustrations for a now defunct popular e-Greetings portal way back in 2001, which opened the door for his own weekly cartoon column ‘As It Is’ on current affairs for the same portal, ran for uninterrupted 62 weeks. Bibek consider Philippe de Ridder, the celebrated football coach and cartoonist from Belgium, as his mentor; who identified his talent, encouraged and introduced him to the European style of comic illustration in 2005-06. The duo collaborated in many interesting projects ever since. Later meeting V G Narendra at Bangalore’s Indian Institute of Cartoonists, and his vision of promoting cartoon art influenced Bibek a lot to passionately work on this area.
Today Bibek has his own page on social media with rapidly growing followers. His cartoons occasionally appeared in various cartoon periodicals like Cartoon Watch, Hasyapu Harivillu (formerly Humour Toons), Bishoy Cartoon and in newspaper columns of The Times of India, Sikkim Express, Samaya Taranga etc. Bangalore’s prestigious Indian Cartoon Gallery hosted a month-long exhibition of his cartoons in 2019. I was a humongous honour when Times approached him in 2020 to illustrate the cover of the centenary special edition book on the greatest works of legendary Indian cartoonist R.K. Laxman.
During his annual visits to his hometown Kolkata, Bibek has been part of all the initiatives and programs of Cartoon Dol (a group of cartoonists from Bengal). Together they set up stall every year at Rajya Charukala Utsav (State Art Fair), publish their own periodical, organize workshops, initiatives like setting up digital archive of Bengali cartoons. He made a documentary on stalwart Bengali cartoonists and invited other cartoonists to his talk show ‘Coffee with Cartoon’.
Professionally Bibek is a Senior Project Manager in the eLearning domain, currently working for a reputed Automotive Engineering MNC in Bangalore.
Publications:
(As Author & Illustrator)
- The World Chasing the Cup (2018, Times Group Books)
- The Amazing Olympics: Down the Centuries (2016, Times Group Books)
- Football Fun Book (2014, Times Group Books)
(As Illustrator)
- An Uncommon Man R.K. Laxman Part-2 (2020, Times Group Books, Cover Illustrator)
(As Editor)
- Bishoy Cartoon: Tribute Edition in Bengali on 130 Years of Sir David Low (2020, Guest Editor)
- CartoonPattor: A cartoon tabloid in Bengali (2018, Cartoon Dol, Part of Editorial Team)
Affiliations:
- Member of Indian Institute of Cartoonists’ National Advisory Committee
- Member of Cartoon Dol Kolkata
- Member of Karnataka Cartoonists Association
Exhibitions:
- AS IT IS: An Exhibition of Cartoons by Bibek Sengupta (2019, Indian Cartoon Gallery)
- VIRAL VISIONS: A Virtual Exhibition by 19 Bengali Cartoonists (2020, Maya Art Space)
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Follow Bibek Sengupta’s cartoons at https://www.facebook.com/BibekSenguptaCartoons
Greetings From: India Toons