I have recently acquired a new picture for my facebook profile. I was thinking of a nice cartoon character which is not too common, (well, we all strive for that small exclusivity). The list goes like this: Tintin (too common with the movie coming out in December), Asterix (nice one, while i like it, it is not subtle enough), Archie or Jughead (too close to the truth), Calvin (too visible and overused, i think everyone coming out of boarding school with half a sense try to get all their philosophy and worldview from his musings), South Park (no way) and no end to the tunnel. Out of the blue came Yakari with his bushy mop-top and that clinches the deal for me.
Yakari is an Sioux Native American boy who lived in the great plains of America. It is a Franco-Belgian comic book series, aimed at a younger audience, written by Job and illustrated by Derib. The time setting is before the great colonisation of America. Horse existed in the stories, so we can imagine it is somewhere after the Spanish come to America as it was them who introduced horses to America.
The first and only yakari book I've had read till today was and is Yakari and the White buffalo. In the story, spring has come and the Sioux were hungry as their winter stock was finished. They were waiting for the annual hunt of the buffalo in the wide prairie. As the buffalo herd took a long time to come, Yakari took off on his trusted steed and went searching for the buffalo. He found them under the command of the white buffalo ( a sacred animal under various native American lores). To cut a long story short, he manged to convince the white buffalo to lead his herd for slaughter by the Sioux so that they can survive and the balance of nature will be restored. For a kid in primary (as i was that time0. It was an engaging read. But, while other comics can be found in good number in Mizoram, i was not able to find any other adventure by Yakari. Its only now that i'm able to get them. Let me read them and see whether they still hold their magivcal power over me.
For a young Mizo boy who grew up on a steady diet of cowboys and mythical ranches in far off Texas and Arizona, the magical realms of Yakari and the landscape that it provides holds greater impact than Rama and Sita or the various Indian comics like Mahabali Shaka available during that time. It was a real window into a different world. So, thats the story of my avatar....
