User:Arsh Kenia

Description
Tinkle is an Indian fortnightly magazine, published mainly in India.[1]  Originally owned by the India Book House, the Tinkle brand was acquired by ACK Media in 2007.[2]  The magazine contains comicas,stories,puzzles,quizzes, contests and other features targeted at school children, although its readership includes many adults as well. It is published in English and syndicated in many Indian languages like Malayam, Assamese, etc.

Tinkle has also announced its first fortnightly issue[3]  - the July 2016 issue. The second issue arrived mid-July 2016, a first for the magazine.

Anant Pai, the founding editor of the magazine, is known to his readers as Uncle Pai. The idea behind starting a comic book series devoted to Indian culture and history came to Pai from a quiz contest aired on Doordarshan in February 1967, in which participants could easily answer questions pertaining to Greek mythology, but were unable to reply to the question "In the Ramayana, who was Rama's mother?"

He left his job at Times of India, and started ACK the same year, with the help of late G.L. Mirchandani of IBH, (who also took charge as the CMD of Tinkle late when it was formed), when most other publishers had rejected the concept. Later, he took on the role of writer, editor and publisher. The series went on to become a publishing milestone for the Indian comic book scene, selling over 90 million copies of about 440 titles (as per last count till the end of 2008).[4]  He has also launched the popular Amar Chitra Katha series.

The first issue was released in April 1980. The magazine carries comics, stories, and regular columns of interest to school children. Tinkle enjoys great popularity, and has been an integral part of growing up in India in the last two decades. Characters like Suppandi and Shikari Shambu that appeared first in the pages of the magazine have nationwide recognition. Readers send more than 200 letters with stories and other features to be considered for printing in the magazine. The wholesome combination of educational and entertainment that defines Tinkle has many celebrity fans in India, including the former Prime Minister of India Atal Bijhari VajpayeeThere is an official website for Tinkle, which contains puzzles and games.

Popular comics
Apart from one-off stories, Tinkle also has regular characters that appear in stand-alone fashion. Some of these characters are:

Currently on Tinkle

 * Butterfingers[5] : A clumsy boy named Amar who is chidingly called "Butterfingers" by his parents, friends and teachers. He is chided for his sloppiness and laziness, but is a happy-go-lucky character who also has a presence of mind and manages to save the day despite messing up trivial stuff. (Creator: Khyrunissa A[6] .; Artists: Abhijeet Kini)
 * Kalia the crow: A friendly crow living in a forest known as 'Big Baan', Kalia is the saviour of each and every small animal in the forest. With his sharp beak, sharp brains and his friends Babloo the bear and Danti the Elephant, his enemies Chamataka the wily jackal and Doob-Doob the stupid crocodile are always outwitted of their plans to catch the rabbits Keechu and Meechu, the deer Shonar and other small animals. (Creator: Luis Fernandes; Artists: Archana Amberkar[current], C.D. Rane, Prasad Iyer, Pradeep Sathe)
 * Pyarelal: A kind villager who lives in Hastipur with his wife Lajo. He's ready to help or find solutions to any problem. (Creator: Indira Ananthakrishnan; Artists: Archana Amberkar[current], Ram Waeerkar)
 * Mopes and Purr: A detective cat-and-dog duo who are always on the run, solving cases. (Creator: Reena I Puri; Artist: Savio Mascarenhas)
 * SuperWeirdos: A girl named Aisha who is always trying to find her super powers. While she searches for her powers, she stumbles on other kids of her age who have amazing but weird powers.(Artist: Abhijeet Kini )
 * Mapui Kawlin a.k.a Wingstar: A 13-year-old superhero girl from Aizawl, Mizoram. Her father, an inventor, made her rocket thrusters, iron fists, and reinforced robotic arms, with which she acquires super flight and super strength.[7] [8]  (Creator: Sean D′mello; Co-creator Artist: Vineet Nair)
 * Wai Knot, a kid from Bengaluru who's motto in life is, "don't ask why, ask why not?". Brash, unapologetic and most of all incredibly strong-minded, Wai Knot, the newstoon, stands out from Suppandi, Shikari Shambu and other Tinkle toons. True to his name, Wai Knot always challenges those around him. He is inquisitive, be it his dad or his best friend Kia.[9]

Evergreen Stars

 * Suppandi: Probably one of the most famous characters of the comics. Amuses everyone with his stupidity. (Artists: Archana Amberkar [current], Sanjiv Waeerkar, Ram Waeerkar)
 * Shikari Shambu: The faint hearted well renowned hunter, ends up being lauded for everything he did not achieve. Wild animals keep running into self made traps as he sleeps before them. (Creator: Subba Rao; Artists: Savio Mascarenhas [current], Vasant Halbe)
 * Tantri the Mantri: An evil sinister mantri (minister) called Tantri tries to dethrone the king, Raja Hooja by his clever plans. The naive king who loves laddus trusts his minister more than anything in the world. The plot revolves around failure attempts of the minister as all his plans invariably backfire. This plot seems to be based on the popular Iznogoud. (Artists: Prachi Killekar [current], Savio Mascarenhas, Anand Mande, Ramanand Bhagat, Ajit Vasaikar, Ashok Dongre, Vineet Nair)
 * Nasruddin Hodja: Hodja is a witty man who is disliked by many people. His rivals always try to put him in a spot, but Hodja turns the tables on them because of his true wit and cheeky ways. The stories are simple and fun. What make them even better are the fantastic illustrations by Ram Waeerkar.[10]
 * Ramu and Shamu: They are very similar to ‘Dennis the Menace’ in nature. These identical twins are about eight years of age and live in a middle-class home with their parents. They always embarrass or confuse their parents with their juvenile and innocent questions or acts. Their episodes are small but very cute and charming.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-11" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:isolate;white-space:nowrap;font-size:11.2px;font-weight:normal;">[11]
 * Ina, Mina, Mynah, Mo: Four sisters who enjoy adventures. They have a father, Jagganth, (nicknamed Jaggy) who is a miser.

Adaptions
<p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:inherit;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-weight:normal;">Rather than being just comic book characters, some of the characters from Tinkle have been made into cartoons, movies and books.


 * The Suppandi series: a series of 5 books that have a selection of all the Suppandi tales found in Tinkle.
 * Suppandi Suppandi!!: a cartoon series featuring the popular tinkle toon, Suppandi, features his acts of folly. This show currently airs on Cartoon Network and Pogo, often having reruns in the same channels.
 * Shambu and the Man Eater: In November 2011, a short animated film featuring the popular Tinkle toon, Shikari Shambu, was released just before the premiere of the animated film of the popular Amar Chitra Katha series, The Sons of Ram. This movie features Shambu's adventures with a man-eating tiger.
 * The Butterfingers Series:<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-12" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:isolate;white-space:nowrap;font-size:11.2px;font-weight:normal;">[12]  A series of three books (as of 21-12-2015) features the clumsy acts of the popular Tinkle character, Amar Kishen aka Butterfingers, written by Khyrunnisa.A. The series of three books (Howzaat Butterfingers!, Clean Bowled, Butterfingers!, Goal, Butterfingers!) revolves around Butterfingers and his friends, Eric, Kiran and Minu and their funny, comical high school life.