Tales from the Jatakas 3-in-1

A graphic novel from India that I bought at Mumbai Airport.

Title: Tales from the Jatakas 3-in-1
Publisher: Amar Chitra Katha Pvt Ltd
Date: 2014
Writer: Lakshmi Lal, Meena Talim
Artist: Ashok Dongre, Jeffrey Fowler
Editor: Anant Pai
Cover: C.M. Vitankar

This is an English-language graphic novel that I picked up during a layover at the airport in Mumbai, India. It is a collection of animal stories from the Jatakas, traditional Indian tales dating to the 3rd century BC to the 5th century AD.

The collection is divided into three sections: Elephant Stories, Monkey Stories, and Deer Stories. The stories themselves are reminiscent of Aesop's Fables, often containing a simple moral lesson, favoring mercy or against greed, for instance.

The stories range from very silly humor pieces to tragedies involving animals sacrificing their own lives to save their herd or troop. There is also one particularly gruesome revenge story (the details of the revenge is horrific, but the art is not excessively gory).

The artwork has a cartoony look to it reminding me a bit of early Looney Tunes, with the deer tending to be anthropomorphized.

While the stories were fairly simplistic, this was an interesting bit of insight into India's traditional folklore, as well as its current comics.

Rating: 6/10