Debnath filled a void in Bengali literature: Sirshendu Mukhopadhyay

Narayan Debnath

's sense of humour was cherished by his friends and fans. Debnath, who started his journey as an illustrator and became one of the pioneers in the Bengali comics industry, breathed his last on Tuesday at a city hospital. Yet he is not only remembered as an artist but a great human being also.

While remembering the artist, author

Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay

said "In Bengali literature, there was a void of good comics and Narayan Debnath had tried to fill that. I would call his work independent literature because he used to write those stories. His work in children’s literature will be remembered by generations to come".

Despite his in-depth work on Bengali comics, Narayan Debnath was never an avid reader of comics before he started creating his own characters in the ’60s. It was the people and the dingy alleys around his residence in

Howrah

Shibpur that inspired his creations. The mischievous children, fruitsellers, schoolteachers and other real-life characters who he used to keenly observe were the basis of his creations.