What Happened to Raj Comics? The Family Split and the State of Indian Comics in 2026

By ZealPlane Editorial | Senior Pop Culture & Manga Analyst | ZealPlane Chronicles

For an entire generation of Indian readers, Raj Comics was more than a comic-book publisher. Nagraj, Super Commando Dhruva, Doga, Parmanu and Bankelal were characters that became part of everyday childhood.

That era is gone. But Raj Comics itself is not.

The company that once dominated Indian newsstands has changed dramatically over the years, and the story is more complicated than simply saying that Raj Comics “shut down.” Following the death of founder Rajkumar Gupta, disagreements within the family eventually resulted in separate publishing operations associated with his sons, including Sanjay Gupta, Manoj Gupta and Manish Gupta.

Today, the Raj Comics name still exists, but the business looks very different from the one readers remember from the 1990s.

Nagraj and Super Commando Dhruva Classic Cover

When Raj Comics ruled the newsstands

Raj Comics began in 1986 under Raja Pocket Books, founded by Rajkumar Gupta. During the late 1980s and 1990s, it built one of the most recognisable superhero universes in Indian popular culture.

Nagraj combined mythology with superhero adventure. Dhruva brought a different kind of heroism, relying on intelligence and physical skill rather than firearms. Doga offered a darker, street-level world, while characters such as Parmanu, Bhediya, Tiranga and Bankelal expanded the universe into science fiction, folklore, patriotism and comedy.

At its height, the publisher reportedly reached enormous monthly circulation. For many children, buying a comic at a railway-station bookstall was simply part of travelling.

The important point is that Raj Comics did not merely sell individual stories. It created a shared fictional universe that readers could keep returning to.

So what changed?

The decline of the old Raj Comics model cannot be explained by one event.

The distribution system that had supported cheap mass-market comics weakened. Railway and roadside bookstalls became less important, while television, animation and eventually smartphones competed for the same attention.

At the same time, the economics of producing inexpensive colour comics became increasingly difficult. Paper, printing and distribution costs rose while the audience's media habits changed.

By the 2010s, the ₹10–₹20 comic that could be picked up casually at a station was becoming increasingly difficult to sustain as a mass-market product.

Then came another major change: the family itself was no longer operating as one unified publishing entity.

Super Commando Dhruva Raj Comics by Manoj Gupta

The Raj Comics family split

Following Rajkumar Gupta's death, disagreements over creative control, publishing rights and the future direction of the business eventually contributed to the emergence of separate operations around 2020–2021.

Sanjay Gupta's operation has concentrated more heavily on new stories and expanding the modern Raj Comics universe, while Manoj Gupta's publishing activity has placed considerable emphasis on archival material, reprints and collector editions. Manish Gupta has also operated separately around selected legacy material and distribution.

For readers, the practical consequence is simple: the Raj Comics universe they remember from the 1990s is no longer being presented through one single publishing pipeline.

That fragmentation has also made the current landscape confusing for longtime fans trying to understand which edition, storyline or publisher they are actually looking at.

Is Raj Comics closed?

No.

Raj Comics continues to exist through modern publishing, reprints, collector editions and new material. What has disappeared is the old mass-market model.

Today's editions are often aimed at collectors rather than children buying an inexpensive comic during a train journey. Premium hardcovers and deluxe editions can cost several hundred rupees, and some collector-focused releases go considerably higher.

For longtime fans, that can be an attractive way of preserving the characters they grew up with.

But it creates a different problem.

A child discovering Indian comics today does not necessarily have the same easy entry point that existed in the 1990s.

The digital gap

This is where the Indian comics industry finds itself in an interesting position in 2026.

India has millions of readers who consume stories on phones, but much of the country's most recognisable comic heritage was built around a physical distribution system.

The result is a gap between the old generation of Indian comics and the way younger audiences consume fiction today.

That gap is increasingly being explored by independent creators.

New projects such as Detective Hittu, Sando Ki Duniya, PRANA, Karma and Khaufnaak Kisse represent a very different approach to Indian comics. They do not need to reproduce the economics of a 1990s newsstand. They can publish digitally, experiment with genres and reach readers directly.

Some lean into crime and pulp storytelling. Others draw from Indian mythology, folklore or supernatural fiction. Some borrow visual language familiar from manga and webcomics while building stories around Indian settings and ideas.

The result is not a replacement for Raj Comics.

It is something different.

Where Indian comics go from here

The interesting question in 2026 is therefore not simply, “What happened to Raj Comics?”

It is: what happens to Indian comics after the newsstand era?

Raj Comics proved that Indian characters could build a dedicated mass audience. The current generation of independent creators has a different advantage: they can publish directly to readers without depending on the distribution network that once determined whether a comic could reach a railway-station bookstall.

Platforms such as ZealPlane are part of that experiment, giving independent creators a browser-based place to publish and readers a way to discover original Indian comics without having to buy a physical collector edition first.

For readers looking for that newer wave, titles such as Detective Hittu, Sando Ki Duniya, PRANA and Khaufnaak Kisse offer different takes on Indian storytelling.

The old Raj Comics era created the characters that defined childhood for millions.

The next chapter of Indian comics may be less centralized, more digital and considerably more diverse.