Comics with bold messages like HIV/AIDS

During my growing up days, I found it easier to read comics because they had lot of pictures and it ended faster. I would enjoy comics like Tintin, Archies, Phantom, Batman and many more. Many of my friends discouraged me from reading those comics debating that it murdered the English grammar but since it was easier to understand, with everything left to imagination, and it worked for me. Comics are not merely for kids any more. There are new set of comics, in market nowadays, like - "Josh Mein Hosh" (Passion with Sense), "Khoon Ka Katra" (Just a drop of blood), "Savdhan Senior" (On your guard, senior) and "Pyar Ka Packet" (A packet of love) that are interwoven with messages on HIV/AIDS, and conveys the message that it is wrong to presume that "girlfriends must be meek and submissive and that a sexually aggressive woman is bad. The aim of these comics is to change social attitude and dispel the popular notion of masculinity that makes young men in urban slums indulge in violence against women and use condoms only when having a relationship with sex workers. There has been an urgency to bring out these educational comic books because in 2006, about 30 percent of HIV infections were reported in the 15 to 20 age group. Existing literature shows that young Indian men subscribe to norms of masculinity that lead to risky behavior and to change this, discussions were held with young men to understand their media habits, message retention from HIV campaigns, myths and misconceptions.. Participants were encouraged to relate real life incidents so that these comics echoed true stories. The draft stories were pre-tested in discussions with young men in urban slums and their feedback was incorporated in the final version The state and district AIDS control societies in Andhra Pradesh and Delhi have integrated elements of their campaign into the comic book series and have endorsed the products The Population Council and four other NGOS have brought out this set of comics, in four languages - Bengali, English, Hindi and Telugu. Several NGOs have been approached to integrate this package within existing outreach activities and to distribute these comics Will the illitrate population show any interest in such comics? Time will tell.