Sukumar

From early childhood had an aptitude towards humour. First cartoon appeared in VIKATAN magazine in 1950. Since then he draw cartoons for Malayali daily and Kaumudhi weekly. Got initiated into political cartooning under the guidance of (late) K.S. Pillai, famous editorial cartoonist of the ’50s and ’60s and pioneer of political cartooning in Kerala..

After graduation, Shri Sukumar studied drawing and painting academically. Joined Government service and worked in the state police department for 30 years from 1957 to retire in 1987as Administrative Assistant. While in service, he drew many cartoons in an array of Malayalam periodicals. An exponent of whacky humor in writing as well, he has so far published 35 books under different genres. Served as Chairman and Secretary of Kerala Cartoon Academy. Received Fellowship from Kerala Cartoon Academy in 1998. He is also the recipient of the Kerala Sahithya Academy award for Humour literature 1996.

G. Aravindan

Govindan Aravindan (born January 21, 1935 in Kottayam — died March 15, 1991 in Trivandrum) who was popularly known as G. Aravindan seized attention of book-loving malayalees by his path-breaking venture in graphic novel- Cheriya Manushyarum Valiya Lokavum . It was the surging 60's and the meek protagonist in the weekly column, RAMU reflected the angst and frustration of the young malayali office-job-seeker. The end of the serial shows Ramu having arrived finally , wading the slimy waters of compromises to shoulder with the coterie of insensitive unsweating men of the society. The decadence had been announced. The aura of simplicity and compassion about this man are ever gone. The story of untold decadence trails to the present.

Then, Aravindan switched arena, to the celluloid. Soon, he became known for his unorthodox way of film-making, changing his cinematic forms consistently and experimenting with story telling without regular narrative styles. A clutch of avante garde films catapulted him as one of the best ever film makers of this country. He had also worked with documentaries and theatre. The present day Malayali knows him more as a film man than the cartoonist with a bend for the caricatures and the public-shy musician that he was. 

The Kerala Cartoon Academy pays homage to this illustrious cartoonist through a handful of Aravindan caricatures made by the members. Characters from his epic graphic novel have been given towards the end.

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Yesudasan

Chackalethu John Yesudasan (1938- ), better known as Yesudasan, is a popular cartoonist from Kerala .

Born on June 12, 1938, in Bharanikavu near Mavelikkara, Yesudasan published his first cartoon in 1955 in a magazine called 'Asoka' published from Kottayam. He entered the world of political cartoons in 1960, drawing for Janayugom, the Malayalam daily of the Communist Party. He worked there for three years, drawing a pocket cartoon with the character 'Kittumman', after which he joined Shankar's Weekly in Delhi. From 1969, he was the editor of Balayugam, a children's magazine in Malayalam and edited Asadha, Cut-Cut and Tuk-Tuk, popular satirical magazines on politics and cinema. He joined the Malayala Manorama group in 1985 as staff cartoonist, running cartoon columns in the paper and The Week magazine[2] .

Yesudasan has authored four books — 'Aniyara', 'Pradhama Dhrusti', 'Post Mortem' and 'Varayile Nayanar'. He was cartoonist of the year award winner of Thiruvananthapuram Press Club in 1990 and 1992. He is the founder chairman of Kerala Cartoon Academy and Former President of the Kerala Lalitakala Academy. He wrote the dialogues for the Malayalam film 'Panchavadi Palam' by director K.G.George.

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O. V. Vijayan

Ootupulackal Velukkuty Vijayan (Malayalam: ഊട്ടുപുലാക്കല്‍ വേലുക്കുട്ടി വിജയന്‍; July 2, 1930 – March 30, 2005) was an Indian author and cartoonist, who was an important figure in modern Malayalam language literature. Best known for his first novel Khasakkinte Itihasam (1969), Vijayan has six novels, nine short-story collections, and nine collections of essays, memoirs and reflections.

O. V. Vijayan was born in Palakkad on July 2, 1930. His father O. Velukkutty was an officer in Malabar Special Police of the erstwhile Madras Province in British India. As a child, Vijayan was largely homeschooled. Formal schooling began at the age of twelve, when he joined Raja’s High School, Kottakkal in Malabar, directly in to sixth grade. The informal education arranged by his father during his absentee years was sufficient to keep him at par with his peers. The following year, Velukkutty was transferred and Vijayan joined the school at Koduvayur in Palakkad. He graduated from Victoria College in Palakkad and obtained a masters degree in English literature from Presidency College.

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B. M. Gafoor

B. M. Gafoor (4 May 1942 - 13 November 2003) was an Indian cartoonist and comic artist. He was one of the most prominent cartoonists from Kerala and was the founder of Kerala Cartoon Academy. Within a career of more than three decades, he created some of the most popular comics including the social satire Kunjamman.

A Thalassery native, Gafoor was a student at St. Joseph's High School, Kozhikode when M.V. Devan began teaching him painting. He was exposed to another prominent painter, K. C. S. Paniker when he attended the Government School of Arts and Crafts, Chennai, where Paniker served as principal.

Gafoor served as a cartoonist for many publications, including the Chandrika, Shankar's Weekly, Deshabhimani and Cut Cut, before settling down for the remainder of his career at Mathrubhumi.[2] He remained at the last from 1980 until 2003. He also had his own magazine for a time, Niramala, which he had started during the Emergency.

In 2000, during his tenure at Mathrubhumi, Gafoor became Creative Animation Director with the Nest company in Ernakulam, remaining for a year. He is also the founder of BMG Group, an animation company based in Kozhikode. He played a major role in establishing the Kerala Cartoon Academy and served as its founder secretary. He was also a key figure in establishing Calicut Art Gallery.

Gafoor died of a heart attack on 13 November 2003. He was aged 61. In his honor, Kerala Government has established an annual award named "Gafoor Smaraka Puraskaram".

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Abu Abraham

Born in Mavelikara, Kerala as the son of A.M. Mathew and Kantamma, Abu started drawing cartoons at the age of 3. After studying French, Mathematics, and English at University College, Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum) and being the tennis champion, he graduated in 1945. He moved to Bombay where he became a journalist in Bombay Chronicle and its sister paper, The Bombay Sentinel while contributing cartoons to Blitz and Bharat. In 1951, he was invited by Shankar, one of India's best known cartoonists at the time, to move to New Delhi to work in the Shankar's Weekly.

In 1953, he met Fred Joss of the London Star, who encouraged him to move to London.[2] At 32, Abu arrived in London in the summer of 1953 and immediately sold cartoons to Punch magazine and the Daily Sketch and started to contribute material to Everybodys' London Opinion and Eastern World using the pen name 'Abraham'. In 1956, after two cartoons were published in Tribune, he was sent a personal letter by David Astor, the editor of The Observer, the world's oldest Sunday newspaper, offering him a permanent job as its first ever political cartoonist. Astor asked Abu to change his pen name as 'Abraham' would imply a false slant on his cartoons, and so he settled on 'Abu', a schoolboy nickname of his.

Abu immersed himself in British culture and produced incisive political cartoons. He was described in The Guardian as "the conscience of the Left and the pea under the princess's mattress".He also produced reportage drawings from around the world. In 1962 in Cuba he drew Che Guevara and spent three hours in a nightclub with Fidel Castro.

In September 1966, Abu moved to The Guardian and started to contribute a weekly cartoon to the Tribune. During 1968 he edited Verdicts on Vietnam, a collection of cartoons about the Vietnam war.

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                                 Kutty

Kutty was born at Ottapalam, Kerala in 1921 to Kayarat Narayana Menon and Kottuthodi Lakshmi Amma. Kutty was educated at Ottapalam and Malabar Christian College, Kozhikode. Kutty's talent was discovered by the famous Malayalam satirist, Professor M. R. Nair (better known by his pen name "Sanjayan"). His first cartoon appeared in the Malayalam humor magazine Viswaroopam (edited by Sanjayan) in 1940.Rao Sahib V. P. Menon, a relative of Kutty's father and a senior official in the British Imperial Secretariat (New Delhi) introduced him to the famous Indian cartoonist Shankar. Shankar used to sketch cartoons for Hindustan Times and was looking for a trainee. V. P. Menon requested Shankar to train Kutty, who reached New Delhi on January 3, 1941. In those days, Jawaharlal Nehru (later India's first Prime Minister), a great admirer of Shankar's cartoons, was looking for a cartoonist for his newly-started English Daily, National Herald, published from Lucknow. Shankar trained Kutty for 6 months and recommended him for Nehru's newspaper. Kutty became staff cartoonist of National Herald (Lucknow). His first cartoon to appear in a daily newspaper was published in the National Herald January 15, 1941.

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R. K. Laxman

Rasipuram Krishnaswamy Iyer Laxman born 24 October 1921, Mysore, India) is an Indian cartoonist, illustrator, and humorist. He is widely regarded as India's greatest-ever cartoonist

and is best known for his creation The Common Man.R. K. Laxman was born in Mysore, in a Tamil Iyer family. His father was a headmaster and Laxman was the youngest of six sons. One of his siblings is R.K. Narayan, English languagenovelist.Laxman was engrossed by the illustrations in magazines such as Strand Magazine, Punch, Bystander, Wide World and Tit-Bits, even before he could read.Soon he was drawing on his own, on the floors,walls and doors of his house and doodling caricatures of his teachers at school; praised by a teacher for his drawing of a peepal leaf, he began to think of himself as an artist in the making. Another early influence on Laxman were the cartoons of the world-renowned British cartoonist, Sir David Low (whose signature he misread as "cow" for a long time) that appeared now and then in The Hindu.

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    K. Shankar Pillai

‏Kesava Shankara Pillai (Malayalam: കെ. ശങ്കര്‍ പിള്ള) (31 July 1902 - 26 December 1989), better known as Shankar,was an Indian cartoonist.
He is considered as the father of political cartooning in India. He founded Shankar's Weekly, India's Punch in 1948, which also produced cartoonists like Abu Abraham, Ranga and Kutty, he closed down the magazine in 1975 due to the Emergency then on he focus exclusively on children’s work. But the children  of   his times  ,be it in India or elsewhere in the world, see him as their uncle who did much to make them laugh and enjoy life.He was awarded Padma Vibhushan in 1976, India's second highest civilian honour given by the Govt. of India.Today he is most remembered for setting up Children's Book Trust established 1957 and Shankar's International Dolls Museum in 1965.

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