K C Sivasankar

K. C. Sivasankaran, known as “Chandamama artist Sankar”, drew the famous picture of King Vikramaditya walking away from a cremation ground with a corpse on his shoulder, the opening of every Vikram and Vetal story. He was named for the Padma Shri posthumously in 2021 in the field of art, from Tamil Nadu ^[1].

Art school

Sivasankaran was born on 19 July 1924 in Kolinjivady village near Dharapuram, now in Tiruppur district, and his family moved to Madras in the late 1930s ^[2]. His drawing teachers saw that his talent outstripped their own and urged him to become an artist ^[2]. In 1942 he joined the School of Arts in Madras, where his performance in the week-long entrance test earned him a place directly in the second year of the five-year course ^[2]. As student union leader he won free course materials for all students ^[2].

Six decades of Chandamama

He first worked for six years at the MLJ Press in Madras, which published the Tamil magazines Kalaimagal, Kannan and Manjari ^[2]. Then Nagi Reddy, the film producer who also published Chandamama, recruited him on his own terms of creative freedom ^[2]. He joined on 1 December 1952 and stayed for more than 63 years, until the magazine stopped publishing ^[2]. Over that time it grew from four languages to thirteen ^[2].

Turning down many better-paid offers, he stayed to do the work he loved ^[2]. His pictures alongside each story helped carry its moral home to children, and his drawings for the Ramayana and Mahabharata series brought gods, kings and queens to life ^[2]. The Vikram–Vetal drawing was later copyrighted in his name ^[2].

He was also a keen photographer, a member of the Madras Photographic Society, and won awards for his photographs ^[2].