ComicConquest

Fly-by-night operators - Miscellaneous

2016-03-29T23:39:00.000-07:00

(This is a Maxipost)

Hey hey hey Barbarians! This is the final chapter to my previously published two parted posts on fly-by-night publishers, yours truly in this post will spotlight on publishers whose details have been difficult to come by, since tracking physical issues from these publishers/line are difficult,information is scarce about many of these publishers and sometimes neither are their series details available nor their end date or start date.
The premise for including the names of the publishers included in this list are, Print Run, shelf life and a common language (English).
This post is a compilation and will be a work in progress, information will be updated as and when available.

1. Goldie Comics - XXXX - New Delhi
Genre ~ Humor,Detective
Publisher ~ RNC Print Publishing co.
Languages ~ English,Hindi
Characters ~ Buz Sawyer,Blondie
Detective series-Much before Buzz sawyer was introduced in IJC a small delhi based publisher had acquired it's rights and introduced him to the indian audience, under Detective series.
The books were larger than the standard IJC format and were printed in black and Orange instead of the practice of black and white format of smaller independent publishers.The first book in this series was "Who Dun it?" which is a reprint of Buzz Sawyer's 1940 run.

Goldie Comics Detective Series #1

2. Collector's Library - 1978 - Chennai
Genre ~ War
Publisher ~ Asia Features Chennai.
Languages ~ English,Tamil
Characters ~ Reprints Fleet way's War picture Library

3. Fleet Way Library Reprints - 1981 - New Delhi
Genre ~ Western,Girl Adventure
Publisher ~ Kiran Comics.
Languages ~ English,Hindi
Characters ~ Reprints Fleetway's Cowboy Picture Library and Girl's Adventure Library

4. Sun Comics - 1982 - New Delhi
Genre ~ Sci-Fi,Detective
Publisher ~ Sun Tabloids.
Languages ~ English,Hindi
Characters ~ Axa,Agent Vikram,Inspector Garud

5. Space Age Comics - 1977 - Bombay
Genre ~ Adventure,Humor,Detective
Publisher ~ K.R.Samant
Languages ~ English,Hindi
Characters ~ Shuja,Inspector vikram,Inspector Azad

6. Interprint Comics India - 1986 - New Delhi
Genre ~ Mythology
Publisher ~ Interprint India.
Languages ~ English,French
Characters ~ Various
Published in technical collaboration with the embassy of France, Large oversized magazine format, with 2 known issues.

7. Spectrum comics - 1985 - Bombay
Genre ~ Humor,Detective,Super Heroes,War
Publisher ~ Times Of India.
Languages ~ English,Hindi
Characters ~ Arak,Modesty Blaise,Juliet Jones,Spiderman,Dennis,Indian War Stories, Legion of Superheroes
Click "HERE" for more information.

8. Modern Classics - 1987 -
Genre ~ Super Heroes
Publisher ~
Characters: Superboy,Spiderman,G.I.Joe
Languages : English,Bengali
The Modern classics were published in Volumes, as per known information 10 comics were published in Volume 1 and 5 in Volume 2
The G.I.Joe comics were published in Volume 2 in association with Funskool toys,during their launch of G.I.Joe Toys line-up in India.
Click "HERE" for more Information.

9. Disney Classics - 1987 - Bombay
Genre ~ Disney Adaptations of Classics
Publisher ~ Bharat Mansukhani for Famous Publications.
Characters ~ Disney Characters
Languages ~ English

10. Blaze Publication - 1986 -
Genre ~ Humor
Publisher ~ Blaze Publications.
Characters ~ Disney Characters
Characters ~ Disney Fun,Disney Movies, Panchatantra, Superman

Blaze Publications Panchatantra #1

11. Chaturang Katha - 1983 - Bombay
Genre ~ Indian historical genre
Publisher ~ H.G.Mirchandani
Languages ~ English,Hindi,Malyalam
Characters ~ Various

Chaturang Katha #1

12. Adarsh Chitra Katha - 1981 - New Delhi
Genre ~ Indian historical genre & Humour
Publisher ~ Argus Central Enterprises,New Delhi
Languages ~ English,Hindi
Characters ~ Various
46 known issues were printed.

Adarsh Chitra Katha #1

13. STR Sachitra Katha - 1984 - Cochin
Genre ~ Indian history
Publisher ~ STR Journals
Languages ~ English,Hindi,Tamil,Malayalam,Bengali
Characters ~ Various

STR Sachitra Katha #1

14. Tan-Man Comics - 1987 - New Delhi
Genre ~ Fantasy
Publisher ~ IBH,New Delhi
Languages ~ English,Hindi
Characters ~ Hatim
6 known issues were printed

15. Tum-Tum Comics - 1992 - Bombay
Genre ~ Fantasy
Publisher ~ R.Kalyanaraman for Good Impressions
Languages ~ English,Hindi,Tamil
Characters ~ Arjun Space Warrior

16. Hemkunt Comics - XXXX - New Delhi
Genre ~ Fantasy
Publisher ~ IBH,New Delhi
Languages ~ English,Hindi
Characters ~ Various

17. Gaurav Gatha - 1980 - New Delhi
Genre ~ Indian Freedom Struggle
Publisher ~ Mrs.Santosh Puri
Languages ~ English,Hindi
Characters ~ Indian Freedom fighters

Gaurav Gatha #1

18. Katha Bharati - 1980 - New Delhi
Genre ~ Indian history
Publisher ~ Sanskar Bharathi Prakashan
Languages ~ English,Hindi,Tamil,Malayalam,Bengali
Characters ~ Various

Katha Bharti #1

There exists at least one more copy of this series with a different title but carrying the #1 Tag,Error Printing?

19. Cheeranjivi Katha - XXXX - Ahmedabad
Genre ~ Indian history/Mythology
Publisher ~ Enka Prakashan Kendra
Languages ~ English,Hindi
Characters ~ Various

20. Vidyarthi Mithram Comics - 1973 - Kottayam
Genre ~ Adventure/Action
Publisher ~ Vidyarthi Mithram,Kottayam
Languages ~ English,Malayalam,Tamil
Characters ~ Tarzan,Inspector Eagle,The Phantom(Tamil & Malayalam Only),Mandrake,Agent Vikram
Reprints Tarzan from swedish Tarzan "Aporna's Son" series.
Reprints Phantom & Mandrake from King's Syndicate Features.
Inspector Eagle and Agent Vikram were Characters Concieved and executed in India.

21. James Bond Agent 007 - 1988 - Chennai
Genre ~ Action
Publisher ~ Everest Publication.
Languages ~ English,Tamil
Characters ~ James Bond
Reprints Swedish Semic Comics James Bond in no order. Only 3 known issues

22. Lion & Lion-Muthu Comics English - XXXX - Sivakasi
Genre ~ Action & Humor
Publisher ~ Prakash Publication under license of Fleetway.
Languages ~ English,Tamil
Characters ~ The Steel Claw, Spider & Humor

24. Amit Comics - 1992 - Bombay
Genre ~ Action
Publisher ~ R.Kalyanaraman for Good Impressions.
Languages ~ English,Tamil
Characters ~ Detective Sankarlal

25. Paico Classics Indian Reprints - 1987 - Cochin
Genre ~ Classics
Publisher ~ Dinesh V Pai for Paico publications.
Languages ~ English,Malayalam,Tamil
Characters ~ Literary Classics

Paico Classics #1

26. Madhu Muskaan Comics - 1983 - New Delhi
Genre ~ Humor
Publisher ~ Everest Publication.
Languages ~ English,Hindi
Characters ~ Daku Paan Singh

27. Morgan Classics - XXXX - XXXX
Genre ~ Action
Publisher ~ XXXX
Languages ~ English
Characters ~ Tom & Jerry

28. Gowarson's Comics English - 1983 - New Delhi
Genre ~ Action,Adventure,Humor
Publisher ~ Gowarson's Publication.
Languages ~ English,Hindi
Characters ~ Taar, Lucky Luke, Asterisk, Famous Five, Iznogoud

29. Parkson's Mini Comics - 1988 - Bombay
Genre ~ Action
Publisher ~ Parkson's Publication.
Languages ~ English
Characters ~ He-Man

30. Bharthiya Chitra Katha - XXXX - New Delhi
Genre ~ Mythology/Humor
Publisher ~ Kucha Pati Ram.
Languages ~ English,Hindi,Bengali,Marathi
Characters ~ Various

31. Let us Know India - 1979 - New Delhi
Genre ~ History
Publisher ~ IBH
Languages ~ English,Hindi
Characters ~ Encyclopedia

32. Star comics - 1986 - New Delhi
Genre ~ Action,Adventure,3D
Publisher ~ Star Journals,New Delhi.
Languages ~ English,Hindi
Characters ~ Enid Blyton Famous Five,3D Comics
Were the first to introduce 3D comics in India,5 issues were printed in 3D format.
The Devils and the 3D glasses was borrowed heavily from Jack Kirby's 1953 3D comic A fight for a 3D world.

33 . Atul Comics - 1994 - Delhi
Genre ~ Humor
Publisher ~ IBH,Delhi.
Languages ~ English,Hindi
Characters ~ Hadbad Singh,Gadbad Singh
Based on the characters of "Tantri the Mantri" from Tinkle. Only 1 known issues

34. Mayur Comics - XXXX - Bombay
Genre ~ Action
Publisher ~ Dipak Agarwalla,Mayur Publications.
Languages ~ English
Characters ~ Cowboy Stories,Mamselle 'x',Agent Sefton Kane

Many collectors have talked about Mosaic Comics, however since these were printed in W.Germany and subscribed to an Indian Agency for distribution , your's truly has kept them beyond the ambit of an inherent Indian comics or Indian reprints.However reader's discretion is advisable on the distinction.
Mosaic Comics - 1986 - West Germany
Genre ~ Humor
Publisher ~ Vijay Stores subscription agency.
Languages ~ English,German
Characters ~ Abrafaxe
The ongoing series were translated from German to English for India (Mosaic), and were sent to Indian Subscription Agencies in Ahmedabad and Mumbai.The books were printed in the then West Germany.

Your's truly would like to thank the following people who contributed generously to Old Crom, and without whose inputs and contributions this post would have not been possible.
(names in no serial order)

Swaroop Chand,Vineeth Abraham,Shirish Kumar,Bhoopathi

* Legends - XXXX - Information is unknown at this point of time.

Note : All non-watermarked pictures have been taken form free sources and contributors,Credits to Original up loaders.
Few more unknown publishers have been tracked and will be added to the list soon! -- Stay Tuned

The Fly-By-Night Operators - Chellsons Comics

2015-12-07T06:59:00.001-08:00

Hey hey hey Barbarians! Sticking to my on going series on obscure Comics and publishers today yours truly will introduce you with another such player which lived a short life.
Chellsons Classics and Comics
Was published by the publisher with the same name during the early eighties from Shivakasi, Tamil Nadu.
Now Shivakasi is also very famous here in India for being the hub for manufacturing crackers.
The interesting story that goes is, since the crackers have very colourful ads and packaging which required a printing press,however the press were only in use during a specific time of the year and were lying idle that's when they decided to join the band wagon of printing comics.
As usual information is scarce but from whatever yours truly could gather it looks like they had intended to start with a classic line coloured comics in which they published Hercules and was supposed to be their flagship.
They also had a parallel line up of British comics by acquiring the rights through IPC magazines (Publishers of Commando,Mandy,Fleetway Library etc) in which they started printing characters which were not introduced by then in India.
IPC Magazines of UK had a basket of characters out of which a few Indian Publishers had already acquired the rights especially War Genre and Western Genre also some Publishers from Tamil Nadu had been successful in popularising "The Steel Claw" and "The Spider" by translating the stories in Tamil.
Chellsons hence decided to go along with the Spy Genre and to that they chose Top Secret(John Havoc),Girl Detective(Kim) and Mam'selle 'X' a world war 2 spy.

The Fly-By-Night Operators - AFI Comics

2015-11-14T09:28:00.001-08:00

Hey hey hey Barbarians! If you have gone through my last post HERE on rarity by Number Crunching, you would find that there’s a chunk of the pie which goes to Fly-by-Night operators. Fly-by-Night operators were publishers or series who joined the publishing boom but wrapped up quickly for various reasons thus leaving a footprint so small that it takes decades to track them.
This series of posts (which will be updated as and when Yours truly accumulates info on the go) will introduce to the readers to some such Series or publishers. A word of caution since information is scant readers are advised to share information with this blog so that posts can be updated with correct information.

First up is AFI Comics

Published by New World Publishers of Mumbai in early 70's and started with 3 characters in their line-up.
Rip Kirby, Agent Corrigan and Cisco Kid. They are the one who introduced characters Rip Kirby and Agent Corrigan to Indians much before Indrajal. The print quality of these books were very good and had Black n White interiors with a coloured cover page.
The books were sized at 4' * 6' which was odd even for that period being even smaller than the pocket sized books.
The fact that paper supplies had caused delay in prints maybe a reason or to cut printing,between 73-74 they had pretty much wrapped up and changed their business model. They held the rights to these characters and later supplied them to Indrajal comics in the early 80's.(Click HERE to know about first issues of Rip Kirby and Agent Corrigan)
Judging by their numbering it's possible that they had some other titles since yours truly have only seen numbers in 100's denominations.
Print run was also small the fact that AFI comics was priced at 1.75 in 1973 while the more popular Indrajal comics was priced at 1 and coloured with popular characters while AFI had literally unknown Characters,which lead them to close their shops by 74.

AFI #101 - First Issue (Photo courtesy Vineeth Abraham)

AFI Comics #102 (Credit:Indiancomiccovers.com)

AFI Comics #106

AFI Comics #108

AFI Comics #112

AFI Comics #116

IYTHO (In Yours Truly Honest Opinion) the AFI comics Agent Corrigan series was much ahead of it's times especially when you are talking about Virus warfare a step ahead of James "Shaken not Stirred" Bond!

Number Crunching for Rarity!

2015-09-29T23:50:00.000-07:00

Hey hey hey Barbarians!
For a long time now Yours trooly have been ranting about rarity of comics interlinked with number of copies produced.
Till now there was no tangible data as it's a black box and scarce info is available online.
However after some digging Yours trooly did come across an archived news report from 1982.
It looks like 1982 was the golden year for comic book publishers as the market grew 500% !
Yes in 1978 the overall comic market in India was 1 Cr which shot up more than 5 times to 5.5 Cr the sharpest in any year !

The data provided also shares the number of copies printed by the major publishers like IJC,ACK and other publishers from Delhi.
By making these a reference point and doing some back calculations a reasonable guestimate can be made about copies printed in 1970's and before.

Yours trooly have taken the liberty to create some charts for collectors so that they can use their reasonable intellect and separate the chaff from the wheat!

For the sake of simplicity and the sheer number of copies being printed we will call them "Big 4" which constitutes ACK, IJC, Chandamama and Diamond.

Also with some more archived reports the printing ratio in languages also gets clearer which on an avg is 5:2:3 i.e 50% of printed copies were in Hindi,20% in regional languages like Bengali,Tamil,Malayalam and the rest 30% in English.

The sprouting of numerous publishers in early 80's establishes a fact that it was a lucrative business. Down the line it lost it's steam due to mismanagement, same goes for IJC as the cancellation of the series is not coz of falling subscriptions but due to mismanagement.

Any comics published before 1978 is much rarer compared to comics published in 1980's unless published by fly-by-operators,simply because the number of printed copies were very less and the chances of their existing till today is pretty less as there was no secondary market for them.

Most of these copies would have got pulped ,lost, torn due to neglect unless coming from private collectors.

obscure publishers before 80's with a far lesser print runs will be that much more difficult to get.

So buckle up barbarians coz the way we know collecting is going to change!

External references-

1. http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/comics-become-money-spinners-of-indian-publishing-world/1/392121.html
2. http://homegrown.co.in/a-complete-timeline-the-evolution-of-comic-books-in-india-1926-present/

Key issue Alert! [Gotham Superman Adventures Issue #4]

2015-09-25T11:39:00.000-07:00

Hey hey hey Barbarians!

Come October 26 and 'SuperGirl' will invade small screen in an upcoming series. For some time now the "SuperHero" genre has been growing at 300% each year on the silver screen,but now the rivalry of the publishing giants "Marvel" and "DC" has spilt over to the small screen!
If Marvel hogged the start of the year with Daredevil, DC intends to repeat the same in the last quarter with SuperGirl.
Your's truly will not get into those details for which there are dedicated websites,after all this is no gossip mongering blog!

R&D has lead yours trooly to believe that the super villain casting role of this series has the potential of opening up new avenues !
Lately the internet is abuzz with introduction of "LiveWire" a supervillain in this series and have casted Brit Morgan,who is quite popular amongst fans! bottom line is, DC has a plan/future for this Character!
For the purpose of this blog a little bit of digging by yours trooly lead to a few facts

"LiveWire" just like "Harley Queen" was introduced as a supporting character for an all different animated series from the original line of Superman story arc called Superman Adventures.

Issue #5 of Superman Adventures introduced "LiveWire" her first appearance.

ebay has not many copies listed for this key book and prices have already been booming!

There exists an "Indian reprint" with the same title, albeit a different Issue done by Gotham way back in 1999, during their first stint!

This issue will soon be the Harley Queen of Superman ,keeping my fingers crossed !
So long Happy Hunting!

Complete Guide to Collecting Gotham Comics!

2015-09-17T05:13:00.000-07:00

(This is a Maxipost)

Hey hey hey Barbarians! If you are reading this post then chances are that just like yours truly you must have spent hours to unravel the mystery behind Gotham Comics!
Fret not!Yours truly too have spent hours in search not only online but from small street vendors to hyper malls and decided that its time to write a "Fools guide to Gotham Comics"!
Previously few topics were covered here and here but it's time now for a more comprehensive guide.
Gotham re-booted itself thrice in it's short lived existence of just over a decade, and now have mutated into "Graphics India" the term mutation is used as a metaphor here since Graphics India retains its old DNA from Gotham Comics and is re-re-printing stuff of the now defunct Gotham,with the only caveat that it re-prints creator owned characters like Devi,Sadhu etc.

Back to Gotham now, if you happen to check the wiki-page for Gotham you would get dazzled and hence this blog will give you the facts and no pandering on repeat mode to a celebrity!

1998 ~ Gotham's First Avatar - Books were standard issues comics format just like other American comics
Series highlights-
(Comics Format)
Batman Gotham Adventures
Superman Adventures
Superman
Batman
(Magazine Format)
Mad comics
Batman

Superman

2001 ~ Gotham's Second Reboot - Books got shortened into pocket books format,and 3 formats were introduced
Single issues,Double sized issues (2 issues together),Giant size issues(6 issues together ~ 140 Pages),{Special Formats ~ 200 Pages - subscription give-aways}

1.Marvel Comics Presents
2.Ultimate Spider-man
3.Amazing Spider-man
4.The Spectacular Spider-man
5.Spider-Girl
6.Ultimate X-Men
7.X-Men: The Hidden Years
8.Astonishing X-Men
9.Wolverine - For list of Wolverine published under Gotham click Here
10.DareDevil and The Marvel Knights
11.Fantastic Four
12.Fantastic Four Adventures
13.NightCrawler
14.The Incredible Hulk
15.The Avengers
16.Conan - For list of Conan published under Gotham click Here
17.Marvel Team-Up
18.Marvel Adventures
19.Batman Gotham Adventures
20.Batman Detective
21.Batman Beyond
22.Teen Titans
23.Superman
24.Superman and Supergirl
25.WonderWoman
26.Justice League Adventures
27.Thundercats
28.Tarzan
29.Tomb of Dracula
30.Flash
31.Planetary
32.Catwomen: When in Rome
33.Hawkman
34.DC Comics Presents
35.The Ultimates
36.Robotech
37.Dexter's Lab
38.Scooby Doo
39.The Powerpuff Girls
40.The Flintstones & the Jetsons

Movie Adptations

Spider-man 1,2

X-Men 1,2

Hulk

Giant Super Specials-

Total 72 in numbers Printed in India for Indian Markets - For list of Giant Super Specials published under Gotham click Here

18+ in my knowledge for Singapore Market and are called Singapore editions
Unknown quantity for Malaysia,Brunei etc called Malaysian editions

Both the Malaysian and the Singapore editions were different from Indian editions as they were printed on glossy papers and had a very good finish infact they were no lesser to modern day graphic novels and in some cases better. A few Giant size published for the Singapore,Malaysia markets were not printed for the Indian market

Uploading images of the unpublished Giant Size Super Specials which were not published in India!

Special Editions-
Superman,Spider-man,Marvel Presents

2006 ~ Gotham's second Reboot
Gotham along with Virgin comics and who's who of the industry forayed into adding Indian Mythological Characters

1.Devi
2.The Sadhu
3.Ramayan 3392 AD
For list of books published under these titles click Here

4.Spider-Man India

So long Gothamites Happy Collecting!

Indian Reprints of Famous International issues ! High Value!

2015-09-08T00:14:00.000-07:00

Hey hey hey Barbarians! Yours truly had been toying with this idea for long, to write a post on reprints of Major Key issues in India.
The value of these comics may not be so high in the eyes of Indian collectors but my experience tells me that they are constantly being sought by International buyers.The Comic industry especially in the US has undergone a sea change ,both the big houses Marvel and DC have been constantly re-booting the established characters every 2 years by killing and reviving them.This approach worked but fans realised that it's another marketing stunt to generate hype and en-cashing the hype.
Secondly a newer phenomenon of artificially creating rare comics through Variants.Variants are nothing but the same comic book with different covers,by limiting the number of covers printed an artificial demand and supply gap has been created.
Thirdly collectors have realised that US comics can be bought off the shelf any time ,you just need to have money to buy them there's no specific skill or networking required to obtain them.
Simply put the thrill of the hunt and the fun of collecting is missing hence a bigger shift for foreign variants!

Key issues Indian reprints-

1. The Amazing Spider-man #1 - First self titled series and issue of Spider-man 1963 - Current price in any condition copy Avg. price $2000+

Reprinted in India
First Reprint~Modern Classics in 1989 with the same title and issue and in as is condition.

Second Reprint~More recent reprint is by Diamond Comics Spider-man #6 ,in early 90's,
but, Diamond Comics reprints have a few differences, cover is not a complete copy, minor modifications and interior panels have only RGB colours

2. Action Comics #252 - First appearance of Supergirl - Avg. Price $1500+ and above.

Reprinted in India by Dolton comics in 1982.

3. Detective Comics #232 - First appearance of Ra's Al Ghul - current price of a Very Fine Raw copy Avg is $399

Reprinted in India by Gotham Comics in 2002 as Detective Batman #10

4. Conan the Barbarian #1- The coming of conan- First appearance of Conan in comic book format,first in a self titled issue 1970 - Current price in VF condition $250+

Reprinted in India
First Reprint~Falcon Comics in 1984 in the series Conan issue #2 under a different cover

Second Reprint~Gotham Comics also introduced Conan the barbarian however they started reprinting from "The Savage Sword of Conan" Magazine #186.This book has 2 stories the second story is a black&white reprint of Conan the barbarian #1.

5. Ultimate Spider-man #1 - Re tells the saga of Spiderman alebit differently 2000 - Avg price of a VF copy $100+

Reprinted in India by-
Gotham comics in 2001 with the same title and issue

6. Wolverine #145 - Avg price $50+

Reprinted by Gotham under Marvel Presents

7. the Amazing Spider-man - 9/11 commemorative issue - Avg price $70+

Reprinted in India by Gotham in 2001 however the Indian reprint is a variant edition as there were changes to the original making it a Foreign Variant of the Original!

8. The Amazing spider-man #121 - Death of Gwen stacy - Avg Price $200+

Reprinted in India by Diamond Comics in 1994 under a different cover

9. The Amazing Spider-man #122 - Death of Green Goblin - Avg Price $200 +

Reprinted in India by Diamond Comics in 1994 under the same cover in a pocket book size format although a full colour print but unfortunately the reprint uses only three primary colours! Strangely for some unknown reason the books were not printed in series.

10. Wolverine Origins - The back story of Wolverine's origin, 6 part story arc, issues trades at $100+

Reprinted by Gotham in 2001 under Giant Size Wolverine

Minor Key issue Reprints by Gotham

1. Batman: HUSH Complete Story Arc ~ Batman #608 -#619 ,Jim Lee art and famous for it's Original story line and Unique covers!

One of the most sought after covers is Batman #608 Retailer Variant-

Gotham's Interior cover of Batman #608 below!

2. Doomsday & Death of Superman

3. New X-Men ~ Wolverine cover "First appearance of of Precog"

4. Wolverine RRP Variant "Enemy of the state"

5. Movie variants (X-men 2 set of three,Spiderman 1 & 2,The Hulk)

6. Michael Turner's Supergirl German Variant (Superman & Batman #13)

Note: Non-Watermarked Comic Covers have been used from free internet sources under GPL licensing. Credits goes to Original posters!

Indrajal Comics Key issues and some lesser known facts!

2015-07-07T11:29:00.000-07:00

This is a Maxipost

Hey hey hey barbarians! This post is dedicated to would be and wannabe collectors! "Blast from the past" is a popular phrase in urban dictionary when something returns after an absence,mostly used with a satirical undertone.
Over a few years yours truly have been observing a pattern in the Indian comic scene,Collectors have mushroomed up with commercial interests in Indrajal comics and making it the holy grail of Indian comics.This is not at all that bad but always have conflict of interest.
Internet has somehow helped these commercial collectors to spread their wings and milking Indrajal comics which is the fad off late ,hence it's more important to as they say "getting the basics right"!
Indrajal's fan are aware of these facts however new collector's might not be aware and may get duped in this sudden surge of commercial activity!
Comics in general give a lot of importance to first prints/First issue and First appearances,trending with the same here are a few pointers on the same for people who are kick-starting their collection or looking to expand their existing ones.
A definitive guide to First appearances and prints in the IJC Universe!

Note: This post is not going to blurt out the same things about IJC's history which might have been beaten to death in wiki and general blogs.
this post has no intention of being a commercial exploit but only academic in nature.

Of Super - Heroes and Lesser Mortals!

In the beginning there was The Phantom,IJC gave him a self styled title since this character was widely subscribed through a monthly magazine called "The illustrated weekly of India" and quite popular with the readers.

IJC #1 and Phantom's self styled title is "The Phantom's belt" in 1964.Which also means that IJC #1 is not the first appearance of Phantom in India! Reprinted from the Sunday strip #37 originally printed in the Sunday strips in US.

IJC #47 is the first appearance of Julie Walker the Girl Phantom, reprinted from King Comics #20.King Comics introduced Julie Walker to be spun off into another line of comics however this project got shelved.

IJC #46 is the first appearance of Mandrake the magician in India and IJC both.This is a reprint from King Comics Mandrake #3.

IJC #50 "The Secrets Of the Phantom" this is a bumper issue having 5 stories which covers Phantom's Origin and other important stories in Phantom's timeline.

IJC #72 "The Tournament of Death" is the second appearance of Flash Gordon however it's the first full self titled issue of Flash Gordon in India.

IJC #75 "The Disturber" is the first Lee Falk story of mandrake in India.I guess it can be considered as a minor key.

IJC #267 "The Red Brick House" First appearance and Origin of Bahadur.

IJC #277 "The First Phantom" All mysteries of Phantom from his strange suite to his friendship with Bandar tribe it all haapens here.

IJC #284 "The White Ghost's Den" First appearance Bela

IJC #377 "The Monster Boys" First appearance of Buz Sawyer in India

IJC #379 "The Sting of Venom" First appearance of Lt.Drake in India.

IJC #383 "The Devils Domain" First appearance of Mike Nomad in India,Only 7 comics were printed

IJC #399 "The Wax Trap" First appearance of Rip Kirby,Desmond and Honey in India

IJC #420 "The Feindish Mission" First appearance of Garth

IJC Vol21 #14 "The Fury of the Sea Goddess" First appearance of Bruce Lee in comic format in India,In all only 4 comics were printed with Bruce Lee as the protagonist.

Other Key Issues

True Indian War stories -

IJC #197 To each his own

IJC #199 The Bridge Busters

IJC #202 The Tank Battle at Sukha Nallah

IJC #201 Treasure from No Man's Land

IJC #206 Operation JIG-3

True Indian Independence struggle stories-
IJC #212 On the sands of time

IJC #219 Kunhali Marakkar

IJC #223 Komagata Maru

IJC #247 The Indian Robinhood Sultana

Indian History and Folklore stories-

IJC #209 Ramcharit Manas Part 1

IJC #228 Ramcharit Manas Part 2

IJC #215 The City of Goddess
IJC #221 The King of Kausambhi
IJC #242 Bahubali (Being made into a major Movie with the same title)
IJC #261 The Ten Days
IJC #272 Mahabharata Part 1

IJC #278 Mahabharata Part 2

IJC #368 Bharat Bahubali

My 2 cents on Rarity of books/comics:
How do we come to a conclusion that a particular book is "Rare"? Internationallly there has been a few accepted parameters to claim rarity of a book.
A. The print run of a particular edition/Issue
B. The Condition in which the book has been found in usually like a good bad ugly on a 10 pointer.
C. The Year in which the book was printed.

There are organizations whose sole purpose is to grade books and do some research and catalogue them which is basically a matrix saying an X book was printed in the Year xxxx with a print run of Y numbers and this co. has only found Z no. of books in this condition.
So there is a possibility that only Z/2 no of copies would have existed from the year xxxx out of Y in "this" condition. (stats of extrapolation)
Although the bottom line is "One man's junk is another man's gold" but you still have some data to back up.
Nevertheless few other factors will also be that reprints can not out price originals which is a thumb rule but also subjective in nature.
Sadly all these parameters have been thrown out the window in the Indian context and rarity has been hijacked to "Word of Mouth" observations!

Unverified:
A certain hard bound Indrajal ,a set of 12 Comics has come into your truly's possession at this time information is scant whether it's a genuine book or not! Readers please share if you have any info on the same!
The look and feel seems genuine, perhaps an experiment for selected markets?

Epilogue:
Supply and Demand drives a market, Indian comics is in it's nascent stage of being called an investment vehicle!

Note : Many covers displayed are from free sources and hence have not been watermarked. Some Characters have been omitted from being considered based on popularity derived from independent sources.

Sup's Desi Avatars!

2015-01-01T10:10:00.000-08:00

Hey Hey Hey Barbarians!

Between the 80's when the comic industry was booming,hoards of publishers entered the Indian market using licensed reprints.
And where else will you start unless you unleash the big gun of the comic industry.
The early 80's flooded Superman reprints all over us and at one point of time there were 4 publishers publishing Superman from different time lines of DC history!
Primarily Kiran Comics, Star Comics, Dolton Comics and Modern Classics. And yes they also published bumper issues during the summer holidays!

Kiran Comics - Superman #1

Star Comics Superman Vol1 #6

Star Comics Superman Vol1 #8

Star Comics SupermanVol2 #2

Star Comics Superman Vol2 #3

Star Comics Superman Vol2 #6

Star Comics Superman Vol2 #7

Star Comics Superman Vol2 #10

Star Comics Superman Vol2 #11

Star Comics Superman Vol2 #13

Star Comics Superman Vol2 #15

Star Comics Superman Vol2 #16

Star Comics Superman Vol2 #17

Star Comics Superman Vol2 #18

Star Comics Superman Vol2 #21

Star Comics Superman Vol2 #24

Star Comics Superman Vol3

Star Comics Superman&Batman Digest #2

Dolton Comics Superman Special

Dolton Comics Superman Vol1 #1

Dolton Comics Superman Vol1 #4

Dolton Comics Superman Vol1 #10

Dolton Comics Superman Vol1 #11

Dolton Comics Superman Vol1 #13

Dolton Comics Superman Vol1 #15

Dolton Comics Superman Vol1 #19

Dolton Comics Superman Vol1 #21

Dolton Comics Superman Vol1 #22

Dolton Comics Superman Vol1 #23

Dolton Comics Superman Vol1 #24

Dolton Comics Superman Vol2 #6

Dolton Comics Superman Vol2 #11

Dolton Comics Superman Vol2 #15

Dolton Comics Superman Vol2 #17

Dolton Comics Superman Vol2 #20

Dolton Comics Superman Vol2 #23

Dolton Comics Superman Vol2 #24

Dolton Comics Superman Vol3 #1

Dolton Comics Superman Vol3 #2

Dolton Comics Superman Vol3 #5

Dolton Comics Superman Vol1 #6

Dolton Comics Superman Vol3 #8

Dolton Comics Superman Vol1 #10

Dolton Comics Superman Vol1 #11

Dolton Comics Superman Vol1 #12

Dolton Comics Superman Vol1 #14

Dolton Comics Superman Vol3 #16

Modern Classics Superman Vol1 #2

Modern Classics Superman Vol1 #3

Modern Classics Superman Vol1 #10

Modern Classics Superman Vol2 #1

Judge for yourself the anthology of Sup's Desi Avatars and let Old Crom know that yours truly did gift ye all this new Moon!

PS: I'm intentionally leaving out the Gotham publication as it doesn't fits the time frame!

The making of Bahadur - Tidbits from the Indrajal Universe

2014-08-03T10:11:00.001-07:00

Hey hey hey Barbarians,
there are points in the timeline of every publication which becomes a defining moment for them, etching their contribution forever.
Issue #267 in Indrajal comics timeline was also such a defining moment in which the character of 'Bahadur' was introduced to the readers.

By far and large there were no colloquial or if i may say so an Indian hero before him in circulation. Bahadur rose quickly among readers and achieved a cult status.
Bahadur also connected a chord with Indians because of other social realities before us , It was a time of struggle between old ethos and new realities spilling the underbelly of discontent.
Bahadur represented a picture of a young Indian who was angry,discontented and wanted vengeance.Whether he gets engulfed in his own fire or he becomes the spark of change is what the book is all about.Released in 1976 just after the phenomenal success of 'Sholay' on the silver screen written by Abid surti and drawn by B.Govind. Both were hugely successful in depicting visuals akin to cinematic angles with a good pace in the story.
The story revolves around a village which is on the cross hairs of the dangerous dacoit gangs of Chambal*,and in the village lies the red bricks house of Bahadur,whose father was an aide of the dacoit gangs.However he gets killed by Inspector Vishal during a raid,left behind with young vengeance seeking Bahadur and his old mother.
In respective raids on the village the Red Bricks house never gets targeted as being identified by the gangs as an old ally.

This is also a reason why the villagers do not trust Bahadur. The indifference of the villagers combined with the constant reminder of losing his father makes him a bitter man.
Bahadur decides on killing inspector Vishal who is posted in another station of a different village,but fate had it's own plans Inspector Vishal seeks out Bahadur after getting a tip-off from the villagers.

He lands in Bahadur's house bound by the Indian ritual of "thou shall not kill thy guest" Bahadur is forced to listen to him.
Inspector Vishal bursts the bubble of Bahadur's father beings a la' robin-hood and takes him to seek the truth for himself.

Bahadur realizes his bitter ways and vows to amend the wrongs by forming a citizen security force but gets ignored due to the trust deficit between him and the villagers.
Meanwhile Shamsher singh raids the village and Bahadur's mother gets hit by Sahmasher singh's bullet and she confesses to the truth of Bahadur's father before dying,Bahadur vows to eradicate dacoits and their ilk.

A desperate encounter follows between Bahadur and Shamsher Singh's goons in which he outwits them and becomes a hero in the eyes of the villagers.He refrains from killing Shamsher Singh and hands them over to Inspector Vishal,Inspector Vishal helps Bahadur in getting the bounty of Shamsher Singh's capture with which Bahadur forms the Famous 'Citizens Security Force'and the rest as they say is History!

Hojo's Secret - Tidbits from Indrajal Universe

2014-07-05T10:26:00.000-07:00

Indrajal's spell lasted for a good 27 years on the Indian comic lovers.
The most unique thing about it is, Indians relate Comics to Indrajal!
During a short visit to my co-brother's place suddenly Indrajal came up in a mundane conversation and I was surprised to learn that
my co-brother had a lot of info on tidbits from Indrajal !
As I surf the net I realized there are actually thousands of blogs dedicated to the only phenomenon that happened to the Indian Comic industry.
However I hardly see any posts to the happenings or the defining moments in the Indrajal Universe.

Let your's truly elaborate,Well Phans(Phantom fans) know that the 21st Phantom is "Kit Walker" but in which issues did these defining moments takes place in Indrajal universe around the popular characters?

These tiny "Tid-bits" will be regularly updated as a post in this line called "Tidbits from Indrajal Universe".

Let's start with a Tidbit for this post!

"Hojo" is an interesting character in Indrajal Universe.
Asian, fat, has strength to down even Lothar, is a 10th degree black belt,
knows 14 languages and can speak 10 more, Yet he works as a cook for Mandrake!

What's the catch for this extremely jovial learned guy to work as a cook?
The mystery gets solved in Indrajal's Issue 298 - The Master Criminal

It starts one fine day in Xanadu(the super fortified) residence of Mandrake,when Zed the col. of Inter-intelligence arrives at his residence for breakfast.
Zed 's innocent question crops up a lot of questions when he observes that the ever smiling master chef Hojo's breakfast was excellent however why such a learned person like him works as
a cook for Mandrake.

Mandrake explains that it was Hojo's wish and someone's recommendation (he couldn't remember who) however the pact was that mandrake will not ask questions on Hojo's personal life!
Things take an ugly turn when Mandrake and Lothar is summoned the very next day that Inter-intelligence(Interpol in Indrajal Universe) has been raided by 8(a criminal gang).
"8" was successful in planting a bomb which fortunately didn't go off and hence the mystery! The chief(a robot face to a human voice - no one knows who's the chief!) wants an explanation!

Meanwhile Zed comes out with a theory that only 4 people where privy about inter-intelligence (zed,mandrake and Lothar) and Hojo who went on a holiday just after their breakfast the day before and since they themselves r out of suspicion only Hojo remains.
Mandrake and Lother then sets out on a cat and mouse chase after Hojo,

leading them back to Inter-Intell's HQ

here in a 1 to 1 chat Hojo reveals hi true identity.
Behind the Robotic face and the robotic voice of the chief at inter-Intel sits Hojo! Who works as a cook at Mandrake's house to avoid any suspicion.

Guess who recommends Hojo as a cook at Mandrake's residence none other but Zed!

will be back with more soon!

Return of 'The Phantom' !

2014-05-31T23:28:00.002-07:00

The Indrajal era had come to an end by the 90's,however the popular characters of Phantom and Mandrake was seeing publication through Diamond comics (A new Delhi based Publisher).
These were stories for which rights had been acquired through King's syndicate features. Few from my Own collection-

Issue #8

Issue #13

Issue #14

Issue #31

Issue #32

Issue #39

Issue #40

Issue #41

Issue #45

Issue #47

Issue #54

Issue #65

Diamond Comics ceased the publication in 2000 and 'The Phantom' saw a re-incarnation with Egmont publications.(Indian express Egmont Publications Ltd.)

However the difference from previous publication history was they translated Scandinavian Phantom books to English.

Issue #1

Issue #6

Issue #9

Issue #13

Egmont's subsidiary euro books started publishing 'The Phantom' in India from the year 2000 onward.
Initially they started with a single 'The phantom' story with a backup mandrake story but soon,changed their format to 2 in 1 and later 3 -in-1 concepts.where 2 stories in one book and three stories in one book were introduced.

Both Diamond comics and Egmont have stopped publishing 'Phantom' comics but in between they come up with the reprints under different covers.

Scandinavia have had a rich diet of 'Phantom' since long, Uploading 2 books which my colleague gifted to me in Sweden from his own personal collection.(Thanks to David)

With the beautiful Christmas Pin-Up Adios from Your's truly!

Disney's Comics , Zorro The Fox !

2014-05-18T00:30:00.003-07:00

India saw a late resurgence of Disney's characters years after it was well established.
Chandamama children's trust or Chandamama publications is largely responsible for introducing whole heatedly to Indian readers. Chandamama had successfully been publishing mythological magazines before and was well entrenched with readers, and decided to plunge in the lucrative comic industry in October 80.

There were some previous attempts in the 60's by Times Of India through Indrajal comics but lasted a few issues.
Chandamama set up the whole range of Disney characters in two separate lines.

A. Classics and comics which featured the popular Disney characters like Mickey Donald and also a regular feature dedicated to Zorro the fox.

Although Zorro was previously given an issue in 1967 by Indrajal comics #37 but was a one issue feature till Chandamama establishing a dedicated for Zorro starting from Issue #3 of Classics and comics.
Wonder World #3 reprints Dell #882 as re-represented by Alex Toth and made famous by Disney!

Wonder World issue #2

The Zorro Ad in issue #2

Wonder World issue #3 also the first issue of Zorro the Fox!

Wonder World issue #18

Wonder World issue #10

B. Book shelf series featuring complete story lines from Disney's movie lines.
The Book shelf series was intresting as it adopted movies Issue #1 Started with adoption of jungle book,which was a huge success.
From there on Book shelf series had very popular offerings like -
The black hole,Peter Pan,Return from witch mountain etc.

Book Shelf issue #1

Book Shelf issue #2

Book Shelf issue #8

Spider-man in India

2014-04-05T12:36:00.000-07:00

When the first Hollywood made Spider-man was released in May 2002 ,it broke all prior records in the box office of any Hollywood Movie in India and also establishing a fact that Spider-man in India is there to stay !
Does Spider-man have a history in India? Let's try to piece together this puzzle.
"Doordarshan" introduced India to Spider-man through it's hugely popular cartoon show airing on Saturday afternoons,but what about the original comic medium in which Spider-man was introduced to the world?
Every collector will agree that the most important comics in the life time of a character is it's first appearance and it's first issue of its own series.
In fact since Spider-man comics are the most collected comics around the world these books commands a record price over their heads.Going by that logic should this character débuts in a different market ,the characters origin are also published to make the new readers aware of the character's legacy which is independent of the time in which they were introduced in the new market.

India's comic culture and publication history being highly fragmented read as "multi-lingual" and been monopolized for a long time by only one player tracking the history of any character if put simply in words is an uphill task!

1.The first appearance of Spider-man in India is through Allied publishers Falcon comics which reprinted the Marvel Tales reprint of Amazing Fantasy #15 1984. After this they do not follow any numerical denomination like it's original series but in fact starts printing in self styled sequence.

From my own Collection-

Falcon Comics Spider-man Issue #1

Falcon Comics Spider-man Issue #2

Falcon Comics Spider-man Issue #3

Falcon Comics Spider-man Issue #4

2.I had my doubts over it, but research also brought me the fact that Spider-man 1 was printed in 1989 by a publisher called Modern classics,Modern classics was from the house of Chandamama and also had a line up of "Boyhood legends of Superman",but the Spider-man line fizzled out.
This print is also the only cover-to cover Indian reprint!

Collecting Spider-man #1 reprint from Modern Classics!

3.Spectrum Comics during 1986 the TOI group's new title printed a few Spider-man comics out of sequence and by 1987 they had also closed shops.

Collecting Spectrum's run of Spider-man

4.Diamond Comics a Delhi based publisher acquired the rights to publish Spider-man in 1994, These were digest format books using famous Amazing Spider-man books as covers.

Diamond Comics Amazing Fantasy #15 reprint - 1st Print

Couldn't help noticing Spider-man's speech bubble which they dropped in their subsequent reprints!

Key Issue : Diamond Comics Spider-man #4 Reprints Marvel's The Amazing Spider-man #121 & #2 Reprints Marvel's ASM #122!

5.By far and large, Gotham Comics is the only publishing house which did justice to Spider-man in it's existence of less then a decade.They published most of the line-ups of Spider-man from Marvel Universe.They came in a collaboration with Stan-lee and Marvel to launch Spider-man India (with Pavitra Parulkar from Mumbai) which is a coupé in itself!
They also published Ultimate Spider-man line-up,Marvel adventures and Spider-man Manga series. Gotham is truly the golden period of Comics in India.

Collecting Gotham's line-up of various Spider-man Avatars like Ultimate Spider-man,Spider-man India,Spider-man Manga,Team Up!

6.Marvel Comics(marvel adventures) - Marvel finally took the plunge in the Indian market, sometime in 2010 and introduced Marvel adventures Spider-man series lasting for 30 odd issues. This was also Marvel's only direct foray!

Issue #1 of Marvel Adventures Spider-Man

Over the years not many publisher took the Indian market seriously, however the love of Bug eyed boy still lives on in India, as the old "Doordarshan" lit the fire way back and you are in it's web!

The Mythical Spectrum - Spectrum Comics

2014-01-05T02:06:00.003-08:00

Hey Hey Hey Barbarians!
In my quest to introduce my readers with nostalgic comics and re-introduce them to "Reading is Fun!",I will take a "Post" break from my ongoing series of "The Reprints"!
Pray Why?
Yours truly got hold of a rare catch of the very short run "Spectrum Comics"!These books had such a small print run that even Yours Truly did not had one!
Spectrum Comics - was started in 1986 by Times of India which was also into publishing "Indrajal Comics" which was running successfully for 20 years by then.
They Editor in it's introductory message wrote that how Indrajal comics had broken the myth that reading comics was bad for Kids and now they are going ahead with their plans of introducing new heroes and newer adventures.

The book also boasts the Debut of "Modesty Blaise" there were a couple of Tamil publishers but none in English.Same can be said of Arak. Flash and Jonah Hex although Yours truly have not seen a single copy of those books yet.
The books were actually smaller compared to the standard size comics and had glossy color pages with painted covers.The color quality was a lot wanting maybe because of production costs and Spectrum's small print run!
Somewhere in 88 they had decided to wind up and that has caused a real scarcity.
Uploading the covers from my collection - Collecting #1,2,4,5,6,24,25,26,27,28

The Editors Note in #1

Spectrum #1 - Also Modesty Blaise's debut!

Juliet Jones was a 1953 strip !Got critical acclaim for it's panels

Spectrum #4 Back Cover

Incidentally I also have the Swedish Version of this story in Agent -X9

New back cover from #24

So they had Modesty Blaise,Arak- The Son of Thunder,Spider man, Dennis the Menace,Jonah Hex and Flash.Even today on the internet there are hardly any pages online on Spectrum!

Let Old Crom not grumble that I did not present ye all Barbarians a New Year's Gift!

The Reprints - DC London Edition Magazine

2013-12-30T09:03:00.000-08:00

Hey Hey Hey Barbarians! Lasti-sh we checked with Marvel's reprint with Panini,but can DC remain far behind?
Dc started Superman and Batman reprints monthly in the UK using London Editions Magazines under license.
When Egmont bought Fleetway Publications from IPC in 1991, London Editions was merged with it,
with the combined company known as Fleetway Editions. They also had a line up of DC heroes in various varying publications like
Zones, DC Action, Heroes and Shockwave.In 1996 this became Egmont Fleetway,
and post 2000 Fleetway's name vanished from the titles, and Egmont Publishing took over printing the company's comics

uploading some covers from my own collection..

Will return with more soon..By Crom!

The Reprints - Marvel Pocket Books

2013-12-27T08:22:00.001-08:00

Hey hey hey Barbarians ! Hope old Crom treated ye'all well this Christmas!
Yours truly had a big catch of large out of print this Christmas which will be presented over time!
But for now with all the niceties kept in the cupboard let's delve deep into the serious business of reprints.

Most of us in this galaxy of comics some time or the other have come across books which have the same cover and content and yet,
the value for them remains missing.In fact reprints are a great way of introducing new people to old pantheons in an inexpensive way.

About 9 years back I use to frequent allies of Mumbai to "landmark" almost every week-end,during one such outing i came across
Marvel pocketbooks by Panini.These were not the UK published b/w pocketbooks published in late eighties.
This series of ongoing reprints hasn't got much attention - I didn't find any mention of any official site.
Published by Panini, who hold the Marvel license through Panini UK, and have produced a series of "Marvel Pocket Books"
reprinting Marvel issues from all eras in a color, digest format.In fact they used digitally enhanced colors, with glossy pages.

Recently i don't see them anymore in the book stores , uploading from my collection

Fantastic Four: Doomsday

Reprints Fantastic Four #52-60

Fantastic Four: Where Stalks The Sandman

Reprints Fantastic Four #61-67 & Annual #4

Hulk: The Coming Of Hulk

Reprints The Incredible Hulk #1-6

The Invincible Iron Man: The Tragedy and the Triumph

Reprints Tales Of Suspense 91-99, Iron Man/Submariner 1 & Iron Man 1-4

The End of the Green Goblin

Reprints Amazing Spider-Man #39-46, though Annual #3 has been left out

To Kill A Spider-Man

Reprints Amazing Spider-Man #53-61

Silver Surfer: Origins

Reprints Silver Surfer #1-5

X-Men: Magneto Triumphant The Uncanny

Reprints X-Men # 104-117

Will come back with more soon, By Crom!

In A Galaxy Far Far Away...

2013-11-04T00:37:00.002-08:00

Hey Hey Hey Barbarians!

Long time no see,Yeah your's truly was caught between festivals.Well we look forward to something in our monotonous lives, In b/w these festivals your's truly was also busy in collecting and sourcing some rare books,during such a conversation one of my contacts in the west asked me about Indian comics and it struck me that I haven't written anything on newer genres of Indian comics.

During this age where most of the things are going social a hard copy is increasingly getting obsolete,same goes for the Indian market,production houses
are increasingly finding it difficult to sustain cost with rising input costs and dwindling markets.
yours truly picks some of the happenings from the Indian comic scene.

1. Ravanayan     -     Holy Cow Entertainment
   Artists   -    vivek goyal
   Story             -    vivek goyal/Vijayendra Mohanty

   Summary      -    The world only sees the triumph of good over evil,Ramayana is a story laying down the modalities of Indian civilization, more than 7000 years ago,Ramayan depicts actions and consequences but when The protagonist is bound to this cosmic world with his duties can it be that his arch nemesis is not? Ravanayan explores The duties and actions of Ravana the vanquished and the dharma he viewed with his own lenses.

   Review - It's not a new concept but yes getting it in comic format is new.The Cover pages are well done,especially the depiction of the popular 10 heads/faces of Ravana on issue #1 cover.The Fight with the gods cover on Issue #4 is very good as well and worth mentioning. Coming to interiors, panels have been removed by sketches as splash pages with brown background,my opinion would be actually to go for detailed pencil sketches with grey inking.Overall a good read.

2. Aghori    -    Holy Cow Entertainment
   Artist        -       Vivek Goyal
   Story        -        Ram V

   Summary    -    "For Matured Readers" Present day Vira the Aghori has a violent past and he is in serch of answers which had turned his life into a living hell. He took an unothodrox education to seek the answers and become an Aghori What are these questions what does the Aghori do?

   Review - A very well written book with dark content and good artwork and intuguing story.The cover and the back cover is both awesome.Real good work in making.

3. Ware- house    -    Holy Cow Entertainment
   Artist                -    Vivek Goyal
   Story                -    Akshay/Soumya/Shweta
   Summary         -    Horror Fiction
   Review    - This reminds me of "tales of mystery" from EC horror flicks the artwork which made those books much sought after unfortunately is lacking here.
   But all the 3 stories are good and actually gives a sense of belonging to the book.

4. Aveon9    -    Rovolt Entertainment
   Artist      -    Abhishek Malsuni
   Story         -    Shamik Dasgupta

   Summary    -    Sci-fi adventure inspired by Indian mystical classics.
   Review   -    what happens when StarWars meets Chandrakanta? An imaginary world of Starwars - Long long ago in a galaxy far far away. with editor as Ron Marz who is like the who's who of comic industry production, presentation and art can only go to newer heights. I will appreciate the Art the colors and the presentation, not since now defunct Virgin (Devi,Sadhu,Ramayan 3392 AD) have i seen so much professionalism in creating a book in Indian Market.Having said that I would like to see a better story where readers would wait for the next episode to hit the stands.

5. Damned    -    Chariot Comics
   Story          -    Aniruddho Chakraborty
   Artist          -    Tarun/Rohit

   Summary    -    In a Future not far from today exists shapeshifters,immortals,socerers and the likes.When a top Industrialists gets kidnapped,A sorcerer mercenary named Anga is hired whose motivation is unknown.

   Review     -      Interesting Artwork which is heavily inspired by modern art canvases with big splashes,In fact the size of the book is bigger
   than contemporary comic books.The overall layout is dark and reflects the dark mood of the Damned.Cover art uses different shades of Brown. Interiors have a lot of action I didn't like the page layout as it is difficult to understand the paneling with cross panel expressions.

Although I'm tempted to add Daksh and Odiyan from Level 10 but to do justice it will have to be in a new post!Till then Barbarians ..
happy hunting, n'uff said!

The Greatest Heroines Of Comicdom!

2013-08-20T11:53:00.001-07:00

Hey Hey Hey, Barbarians!

Figure-atively speaking Marvel has a monopoly in this scene.
Not only by the sales figure and appearances on the movie screens which is trending now, but the amount of anthology present infornt of us is huge.
No sooner yours truly had started penning this topic,some figures had already crossed his mind to establish a strong content.

After quite some deliberations yours truly lined them up thus on the ramp-

1.Elektra - The European lady had by far exceeded all expectations when featured in her own movie.Starting as a back-up character in DD by Frank Miller she had everything from Kung-fu to appeal, but really what was that really placed her apart for the top slot? I think it's her unique costume!

2.Vampirella - Ok the vampire part kept aside,where our lady goes on a hunt to suck blood(only when in need) she has her own fan base over the years although no movie has come out yet but she does enjoy her provocative comic presence.

3.Red-Sonja - Yeah she had a movie dedicated to her and her first appearance was on SSOC #1 with Conan the barbarian.She clinched this spot because of her Armour which helped her more in making a style statement rather than in war!

4.Ms.Marvel - If you happen to know what a feminist stands for she's the one,has been around in the comic industry for 40 + years with so many revivals but have always come on top.

5.Black Widow - So Scarlett did her justice in Avengers,as depicted she is sexy and dangerous,her black dress has given her glamor which has become synonymous with assassin personification in hollywood.

6.Medusa - A checkered history(the Inhumans) but a strong female vocalist ,she's the no nonsense type who would spank you if you cross her.True friends!"Spidy" got the kick as well.But hey her long autonomous hair is like mythology rehashed (name and trait) to comicdom.

7.Angela - was with image but marvel won her over , ok doesn't bothers me First appearance in spawn #9 is a bounty hunter Angel hunting out devil-spawns she is cool with her spear.

Now there’s a bunch of characters who i would like to feature spider-woman,she-hulk,Tigra,Shanna and team players like phoenix and scarlet witch ,but hey this is a countdown and somebody got to loose.

my 2 cent on it ! By Crom!

The Lone Ranger

2013-06-29T00:02:00.001-07:00

Hey hey hey Barbarians!
Was lazing around the Idiot box last night, and after flipping a few channels saw Johnny Depp's Interview on the upcoming movie - The Lone Ranger.
That send me reeling in the past ,Sure we are going through interesting times!
I see the growing clout of Comics on Hollywood ,whether Hollywood has run out of Original ideas or Publishers have now a strangle hold over the studios is a debatable question.

But your's truly's political views are his own and neither this blog endorses politics and debates ha ha ha!

Coming back to Our Lone Ranger i'm sure many(at least in my country) would have questioned about the protagonist's popularity!
Yeah, but Pop culture is more or less inspired by this guy,Long ago in the dawn of Pop culture when our daily doze of sound bytes came from a box called Radio,
The lone Ranger spawned an inspired tale of a Masked Texas ranger with his Red Indian associate Tonto and his Silver horse to fight injustice.(There are others as well like Zorro)
The Popular Radio show also culminated in news strips and Comics.
The Original Comic format publisher of the Lone Ranger title being DELL Comics somewhere in the 40's,and sure it was huge success.
The idiot box soon followed suite and by the 60's The lone ranger was securely entrenched in the mass media.

Dell Comics "The lone Ranger" was very successful and lasted for 20 odd years!These books had painted covers and line drawings like we see in the golden age books of classic's Illustrated.
Soon after that it was taken over by Gold Key (reprints?)the last i know Lone ranger being published by Dynamite now.
Uploading a few books from my own collection TLR -#107 Dell 1957 and TLR #7 Gold Key 1969

Interestingly The 2013 Movie's Trailer was unveiled in San Diego Comic-con.
So wipe out those quizzing looks from your faces coz The Lone Ranger has a history of 80 years,India being the second biggest market of Hollywood movies we are yet to test the waters ,but then so was Iron Man eh!

My 2 cents on it, By Crom!

Comic Con Bengaluru - 2013

2013-06-02T07:44:00.001-07:00

Hey hey hey Barbarians,

Today was the closing day of Comic Con 2013 Bengaluru edition.So your's truly turned up.
MSM had by the way given this event a pass except the in your town pages with a small article.
The article basically discribed how big partners have got themselves associated with ComicCon turning around it's fate!
To cut a long story short it was a PR job talking about publicity and revenues,well i decided to check the entire thing myself.
I had been to the last edition of Comic Con in 2012 sometime in september ,check out my blog Comic Con Express 2012.

Here in India there is a biscuit which is quiet famous known as Hide&Seek,the USP of this biscuit is, it is a normal biscuit but sprinkled with chocolate chips, and not a chocolate biscuit.

So what is this biscuit business all about? To start with in the entire indoor stadium there were only 7-8 shops selling comics otherwise the entire place was filled with people selling posters,USB sticks ,sketch pens ,marvel merchandises and tid bits! There were launch of some indigenous media houses in comics Aghori,The caravan etc.

Rest apart there was no representation from the comic fraternity what so ever. Sad i had thought they will catch up but i was living in fool's paradise.
The truth is Comic Con has become a merchandise expo in the garb of comics!
Dark horse had a shop and imagine in their shop they didn't educate anything about "The walkin dead" not even a comic was present! yeah it was annoying Hachette India selling TPB's from eon's old marvel catalogues which has no significance in the marvel universe.

I walked up to a store and asked the publisher that his title looks like a Naruto rip off and he just shrugs...
well I had thought that this will be the right platform to bring about a change in educating people of the ongoing trends in the comic universe(San Diego) but it was not to be.

Hence for the first time i'm not uploading any pictures in this blog post.
Comic Con Bengaluru we had a lot of expectation and it turned out to be a prop show and merchandise expo!

R.I.P you have lost one enthusiast here , by Crom!

Rocketeer! Dave Stevens

2013-03-24T08:29:00.000-07:00

Hey hey hey Barbarians!

lastish we checked out Marvel's awesome offering of Conan,so today it is right that we give equal time to some independent publishers and their awesome work.
The gentleman's name is Dave Stevens,Dave who?

Came across this book Pacific presents #2 Rocketeer which yours truly recollected had seen a movie of the same name way back in the 90's.I dug up and learned about "the book came first and movie followed syndrome", and more about the artist of the series Dave Stevens.

The Rocketeer is an adventure story set in a pulp-fiction-styled 1930s, in the pre WWII setup about a down-on-his-luck pilot named Cliff Secord who finds a mysterious rocket pack.First he uses the rocket pack to woo his Hollywood aspiring model girlfriend(characterized on the lines of Betty page) but soon uncovers a massive Nazi conspiracy in which he gets entangled unknowingly.
It also has some high flying thrills when Secord's jet pack tanks off and he goes in a free fall dramatically saved by hanging on another plane's wing!
Page after page panels depicting Steven's vintage setup and fabulous splashes creates a believable script which is far from superhero genre being fed to the readers.

Steven's art and originality gives this title and the era a much needed freshness which was absent in the early 80's.
Worth noting is the research that he had done in depicting planes ,1930's N.Y he had actually gone to aerodromes scouting for planes which were well preserved and successfully captured the essence!
Uploading some panels from the book -

Rocketeer was released in 1982. Those first stories appeared as a second feature in issues #2 and #3 of Pacific Comics' Starslayer series. For its next two installments, Steven's feature moved to Pacific Presents #1 and #2. The fourth chapter ended in a cliffhanger that was later concluded in a lone Rocketeer comic released by Eclipse.
Despite its erratic publishing history,Rocketeer leaves a lasting impression on the minds of the reader's and proved to be one of the first successful features to emerge from the burgeoning independent comics movement.

By Crom!

Sword Vs Sorcery - Savage Sword Of Conan

2013-03-05T10:25:00.003-08:00

Hey hey hey Barbarians!

Ever wondered if at all there was a time in which all the collective minds came together to build something Hyperborious?
Well back in time between conan the barbarian comic books being a success and Arnold became a superstar Roy thomas was convinced that to adopt the story lines of REH and to do justice to the collective band of fantabulous artists like Boris ,John,Giordano ,Neal Adams to name a few, something radical was required.
Out came the magazine Savage Sword of Conan under Curtis imprint. Debuing in August 1974 this didn't need to confirm to comic code authority and yet preserving the true essence of workmanship and freedom.

Black and white in comic format and with art from the who's who of comic world these contents were meant for matured readers and adopted some of the most talked about novels of REH like "black colossus" , "A witch shall be borned" etc. giving conan more pages more space and yes more readership!
The painted covers, the portfolios the ads makes these a cult classic.
Uploading the covers of SSOC from my own collection judge for yourself by crom!

Collecting issues #1,3,4,5,10,32,38,54,64,89,175 - Conan saga #73(80's reprints of SSOC)

These books also had REH's other adaptation of Solomon Kane coming soon under a new post under Sword vs Sorcery!

Sword Vs. Sorcery - Conan

2013-02-21T07:00:00.000-08:00

Greetings Barbarians,

In the wake of 1974 young Roy Thomas collaborated with Barry Windsor Smith to give shape and create history, they re-introduced Conan in comic format the Mighty Marvel style!

Before ,Conan originally created by Robert E Howards had found place in pulp books.Though the cover art of these were drawn by legends like Frank Frazetta ,it didn't find mainstream wide popular base.

With Roy Thomas on joining Marvel was convinced that this pulp hero can be cratered to a larger audience using comic book format which will be savored by believers till now feeding on super hero genre.

The rest by crom is history!

Uploading the covers from my own personal collection of Conan the Barbarian-(comic format)

Marvel's Conan run finally came to an end near about 1994, and in these 20 odd years it had glorified what it's original creator couldn't do,however after that they did not renew the rights to publish Conan which was then taken over by Dark Horse .
Dark Horse started the Conan series in 2004 retelling the stories with Carry Nord as their artist check this out-

And just to let you know how popular Conan is here is a teaser in French! (since i do not have the Spanish and other language copies)

n'uff said next will return with something more catacysmalic
by crom!

Conan the barbarian - Marvel Pocket Books

2012-12-30T23:48:00.000-08:00

Greetings Barbarian!

Robert.E.Howards creation have caught many a fantasy from pulp to comics and off course movies.
Yet nothing have surpassed it's popularity in the comic format which to date is on print and much sought after.
Continuing on this saga I'm bringing today a unique collection of Marvel's pocket books published in UK back in the 80's.
These were reprints of the original Marvel's Conan the barbarian but in black and white.
buckle up for a most interesting ride .
I couldn't complete the collection as these are very scarce and very difficult to come by,nonetheless worth a try by Crom!

Collecting #3,5,7,8,9,10,11,12,13.