Govind Bramania (02-03-1938 - 09-12-2009) R.I.P

Dear Folks,

It is Sad to announce the demise of Arguably one of India’s greatest ever comics artists. Yes, the man behind the success of The Immortal character Bahadhur is No More. May his Soul rest in peace and His family members have the courage to live with his greater memories.

  

Here is the cover of the 1st ever Bahadhur adventure to be appeared. Yes, even though it was in the December 0f 1976, it looks like just yesterday. it is somewhat ironic that Govind Brahmania is passed away just when people are celebrating the 33rd anniversary of the 1st ever issue of Bahadhur.

The other 2 covers are the middle and later stages work of Govind Brahmania with respect to Bahadhur work.

Thanks to Usman Bhai for the Information.

Here is salutes to One of the Best ever Comics artists produced by India.

The Spider - King Of Crooks in India - English

 

Hi all,

welcome back. the review for the cini book – iznogoud is ready to be posted. however, when i saw this post, i thought of doing this particular post. those who know Tamil, can go and enjoy the post.

The Spider is a British comic book character who started out as a super-villain before becoming a super-hero. He appeared in Lion (One of the most popular weekly magazine from fleetway publications, London) between 26 June 1965 and 26 April 1969 and was later reprinted in Vulcan (also from Fleetway, obviously). He was created by writer Ted Cowan and artist Reg Bunn. Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel took over the writing of the character with his third adventure, and would write the bulk of his adventures.

No origin was ever given for The Spider, nor any explanation for his appearance: pointed ears and teeth, and upswept eyebrows. His base of operations was a Scottish castle he brought over to the U.S, Rock by rock – believe it or faint.

The Spider appeared in the 1960s in the United States with the aim to become King of Crooks. He broke out several other criminals to become members of his army of crime, and would clash with both the police and with other criminal masterminds. Among these were Mirror Man (who specialised in illusions), Doctor Mysterioso (a multi-talented scientist) and The Android Emperor (who could create a wide variety of robots). He also clashed with a number of criminal gangs, and one organisation, Crime Incorporated, hired the assassin The Exterminator to kill him. For once, the Spider seemed defeated, but struck an alliance with his would-be killer, and the pair took down Crime Incorporated. The Spider drained the Exterminator, ageing him decades with a booby-trapped handshake, when the latter tried to double-cross him.

The Spider found fighting criminals to be exhilarating, and decided to pit his wits against threats to mankind from now on. For a brief time he was associated with the "Society of Heroes" (Captain Whiz; Mr Gizmo; Rex Robot.; Tigro the Wild Man; Rockman; Snowman (Professor Fred Storm)). All except The Spider died fighting the Sinister Seven. Other foes he faced included The Crime Genie, Spider-Boy, The Snake, The Death-Master, the Ant, the Red Baron, The Fly, The Molecule Man, The Chessman and Mr. Stonehart. This particular adventure is yet to be published in India, either in Tamil or English.

to know more about him, Follow this link: http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/s/spider.htm

Now, let us come to this particular post. As Tamil was my mother tongue, i read almost all the adventures of him (either in 1st copy or as a reprint issue) as he was one of the most popular hero, if not THE popular hero. Those who do not know Tamil language, were thus handicapped. To solve out this, The publisher has come out with limited stories in English, some time back. (click on the images to enlarge).

This issue as you can see, was printed about 17 years back and, by Jove, you can still obtain the remaining copies from them by writing to the address given over there.

Spider’s stories can be classified into 3 categories:

a. Series in Lion Weekly magazine and other allied fleetway issues later on.

b. monthly digest which ran for a year in 1967-68 with standard Graphic novel format of 122 pages and a complete story.

c. Short stories in the special issues and annuals in the 70’s.

Among these 3 categories, the 1st one was truly amazing. For some time, i used to wonder why the editor has chosen this story for his English version’s 1st story instead of going with a Blockbuster story from the series. then i realized that these stories fit the bill to the perfection to print as a magazine.

The story (Only a Teaser): The spider is challenged for the crown of King of Crooks by a New comer who calls himself as Little Nemo and has his own squad of Toys which are deadly to say the least. He gets Roy ordini (Spider’s side kick) and challenges Spider for a Game of Ludo (Yes, Ludo only). Spider realises that the Game is a Trap and in the final stages, Little nemo escapes with Ordini.

Spider Gets angry and he goes after Little Nemo and in one of the most memorable scenes, he just runs into the army of Nemo mouthing that they cannot even shoot a standing elephant in 10 yards, how can they imagine to shoot Spider, who is faster than the Lightning. And then starts a deadly game in which Spider wins and captures Little Nemo.

The Story may sound little odd and pale in comparison with the rest of the Spider stories. However, A Spider story is, after all, A Spider story for those who got acquainted with him. You will not be disappointed after reading this book. Those who want to have this book,(and the rest of the books in English from the famed publishers) Kindly note down the address and send money to them after speaking to them over phone:

Prakash Publishers,

No 8/D-5, Chairman P.K.S.S.A Road, Amman Kovil Patti, Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu.

Pin Code: 626 189. Phone Number: 04562 – 272649.

That’s all for this post and will be back very soon with the Review post of Iznogoud. Adios, Cheers.

Euro Books India - Iznogoud - 12 Titles - Preview

Hi All,

The rains in Mumbai made my life miserable for the entire month. And to make matters worse, couple of my credit cards were lost in one of those rainy days, (blocked now). Well, all is not that well here. To cheer up, i turned up to my old punching bag – Books and especially comics. Euro-books Has come up with their own titles to kill the competition (and also to kill the comics reading population) and among the latest are the 12 books of iznogoud.

Iznogoud is not known to many of the Indian comic readers, unless and un till they  are either (a) Tamil Comirades or (b) aged above 45 and still has the fire to read comics.

(a) Tamil Comirades – has already tasted the wonderful stories in Lion Comics (unfortunately Viswa’s blog has become private, or else you would have gone through a wonderful and complete introduction to Iznogoud – Come back Viswa, we are waiting). So they need no introduction to Iznogoud.

(b) Aged above 45 – Iznogoud was available in English in India in the 70’s (My Dad has read and passed it to me) and hence they can recollect. we had about 6-8 comics in English in those days.

Now, as we talk about, this being just a preview post (a rage that is getting as a Fad among comirades), we will discuss the details later on during the review post in the week end. here are the titles:

 

Now, then. These books are priced at INR 195.00 Each and are available as a set of 3 stories clubbed in a single bound volume (3 in 1’s) priced at INR 450.00 Each. If you go through the web page of the publishers, you will find no information about the books or for the matter the series.

Found out that, when they announced the series, they were flashing out “The wicked wiles of Iznogoud” as Coming soon issue. now, that issue is not to be found out meaning they have gone to all new stories without ever touching the Egmont, Daragud & cinebook published stories.

This is what we are going to review this week end:

so, till the review hits you, chill out.

Cheers.

Revival

Hi all,

sorry for the mandrake like disappearing act which i did since the 1st week of June as i had to move out of India for personal reasons, or lets just say, family reasons. now, all’s well that ends well and am back and hopefully will be back to form very soon.

the post’s title should very apt for the reason of the post: there is a revival in the Tamil comics publication which is happening right now. and this is a major reason for the post.now, those who know me over a period of time know that my mother tongue happens to be Tamil, though i never mastered the language. that doesn’t mean that am not that good with the language either. am good enough to to hold my own when it comes to the language.

Now, enough of this and let us get straight into the issue: within a period of 30 days, 3 issues of Tamil comics have been released and this has never happened in the last 10 years. the publisher in all the three cases happens to be one “Prakash publishers” who are carrying the baton for the baton of Tamil comics for the last 37 years and currently the only Tamil comics publisher who is active.

let us have a closer look at all the 3 books which have been released in the last 30 days:

1. Lion Comics–Phil corrigan–mandavan meendan–The Return of the Dead Man

this book marks the silver jubilee of the launch of the comics as in 1984 the very 1st issue of the comics was launched with Modesty blaise being the lead character in that story and to celebrate that occasion, the next issue comprises a story of modesty blaise as well, which was  shown in the second scan. The second scan is the page called hot line, in which the editor of the comics voices out his thoughts and it is very keenly read by comics lovers all over. the third scan is the advert of the other comics from their group called “muthu comics – (pearl comics, if you translate)” which comprises of a story from the good old 60’s mandrake.

for those who are new, Phil corrigan is a secret agent who was in search of the bad guys since the mid 30’s of the last century. he has appeared in indrajal comics as well. here are the indrajal comics that i have with me.

this book comprises of 2 phil corrigan stories and both of them are wonderful stories to read. am not sure if they are available in any form of download. will check and come back to that very soon.

Links: Wikipedia for Phil corrigan

2.Comics classics-steel claw-vinveli kollaiyar-the thieves from outer space

comics classics is a wonderful concept as it reprints the olden Goldie's of the 70’s and 80’s comics again. the 1st 2 scans are the front and back covers of the wonderful issue which came in A4 size for the 1st time ever, as in the case of the 1st time issue which was published in muthu comics some 24 years ago for a price of INR 4.00

here are the 1st and last page of the story with the 3rd scan announcing the next issue of comics classics which also features steel claw. it seems that we are going to have a wonderful time as well.

Links: Wikipedia link for steel claw

3.Muthu comics-Mandrake-Nizhal edhu?nijam edhu?-which is real? which is fake?

and the latest book to reach (today only i got this) was the latest issue of muthu comics, which is in the run since 1972. and, it features mandrake as well. what else can i ask for? the cover and back wrapper are scanned along with the editorial which is called as comics time in this magazine and this too is written by mr s.vijayan as well.

this book features a robot Archie story as well. it was so long that i read a Archie story, that i really liked it even though it was not up to the mark. the next issue is a classic story of johnny hazard whom i like very much.

and the other major attraction of the book was, the announcement of the rich hochet story and that of the XIII Series which will be a monster of a book in 800 Pages in A4 Size which will feature all the 18 episodes of the mega adventure on which the Bourne series of films are based on. and the cost is only INR 200.00, which is a steal. what am i going to do on Monday as the 1st thing? book couple of copies for me.

links: Wikipedia link for mandrake

Links: Wikipedia link for Johnny hazard

Links: Wikipedia link for ric hochet

Now that concludes the the post and i will be back with couple of long pending posts like that of the clifton and the latest book that i read (which will be suspense, till i blog).

cheers, adios.