Gateway of India

Hi All,

Suddenly when i took leave today, some of you guys might be wondering what happened to me. nothing guys. just chill out. (by the way, there were at least 4 sms on my health part - see, when some one is taking leave, the indian way of thinking automatically suggests that he/she is not well).

actually, my cousin from chennai visited me after long time and she (yes, she only) wanted to see the gateway of India and as her flight was in the early evening, i had to take leave to satisfy her longstanding wish to take a snap in front of the monument of India.

Before going there, i took her to the nearby book shop as we were waiting for jiju, i found something that i was searching for a long, long time. yes, i got a don wood graphic novel at last. ever since nitin told me about don wood, i wanted to read his kind of stories and my joy was limitless when i found this. as there is no time to scan and upload, iam posting the pictures taken from my cousin's mobile (which was used in WW2).

I love the way don wood makes you to move with the story - is all nitin told me in the first stage. so here is the don wood book and my travel time will be spent in a usefull way for the next 3 days.there were some other interesting stuff as well. particularly the star wars collection and the comics version of agatha christie.one of the old biggles was still there. if i remember correctly, i purchased this in early 2007. still unsold? hmmmmmmmmmm, something wrong, somewhere.
and, the usual suspects. asterix collection. eventhough i have everyone of them, i still go and see them as if iam watching them for the first time (i find it tough to read the asterix stories now).
my cousin told me that there was some issue in chennai with regards to the asterix and tintin books. actually, they used to sell these books in brand new condition at almost 50% of the rate (how lucky the chennai people) and then this raid by the policemen forced them to stop selling the books in those rates from the secondary market in chennai. is that correct? need to check it out with my friends in down south.

so, here are the photos taken during our visit to the gateway of India. all taken be her only.
this one seems to be quite a nice one. long shot and the asthetic beauty is covered nicely.
this was taken when we went in a boat. very very long shot, indeed. some of the Indian navy ships were nearby.
one of my long cherished goals in life is to own a small boat and roam around the world with my own friends. just like that bernard prince does in most of his stories.
another wonderful view of the same. Amchi mumbai Great.

will try to blog about either don or clifton in the next post.

cheers. adios.

Lucky Luke 16 – The Black Hills - Cinebook

Hi all,

thanks to nitin, i purchased these new sets of cinebook’s. the instant you read a name like cinebook, do not think about cineblitz or any other cinema based magazines. cinebook is a publisher of European comics in English. nothing more and certainly nothing less. i have picked up the new sets of books from them and rest assured that i will be putting them up here one by one. starting with one of my all time fav character in comics – Lucky Luke. 

some of you might never have come across this particular series (this being not as popular as asterix and tintin). for them, here is what the publisher credits as introduction and my own information about the book.

For those who came in late to the show (Loved this bit in the phantom stories,used to bet this)

The comic strip character who can shoot faster than his own shadow is how we know Lucky Luke. The character of Lucky Luke became a myth thanks to Morris (his creator) and Goscinny. These two giants of the 9th art collaborated with passion for more than 20 years until the death of the famous scriptwriter. Goscinny now writes the Scripts apart from drawing them as well. Goscinny is the author of the well-known Astérix, which he launched with Uderzo.

Series            = Lucky Luke Issue No.       = 16 Preceded By        = Dalton’s in the Blizzard Written By      = Gosscinny Illustrated By  = Morris Size               = B-5 (22 X 28), Paper Back No. Of Pages   = 48 (W/O Covers) Cover Design   = Laminated, Thick, 190 GSM Inner Papers    = 120 GSM Price               = INR 195.00 Synopsis                 = Given Below Rating                      = 4/5 (No ran-tan-plan=less rating) Recommended      = Strongly Yes,otherwise also, yes. Available In             = Across all leading shops.

Synopsis: The Senate decides to settle the fertile land of Wyoming. Before moving in the settlers, they send a committee of four scientists, led by Lucky Luke, to survey the territory. One senator is strongly opposed to this project and determined to sabotage the expedition. However, the Senate overlooked one important fact: the land territory is home to the Cheyenne Nation, who are determined to defend their land. and how the team of lucky Luke makes it to the end of civilisation marks the rest of the story. the first page of the story:

What i liked about this series is the way Gossicinny makes you to move along with the story. Hey, by the way: here is a tip to enjoy most of the lucky Luke stories which came before the untimely demise of the creator. Read 3 pages at a stretch and take a small break and then try to enjoy the nuances in the artwork and the importance being given to small, small details like the nearby person’s expressions and what others comment.

the reason for asking them to read in a stretch of 3 pages is quite simple. back in the 1950-60’s, these stories used to come as a series in weekly magazines in French and they used to consist of 3 pages per week only. hence, you can find that at the end of the 3rd page, there will be signature of the artist

Now, if you keep on asking how i got introduced to lucky luke, then the story dates back to my Grandma who came from Tamil Nadu and knew the language Tamil and she made me to learn Tamil in my childhood. in those days, lucky luke used to come in Tamil comics only and hence i got accustomed to read lucky Luke quite early and hence then started my journey with jolly jumper.

I love those stories when the combination of Morris and gosscinny used to rock the world with their wonderful style. after that, Morris is now continuing and iam not that much impressed with his way of story telling, even though the art work is getting much better now a days.

this particular story moves at a very fast pace that i cannot wait to complete the book at one go. it should be ranked among the very best of Lucky luke stories and certainly deserves so in my opinion. just read the small panels that i have cut from the pages to make you to read the best part of the story. actually, i should be scanning the entire book and putting them here (just like some of fellow bloggers do). fearing a legal soup, iam giving only the snippets here:

The story line is very good and makes you to guess what could be the reason for the senator to make sure that this voyage is not successful. to make so, the senator sends his strong arm man (well, not so strong). he makes sure that lucky luke does not get the train and, believe it or not, hi-jacks a train (is that word ok? – hijacking a train?)

by virtue of the senator and his wealth, this villain is always one step ahead of the lucky luke and his gang. he tries every trick that is possible and here we get a surprise in the form of characters. when we think that lucky luke has to fight every time to save them, the writer makes you to sit and enjoy the rest of the happenings as lucky luke actually does in the story as the passengers are multi skilled for their profession and age. for sample, look for the above cut and the one below this.

However, once luke is away for hunting, the red Indians capture the passengers of the voyage and they take them as prisoners. Luke tries to enter their place stealthily and look what happens in the thick of the night. The journey team shouts in exclamation that lucky luke has come to save them and in that process they wake up the only member of the red Indian crew who has not consumed alcohol and he happens to be the chief’s son. (chief in waiting?)

Now only we get into the suspense element of the plot. this story is written in the 60’s when the consumption of alcohol was at it’s all time high along with the hippy culture. so, there is a clear cut message in this story: shun alcohol and the bad effects of alcohol are explained in this part of the story in a hilarious way. just have a look at the state of dozing squirrel and what he has done while on a river after consuming alcohol.

finally, all that ends well, is good and that’s how the story ends with li’l runt smoking the peace pipe with the prez of USA. what more, i just loved this particular panel in which my fav characters (Dalton brothers, Billy the kid) are seen with ran-tan-plan. more on them in the coming issues of cinebook lucky luke reviews.

the wonderful news is that 4 more lucky luke books are planned by this year end and here is the announcements (which i took from their web page).

Coming soon:

now, this book is the 16th lucky luke book among the series and i have read each and every one of them and here is the list of the books appeared so far.

as promised, the comments section will be opened up and any comments on self promotion will be removed without question. and that goes for all of us.

Cheers.