GOOD BYE SACHIN !!

UPDATE(21/1/2014) : Let's introduce two NEW blogs for vintage Bengali books and comics,where you will find some more treasures!
First,let's introduce Boi Collector - a blog just old more than one-year - filled with some really rare stuff!! You will get there Pujabarshiki, Upanyash,Short stories and Comics!
And one of the comics posted there was COMPLETE Shadashib(সদাশিব) series published in Anandamela!! Earlier,we don't had a complete set of illustrated version of this Saradindu Bandopadhay created cult series,drawn by famous Bimal Das,which is now available in this blog(Boi Collector) in 3 parts as follows: 
[For details,visit our joint-blog : Bengali Treasure-Trove(BTT)]

• Adikando (আদিকান্ড)
• Agnikando (অগ্নিকান্ড)
• Douradouri kando (দৌড়দৌড়ি কান্ড)

[The credit goes to original uploader(s) who preserved and shared such a vintage and great comics with us....]

So just visit this amazing blog and download the stuff and while doing this you should post a thanking note for this unknown poster as he truly deserves it! :-)

Now the 2nd blog : Indrajal Comics in Bengali(ICB) - probably a blog by BT members and finally they are posting Indrajal Comics for public view!! I truly support this effort and you should as well.....
 The clarity of scan is fine,quite neat,only a bit less cleaning i.e. keeping the original paper-color of the Indrajal bit more would be preferable! But otherwise,they did a very decent scanning...

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Was a pre-teen kid when saw him for the first-time, playing as a very promising young-star, against South Africa on '92 followed by England series on early '93(and was truly impressed by his 165 knock) and since then journey continued....till this date 16th NOVEMBER 2013...covering almost 21 long years of several fantastic moments!!

So just wanted to say....THANK YOU & GOOD BYE!!

Post Script - Now we know the ultimate milestone is set - something that no one can cross - and that is Test(ed) Runs of 15,921 (Miles) !! 

Indrajal Collectors' Club (ICC)

 A facebook page has been created for the collectors of Indrajal Comics (link: https://www.facebook.com/indrajalcollectors.club).

 In that place you can share your story i.e. how many issues(hard copies) you have collected,since how long you are in this hunt,and of course in which language(s) you prefer to read!!

 For easier understanding,we have created 3 major collectors' groups - those are further splitted in 7 sub-groups -  based on the number of hard-copy collections as follows(See the POLL as well):

• [A1] Super Elite++   : 780+(780-803)
• [A2] Super Elite+      : 750+(750-779)
• [A3] Super Elite         : 700+(700-749)

• [B1] Elite+                 : 600+(600-699)
• [B2] Elite                    : 500+(500-599)

• [C1] Plate+                : 300+(300-499)
• [C2] Plate                   : 300- (001-299)

[Note : The highest-level(ES++) is important for Bengali Ijc collectors solely 'cos that's the magic-number of total published Bengali issues.. :)]
 As you can see,the person with at least 1 physical copy  of Indrajal Comics in his/her collection,can join and discuss their views at Indrajal Collectors' Club(ICC).

SO PICK YOUR GROUP AND JOIN WITH US! 

Comic #108 - A Post-Indrajal Phantom Sunday(Capt. Amazon - Pirate Queen; 1989)

                                        HAPPY VIJAYADASHAMI TO ALL
 Enjoy a old Phantom strip(S134) in color and in Bengali. In this tale of 5th Phantom(aka Aranyadev), it has been shown how a gentle,beautiful lady transformed in a dreaded pirate queen - Captain Amazon! Later she became the wife of 5th Phantom!
 The most famous quote(of Juliet) probably was "Call us pirates! Then we'll be Pirates"!!

Between,the colored pages are from famous magazine Desh. This strip ran for 24 weeks but I have only 18 sundays till now,missing remaining 6..
 So I did two things,firstly used English b/w strips to fill the gap and then translated those in Bengali. Hopefully you will like the effort!(I have tried to bring the feel of Desh in those pages albeit the colors! as unfortunately I have the b/w English version only.)

 And for the Indrajal addicts, this is a special strip as with this one,the Post-Indrajal era was started off (the last sunday appeared in Indrajal was S133 "Death from the Sky"  in Vol.26 No.41). Had Indrajal survived for another extra month,we might had this very nice story in the pages of one of the most famous comic-magazines! 

 There were 45 Phantom sundailies(by Falk) from the Post-Ijc era but only very few were worth reading....this one was among those very few!

A translated page....b/w scan is from Frew 1465....

DOWNLOAD দস্যুরাণী ক্যাপ্টেন আমাজন

Back-up Features AND Stories-in-Parts in the Indrajal Comics

                                       ------আজ মহাষ্ষঠী------

let's discuss the two most integral part of the Indrajal universe...
Back-up Features:
Part of the nostalgia value of these old comics is undoubtedly in those old advertisements and the backup strips/features!  
I grew up reading '80s Indrajal and only later introduced with the '70s & '60s(exactly in this order) issues.Now,besides the cover stories,the things I love were those various kind of ads,plus,who can forget those the back-up features like Ripley's belive it or not,Capree's animal infos,Ancient World History followed by comic-strips like Henry,Chimpoo,Babooa,Agent 003,Pasha the magicain to name a few and then the latest addition: Timpa(unlike other 1-page features,this was kind of additional long stories).

 However,different fans were introduced with the Indrajal Comics in the different eras,and hence have their selected liking!Personally,I loved Ripley's & Capree with Henry,Timpa etc.
 Among the ads,although I love all of them,still,my favorites are Gold-spot   & gems ads!
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Stories-in-Parts:
 In many occasions,cover stories were appeared in 2/3 parts(i.e. in successive issues) and sometimes having a 2nd story aswell. However,it was not happened in the early era,rather from the late '70s and the first issue was #263() - a Phantom story.Later we saw ToI practiced this thing(stories-in-parts) heavily from the '80s till '89.The last issue published in such format was V26 N22(Mandrake - Dreaded Island:2nd part).
 Indrajal fans ,specifically from '80s, were pretty habituated with these lines(used to appear in a small box @the end of every 1st/2nd part)"what will happen with Phantom/Mandrake/Flash?will they survive??to find out,read out next issue dated ...".
It IS fun when you are reading all those old issues together BUT I am bit unsure what was those fans' take who used to wait for weeks(i.e. then current readers) to have a complete read?? Personally,sometimes it was a good excitement for me,with that anticipation but when you missing some parts(many of us faced this),then it really bother you a lot....  

So,what's your take on it?? do many fans like this format,or rather think it's bit annoying how ToI split a short story just to gain some more profit??(they used to published bit less-popular heroes like Rip,Drake etc,although many times we got Mandrake,FG stories too!!)

PS - I Have added a couple of Polls(top right) with multiple options.If I've missed something,please mention!
(This is a re-post of early 'Indrajal Forum' posts)

Comic #107 : Indrajal Comics(Mandrake) - Asohaye Sikar(খন্ড 25 সংখ্যা 7 ) AND the Introduction of Timpa!

There were only a handful of instances where Mandrake, the legendary magician, couldn't solve the mystery at the end and left completely flabbergasted..!!
 This story was one of those few....read on!!

So many questions were popped-up after I have finished the reading..I yet to understand few thing like:

• From where these tinnies(khude manoosh) were came from?
• How they knew Narda?
• Was there any previous linking?

I don't know why Falk suddenly created such a mysterious tale - nice to read but rather confusing! So read the tale to get confused!! :o))
 Now let's talk about the other features of this Indrajal. In this issue a new character was introduced who wasn't the cover-hero but his presence in the back-pages of Indrajal issues(in the 1988-89 period; Vol.25 & Vol.26 issues) meant a lot for us,t he Indrajal readers! He was Timpa - the kid detective!

 His funny yet adventurous tales were a regular thing in that period. By the way, who can forget his grandpa(dadu)?? :)) For me, the fun was always double whenever I found a new Indrajal Comic that has a Timpa story in the back pages!!
 So.. did you liked this series, friends??

DOWNLOAD খন্ড 25 সংখ্যা 7

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY To ALL Indians!!

 Today we are celebrating our 67th Independence day!!
JAI HIND!!

Comic #106 - Marathi Indrajal No.23(January 1966)

 I was going to post a Bengali Ijc but due to some recent development, I am posting a Marathi Ijc - first-time in this blog - the version of  The Scarlet Sorceress, issue No.23. Did you ever expected a Marathi Ijc in this blog?? Least likely, ain't??

 But the fact is, from this issue the series of Bengali Indrajal was started of, way back in January 1966 till the end of this series, upto April 1990, and in between published as many as 780 issues for Bengali readers those were filled with thrill, joy and nostalgia!!So I thought it would be a nice one...

 Between the title of this issue probably is 'Char Hatachi Chetkin'(is it?? please any Marathi reader come forward and correct me if it's wrong!!I tried from my little knowledge of Marathi.Also,what is the meaning???
Update(23/8/2013): As par the on-line dictionary,the title in English would be "Four-Handed Sorceress".)

As I don't have Bengali #1 (nor I do think will get very soon) so I was pretty eager to have this issue and exchanged for some English copies with one of the old visitors of our Indrajal blogs and an avid Indrajal collector, Chandan Talwedkar from Goa. Well, I can read only a little bit of Marathi so reading wise it's like 'দুধের স্বাদ ঘোলে মেটানো' but I did this exchange for purely nostalgia purpose!!:-)
 I hope you won't mind to see a Marathi version of the most special Indrajal for all Bengali Indrajal fans! More than the issue,it's the date that is special for us...

[A little trivia on how Indrajal Comics were introduced in the various languages prior the Bengali version, which was introduced on the 3rd year of Ijc, on Jan'66, and was 6th in the line....:
(I)Only Eng,Hindi & Marathi versions were introduced from the very beginning i.e. from #1(Mar'64). So the first 10 issues were published only in these 3 languages.
(II)Gujrathi & Tamil versions were introduced on the next year(Jan'65) i.e. #11 in the original series was  #1 in these 2 languages and hence this issue(#23:Scarlet Sorceress) was actually #13 in Gujrathi & Tamil..]

PS - I did not edit this issue at all, what I usually do with my scans, because it's quite old - over 47 years - a special-issue in it's own right and hence need no hiding from it's current state of condition. Also I wonder how many fans will actually manage to read this, a Marathi comic!! ;o)

DOWNLOAD Marathi Indrajal No.23

Flash Gordon in Anandamela!!

 UPDATE(4/8/2013): Fellow blogger Mahasthobir has informed us that this particular Flash Gordon story was comic-book adaption from the movie made(as Illustrated Movie Classic) and the illustration was done by famous Al Williamson! A heartily thanks to him for sharing this rare info with us!:))
 You can also check this forum-topic(at Phantom Phorum) on the same....now that post has been updated!
 The first page and covers of part 1 & 2....

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 Few months back,I was pleasantly surprised when learnt that Flash Gordon appeared in the Anandamela but after seeing the stories myself from a set of old Anandamela(small ones)  bought recently,I was bit disappointed because that story printed in the AMs was not the original strip-version, rather a creation for some book-series,but not from the King-Flash stories for sure as the art was better.
 The introductory issue of AM was 30th June 1982.. [I have no idea exactly when Flash Gordon was discontinued,of course on/before 1985, but the exact month/issue number is unknown to me.So anybody with the proper idea please come-forward! ]

   That story - published serially in the AM - was the origin-saga - later re-created by Dan Barry on mid '80s and we got the first part in the Indrajal as well : Syecchachari Shasyak (Vol26 No.23).
 The story-line was same where Flash,Dale & Dr.Jarkov - the terrific three - met for the first time.But the art was different...

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 With Flash comics,the publisher(Ananda) covered as many as 5 Indrajal heroes in their various publications as follows :

• Phantom(Aranyadev) in ABP(newspaper ; Mon-Sat (since '50s - present) ,Desh & Anandamela(magazines)
• Mandrake in ABP(newspaper : Sunday (till '90s) ,Mon-Sat (since 2000s - present))
• Rip Kirby in ABP(newspaper ; Mon-Sat (till 2000))
• Buz Swayer in Anandamela(magazine)
• Flash Gordon in Anandamela(magazine)

                                                        --------------------------

Few more glimpses of that story....you will find Ming the merciless,princess Aura ,Barin to Valtan there...all of them..

Comic #105 : "Hunta Dyaini" - A Non-Indrajal Phantom Classic in BENGALI

 UPDATE(30/7/13) : 
A couple of re-uploaded links of Rip Kirby dailies which were deleted by MF....

• D154
• D155

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After Times of India cancelled the Indrajal Comics on 1990,publisher of Diamond Comics quickly bought the Phantom & Mandrake strips' right from KFS. Hence their Phantom series commenced on 1991 in the three languages(Bengali,English & Hindi) and Mandrake in the following year (but this time Bengali version was omitted!).
And very soon their issues were compared with the former series by the fans of Falks' two magnificent heroes! Well,their printing was not at-par with Indrajal Comics but they had a couple of plus-points those Ijcs were lacking.
 First,they published almost ALL strips in the unedited form,something that was rarely happened in the early phase of Indrajal issues as ToI used to edit the stories to fit in their limited pages(before the multiple-part policy was introduced in the late '70s) and secondly,we got some rare works by Falk-Barry which were never published in the Indrajal!
One of those is Hunta Witch, 91st Daily and a brilliant adventure!Why ToI skipped this??Due to a political connection or what??I have no idea!!
Anyway, for Bengali fans,DC did splendid favor otherwise we couldn't read many Phantom stories in our own tongue!Another fitting plot I can remember currently, that ToI skipped and DC picked, is the Mysterious Island of Dogs(D86), first published in DC-P #8.[You can read a 2-year old review post!]
 Amidst of all these good things, there is one negative thing about these books.That is,DC digests are not at all perfect for scanning due to their  typical pocket-book size & binding!Unlike Ijcs you have tough time scanning these.So hopefully you will bear with me! ;))
Between, Hunta Witch is the 2nd story of  #11 issue. Avid Indrajal fans can easily guess the first one from the cover-art,a true classic that was published in the Indrajal Comics!! :o))
For more info about Diamond Phantom,read this wiki page: http://www.schapter.org/wiki/Diamond_Comics_Digest

DOWNLOAD হান্টা ডাইনী

Comic #104 : A Goyenda Rip Indrajal AND A Question...

 Now time for a Rip Kirby aka Goyenda Rip Indrajal - ছায়ায় মোড়া ভয়ংকর(সংখ্যা ৩৭৬) - published on 1982. A nice (and quite funny) adventure through which our Goyenda Rip and his side-kick Desmond were introduced with us,the Indrajal readers!
A little info about RK stories in the Indrajal Comics can be found in this post.

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 Now time for The Question (Well friends,it may sound odd at first, and while I am sure most of you haven't faced it before,hopefully you will come-forward with your own stories):

When You Had MOVED ON From Indrajal Comics & WHY?

 Of course you are now reading Indrajal Comics like crazy,can't be without these titles for long and that's the reason why you are reading my post(ha ha) - but it's a fact that MOST OF US,GROWN-UP Indrajal Readers,ARE IN THEIR 2nd/3rd PHASE of the Indrajal reading,isn't it?? That is,most of us were introduced with these enchanting titles in our childhood,ranging from '60 to '80s,were hooked for some years and then moved-on from these for years due to several reasons.Finally, after many years, there was a come-back in this magical world and since then there is no looking back! :)

 I am lucky to have several interactions with such fans,either by on-line/cell or through personal meeting, who are just as much Indrajal-maniac as me,if not more! Some of them are like Sudhanshu, Zaheer, Aalok, Prabhat, Anupam, Sameer etc followed by Bengali readers like Samrat, Walker, Indranath, Devil, Suman, Mahasthabir etc to name a few!:)

 While I will eagerly waiting for your replies I can tell my side of story.
 I was bit late in this magical universe compare to my class-mates and that was on 1989. Although Indrajals were discontinued soon after on 1990,I kept reading and collecting old issues thanks to various friends till 1995 or 1996.Then due to majorly of higher-studies,cricket(I'm an addict) and of course lack-of-availability of old issues,I was slowly but steadily moved-on from reading Indrajals. Except few occasional reading from our local libraries' little collection,I wasn't there to think about this series or to start a collection. In my JU days I tried few times to collect the old issues but I wasn't looking at right places and hence got only negligibly small numbers and lost the interest!
 Then in the the final year of PG,on 2005,I suddenly felt this pang to collect old issues,felt a strange desperation that I can't explain! I guess that desperation,might be due to the fact that deep-down I was missing this series very much, itself forced me to search various odd places where I could get few copies.And after my introduction with old-book shops at College Street on 2006(there was a period when I used to visit CS 2-3 times a week!!) followed by our on-line blogs on 2007,I was completely hooked with Indrajals and hopefully I will remain hooked for the rest of my life..

 So once again,WHEN YOU HAD MOVED-ON and WHAT'S The REASON??
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DOWNLOAD ছায়ায় মোড়া ভয়ংকর

Comic #103 : A Betal Indrajal : Bhoyankar Parjatak/ভয়ংকর পর্যটক(No.148)

 I hope you are visiting our new blog Bengali Treasure-Trove(BTT). Today morning,a new posting has been done..

  Meanwhile enjoy ভয়ংকর পর্যটক - a fascinating Betal abhijan! Well,Falk was a master story-teller specially in the back-drop of well-planned & dreaded crimes and this one,Bhoyankar Parjatak, is no exception.Another thing Falk maintained throughout his tenure that,however crooked the female characters can be,they are morally at higher position and has been shown in the far better light than their male counterparts!In this adventure you will find one of those looters,Bela, has been shown in much soft-natured than you might have expected!

  In his earliest phase,specifically in the '30s & '40s,Falk was responsible for several (in)famous & dreaded all-female pirate-gangs' origins with whom our Betal met for several time.Those gangs were never returned in the later-phase but still their encounters with the Phantom are considered among the best Falk-classics solely because how the characters have been shown!
They were as follows:

• The Sky Band (1936-42)
• The Golden Circle (1939-40)
• The Mermaids of Melo Straits (1945-46)
• The Lady Luck Pirates (1948)

 But later,due to some unknown reason,Falk moved-on from this concept and hence later we find female crooks only teamed-up with other male partners!

 Among those female-only gangs and other female pirates,Suzie - member of that ruthless and high-profile pirate-gang - holds a special place as she was one who betrayed her gang solely because she fell in love with the Phantom and finally died,but not before seeing His face - something that's pretty rare in the Ghost Who Walks' universe!

(Read this old post on Suzie in detail)

 Between, Bhoyankar Parjatak was originally published as the 113th Daily strip, titled The Mysterious Passenger, and ran from May-July 1971.

DOWNLOAD ভয়ংকর পর্যটক

Introducing A NEW Blog : Bengali Treasure-Trove(BTT)

Hello all friends,

  We are going to launch a new Blog on this Sunday,30th June 2013, where one will find rare scans of  the various Bengali literature books,magazines and comics.This blog will be a common platform of all kind of Bengali creations, i.e. incld. comic as well as non-comic materials.

The name of the blog is "Bengali Treasure-Trove" with url : http://bengalitreasuretrove.blogspot.in/ 

1st post will be original print of a Satyajit Roy's story...

Unlike other blogs,this will be a joint venture and hence any Bengali readers can come forward to join us,either as a 'Co-author'(i.e. a MEMBER) or as a Contributor.

So visit our home page on sunday at 8 AM :

BEngali TReAsurE-TrovE

Comic #102 : Bengali Indrajal Comics(No.208) : A Mandrake Obhijan :Khune Patanga(খুনে পতঙ্গ)

Read a deadly encounter with an eccentric genius and how Mandrake & Lothar finally nab him, though the ending is somewhat different than the usual plots!
 While the basic plot was quite intense, one will find few fun-moments in between. Firstly, when all of the Xanadu residents were sharing the pool and a phone rang...Lothar has a dry sense of humor, in my opinion! :)

Apart from the title-story, this issue has a very nice article on legendary cricket, Sir Don Bradman!

Now, read the full adventure...

DOWNLOAD খুনে পতঙ্গ

Between,as an off-topic(and a new topic in a different site), who is your favorite Indian actress of the current time?? 

For me,the first 2 positions are sealed for one and only DEEPIKA PADUKONE...she is simply a breath-taking beauty - one whose a simple smile that will do the thing as you can see in the following simple pic! :o)

And the 3rd position is for PARINEETI CHOPRA...

Comic #101 - Saytaner Dweep(The Devil's Island) by Mayukh Chowdhury

Those fans, who used to read Bengali comics since '70s to '90s, are much familiar with one of the finest & unique illustrators(& script-writers) of original Bengali adventure comics : Mayukh Chowdhury!! He was one of those lesser exposed yet quite talented artist we got in India.The thing I loved most,and still get fascinated,is his dynamic & realistic art where you can't predict the panels' size nor shapes. Infact,he took full liberty of comic-book-format,which gave him much scope to showcase his talent,unlike the restricted boundary of newspaper comic-strips!
Some of his old arts were once compiled by Deb Sahitya Kutir - one of the leading book publishers in Bengal - in June 1982 along with 3 other artists incld. the famous Narayan Debnath!The title of that 16-story special comic edition was "Chobite Adventure(means Graphic Adventures)". [The cover is bit torn as the book is more than 30 years old,so bear with me,but I was lucky that the inside pages were all in good shape..In my knowledge,only another fan & avid reader cum blogger,Indranath has this rare book in his collection!]

One of those hand-picked was Saytaner Dweep(The Devil's Island) - a full-color thriller based on a true incident happened near California,US.

Post Script - A couple of trivia: (i)For some strange reason,original photograph of this famous late artist is not available with us but some artists who met him personally,drew his image which you can see as follows incld. the b/w art done by N.Debnath.

(ii)A huge compilation of his several creations was published few years back by a publisher, Lalmati,which covered most of his work,if not all!The printing was decent,some few pages were in color too, but the reproduction was inferior compare to the original old printing which was ,infact,much better as I have some of his old stories from Suktara magazine!

Now,read the full story of Saytaner Dweep here as I am posting all single pages to avoid MF's constant deleting of the d/l links!