Thursday, June 5, 2014

John Celardo's TARZAN Daily Strips from the BARTAMAN(বর্তমান) Newspaper

 In the late '80s and early '90s we used to subscribe a Bengali newspaper - BARTAMAN(বর্তমান) and their licensed comic-strip was TARZAN!! Very soon I was hooked with this mighty ape-man. I still remember the way I used wait for everyday's newspaper(except Sunday) just to read those strips!

But I never tried to collect those strips back then...and I was still regretting for that! Until very recently,little I knew that there is a re-run of old Tarzan strips since last few years and they are publishing the same old strips!! And the artist JOHN CELADO was as efficient as RUSS MANNING - his successor!(For a long time I thought all were done by  Manning...while Manning redefined the series altogether but J.Celardo  had even more mystic charm in his style....his detailed description of a dense jungle and the atmosphere...all were just mind-blowing!)

So I am now subscribing Bartaman once again,for these strips alone,and this time I will collect each and every strips - as these TARZAN daily strips were never published in India in book-format/magazine,so Bartaman's reprint is the only source of these rare Tarzan strips in Bengali!! 

Here are scans of few such strips..as you can see,the current run is from 1964...that is, 50 years' old strips!!


17 comments:

Cobra said...
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HojO said...

Notice the date at the bottom of each strips...these are new 're-print' @Bartaman...strips are 50 years old(from 1964 as u can see written there).

Tai Bartaman rakha suru korechi!!

24thphantom said...

amra bartaman e rakhi..but didn't knew je ora republish korche..atleast better than phantom & mandrake(that are published now a days in abp)..

HojO said...

I guess u don't know that Mandrake is also under re-run/re-print since last month @ABP,as Fredrick retired, and the 1st story they choose is "Pursuit of Cobra(D220)" from 1995 when Falk was still scripting...

Started on 7th May....

https://www.facebook.com/groups/comiques/permalink/764658180231653/

24thphantom said...

na,eta jaantaam na..onekdin holo abp newa bondho kore diyechi..last bodhhoy 2 bochor aage porechilam..

Sumit said...

@Hojo, Ami tomar sathe ekmat je Russ Manning er pore John Celardo e hochee Tarzan er sobtheke bhalo artist. Eta khub e dukkher byapar je onar kono collection aaj porjonto bar hoy ne ( Banglay to cherei dao English eo noy). Tabe amar bhagya bhalo je amader barite pratham thekei Bartaman rakha hoy bole choto bela thekei ei darun comics gulo porte perechee...ebong obosyoi ekhon abar porchee...

HojO said...

@Sumit: Haan,eta ami dekhlam!!JC was fabulous,and the truth is,I grewn on reading his strips first(and I thought all were by Manning!) and then RM...
What I didn't back in the late '80s and '90s will do now...to collect serially all strips...are you doing same??

By the way,oi period e('88-'90) ekta alada Comic-strip beroto Bartaman-e,on every saturday,ar ami seta kete rakhtam karon ota colored chilo!! :)
Story ta ektu odbhut chilo - adventure type - je main hero chilo se accidentally somuder pore jae,sekhane somudrer gobhir-e alap hiy ek onno jogoter,sekhankar raja Solomon,tar raj-kanya ar tader sontru-ra!!Odhut ek jogot...

Overall darun chilo...coloring chilo top-notch but I lost all pages during a shifting! :( And worst part is,I yet to locate WHICH strip was that??probably a western strip...

Can you identify??

Sumit said...

@HOJO: Sure I can identify that because its anather of my favourite comics. Its ALLEY OOP. It was originally created by V.T. Hamlin. But the story that we read was written by Dev Grau (who was Hamlin's assistant and carry on the strip after his retirement).

Sumit said...

Actually Alley Oop is an ancient cave man who was transfered accidentally to the 20th century by a scientist while experimenting on his Time Machine. Thereafter, that scientist used to send Alley Oop to different places in different time period. So, Alley Oop had adventure in ancient Troy, with Ullysis, With Hercules, in acient Egypt, in American Civil war and also in future time. In short he had adventures in every time zone of history.

Sumit said...

The stories that was printed in Bartaman was basically the daily strips which was originally Black and White. But Bartaman used to colour and combine 3 daily strips and publish it weekly (saturdays). As you very correctly said the colouring was outstanding. I don't know who used to do that colouring but I'll like to hat's off to him.

Sumit said...

And yes I also used to cut and collect them. Later I have binded then in 2 equal parts and so had 2 books. Also LOAC has published 1 Volume of the daily strip recently. I purchased it only last week. It has an unique 1 strip per page format. if you are interested you can have a look at it at homeshop or flipkart.

HojO said...

@SUMIT: A HUGE thanks for this revelation!! I was trying to locate this strips since 5-7 years but had no clue until today!!

Now as I have searched net,it appears to be a rather old n popular strips!That book u bought have the 1939 worth...

Between,are you sure those BARTAMAN strips were dailies and not sundays?? Because,ALLEY OOP's Sundays were also running in the same period (http://library.missouri.edu/specialcollections/bookcol/comic/alleyoop/)and the format I remember it was of Sundays type..

HojO said...

Do you still have those Bartaman's cutting?? if yes,scans of few pagaes,or clicks at FB etc,will be very helpful for nostalgia purpose...

Sumit said...

@Hojo: Yes, I still have those Bartaman cuttings and I am sure they are daily strips because I have the whole collection of daily strips (scanned copy). In case you are interested try the following link:
https://www.copy.com/s/Kw2A8VtbRHju/Alley%20Oop

I think you can download the whole strip (right from the beginning in 1933 to 2000) absolutely free.

HojO said...

@SUMIT: That is a superb site!Till yesterday I had no idea about that lost character and now... :o)

Btwn,after downloading,the file is not opening! which software u r using?? I have tried with winzip/cdisplay but no use..

Ar oi BARTAMAN-er page gulor ki kichu snap/click dekha jabe?? just kichu random clicks oi period-take ferate help korbe!! :) U can post the clicks @FB ...

Sumit said...

@Due to internet connectivity problem I am unable to download the files.So I am unable to understand the problem. But I have already downloaded the strips. Pls send me ur phone no on my gmail id d.sumit10@gmail.com so that I can contact you for sharing these strips.

HojO said...

Ok.Will mail you.thanks..
I have downloaded some but cud not open a single file.Saying the file is broken etc.