Hold your patience and don't jump with the gun!! It's ALL about comic-strips..!! And from two top Bengali newspapers,ABP and Bartaman,where some of our favorite heroes' adventures are running!
They are Mandrake, Aranyadev(aka Phantom) and Tarzan. The first two strips are in color while the last one is in original b/w form.
And top-of-the-all,the 'current' strips are actually 20-50 years old,that is,these are reprint of old vintage strips.
Collecting newspaper strips is a common practice among the comic-fans as that is the only way to collect strips in original format! We have seen some fans across India and outside,who have collected various old strips quite religiously! In the recent time,the only other person whom I know follows the same practice is Rustam Mukherjee.
See some strips just have collected from the newspaper...just in the preliminary phase.
Now, how I preserve these? Let's talk about the final look..
Unlike many others,I do not 'paste' these strips on some A4 papers.There are two reasons.Firstly,the quality of newspaper is not at all thick, hence if some glue/gum is applied on these papers,condition reduces drastically(which I have experimented with few random strips). Secondly,keeping the strips in exactly 'original shape/form' i.e. 'as is' looks better for me and reading wise too,it's more fun as I have realized.
So I am trying to create a book-like collection per story,with details(original title/publication year etc). mentioned on the cover created by myself.
See some sample as follows :
Mandrake and Aranyadev Collection from ABP :
Tarzan Collection from BARTAMAN :
It(strip collection from newspaper) was first planned way back on 2006,when me and my brother decided to collect the Mandrake-and-Aranyadev strips from ABP and hence we took a subscription.But soon after we lost the interest of collecting the strips as 'it' requires some regular and sincere effort but then we had very little driving force. Because the strips running back then were 'Post-Falk' stories which had very little substance,and also the art was not up-to-the standard! Bhai, however, continues reading the strips as he has ample patience but I stopped until discovered the on-line blogs/sites from where I occasionally read English version in one-go,but that's it!
Now years after I am actually in this project,courtesy of reprint of old strips(I would not have put this much effort for the recent strips) and it's a pleasure to get dozen of *new* strips per week(6 Mandrake-cum-Aranyadev+6 Tarzan),in the printed form! And as the strip-index of each hero indicates,if they don't stop midway, 5-10 years worth are still waiting to be covered! :-)
Now why I have called this 'weekly collection'? It's because I have neither time nor patience to collect the strips on daily-basis,so I do the cutting-stuff on each sunday and collect the whole weeks' worth in one go as it saves time quite a bit!But on a second thought,I am not sure if I should call this 'তোলাবাজি' as myself paying for the whole thing...ha ha!! :o))
They are Mandrake, Aranyadev(aka Phantom) and Tarzan. The first two strips are in color while the last one is in original b/w form.
And top-of-the-all,the 'current' strips are actually 20-50 years old,that is,these are reprint of old vintage strips.
Collecting newspaper strips is a common practice among the comic-fans as that is the only way to collect strips in original format! We have seen some fans across India and outside,who have collected various old strips quite religiously! In the recent time,the only other person whom I know follows the same practice is Rustam Mukherjee.
See some strips just have collected from the newspaper...just in the preliminary phase.
Unlike many others,I do not 'paste' these strips on some A4 papers.There are two reasons.Firstly,the quality of newspaper is not at all thick, hence if some glue/gum is applied on these papers,condition reduces drastically(which I have experimented with few random strips). Secondly,keeping the strips in exactly 'original shape/form' i.e. 'as is' looks better for me and reading wise too,it's more fun as I have realized.
So I am trying to create a book-like collection per story,with details(original title/publication year etc). mentioned on the cover created by myself.
See some sample as follows :
Mandrake and Aranyadev Collection from ABP :
Tarzan Collection from BARTAMAN :
Now years after I am actually in this project,courtesy of reprint of old strips(I would not have put this much effort for the recent strips) and it's a pleasure to get dozen of *new* strips per week(6 Mandrake-cum-Aranyadev+6 Tarzan),in the printed form! And as the strip-index of each hero indicates,if they don't stop midway, 5-10 years worth are still waiting to be covered! :-)
Now why I have called this 'weekly collection'? It's because I have neither time nor patience to collect the strips on daily-basis,so I do the cutting-stuff on each sunday and collect the whole weeks' worth in one go as it saves time quite a bit!But on a second thought,I am not sure if I should call this 'তোলাবাজি' as myself paying for the whole thing...ha ha!! :o))
8 comments:
It's a great, great effort - "Kudos to you"!
Long time back I used to cut the Phantom strips from daily "Anandabazar" newspapers and paste those into my old school-notebooks (mostly the Math's one !!) using glue - and as you mentioned,after few months,the notebook got thicker - the image color also changed to reddish !! Putting those strips into ziplock will be the safest way to preserve them (other than scanning).
The phantom strip appearing in the ABP is new story but the mandrake story is old one.
@Kuntalda: Thanks! R jene bhalo laglo je aro keu sameway te strip-collection korto!Jara koreche kono smoy,tarai etar moja(r jhamela)-ta bujte parbe..
To kon period-er strip chilo ogulo?? '80s/'90s?? 'Goyenda Rip' baad porto na otao? Jodi oi khata-gulo ajo beche thake,plz scan some..old memories gulo fire asbe!
R hyan, glue lagiye dekhechi,puro 12ta beje jay,tai original form ei rekhe dicchi!
(What I am doing is,stapling the strips story-wise(checking the Deepwoods index) and then putting a self-made printed cover on it!)
@Gairik : Yes,I know! I am collecting both because those are almost joint,otherwise my sole target is MTM strips only(but nevertheless,current Phantom strips have good art,stories are mediocre though)
HojO - অবশ্যই দেখাবো - next time-e অনেক কিছুই সঙ্গে করে নিয়ে আসবো - আমি mostly late 70's-এর কথা বলছি - তখন IJC-র রমরমে বাজার - তবে আমি কেবল 'অরন্যদেব'-এর কাহিনী collect করতাম - in fact রবিবার এলে কিছুটা বিরক্ত লাগতো !!
Sei purono strip-gulo ache jenei mon chonchol hoye utheche!! ;) Din ke din,purono strip-er jonno mon boroi aku-paku kore!
Tobe Goyenda-ke baad diyechile? Hmm,Aranyadev-er samne Goyenda babu ektu pale to chiloi(mane acheo!)
in fact রবিবার এলে কিছুটা বিরক্ত লাগতো !!
Eita bujlum na?? Sunday-te ABP Jadukar Mandrake chapato,ota rakhtena?? :(
Actually,I am looking more for those 2 heroes than Aranyadev(Indrajal/Diamond/Desh/Anandamela-r madhyome onektai covered hoyeche...r Eng b/w gulo to achei!)
Infact,anything Mandrake @ABP sunday and any RK @ABP weekly-r jonno mon boroi utola hoye utheche! English version paowa jabe(besh kichu gecheo!) but Bengali-ta ABP chara r kothao noy(Ijc story gulo baad diye bolchi)
Find a rare Rip Kirby strips at Nil's fine blog : http://galporchhabi.blogspot.in/2012/03/rip-kirby-in-abp-strip.html
This RK strip is directly from ABP pages....1995's story i.e. by then Indrajal was long buried!
Getting these type of missing strips out of nowhere is a huge thing for me....it's almost like the way I used to feel whenever got few *new & unseen* Indrajal Comics from old sellers,5-10 years back!!
Over the years,as Ijcs have too much exposed,I don't get the 'same' thrill with a 'new' missing Ijc(etaki sei Anupam Roy-er 'sob pele nosto jibon'-r effect?? don't know but...)
Now a days, these strips have taken that place! :))
Another blog/post with Rip Kirby blog is http://docmo.hubpages.com/hub/Rip-Kirby-The-Debonair-Detective - mostly information - not much complete story to read there.
Post a Comment