Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Blackers of Indrajal - START BEGGING!!

 In this post,you will find why these "elite-class frauds" are getting so much profit,because most of failed to identify them as sellers and hence they are doing hell lot of "help" towards genuine lovers by selling comics at absurdly high price,AND AT THE SAME TIME, pretending as a true lover of comics/books/literature in general!! :-)
----------------
Since last 5-7 years I have had heard many fans high-pricy affair regarding Indrajal...that is,they have paid very hefty amount to the sellers(actually,black-marketers) for some rare Indrajal...
Some have paid @300/- for #200-299 range of Indrajal,some paid 2-3000/issue for below #100....and then stories of 5-10000 for the #1 are common!!
Personally,I don't like these kind of price....yes,I understand these are rare and myself is pretty crazy about these books,but avoided those sellers just to not let myself fooled by them!!
I have some ~750 single Ijc(plus 100++ different language versions of same issue) but never have paid more than 50/- per issue except only one,the Marathi version of No.1 Bengali Indrajal(Scarlet Sorceress/Jan'66),for which I paid 100/-  although I am still buying Indrajals.This is possible because amidst all these blackers,there are some good sellers who will ask price which is high,BUT NEVER absurd!
Honestly,Indrajal is my PASSION,but for them a way of PROFESSION....so why allow them to emotionally black-mail you??
Then there are majorly 2 types of 'BLACKERS'...one is direct,they don't hide that they are doing business....but then 2nd kind,the most dangerous and double-standard one...they pose as "true lover of Indrajal",will brag about their liking of many stories(even do blogging,posted scans etc) BUT underneath they are greedy frauds who will sell @very very high price,much more than what actual seller will ask you!!THEY COLLECT Indrajal FOR SOLE PURPOSE of SELLING but will NEVER ADMIT that!!
I would like to say that,we should avoid such persons,specially the 2nd kind,for our own benefit....In Bengali,we call these type of frauds as "Bhodrobeshi Jocchor"....

IF YOU HAVE LUCK YOU WILL GET YOUR MISSING Indrajal,SO PLEASE DO NOT PANIC - HAVE PATIENCE!

JUST Beware of these FRAUDS(there are many known one....incld. few bloggers as well AND a so-called lovers.The common and most infamous one is from Delhi.And another one is from my own city,Kolkata,some Mr.Paul,who has befriended with many 'idiot' collectors and have cheated them!! He used to ask @2000/issue at the QUICKER - the book-selling site.Later I have exposed him and since then,I NEVER have seen him in blog-world! But these are like weeds,who won't die so easily..someone whose family earning is below 20K/month, has been so much bewitched by him that agreed to pay 4-5K if this fraud will help him to get #1 Bengali Indrajal!!!JUST IMAGINE...these frauds don't have little conscience too!!)


Share this bring more awareness.....otherwise there is NO FUTURE for the true collectors.I am lucky enough to have completed ~90% of my required Indrajals(Bengali and English) amidst all these madness but many are not so lucky...so for ALL,share within your circle.

The new facebook-group,Indrajal Collectors' Club(ICC) has been updated aswell...

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Comic #116 : Modesty Blaise in BENGALI

 UPDATES: 
[I] The Indrajal Collectors' Club(ICC) has been turned into a FACEBOOK Group. Any Indrajal fans can join there and discuss their favorite heroes/stories or any other side-features appeared in the pages of Indrajal.
There I have posted my Spares of Bengali Indrajal comics for the exchange purpose(only).Either with Indrajals I am missing/require-replacements or Anandamela(magazine) or any other comic-books I am missing.You will find both of my Spare-list and my Wish-List at 'ICC'.
 Further,recently I got many decades old,vintage and out-of-print Bengali thriller-crime type monthly magazines,i.e. under the category of  'Rahashya-Romancho Masik patrika' and there are few spares to offer as well.These were published in the period of '50s  to '70s,majorly! For those, check this post(of Book-Exchange) for details.

[II] By the way,if you remember what happened at the Sydney test on Jan'08,then you should read this part of SRT's autobio....many memories are coming back,but intensity has been much subdued due to various factors,incld. time(the great healer)!
-------------------------------------

 Modesty Blaise and Willie,the British crime-fighters with a criminal past,were created by author Peter O'Donnell and illustrator Jim Holdaway in 1963.Also part of a series of novels(total 13), Modesty was quite popular in graphic medium! Although she was first visualized by J.Holdway,it was the Spanish artist Romero who transformed Modesty(and the whole series,in that sense) into a quite breath-taking superwoman kind avtar,with racy and fast portrayal of the characters incld. of course,the main lead!!
 There are a total of 96 MB daily-strips from 1963-2001 period,of which first 18 were drawn by Holdaway,from #19-40 by Romero ,then after Romero, some others took the charge(Colvin etc).When Romero quitted on 1978,quality of illustration reached a sudden and steep low,which continued for some painful 8 years until Romero returned in this series,when AXA - his other creation,even racier than the Modesty, was cancelled on 1986.(I always wonder why there is no reprint effort of all AXA stories,like Titan is doing with Modesty??)


In Bengali,Modesty appeared only for once,in the Comic World magazine and that was a J.Holdaway story..
  • Story title : Mrityur Khela (The Killing Ground)
  • Strip-number and original period : D14a(1968)
  • Writer : Peter O'Donnell
  • Artist : Jim Holdaway
  • Bengali Publication : COMIC WORLD Magazine  #6 (1999)
-------------------------------
Back in the '80s and '90s,while Indian comic-fans weren't that much exposed with Modesty,they were quite familiar with AXA thru Sun Comics.Personally I love both series,although Modesty IS ahead over Axa as the former series was high in intense thrill-quotient which latter lacks! BOTH WERE GRAPHICALLY EQUALLY SUPERIOR(& RACY!) though! :-) 
Between,I donno if fans have noticed that brunette Modesty and blonde Axa have quite facial similarity? In fact, many of female side-characters of Modesty series were almost look-alike of Axa!! It seems Romero loved some of his models' faces,eh?? ;o)

Enjoy some of the Modesty-moments from "ROMERO era"....

-------------------------------------
 Between,recently I have added one of the 'Modesty Blaise reprints' by Titan,Modesty Blaise: Vol.7(D19-21),in my collection, and I can say that they did a good reproduction job. As I have all 96 strips(scans) so I have compared with various Titan out-puts(some are direct Titan's scan :)) and felt that some of the print-quality is better @Titan while some are inferior!

 A very good Modesty-site with display of all covers(of comic-strips' version): http://modestyblaisebooks.com/comiccovers/ukusa/comics_ukusa.html#titancovers

 And the site for Modesty novels: http://www.modestyblaisebooks.com/bookcovers.html
--------------------------------------
Just for fun,if one compares the Romero's out-put with the artists replaced him after he quit Modesty for 8 years, in the same series,I am posting few sample-pages.. Posting two significant ones,John Burns and Neville Colvin. Personally disliked their out-put,as have already mentioned, but that's my own view only..

  • 'John Burns' period(1978-79) :


  • 'Colvin' period(1980-1986):


--------------------------------
Finally,read tow more Modesty adventures in the original b/w version.First,a fantastic tale of this female crime-fighter,2nd by Romero,in English : Green-Eyed Monster(D20) [NOT from Titan's print,and hey,a slightly better reproduction,I must say...]
And 2nd is the original b/w English counter-part of Mrityur Khela - The Killing Ground....