ThE LosT WorlD

Comic #76 : Speedy(S175) - A Rare Mandrake Sunday from '90s!

2012-01-19T22:30:00.001+05:30

First of all,a belated happy new year to all of our visitors! In the first post of this year,let's enjoy this 'rare' MTM sunday strip from '90s! Now,why I'm calling a '90s strips - which is much newer than those '50s/'60s classic - a rare??Because,for some strange reason,MTM sundays & dailies from '90s are much tough to locate than those '60s or earlier!!A possible reason I guess,as lesser number of papers were carrying MTM strips in that period,as well as,hardly any publisher printed these strips made these much lesser accessible to fans!Even Frew opt for '30s classics in their short-stint with Mandrake in the '90s!But that is my guess only,may be there are other valid reasons as well.

Anyway,this time read the 3rd last official Falk sunday - Speedy(S175) - courtesy our extensive collector & avid fan Magnus & Dan.As you will notice,this 33-week strip have 3 different formats,as attached below(square,normal rectangle & vertical),that only indicates how difficult it was for Magnus to get a complete 6-week strip from various sources!
SO,ALL CREDITS GOES TO HIM! :))

DOWLOAD S175

Comic #75 : The Meeting of Mandrake and Lothar(S101)

2011-12-28T18:30:00.008+05:30

Enjoy this special sunday strip,the famous tale of Mandrake & Lothar's very first meeting,in the original newspaper strip format. Eventually,this was the earliest MTM Sunday(S101) published in the Indrajal Comics(E#138:Famous Friendship).
Apart from this sunday,there is a re-post,as you will find the complete Kraken(S156) story for the 1st time in color.The earlier version was Pioneer's b/w scans but incomplete!

DOWNLOAD S101

DOWNLOAD S156

Merry Christmas : Comic #74 : The Road House(S126) - A Mandrake Sunday from '70s

2011-12-25T04:44:00.080+05:30

Merry Christmas to all blogger & visitor friends! :-)

ENJOY a short sunday strip that was skipped by ToI in the Indrajal Comics for some unknown reason.
This adventure happened just before Mandrake & Lothar's long(& eventful) journey to Harison University for their magic show and beyond that,started from S127(Ghost Town) till S136(Mr Ttazz).[Except S129(Man from Europa),all were subsequently published in Ijcs,within the issues #265 to #330.]

Now,read this complete strip on-line...

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Comic #72 & 73 : Mandrake Sundays : S142(Super Giant) & S148(Prince Nasdaq)

2011-11-03T13:32:00.029+05:30

A couple of Falk-Fredricks sundays from the late '70s and early '80s for this time.These were already published in Indrajal Comics,like majority of MTM strips from those periods!Super Giant appeared in No.380(The Legend of the Giants)/সংখ্যা ৩৫৭(মহাদানবের খোঁজে) while Prince Nasdaq in Vol.20 No.32(The Avaricious Prince/আজব দেশের বন্দী). [You will find a few Swedish/Italian pages as replacement of the missing English counter-parts,but that won't harm the pleasure of reading.]

By the way,today Indrajal Forum has completed it's 1st anniversary,quite silently though,as I doubt whether anybody except me actually has noticed this! ;_ There are hardly any activities lately but I will try to keep alive this forum as long as possible, so at least visitors can read various older topics/discussions.
To be very honest,to form a forum on Indrajal Comics was kinda small tribute from my side to all Indrajal bloggers & fans.It's indeed quite fascinating to see how a mere comic-series,that too was cancelled more than two decades ago,has successfully created a special bonding among the millions of fans from the various backgrounds and ages!! I hope our love for this series will remain intact in the rest of our lives!

Now,enjoy these strips...
Bye & have fun!

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S142 - Super Giant(11-18-1979 to 2-17-1980)
Download S142
- S148 - Prince Nasdaq(3-28-1982 to 8-29-1982)
Download S148

A Funny Reality...

2011-10-12T22:40:00.003+05:30

Friends,check out this cartoon..hope you will like it!!Couldn't controlled myself from posting it here!! :)
The literal meaning (of what written in Bengali) is "Life is like a garden of 'bamboo plants'.Only bamboos & bamboos!"
Between,I hope you know what 'bamboo' symbolises in the real life!! :o)

Comic #71 : Mandrake Sunday : S146 - Mandrake's Masquerade(The Xanadu Story)

2011-09-26T20:48:00.007+05:30

UPDATE(27/9): আজ শুভ মহালয়া। দেবীপক্ষের সূচনা।
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The famous Xanadu story.Indrajal version is already available on-line in both Bengali & English and now you can enjoy the original colored strip version. Only,this is bit incomplete - missing some 4/5 sunday pages - but still that won't hamper the fun much! Again,this is another contribution from our friends Dan and Magnus..

You can also read a very nice article on Xanadu from Xanadu : http://pjb.hopto.org/index.php?id=13&xr=146

DOWNLOAD THE STRIP

Comic #70: A Team Fanomen Phantom : De Tusen Tigrarna(The Thousand Tigers)

2011-08-16T16:44:00.000+05:30

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Writers: Magnus Magnusson & Lennart Hartler
Artist: Jaime Vallvé
Year of Publication: 1972
Frew Publication(in English): yet to be translated by frew.

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Hello friends,as you can see in the above box,this is a old Team Fantomen story that yet to be translated in English.Now,this was co-scripted by our one of the major Mandrake-strip contributors,Magnus,way back on 1972.Why he didn't continued is unknown but from the art one can tell that the plot was gripping!And I liked the English title "The Thousand Tigers".

Few months ago, we had requested Magnus to scan the Swedish copy and he agreed.Recently he scanned that book for us.Hopefully,one day Frew will publish this.Between,The art by Vallve' was just stunning!

ENJOY!!

DOWNLOAD De Tusen Tigrarna(The Thousand Tigers)

Comic #69 : The First Complete Sunday-strip by Fred Fredricks : A Mandrake Classic - The Cobra Returns(S097 ; 1965)

2011-08-11T15:04:00.007+05:30

Starting with The Cobra Returns,quite a few modifications/introductions were made in the Mandrake's universe!!

This classic itself has some major highlights as follows:

1.This was the first complete illustration done by Fred Fredrick's,after he finished Davis' incomplete work in The Traveller's Tale(S096) and what a story to start-off! Needless to mention, he was just brilliant from his very first (complete) assignment! :-)

2.Intro of Xanadu - the fabulous mountain-top mansion of Mandrake - and it's crazy drive-way!!

3.Intro of Inter-Intel as well as Jed.

4.Return of the oldest,and supposed to be dead,enemy of Mandrake & co. - The Cobra!!

Some special moments....

First time we heard about Inter-Intel and so the unique entrance of Xanadu...

"What a view! What a drop!"

Cobra...still ALIVE???

Finally....Cobra strikes!!!

[Note: This is a long strip and some pages are in Swedish as we yet to locate their original colored English counter-parts. But hopefully,that won't hamper your understanding of the plot as major part of the story is in English!Cheers!!]

Download S097 - The Cobra Returns

Comic #68 : Mandrake Sunday : S149 - El Dorado(1982)

2011-08-07T15:33:00.006+05:30

El Dorado - the mysterious city of gold!!Many have loved this concept and personally,being a crazy about any Mandrake's adventures,it's a great pleasure for me to find a Mandrake story based on it! Of course,where is Mandrake(& Lothar),some kind of criminal activity has to be there and so you will find in this adventure aswell!!

First read this in a Bengali Indrajal Comics (খন্ড 21 সংখ্যা 6 - সোনার শহর এল্ ডোরাডো) and only years after,the original strip-version.[This unedited strip(i.e. 6 panels/sunday) is one of the numerous contributions by Magnus & Dan.]

Enjoy!

Some glimpses...

Download The Complete Strip

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And here's cover of the Indrajal version:

The wiki page on El Dorado : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Dorado

Egmont-Phantom Series(in Bengali) : Chalaman Asariri-er Romanchakar Abbhijan(Phantom)

2011-08-05T05:05:00.003+05:30

When Egmont(Ind) had released several of those 2-in-1 Phantom books in English,one of the famous Bengali publisher,Dev Sahitya Kutir(দেব সাহিত্য কুটীর) bought the publication right in Bengali and released 4 such Phantom(অরণ্যদেব) books on 2003-04 session,each was 2-in-1.As a result,Bengali Phans got a total of 8 stories.

The general title of the series was :Chalaman Asariri-er Romanchakar Abbhijan(Phantom)/চলমান অশরীরীর রোমাঞ্চকর অভিযান(ফ্যান্টম).These books were in giant-sized format with the best quality printing(glossy papers with the top-class coloring!) & priced 65 INR each.

I wonder IF THERE IS ANY possibility to re-start this series in Bengali with (at least) the remaining 20 odd titles, those were already published by Egmont(Ind) or now,by Euro Books??

[Check this following ad-page from Suktara - the teen magazine by DSK - from 2004.]

Titles of the stories:

#1 - Deviler Golpo/ডেভিলের গল্প, Central-parker Hottya Rohossyo/সেন্ট্রাল-পার্কের হত্যারহস্য

#2 - Sahid Minar/শহিদ মিনার, Mrityur Chaya-ghera Dwip/মৃত্যুর ছায়া-ঘেরা দ্বীপ
#3 - Abhisapta Mandir/অভিশপ্ত মান্দির, Jibanto Cargo/জিবন্ত কার্গো

#4 - Adharjagate Cent Lucifer/আধারজগতের সেন্ট লুসিফার, Nautilus/নটিলাস

In the Devil's story,Phantom has been appeared in a blue costume while in the other stories,mostly in purple(dark to light shades).

Visit this Phantom Phorum thread for some page/cover scans...

Comic #67 : Indrajal Comics(Bengali) : No.154(Mandrake) :Aantim Manav(অন্তিম মানব)

2011-08-02T11:55:00.034+05:30

Aantim Manav(অন্তিম মানব),originally from D147(The Wonder that Amazed the World ; 1971),is based on a fantasy plot of a giant man Kolosso(কলসসো) and his beautiful mate(or wife?) Janna(জান্না) - both of them are results of some atomic radiation - from a distant mountain-region of pygmies! At the end of story,you just have to love these giant human beings..

Their introduction with the mysterious giant! That was not quite 'comfortable' for them though. ;o)

Kolosso arrives at the city but there was no Janna - his love - something that made him quite furious!!

Now,meet with Janna - the beautiful mate of Kolosso.And hey,she is expecting!!

Story ends with Mandrake's desire to see them - the modern example of Adam-and-Eve - "to solve problems of our troubled world"!

Download অন্তিম মানব

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Now, a few words on our Indrajal Forum - active since the last November - that has been created solely for the purpose of discussion of the various kind of comic adventures/series that we have had read so far.And that incld. Indrajal Comics(for obvious) but discussions are NOT meant to be limited within the Indrajal stories only,rather much beyond of it! Like, at the Newspaper Strips section,one can discuss any comic-strips of any heroes that never published in any Indrajal or from the Post-Ijc era.Similarly,one can made own posts on any non-Indrajal heroes like Tarzan,Archie etc to regional titles(say Nonte-Phonte for Bengali readers or Chacha Choudhary/Pinki/Billo/ACK for any Indian readers) at the Non-Indrajal Heroes section. And last but the not the least,like all comic forums,we also have a non-comic section where you can discuss any other topics like Cricket or Movies/Books etc.

Well,some might wonder that when there are plenty of comic blogs for posts/comments,why a forum??

While our blogs are the major source of much desired scans of old comics/books,there is some definite advantage of a forum site,specially for those readers who love to talk about their thoughts on whatever they read.

In fact,we have two major reasons.

First of all,while blog is the best way to share some d/l links but not an ideal set-up for any long/time-based discussion.Also,due to the very nature of blog set-up,it's very difficult to have a prolonged discussion in a older post once a new post comes up.

Secondly, we have to comment according to the author's choice of topics - for the obvious reason - and anything other talks are usually fall much in the 'off-topic' region,something that does not serve any good for that particular blog-post.

In the other hand,a forum is kind of a platform where everyone can share their thoughts from an equal position.Every member can either post in the other's topics or create own topics,in the respective sub-forums(and for that, one doesn't have to post a long review etc or supporting panels/covers....if someone does,that's ok though!).

Then,if there is some meaningful but off-topic discussion going on,it's possible to move those posts under a new topic - that fits with the discussion - so members can keep the conversation on in a much proper way!

And the best part of a forum is that neither you have to wait for others to pick any particular story/topic for discussion nor any old,active topics becomes dead due to publication of a new one!

So,it'll be a great pleasure to have some of comic-related discussions with our blogger & visitor friends those who love to express their thoughts!!

Cheers!!

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Comic #65 & 66 : 2 Unpublished Mandrake Strips(D116 - Narda's TV Show AND S171 - Galactic Birthday Party)

2011-07-30T10:10:00.035+05:30

Hello friends,couldn't scan any Indrajal in the last few days.However,you will soon find a new Bengali Ijc here.

Before that, enjoy a couple of rare MTM strips - D116 & S171 - those were never published in India,in any book format.D116,a '62 strip,was skipped by both Ijc & DC and S171 is from the Post-Ijc era('94).[Now,D116 is completely in English while S171 is mixed with colored Italian scans with the b/w English strips.But you can predict the story as the script was bit repetitive!]

And these are contributions of the one of the biggest MTM fan from Sweden,Magnus and of course,Dan!:-)

D116 - Narda's TV Show: An unusual plot where Narda played the centre character with only a minor presence of Mandrake and at the end,both of them were completely baffled.(There were a couple of strips on this same theme published in the '80s Indrajals.Can you recall those?? :-) )

Download the Daily

S171 - Galactic Birthday Party: Another central-galactic adventure.This time our friends were invited in the planet Magna to celebrate Nardraka's birthday...

Download the Sunday

Between,to find out all Mandrake's adeventures in the C-G published in this blog,visit this general link.

Comic #64 : Indrajal Comics(Bengali) : No.69(Betal) :Ghurni-Sagore Diana(ঘূর্ণি-সাগরে ডায়ানা)

2011-07-20T13:36:00.029+05:30

UPDATE(23/7): For all cricket fans & fanatics(like me),I'm sure you are watching the on-going Ind-Eng 1st test - the historical 2000th TEST match - from Lords'!! (For those who came in late,this longest form of cricket on it's 134th year(since 1877) and for Team India,they are on their 79th year,since 1932.)

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Another new Bengali Indrajal for this time.ঘূর্ণি-সাগরে ডায়ানা based on a dreaded plot against Diana and how Phantom finally saved her life! But, it was not another of those 'Diana-kidnapped-by-some-lover-prince' kind adventures,rather a gruesome murder-plot where that conman Dice tried to kill Diana, using a couple of ferocious killer sharks!

Well,I am not going to elaborate further as don't want to ruin the suspense for those Bengali fans who yet to read this story in any language.And, if you already have read the English version,enjoy this Bengali counter-part! :-)

Between,don't miss this following advertisement of the TEN EARLIEST ISSUES of 'Amar Chitra Katha(ACK)'!!And as you know very well,these are the rarest issues of ACK,based on much different stories - mostly western fairy tales - than what we got from #11(Krishna) onwards.(It's quite surprising that,while one will get plenty of old ACKs right from #11 from the old-markets,but NOT these issues!!Strange,ain't?? Personally,I have only a few issues incld. #2 - সিন্ডেরেলা . I donno if anybody has all of these 10 issues in Bengali/English!)

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I have a special bonding with this Indrajal.Actually 2 Indrajals,in total. Besides ঘূর্ণি-সাগরে ডায়ানা(সংখ্যা ৬৯), the other one is a Mandrake-Ijc in English - The Treacherous Gang(No.77).These two issues were the earliest 'below #100' Indrajals I read ever and purchased on the same day from one seller!

Well,that Betal story was much exciting but plot-wise,nothing new.In the other hand,that Mandrake story was a land-marking adventure & one of the major reasons behind those huge changes in the Mandrake's universe(for better,of course) & pattern of the future stories(sundays+dailies) from mid '60s onwards!
This was the FIRST ever encounter with that dreaded & international criminal gang, (in)famously known as "The League of 8"..just "8"(as Narda told Mandrake for the very first time!) Before this issue,I had already read another '8' adventure with Dr.Dell(Ijc V23 N10) where it has been mentioned that it was Narda who proved the existence of this gang in the modern era!So reading 'that' actual story was something very special for me!! (And mind it,I'm talking about the time when there was NO Indrajal-List available on-line nor I had any idea about Xanadu back then!So my Indrajal-hunts in the old-markets were quite wild in those days/years.That was actually much different than what we are doing in the last 3-4 years i.e. preparing a wish-list much beforehand with own choice of heroes/stories inside etc.)
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Now,to read the complete story of ঘূর্ণি-সাগরে ডায়ানা,click the following link:

DOWNLOAD সংখ্যা ৬৯

Can You ever forget your First Indrajal Comics(ইন্দ্রজাল কমিকস্)??

2011-07-14T19:41:00.017+05:30

First of all,for Bengali Indrajal fans : I will post 2 Indrajals,one-by-one,in the coming weeks.There will be a Betal followed by a Flash Gordon adventure.
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Before going into the actual topic,I should admit the reason behind this particular post. Since the last few weeks,I was again wondering why we are sooo crazy about 'only' Indrajal Comics??Now,just recently,we had a discussion on Indrajal(& our childhood memories associated with this) in a blog-post by fellow blogger Mahasthobir & other fans like Suman etc. More I think about this,more I become nostalgic,hence decide to share my thoughts here.I hope you will also share your own feelings & childhood experience as well!
[Of course,I know the basic reason is you can read many *new* stories from old Ijcs,plus,many forgotten ones.But I wonder whether the "nostalgia factor" IS the major reason behind this craze,even more than the actual reading??(Because,technically, you CAN read all these stories in unedited strips from the various sites,plus 100s of Diamond's Phantom/Mandrake books etc.Still, ALL fans want only Indrajal's same old edited version!!)]
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All Indrajal fans have their own set of 'special' Indrajals issues and that's does NOT depend on the year-of-publication/issue numbers etc.Yes,I'm talking about those introductory issues responsible for your fondness/addiction/attachment(or whatever you call it) with this series!
So,let's share those experiences/memories when you were introduced with the magical world of Indrajal Comics(ইন্দ্রজাল কমিকস্)!! :-)
Personally,I am one of those latest-entry(considering that period when this series was still under publication) in the Indrajal-universe.It was 1989. [However,we have only a few Ijc-crazies who were introduced years after the cancellation i.e. from the Post-Indrajal era,still addicted with this series,like Aalok from Mumbai,Swagoto(Walker) and my younger brother.(Well,he has allmost stopped reading Ijcs since last 2-3 years due to study and other interests like Games/FB etc!Earlier,he was the one who used to finish the whole lot of old Indrajals,even before me, within the couple of days of my purchase from the old markets! :-))]

Even today,I can vividly remember that afternoon when one of the class-mates and my buddy, Amritanshu(অমরিতাংশু) showed me that issue - ব্যর্থ চক্রান্ত(খন্ড 26 সংখ্যা 29) - was my first ever experience with Indrajal Comics!! Well,back then I was an ardent fan of Chacha Choudhary-Sabu/Pinki/Billo/Tintin/Nonte-Phonte etc fun-series only and hence initially ignored that 'unknown' series(with somewhat different format i.e. lesser pages,bigger size and much 'different' art than we used to see in the other comics!) Sometime later,he flicked a few pages and asked me to read the 'other features' like cartoons/Ripley's etc!!As he was a close pal,so I reluctantly read some of those pages and kept that book aside!Then we were busy in our classes. After the last class,he said "বইটা আমায় দে(give me the book)".That was the moment I felt asif he asked something for return that very dear to me!!I donno why I suddenly felt that way,but somehow requested him to lent that issue(and few more) in the coming days!Like a true buddy, he kept his promise and that's how I was introduced with the magical world of this adventure series - ইন্দ্রজাল কমিকস্!!

As I have said,that introductory issue was ব্যর্থ চক্রান্ত(খন্ড 26 সংখ্যা 29) - a Rip Kirby(রিপ কার্বি) story and eventually the last-Rip in the Indrajal. So,Amritanshu was one of the major reasons for my Indrajal addiction and I'm quite grateful to him for this!
[It's 99% probable that he is not reading this post(or any other comic-blogs,in that matter) as he had completely moved on from reading comics(Indrajal/others) from the 5th/6th standard itself(i.e. soon after Ijc's cancellation!)]

Few weeks later,I bought my first Indrajal issue.It was a Betal(বেতাল) adventure with those little people - কালো বাক্সের রহস্য(খন্ড 26 সংখ্যা 33).Incidentally,from this issue,ToI did change the format a bit(with a new banner,frequency was reduced from weekly to fortnightly,price hiked from 4.00 to 5.00 and page numbers were increased from 32 to 36!) Somehow I loved that previous banner style over this new one.Anyway, my next buy,actually the previous issue of কালো বাক্সের রহস্য,was a fitting Indrajal adventure - রক্তে ভেজা চক্রান্ত(খন্ড 26 সংখ্যা 32) .I loved this story so much that re-read the book many times within the first few days.:-) This story alone made me an avid fan of Flash Gordon(ফ্ল্যাশ গর্ডন) & his group(Dr.Jarkov,beautiful Dale & others!)

[I've scanned/clicked few covers from my 'old' issues and for the coverless ones,scans/clicks are from the copies I have collected only in the recent years.]

Next was Bahadur(বাহাদুর).And it was one of the best Bahadur adventure's from the late '80s - মৃত্যুর সাথে পাঞ্জা(খন্ড 26 সংখ্যা 18) .Unfortunately,I lost this book due to one careless aunt!!(I never forgave her as I loved that issue very much and worse,it was not my book but from Amritanshu! It's another thing that he never accused me for the loss.)
Now,why I read Bahadur??Well,I can tell you many reasons but major reason,specially on that age,was definitely the charming presence of Bela!!And this story was a great example. ;-)

[Few years ago,I finally managed to have one copy of মৃত্যুর সাথে পাঞ্জা from our old-book market and that was quite a nostalgic moment for me.It was like,asif I've returned in those years.(Those who have managed to re-collect their old Indrajal issues, years after the loss of the actual issues,can understand this very well!)]

After few months,I read another Bahadur adventure from the same year(1989) - রক্তাক্ত অভিযান(খন্ড 26 সংখ্যা 35).Then it was ক্রোধোন্মোত্ত শয়তান(খন্ড 26 সংখ্যা 28) where Bela did only a cameo but she was looking super-hot even in that short appearance.

Next was our famous magician friend - Mandrake(ম্যানড্রেক).The first issue I can remember was গান-পাহাড়ের রহস্য(খন্ড 26 সংখ্যা 36). After that,সাগরতলের মৃতু্দূত(খন্ড 25 সংখ্যা 14-15) & রহস্যময় দম্পতি(খন্ড 26 সংখ্যা 1-3) were few other titles from same period,but back then I read only the respective part-1(১ম পর্ব) issues.

Finally,the last Mandrake story in Indrajal - গোপন আবিষ্কার(খন্ড 27 সংখ্যা 7) - was released on 1st April,1990 with a new price-tag(6.00).It was in my collection within a couple of days of the release - only for few hours though - as I lost this book during a long bus-trip on the very next day of purchase!! :(( And,the worst part of the loss is that, I'm yet to see another copy of গোপন আবিস্কার,even after 21 longgg years!! Quite unimaginable I know,but it's only a fact that I am yet to see even a torned Bengali copy of this issue,even after so many visits in the several old-book markets over the years.They have successfully arranged others issues except this one title!!
[This cover-scan is from Walker's collection,who sent it years ago,and now even he has apparently lost this issue!]

ড্রাগ অভিযান(খন্ড 26 সংখ্যা 26) was responsible for my introduction with Dara(দারা) - our own 007 Bond! This story was undoubtedly the best among the 8 Dara adventures,with such grimmer and blood-shaded plot!

Between,after that unfortunate loss of গোপন আবিস্কার,dad promised me to gift the next issue as a compensation and so he did.That was a Dara story : প্রতারণার ফাঁদ(খন্ড 27 সংখ্যা 8) and eventually the LAST Indrajal,as you know!! That issue was released on 16th April,1990 and it's in my collection since 23rd April(Yes,I used to mention the 'date-of-purchase' on the inside cover on every issue(incld. any comics & books)! :-))

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So friends,it was my own experience with Indrajal Comics from those early days.What's your story??Do share with us!

Some Covers of the Up-coming Indrajal Comics(Bengali)

2011-07-10T10:00:00.025+05:30

I've selected these issues for scanning in the next few weeks.So it's my request to all Bengali bloggers(Devil,Mahasthobir,Walker) to skip these so we can avoid any duplication.(In future,if I decide to post any other issues - quite possible actually - then I will inform all of you beforehand!)

And the very next issue will be either of #39(Tufan/তুফান) & #69(Ghurni-Sagore Diana/ঘূর্ণি-সাগরে ডায়ানা).As I won't publish these two issues back to back,so you can let me know your preference,if any.

Now,why I've picked these??Primarily, these are among those issues I still have in single form(i.e. not in a binder),hence rather easy for scanning! ;)) Another reason is,these are among some of the best stories published in the Ijc ever(irrespective of their publication year/number etc).

Now,some results of 'clicking'(by mobile-cam) from a few Indrajal binders! ;) Well,taking photos from a binder is tough job,and while it's much better than scanning such books(worst thing to do),still you won't achieve the clarity/quality that you will easily attain through scanning of normal single issues!Another thing I've realised that,taking usual photos is much easier than that of taking from a book(for best reading purpose).

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You can even check a few Indrajal cover-scans in some of these following old posts.There you will find out that scans from binders were quite ordinary/poor! :(

Indrajal Covers 1
Indrajal Covers 2
Indrajal Covers 3
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As you can see,there are some covers of single issues too,still scanning yields much better result over taking photos! :-/ I will definitely try to take photos of these and many others from the binders,but that will happen only after scanning of a good number of single issues.(AND it'll be favorable if some other Bengali Indrajal fans have these in the single form!)

Comic #63 : Indrajal Comics(Bengali) : No.122(Mandrake) :8-er Khoppore(৮-এর খপ্পরে)

2011-07-04T17:55:00.029+05:30

A Mandrake story this time,from a 1971 Indrajal,with that vicious gang of world-wide criminals "league of 8(৮-এর দল)" in it. [The English version was 'The Mysterious Eight'(#144)].
You will never experience a single dull moment in any of the early "8" stories,with so much action & thrill these will offer.The introductory story(#77 - The Treacherous Gang) itself was a classic!! I do believe that Indrajal readers were/are fortunate enough to have ALL of the best "sign of 8" adventures published in these books.After Ijc's cancellation,the remaining "8" stories were published in Diamond's Mandrake Digest(DMD) but I have hardly enjoyed those!

For a more detailed reading on "8",visit these links of few old posts & forum's thread:
The league of 8(from Xanadu)
Mysterious Island of "8"(A old blog-post)
No.77 - The Treacherous Gang(Forum's Thread)

Enjoy!
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Now,this story was reprinted later,on 1985(V22 N47 : মরণের ডাক) but that '85 version was heavily edited with Lothar's get-up had been redrawn(by ToI's artist!!) - just in order to 'fit' him in the modern look - was one of those stupidest things done by them, that eventually ruined the vintage art of Fred Fredricks!! [You just have to check #122(Eng #144) & V22 N47 side-by-side to understand this(see the following panels)]

There are few more stories(with such treatment) aswell and probably the worst example is V23 N26(দূর-আকাশের তারা) - a reprint of #150/সংখ্যা ১২৮!
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Now,about the cover-art,this is one of the best Indrajal covers with Mandrake stories inside.Once again,B.Govind did a splendid job!About the Bengali titles,those are simply awesome with the number '8'(৮) mentioned in all of the first 3 stories related with this vicious gang,something that English titles lack!Those were "রহস্যময় ৮(সংখ্যা ৫৫/ #77)","৮-এর খপ্পরে(সংখ্যা ১২২/ #144)" and "আবার ৮-এর খপ্পরে(সংখ্যা ১৪১/ #163)".

When Mandrake takes some break,he reads comic!!wow!Then he is not any of those gimmickry super-heroes but rather a chilled-out person..only with some legendary power of illusion! :))

But there are the moments when he suspects something from a slight hunch,and that means end of his vacation(evenif that makes Narda quite furious)! Like when he saw that number 8 on the collar!!

"Hamara dhande mein ek galti ko maaf karna usse bada galti hein!(In our business,to forgive one mistake is the bigger mistake itself!)" - remember this most (in)famous dialogue by that under-world leader - Malik - in the 2002 Bollywood block-buster : Company ?? It seems that he took this idea from the "league of 8" itself as they also never forgive a mistake or failure and like Malik, allow only one thing : penalty-of-death("৮-এর যা রেওয়াজ")!

Now,read the whole story...

Download সংখ্যা ১২২

Comic #62 : Indrajal Comics(Bengali) :Vol.27 No.5(Bahadur) - Sapurer Toup(সাপুড়ের টোপ)

2011-06-30T20:00:00.016+05:30

A new Indrajal comic for today.First Bengali(& 6th overall) Indrajal comics in this blog.As the title suggests,this issue is from the final year of Indrajal publication(1990) and the final Bahadur adventure,aswell.You will see Bela in a very special(& glamorous,may I say?) role.Also, I have loved the ending! :)
Posting for all Bengali fans & specially those who used to ask me for posting(Ijc) at first place.As I've started off,so you can expect a few more.

Enjoy!

Bela is in a rather unusual role(as the naag-kanya!!)

The ending of the story,as well as,the series!Hopefully,you won't miss the romantic finish! :)

Download Vol.27 No.5

Comic #61 : Mandrake Sunday :The Summit Conference(S086)

2011-06-28T15:03:00.004+05:30

Update(6/29): Higher resolution colored Swedish sunday pages have been added in the place of earlier published low-res ones,with addition of 2 more new pages.
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A new strip from Phil Davis era.This is one of those many English strips contributed by Dan & Magnus,so thanks to both of them!:-) [And if it has appeared in Bala's blog,then consider this a re-post!]
Now, a couple of things..
Few months back I've received some colored Swedish sunday strips of early Fredricks era from Magnus.(Some of them are already published by Lothar in b/w English).As a sucker of any nice colored comic-strips,I've tried to replace the speech-balloons with the English texts,so we can read colored strips in English!
Some samples(condition of these Swedish pages were not that good with tear etc,so I've fixed those pages a bit!).

As we know,for the old b/w Mandrake strips, AWW(Australian Women's Weekly) is a very good source but they had cropped/enlarged the strip-panels a lot to fit in their format and that made the panels a bit weird! I've already discussed this with Lothar(to confirm my doubt).He has posted the cleaned but untouched AWW version,and I've the unedited non-English versions to compare with! So I am trying to restore the original shapes from those.

For now,see some of the samples....have added both of the re-stored(left) and AWW's versions(right). Any suggestion/feed-back will be appreciated.

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Now,enjoy the Sunday..

Download S086

Beautiful Janice from "The Mystery of the Island..

2011-06-21T23:11:00.026+05:30

..of Dogs"!!
Yes,I'm talking about that '60s Phantom classic based on an intense plot about a devilish & dreaded plan by an enemy country(probably Russia) as their army general(& his thousand soldiers) formed a secret missile base at that deserted "island of dogs" - their hide-out - owned by some ol' major Helm!
I'm not going in detail on the plot,rather concentrating on a major character of this adventure,who played an integral role quite by accident - Janice Helm - the beautiful & seductive grand-daughter of that major Helm!
Over the years,in his way of the several dreaded adventures,quite a lot of beautiful ladies have had desired the Phantom,as their mate,at some point of their lives.And there was no short of varieties as from the sky-band chief Sala to Marshall sisters, from those highland princesses & queens to numerous lost/kidnapped girls - all of them were in this special league.They were quite beautiful & desirable in their own right,still none of them had this spark & beauty combined in one place,like this Ms.Helm!Majority of those ladies were either "damsels in distress" or "self-obsessed egoists" than anything else but Janice was an exception!!
Today,I'm going to post some of those special moments from this adventure(with supporting panels) so we can have a closer look on Janice(and her reaction) in the different situations!

[Note: : #1 - This classic was published in India only by Diamond Comics(as ToI had skipped this at Indrajal) twice in their Phantom digests(#8 & #70) ,#2 - I have added panels from both of the Bengali & English versions together(after bit editing),so all Phans can enjoy these!]
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First,meet our lonely Janice,when she was getting bored as there was NO unmarried attractive man to accompany her!!

But at least,she can dream(about some unknown mysterious & exciting man),evenif that sounds silly to herself!! (By then,she had very little idea on how her dream was in the verge of fulfillment - far away from her dreamed way,though!)

"When you are writing a phony letter,do better than that" - this is the lesson that those kidnappers had learnt when they wrongly spelled Janice(as 'Janis') and wrote a letter that supposed to be from her grandpa, signed by 'Major Helm'!You just can't fool a beauty who got a brain too!
Moreover,she was hardly afraid of these con men,rather threatened them with "get lost before I yell for police".

So,this brave girl herself can fight-back but you don't have to do much when the Phantom IS around.When you hear something like "That lady said..let go,don't move...anybody" originated from a deep,cold voice,then either you have to obey it or face the consequences..like those kidnappers did!

"I'd enough of this...Get out!!" - she was too anxious to realise that her dream man was right in front of her.So Janice screamed only to realise(or taken aback?) that this man doesn't take,but only give orders! Few moments later,now she had some sort of 'emotional transformation' & apparently won't mind if this mysterious,exciting & wonderful 'burgler' robs that place.By then,he has already robbed her beautiful heart,quite unknowingly for himself though!

Now, Janice is telling her side of story & shared some information on her 'disappeared' grandpa...

She did tried her luck in little bit of flirting with "They were driven mad by my rare beauty" (on why those kidnappers came) but all were went in vain!

Meantime,enter of the patrolman Riggs,one of those numerous dopey men that Janice used to meet all the time. It's like,years ago she had replaced her dolls with these men,and can control them in her own will!But,we can't blame Riggs,can we??He is only a commoner while she is the rarer!

"He said I'd never see him again...that's what HE thinks" - She is determined to see "her man" once again,by anyhow..

"I'm 21,he's 400.When I'm 30 he'll be 409" - It seems that age is NO bar for her(she is ready to marry a 400-year old man) as long as he is unmarried!! Hmm...Janice is a lady with some rare spirit! She is ready to face everything for him..

...even ready to take some risks that one patrolman would hesitate!!Moreover,she had knowingly took that risk,to visit the dog-island at midnight,just to be with her "dream man" - the Phantom!(Earlier,she used to like those dopey guys,but no more!)

"Can we..help you??" - Just after their arrival on that mysterious dog-island,for the first time Janice had realised that how much danger she is in!! What she thought would be a rather fun-trip, turned out being a quite different ball-game as they were 'welcomed' by some ruthless killers with guns in their hand..and they mean business!!

Janice,who thought her dream man will be delighted for her surprise-visit, had a rude shock with "you are a foolish girl,lucky to not have your pretty head blown off"!! She couldn't realise that her dream man was on a mission(of death) and NOT on a date!

"Awful" - that says everything! This mission was too much for everyone,included that ruthless general,and so for her beautiful soul...

"In a war,one is ready to die" and that is unfortunately true for everybody including our beautiful Janice!When Phantom said it,she can't believe her ears though - "Does he mean it??"

"Like a thousand 4th-of-Julys" - amidst all of these dangers,she had her sense-of-humour intact!

"If I hadn't come with a boat,you would have been in a spot!" - How much Phantom had scold Janice for her wild visit,at the end she indeed made the job much easier for him and there's nothing to deny!

"A man who blows up islands and scares away a thousand men..more than a little me can handle.I'll settle for a dopey guy like that(Riggs)...I'm smarter than he is." - Finally,even being an irresistible seductress by herself,she was well aware of her own strengths & more importantly,the limitations - something that made her even more 'unique' among the league of beautiful-ladies-who-once-desired-Phantom as unlike others,she has enough brain to support her own beauty!
Janice showed that she IS neither any doll(who always needs a man in her side for protection) nor any madcap who will plot to get her man by any means.She would rather use her grey cells a bit!

Phantom might have forgot her,but will we??

Flash Gordon Sunday-Strips from Diamond's Comic World Magazine

2011-06-19T16:01:00.001+05:30

Diamond Comics(DC) had published some Flash Gordon strips in their famous CW magazine and all of these were from Post-D.Barry('51-'91) era.These strips were appeared in CW,right from the #1 issue.However,those strip-dates were sometimes edited but thankfully they kept some of those boxes(with the year of publication).
Don't know if any more other strips ever appeared in that magazine but these three are all I have seen till now(and all from '96).

S190 - "Nightfall on Mongo" (4/28/96 to 8/25/96)
S191 - "The Way it Began" (9/1/96 to 9/29/96)
S192 - "The Return of Ming" (10/6/96 to 12/22/96)

Diamond's Comic World Magazine AND the Teen's World

2011-06-18T10:00:00.005+05:30

A Brief History: DC's Comic World is an unique giant-sized(bigger than Indrajal/Frew) monthly magazine that used to filled with numerous international & national comic characters.Beside comics,there was a great mix of GK stuffs and other features like GBR,sports,astrology etc.This series is under publication since 1998.The first 2-3 years worth were much superior than the recent issues(these have NO KFS characters since many years). Also the earliest issues were 100-120 pagers.
Many of the early issues had Phantom,Mandrake & Flash Gordon strips in the alternative way with other 15-20 characters per issue.CW was an instant hit among the comic-lovers and had quite a similarity with Comic Revue magazine from US. :-)

The list major comic characters is as follows:
International: Phantom,Mandrake,Flash Gordon,Modesty Blaize,Archie,Tom & Jerry,Henry,Blondie,Beetle bailey,Denes,Batman,Tarzan,He-man,Hagar the horrible,Jr.Rotar etc with numerous one-off short stories(plots were varied from romantic to those evil-spirit tales!!).
Indian:Cartoonist Pran's all characters(from the most popular Chacha Chaudhary,Pinki,Billo to Micoo,Raman etc),Jatak takes,King Vikram &Betal,Panchtantra and numerous other titles.
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They also tried to launch a separate "Teen's World"(at the reverse-back of each book) in the 2nd/3rd year of publication.That part mostly dedicated for movie reviews,current fashions and other teen stuffs! :-)

Despite majority of the CW's early issues had famous strips like Phantom,Mandrake & Flash Gordon,only few occasions one would see these characters on the covers(strange,ain't?)!Here's few of those covers with some Teen's World pages!

BENGALI Phantom Sunday-Strip Pages(Batch 3)

2011-06-16T15:46:00.000+05:30

UPDATE: Friends,first check some special links from the Phantom_WIKI where we are working in the Indian_Phantom section!! Any help will be appreciated!

General Indian Section: http://www.schapter.org/wiki/The_Phantom_publications_in_India

BENGALI Newspaper & maagzine Section:

ABP(newspaper): http://www.schapter.org/wiki/Anandabazar_Patrika
Anandamela(regular issues): http://www.schapter.org/wiki/Anandamela
Anandamela(specials & pujabarshiki): http://www.schapter.org/wiki/Anandamela_Specials_/_Annuals
Desh(regular issues): http://www.schapter.org/wiki/Desh

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This is the final batch of the অরণ্যদেব aka Phantom-Sundays published in the Indrajal Comics.From the next post,you will see some of the Post-Indrajal strips..

Today following Sunday pages have been attached:
Indrajal Sundays( #3):

S128 - Queen Amaza's Mate
S129 - The Fighting Twins
S131 - The Bride of Xali
S132- Exodus of the Little People
S133 - Death from the Sky

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Now,before going to the actual strip pages,let's have some look at these old,vintage ads/articles used appear in the '80s Desh(the magazine where these strips were published,as I've mentioned before).Buddies,do these trigger some old nostalgic memories?? :))

Now the Sunday pages....

(Carefully look @the 2nd & 3rd panels of the following page.Indrajal skipped these(in V25 N18-19:Raiders from Amaland) where it has been mentioned Hero as well as (for the first time)Devil's origin!While Hero was introduced in a old daily strip(by Falk himself),for Devil,that concept was originally from an Egmont classic : Devil's Story aka 'Deviler Golpo' - published by Dev Sahitya Kutir in their short-yet-successful Aranyadev series on 2003!)

Forum Updates : NEW Forum Version & Header

2011-05-12T23:31:00.016+05:30

Today went for "Milky Way" from the older version "Prosilver". Also a NEW header has been installed. Hopefully you will like this new get-up! :) If anybody got any suggestion on how we can have a better background etc,feel free to suggest!

Cheers!

Falcon Comics(India):Blondie & Beetle Bailey

2011-05-04T18:25:00.027+05:30

Famous western humor series like Blondie & Beetle Bailey were introduced in India by the Falcon Comics in the '80s.Like most of the Indian comic fans of '70s & ‘80s,I had also no idea about these western funnies(back then we were more in the “action superhero” genre courtesy of the Indrajal & Dolton comics).Now, few years ago,a nice article on the Falcon Comics publication at the Anupam's ICE site caught my attention.That article introduced me with these famous fun series and since then I am searching for these two titles in the old books’ markets.With time,as I’ve managed to hold some of the earliest issues,it appears that Falcon Comics(FC) had started off from June,1983 as a monthly release but soon after few months, frequency was shifted to the quarterly.Among their releases,I love Blondie & her husband Dagwood’s humorous antics which are the basis for these stories & strips,plus,that lazy-yet-ambitious Beetle,a young private at the Camp Swampy, and his nemesis,the tyrant supervisor,sergent Snorkel’s crazy stories! Beetle’s trademark is that a hat or helmet will always cover his forehead and eyes. J

FC relied on the original stories from the comic-books(stories were typically 3-6 pagers each with the occasional 1-pagers) and the old sunday strips.Most of the stories were done by the respective original creators,Chic Young(for Blondie) & Mort Walker(for Beetle).Besides the vintage FC books,I'm also collecting the recent Sunday pages of Blondie from the Graffiti(Telegraph's sunday).These strips are pretty good with the identical standard of ol' superior illustrations(scripted by Chic Young's son Dean) but those vintage stories are far more humorous...also,in those longer stories,side-characters got more roles to play(compare to the restricted sunday spaces ). J

There was separate numbering for each series i.e. Blondie(B),Beetle(BB),Popeye(P) etc.Books were printed on good quality papers matched with the decent inking.In this post,you can see covers of the some earliest issues(incld. the very 1st issue of FC Blondie) and their promotional ads. Presently I have only those books published in the 1983-84, so the exact period of publication is completely unknown.L
Anybody who can share the information regarding the complete(or at least more than what we got till now) tenure of Falcon will be highly appreciated. J

Finally,the Indrajal connection: Yes,both Blondie & Beetle got their spaces in the Indrajal,much less than they deserve though.While for Blondie,presently I can recall 2 issues,one in #61(Hero) and another I yet to identify. Beetle was appeared in the Indrajal Comics for only once as a back-up story and eventually that was the 2nd last Indrajal issue(Vol.27 No.7 - Secret Invention;1990).It was a 3-pager story, tittled "The Dog Chase".I have scanned those pages as follows...

After reading those FC stories,I wonder why ToI never tried these most popular characters for their regular back-up spaces??It's more baffling as Blondie & Beetle were owned by KFS - the same official owner of all those superheroes appeared in the Indrajal!! Had ToI picked these,the history of back-up features of Indrajal would been much richer,undoubtedly!!J

Russ Manning's TARZAN Sunday Strips in BENGALI

2011-04-27T15:22:00.002+05:30

Anandamela(AM),the popular Bengali teen-magazine,used to publish Tarzan's sunday strips from the very beginning of it's publication(April,1975) and the early strips were from the famous Tarzan artist - Russ Manning's era(1968-1979)! Have a look at a couple of Tarzan pages appeared in the '80s AMs,featuring the final two RM strips(S24 : Tarzan Returns to Pellucida & S25 : Tarzan and the Games of Ibizzia ).The quality of inking was pretty decent.(I have added the english counter-part as well.)

For the readers of old AM,you should have remembered that at the early stage,AMs were published in the pocket-book format before shifted in the current giant format since the mid '80s. :)

Comic #59 & 60 : A couple of Post-Falk MTM Sundays

2011-04-10T07:59:00.011+05:30

Today enjoy a couple of MTM sunday strips from the Post-Falk era..

First,an edited and reconstructed version of already published strip, S181 - Trick Stealer, and another new one,S184 - The Bank Mystery. I've edited both strips which were originally in a weird vertical shape(have add one for example) send by Dan.So have to edit for more comfortable & conventional reading!

In the last 2-3 months I was fortunate enough to receive plenty of Falk-Fredricks strips(from Dan) covering the '60s to '90s eras.And the best thing is,all strips are colored(except few),so you will see more in the coming days! :-)

S181 - Trick Stealer(2-6-2000 to 5-28-2000):

This was earlier published by Bala in his blog and when I was checking that old post for reference,suddenly one very unpleasant memory comes up in my mind,which Bala had discussed in this post in a very fitting moment . That period of time,our comic blogs were rather badly attacked by one stupid & very jealous,cheap minded person,who used to steal links from original blogs & add those in his own "pirated" site(under a fake name)!And the worst part was that person,himself being a blogger & so-called moralist himself,still did that back-stabbing act!Through some technology & other sources of fellow bloggers,we got enough proofs against that culprit,learnt his original name & the location.Since then,in the blogging world, he's infamously known as "The Pathetic Hell-hound"(Old-timers surely got the link,ain't?? ;o) ).
Then ALL bloggers had unitedly protest against his act and posted their feelings through their own blogs( I was no exception!).Finally that idiot had to delete that fake blog & disappeared for a long time to save his own image,whatever left.. :-) We didn't posted those "proofs" on-line after that.

Now,few months back, one fellow blogger told me that he has once again started blogging and investing his free-time in showing-off his "talent" in another field,bit different from the stealing/copying other's work! ;-).As some of us were cracking jokes(on him) while chatting,one told me "hopefully, he'll stay that way,as we still have all those proofs!!" Rightly so....

Now,let's enjoy this new version(have a look @the original vertical strips,which were used to publish in some US magazine,and the reconstructed one).

Download The Strip

S184 - The Bank Mystery(3-18-2001 to 7-22-2001):

This is one of those Post-Falk strips that deals with one of the dreaded and long-time enemies of Mandrake & Lothar,Mole! This time,you'll see him back in action,with some twists @the end! :-)

Download The Strip

4th Anniversary Celebration: Comic #56 - 58: Special Indrajal-Mandrake STRIPS' Post

2011-04-06T07:46:00.018+05:30

Continuing from the on-going national celebration,there's a very small(& personal) celebration lies ahead as well,since today this blog-space,The Lost World,completes 4 years. :-) I have enjoyed this special e-space only due to our comic-blogs and went on posting since April,2007(in my own pace though),otherwise, I might not even had registered as a blogger @1st place(just to run any non-comic site).By the way,this IS my 119th post.

So thanks to all the fellow bloggers and the visitors as well,for keep visiting this little site regularly(even when there's not much posting) and that results over 1,00,000 page views till date(however,site-meter has been added after ~7 months in the blogging,since 4/11/2007).

Back in 2007,I had ONLY ONE passion and that was to get old issues of Indrajal Comics,as much as possible & in any of these languages : Bengali & English & even Hindi! After the FOUR good years,now I can admit that,while Indrajal Comics(which we fondly refer by Ijc) will always be remained special for me and I will cherish reading whatever have collected in all these years. Saying this, the major change in the last 4 years WAS my exposure with the newspaper strips,which were,in fact,the original sources of most of the Indrajal stories of Phantom/Mandrake/Flash & other western heroes. Before my introduction with blogging & comic scans,I had very little idea/exposure with this format(strips), but gradually with time I've found a deep association with these "original form"(which is now becoming only deeper & stronger) and hence trying to collect strips as much as possible.

And this desire/approach to get the stories in their "original format/shape" sometimes forcing me to see, what we got in the Indrajal(& DC), in a poor light(unfortunately yes!) i.e. those heavily edited/elongated panels,re-lettering etc. which ToI did just to fit the panels in their book's format! While undoubtedly my love towards this amazing comic series,filled with loads of nostalgia & passion for me,will always be there but end of the day have to accept the truth as well.

Now,in order to celebrate this special moment,let's enjoy some of the following Sunday Strips of Mandrake the Magician and for this time,I've selected only those which were published in the Indrajal in a different & edited format.You just need to read these,and have to compare with the respective Indrajal versions(available scans/hard copies),to see the difference.Nevertheless,I've enjoyed the both versions and hopefully all of you will do same!And all of these are based on Central-Galaxy.

(Scans of Indrajal versions of these following strips are already available on-line.)

Cheers!!

S137 - Narq's Conquest(Ijc No.334 - Invasion Of The Earth ;1979):

Download S137

S151 - The Evil Star(Ijc Vol.22 No.23 - The Predator Star ;1985):

Download S151

Now,let's enjoy the longest ran MTM sunday of 89 weeks covering 1984-1986....

S154 - The Central Galaxy(Ijc Vol.23 No.47 & 48 - Magnon's Glorious Reign ;1986):

Download S154

WORLD CUP CELEBRATION Continues...

2011-04-04T08:20:00.005+05:30

First,let's have read some of the very nice articles:

Mature India refuse to be beaten

Perfect timing by MS Dhoni

India's cup of joy overflows - Biggest fan holding the Cup with Sachin!

Dhoni acknowledges role of quartet

'I couldn't control my tears of joy' - Sachin

Now,enjoy some moments of glory & celebration,on field & throughout the INDIA - Chak de INDIA!!!

CHAMPIONS ka CHAMPION: Team INDIA!!!!!!

2011-04-02T23:54:00.000+05:30

Friends & fans,let's WELCOME THE NEW WORLD CRICKET RULER & CHAMPIONS ka CHAMPION,our Team INDIA!!!!

Man,I'm @Ecstatic state(like ALL true Indian fans) & all most TOP OF THE WORLD(CUP). Since childhood,I was hearing one famous quote saying "Ostader maar sesh rate(Leader's master-stroke @the end moment)" and today WE ALL HAVE EXPERIENCED THIS!!!!!

Thank you dear Captain Dhoni(91* of 79 balls) for this WORLD-CUP-WINNING knock,we love you!!!

Once again,THREE CHEERS FOR once again BRINGING BACK THE GLORIOUS PAST TODAY!!! Will post loads of pics in next few days but can't write more now....so right now, signing off here!!

And fianlly,on this VERY GLORIOUS MOMENT of our Cricket,I'm now withdrawing the contents of this post which was an outburst of a frustrated fan!! sorry guys for that.

Return of the Original Chokers' ... thankfully!

2011-03-25T22:00:00.067+05:30

Not much to say,not anything new either,still let's have some cricket-blabbering!
Finally, it has been proved that we should "admire" the spirited performance by the original title holder of "BIGGEST CHOKER", Team South Africa(famously known as Pro-Tears!),who'd just a fortnight back handed over their unique crown to the Team India ,has regained THE TOP SPOT today against the Newzelanders in the 3rd Quarter-Final of the ongoing ICC WORLD CUP.And while we are yet to see who will lift the Cup on 2nd April,one thing is sure that this "unique crown" will be retained by the Pro-tears for a looong time.

Meantime,it seems like Team India, who "won" this (in)famous crown on the 12th of this month, yesterday has been recovered(to some extent!) from the jinx but then the complete recovery(read winning the WC) IS still a long-way to go!!
As one of my close friends & a fellow cricket-addict was pondering over yesterday night,"Will it ever happen??",only thing I'd told him that "buddy,you have asked me a million rupees question but I'm NOT keeping my my fingers crossed,as yet"!!

Comic #55 : Mandrake Sunday: S138(Mandrake and Ali-Petro)

2011-03-15T00:30:00.017+05:30

Another fun-filled MTM Sundays from late '70s appeared in Indrajal Comics as 'Curse of Gold'(Eng #340) & 'Sorner Ovishaap'(Ben #318).Now,if fans read the Ijc version,they will see an European rich man(Count Ali-Petro) while in the original strip,he was an Arabian sheik(Sheik Ali-Petro)!!! So this is another case of strange censorship,and while the reason was undoubtedly political ,but hey,things are not so simple!! Because this 'Curse of gold' published in the Dec,1979 while just after 3-4 years,another comic(based on another Arabian sheik) was published in the Indrajal's Aug,1983 issue,titled 'The Avaricious Prince' (V20 N32; S148 - Prince Nasdaq) where that sheik was more nasty,yet NO censorship was done either on his costume or name!! Well,as you know,sometimes ToI's treatments with strips were very strange!

Now,enjoy this strip & have some glimpses on some pages of the Indrajal's version..
About this story,personally,I loved that part of the "Midas touch" and the final quote from Mandrake:"gold can't buy everything..sometimes,not even water"!!

Download S138

THE BIGGEST CHOKER!!

2011-03-12T23:12:00.025+05:30

WC 2011 Gr.B Match:

Team INDIA(296)

South Africa(300/7)

[Contents of this post has been withdrawn due to this special reason! ]

Comic #53 & 54 : Russ Manning's TARZAN Sunday Strips(S020 & S021)

2011-03-03T16:42:00.010+05:30

Friends,before going to our today's special post,I want tell you something that's from the recent incident happened while we discussing over "seller-fan" controversy.NO,I'm NOT again going to discuss as that already has been done through mailing and we all have shared our own views over it BUT in mean-time doing so,I'd to face some nuisance from one person ,Mr.Abhisick Asthana(I'm coming with his First Name!) who was repeatedly sending me "junk mails" filled with his absurd & nonsense abuses in his own pathetic & weird language(or e-mailing?) . At first I was shocked to see such illiterate punk like Mr.AsthaNa who repeatedly sending me rubbish mails and hence I'd to warn him and put his "id" in the SPAM folder(some amazing option to get rid of some junks!!)
-------------------------------------------------------------
Now,let's enjoy a couple of vintage Tarzan sundays by the finest of the all Tarzan artists,Russ Manning! In my childhood,I used to read the Tarzan b/w dailies in one Bengali newspaper,Bartaman,and enjoyed only those stories by Manning(well,then I'd no idea about him or any other artists,but vividly remembered the stories read then and later recapitulated from the scans available on-line).
While I've read the dailies much earlier, introduced with the colorful sundays only couple of years ago and these strips made me a much superior fan of this ape-man!! Loved every bit of these strips which are,in both illustration & scripting wise,simply zenith(between,Manning strips were based on the "original" concept/scripts by ERB).
By the way,the first 19 strips are already available on-line through this post of the PBC blog and you can see the complete Strip-Index of Tarzan Sundailies by Manning in this post of the Forum.

Now enjoy the following sundays:

Download RM-S020(Return to Opar)

Download RM-S021(White Settlers)

Comic #52 : Mandrake Sunday :S129(The Man from Europa)

2011-03-02T13:00:00.005+05:30

A new vintage sunday strip for all which deals with a crazy but very sweet alien called "Mr.Heavy".This is one of the most entertaining '70s MTM sunday adventures which ToI had omitted in the Indrajal Comics.Mandrake & Lothar met this alien in their way to Harison university,after dealing with those plane hijackers(Ijc #277).
Enjoy this sunday courtesy of Dan. And there are many more to come which I hope all "FANS" will enjoy by reading(and might be, "SELLERS" will enjoy by selling DVDs of these rare strips besides their regular selling item: hard/scanned copies of Indrajal! ;o) ).

Download S129

BENGALI Phantom Sunday-Strip Pages(Batch 2)

2011-02-27T09:01:00.000+05:30

Enjoy some more of the old unedited Aranayadev aka Phantom sunday pages from the Desh magazine of '80s,and this time starting with the colored sundays! If we compare with the Indrajal's inking with these pages,of course they fell short,and moreover,these are in original format with all of the 8 panels(per sunday) while Indrajal versions were always edited to fit in their restricted page-format!

In this batch,following sundays have been attached:

Indrajal Sundays( #2):

S122 - Alexander's Diamond Cup
S124 - The Forest Giants
S125 - Phantom Head Peak
S126 - Sunken Treasure
S130 - The Irrondi and the Great Ones

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BENGALI Phantom Sunday-Strip Pages(Batch 1)

2011-02-25T12:10:00.019+05:30

Continuing from the previous post on the Bengali version Phantom's original Sunday pages,from now onwards,I'll keep posting several strip pages published in those two magazines,Desh & Anandamela.
As majority of the Indian Phans are primarily Indrajal fans,so let's split these strips in the three following categories(according to their publication history):

Indrajal Sundays(upto S133)
Post-Indrajal Falk Sundays(S134 - S150)
Post-Falk Sundays(S151 onwards)

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

Indrajal Sundays(#1):

Enjoy some of the old unedited b/w sunday pages published way back in '80s and '90s.I've kept the original scans(books are 15-25 years old).More will be added in the upcoming posts,and from the next one,all strips will be colored! :-)
Strips from the following Sundays have been covered in this post....

S060 - Treasure of the Skull Cave
S066 - Mystery of Wamba Falls Inn
S087 - The Massacre
S115 - Kit and the Little People
S119 - The Eastern Dark

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

Publication History of Phantom & Mandrake Sunday Strips in the BENGALI Newspaper & Magazines

2011-02-23T09:07:00.019+05:30

In the previous post,I was talking about the Dailies in the Bengali newspaper.Now,let's talk about the sunday strips of the both Falk heroes.
While Mandrake Sundays were published only in the ABP's newspaper,Phantom Sundays were published in the two magazines,Desh & Anandamela, which are under the same publication house:ABP.
Now first,if we look at the MTM sundays,there's sadly not much infos are available currently.All I can say that those were published in the special ABP sunday-page:Rabibasorio in the b/w format with all 6 panels/strip. I used to read the late '80s Kraken series(specifically from the S158 - Young Prince) and while couldn't follow those regularly,I still remember reading pieces of a story where the first meeting of Mandrake & Lothar was discussed!Only recently I figured out that's from a '95 sunday(S172 - Revolution In Lotharton)[attaching one Swedish strip-page where you can view the sequence of their first meeting!].Soon after few months or so ABP stopped publishing the MTM sunday pages.So might be S172 was the last strip,but not sure!

So,if we summaries....

Mandrake Sundays(By ABP):
Year of Publication & Title of the First Strip: Completely Unknown
Year of Publication & Title of the Last Strip: On/After '95 & might be Revolution In Lotharton(S172)

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

Now,unlike Mandrake,informations regarding the Phantom aka Aranyadev Sundays are pretty rich,specifically those published from the '80s to till date, which covers the last 3 decades! :-) GWW was introduced in the weekly magazine Desh(exact year is not known) and published in the b/w format until '85.Then ABP started publishing those strips in colored version and it should be mentioned that,inking as well as the page quality were really superior.However from '93 Phantom was omitted from Desh and added in the ABP's teen-mag called Anandamela(AM) and that continued till the early part of 2004 when the publisher decided to end the sunday pages.But after 4 years,since 2008, Phantom strips were once again added in the AM and since then our beloved ghost's sunday adventures are regularly appearing in the Bengali version in full-color! :-)

Besides regular issues,some selected sundays (from the various era) were published in the special Annual issue(Sarodiya) of AM,from the '90s to early 2000s.However all strips were in the b/w format,unlike the colored counter-part of the regular issues. [Once again,if any older reader of Desh/ABP paper is reading these posts(this one & the previous),please come forward with any valuable informations you have either here or in the Phorum article!:-)]

So,at a glance:

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

Phantom Sundays(by ABP):
In the Desh Magazine:
(Only)Regular Issues:

In my knowledge the earliest available issue carrying the Phantom strips is from the 1984 and since then all the strips between "S118(Mysterious Karapura) to S136(Return of the Thuggees)" were published till Feb/1993. However,the first colored strip was S122(Alexander's Diamond Cup).

In the Anandamela(AM) Magazine:
Regular Issues:

From March/1993, strips were uninterruptedly published ,started with "S137(The Fourth Son) to S152(The Shipwreckers)" till 2003.Then finally with the "S157(The Snake Goddess's Island) & S158(Terror in Mawitaan)" publication was temporarily stopped on the Apr/2004(no informations are available for S153,S155 & S156). Then,after four years of without Aranyadev,once again strips are under publication in AM,since Apr/2008,started with "S167(Plutonium Pirates) to currently S172(The Dirty Half Dozen)" on Feb/2011(latest edition).

Annual(Sarodiya) Issues:

From the '90s to the early 2000s,some selected sunday strips were added in the special annual issues and all were in the b/w format and sometimes bit edited.

The following strips were appeared in the annuals:

"S060(Treasure of the Skull Cave), S066(Mystery of Wamba Falls Inn), S079(The Dolphins), S080(The Beach), S087(The Massacre), S115(Kit and the Little People), S154(The Lion's Head Tamarine) & S159(The Sinbad Stone)".

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

Now,for the Indrajal readers & fans,as all of you are very aware that the LAST Sunday strips in the Indrajal was S133(Death from the Sky ;Ijc Vol.26 No.41),so it can be said that the colored & unedited versions of allmost all of the Post-Indrajal strips (from S134 to currently S172) were published(and still under the publication!) only in the Desh & AM mags.

In the next few posts,I'll add few selected pages of the above mentioned strips.

Publication History of Phantom,Mandrake & Rip Kirby Daily Strips in the BENGALI Newspaper

2011-02-20T17:56:00.020+05:30

When it comes to comics,Bengali readers have a rich history of both vintage western strips/books as well as own Indian heroes.Now,talking about the most popular western heroes ,specifically those who appeared in the Indrajal universe,the two obvious names are Phantom & Mandrake.In West Bengal,these two Falk-heroes were introduced by the Indian's one of the longest running paper,Ananda Bazar Patrika(ABP).Now in the Bengali version,while they kept the original name of the magician(they called him Jadukar Mandrake),our beloved ghost is known as Aranyadev(means Lord of the Jungle). There's another interesting Indrajal character that ABP introduced was Rip Kirby(aka Goyenda Rip).

I'm in a process to build an index which strips were appeared in ABP and for that I need only the first ever strips they published as whatever they published(or still publishing) are in pretty order of the original sequence.After a brief research,what I learnt that,Daily strips of Phantom(Aranyadev) are under publication since '50s but there's no particular information regarding Mandrake or Rip Kirby.Only thing I can confirm that,since '90s along with Phantom,I was reading Daily strips of Rip and after the end of RK series on 1999,Mandrake Dailies were added in that place(At that time,Mandrake's Sunday strips were published in the special sunday-page called 'Rabibasorio',which I'll come-up with in the next post).
But,which strips were published along with Phantom in the period of '50s to '80s?? Any idea??
If we summaries,it's like as follows:
(For readers' information,ABP publication date always 8-9 months behind of the original KFS date eg. todays'(2-21-2011) published strip is actually from 5-15-2010 and so on.)
---------------------------------------------

Phantom Dailies(by ABP):

Year of Publication & Title of the First Strip: Probably in the '50s but title or any exact infos are unknown.
Year of Publication & Title of the Last Strip: Presently active i.e. Feb/2011 & Terror Cells in New York(D229)

Mandrake Dailies(by ABP):

(First of all,there's some confusion on whether MTM dailies were earlier published,before Rip Kirby)
Year of Publication & Title of the First Strip: Latest batch: March/2000 & Perilous Crossover(D237)
Year of Publication & Title of the Last Strip: Latest Batch: Presently active i.e. Feb/2011 & The Return of Doctor Hi-5(D259)

Rip Kirby Dailies(by ABP):

Year of Publication & Title of the First Strip: Completely unknown (but obviously from '80s if not earlier!)
Year of Publication & Title of the Last Strip: Feb/2000 & title is unknown.
(However,one can look at the LAST week's worth of Kirby Dailies, from 21-26 June/1999 which were subsequently published in ABP after 8-9 months from the original date.)
----------------------------------------------
Hopefully some older readers of ABP are reading this article and can come-up with the much needed infos either here or at the phorum article (I've sent few mails to ABP regarding informationsABP persons directly in order to access the old archive).

Now I'm attaching few scans of ABP's current strips.They are publishing colored strips since 2009.(B/W strips I've posted are from 2003 as I luckily got few old papers in my library.)

Bahadur IS Back!!

2010-12-20T23:13:00.005+05:30

Yes,our beloved Bahadur making a return after good 20 years under his own creator Aabid Surti and will be illustrated Promod Brahamania,son of late G.Brahamania. Between Mr.Promod was the 2nd artist of the Bahadur series,from '88 to '90 after his father quitted from the job.So one can expect some real original touch. :))
Mr.Aabid Surti had let us know that he's going to relive this desi hero and finally we will get some regular dose. A REAL GREAT MOMENT FOR ALL Bahadur fans! :))
FOR FURTHER & DETAILED INFORMATION,visit Bahadur's own site: http://www.bahadur.in/
Discuss this great news @forum: http://indrajalforum.46.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=49

Old Indrajal Comics PRINTING :Some NEW Updates!

2010-12-18T09:17:00.005+05:30

Printing Indrajal's old issues are very much in dream of several fans and I'm no exception!Recently,I met a printer who does job for my University.I'd a long chat with him,about practical possibilities of color printing,the cost etc and I see some real possibilities.
I don't think it's possible to hold all early issues,specially from #1-100 era,and hence printing IS only possibility to get them in physical format.
You can discuss this in details and let us know in the forum: http://indrajalforum.46.forumer.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=45&p=98

Forum NEWS: Latest Posts on Indrajal & Strips

2010-12-08T15:06:00.007+05:30

The on-going topics that all Indrajal fans might find interesting are:
Your Introductory Indrajal Issue - the SPECIAL issue responsible for your entry in the magical universe of Ijc.

Earliest Indrajal in Collection(hard copy) - Tell us about your collection etc.

Indrajals appeared "in Parts" - Your take on this integral phenomena of the Ijc universe.

Indrajal Blogs - The sites where you will get various Indrajal e-copies in the different languages.
With these,you can also check the various topics on the Cover stories of Phantom/Mandrake/Bahadur etc.
----------------------------------------------------------
Now,for the fans of STRIPS:
You can discuss here Various SunDailies of Phantom/mandrake/Flash

Have fun! :-)
Cheers,
Hojo

FORUM Updates: NEW URL of Indrajal Forum & requirement of Re-registration

2010-11-06T15:51:00.012+05:30

Hello all,

Due to some server/technical problems,on the 3rd Novermber we've to move our Forum to another new url: http://indrajalforum.46.forumer.com/
So from now onwards,please use this url only to visit the forum(between,old board has been disabled to avoid confusion).Due to this technical problem,there were some posts we couldn't move to the new forum and hence,unfortunately,got deleted...but most are successfully moved,only original post-date has been updated to the current date,for obvious reason. :-)
AND ANOTHER IMPORTANT THING IS old members(i.e. already registered users @the old board) have to Re-register in this new Forum,as we are using a new web-address!! Sorry for this inconvenience,but hope you will understand & cooperate! :-)
Now,you can use various forums through four different categories as follows:

GENERAL ADMINISTRATION
INDRAJAL UNIVERSE
BEYOND THE INDRAJAL UNIVERSE
CHATTER BOX

Thanks & Cheers,
Hojo

Comic #51: Mandrake Sunday:S108 - The 3D Monster(Intro of KARMA ; 1970)

2010-11-05T11:57:00.015+05:30

Karma was introduced in the Mandrake universe during '70s and that was some special introduction,appeared in the '70 sunday - The 3D Monster(S108).
Have a glimpse. See how Lothar was reluctant to meet Karma,his 4th cousin whom he last met years ago when she was a little girl with pimples,and HIS reaction after meeting!! :_) Also,Karma was very excited when informed (from Narda) that Lothar is still a bachelor! Love at first sight,eh?? ;-) [The first 6 weeks are given as story changed from the "Intro of Karma" to another direction from the 7th sunday ]
And for the trivia,this special story was omitted in Indrajal Comics and missed by all fans! Got this from Dan via Magnus. So all credit goes to both of these nice person and avid fans! :-)

Download the Strip

FORUM Updates:A NEW Section for FREW/Egmont & Newpaper Strips!

2010-10-29T22:00:00.008+05:30

NOTE(6/11/10): Forum link has been updated!
------------------------------------------------
Hello fans,
Now we've decided to create a NEW section for Non-Indrajal stuffs - BEYOND the Indrajal UNIVERSE - solely for these following:

FREW/Egmont/Diamond stories
Sundaily STRIPS(both Phantom & Mandrake)
Other comics Publications, Other heroes & their strips/books etc

So you can join the topics already started or can start a new one!
------------------------------------------
Chit-Chat section: Well,even being passionate comic fans,we can't always discuss the same thing,ain't?? So fans discuss your other passions beyond comics,like sports,movies etc @this section.I would personally indulge this space for my passion:CRICKET(as I always wish a Forum on this & have a regular updates on current series!) and sometimes,Movies too!

Cheers,
Hojo

ANNOUNCEMENT : Now You Can Post @Indrajal FORUM!

2010-10-26T09:30:00.012+05:30

NOTE(6/11/10): Forum link has been updated!

----------------------------------------------------------------
Hello friends! As declared on yesterday,we have sorted out all the basic formalities for posting at our newest & first ever forum on Indrajal Comics - Indrajal Forum. Now one (member) can post his thoughts on the various forums through four major categories.So,all Indrajalians & avid comics lover are welcome to join. Hope you'll enjoy your stay there!Have fun.. :-)

Best Regards,
Hojo

100th Post:PREVIEW of the up-coming "Indrajal FORUM"

2010-10-25T15:04:00.020+05:30

Hello all ,
Since long I've this desire to have a discussion forum solely on on the famous series :INDRAJAL COMICS where we can have some discussions over the heroes whom we adore.Finally,after having some chat with few fellow fans & bloggers incld. Prabhat,I've decided to do this . Basic URL of the newest & first ever Ijc-forum has been decided:http://indrajalforum.46.forumer.com/ (However,as this site is very much under-contraction and many of the new features are required to be updated/edited ,so it'll take sometime to be with ease(in accessing) for all the visitors.)
At the Indrajal_Forum, one can discuss all the characters that appeared in Indrajal,incld. famous ones like Phantom,Mandrake,Flash Gordon,Bahadur and many other topics related to this famous series.However,you need to register as a member before you can start posting & creating your own threads.
Will back soon,after sorting out all facilities!

Between this IS the 100th post of this blog! :-)

Cheers,
Hojo

Chemistry Coaching Centre - A KOLKATA based Modern Tutorial Home

2010-07-04T11:00:00.015+05:30

Hello all enthusiastic science aspirants.Hope you are preparing well for your respective Board exams & Entrance tests.Now,to successfully secure a place through which one can proceed in future,they need the right guidance & proper training!
We are here to show you the right path in one of the most important field of science:CHEMISTRY!!

Visit:
CHEMISTRY COACHING CENTRE
A KOLKATA based Modern Tutorial Home

For more detalis, you can visit our web-page: http://chemistrycentre.blogspot.com/

Doljatra Special:Comic #50:Mandrake Strip:(S167:Capt. C.C.'s Crazy Circus) - A 1992 Sunday

2010-02-28T10:00:00.009+05:30

Links of last 3 Sundays have been posted in their respective posts,incld. the current one!Have fun....
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Finally the 50th Comic!!:) and that's just months away from the 3rd Anniversary of this blog-space.....so You can expect another special (and much bigger) post @that time,but for this occasion enjoy another MTM Sunday strip from 1992,which's,again, a Post-Ijc strip and so was never available on-line before!! :)
Hope you guys will enjoy this...

Download S167

Comic #49:Mandrake Sunday-strip:(S174:Dr.Holton's Reputation;1996)

2010-02-21T18:00:00.011+05:30

Enjoy a Post-Indrajal MTM Sunday,174th of the line,published way back in 1996-97!! Well,this is a Bengali special,scanned from Comic World magazine which used to published a lot of Phantom & Mandrake strips. And I don't have the English version of that book...

This story deals with some Inter-galactic problems and Magnon has to intervene! This is a 18-week worth and published in a 2-week/page & completely unedited format by CW! :)Also,it's actually a continuation of the previous Sunday,S173(The Swarms) but unfortunately I don't have that strip.Anybody have that?? Bala??
Meantime,enjoy this.. :))

Download S174

Comic #48:Mandrake Sunday strip:(S164:Dangers in Jungle):LAST Part

2010-02-06T16:00:00.008+05:30

Final Part of ongoing Sunday.And hopefully,some fans will come forward to discuss this story,after have a complete read,as that(discussion) IS my major goal in this comic posting - to discuss the stories and know others view on the same!! If everything is going fine,some more 6-7 Sundays (from '90s) will be posted in near future....

Now,ENJOY....and see how Narda & Karma saved themselves from those kidnappers....bravo girls!! :))

Download S164

Comic #47:Mandrake Sunday Strip:S164(Dangers in Jungle;1990):Part-I

2010-02-05T10:00:00.009+05:30

Dangers in Jungle - the 164th Sunday strip from Mandrake's glorious adventures AND MOST IMPORTANTLY,one of those Post-Indrajal and rarest MTM Sunday strips which is, infact, a continuation of famous KRAKEN series(1986-1990).This current strip is the 9th & last episode of that series,when Mandrake & Co.(and Capt.Jon) finally reached the Africa coast and they had a short yet adventurous trip...
FYI,last MTM-Sunday appeared in Ijc was "S160:Singing rocks"

Many more to come as I got plenty MTM Sundays from '90s courtesy my US friend Dan! And as all these were scanned directly from the "Original Newspaper strips" so I'm publishing all these without any editing - i.e. all are in raw & vintage format!! CHEERS!! :-))

Now for a change,HAVE a complete On-line read.....enjoy the Part-I,concluding part is coming soon!! :)

To be continued.....

FREW Phantom:Samaris(By Felmeng) Preview & Others...

2010-02-01T10:00:00.005+05:30

Hello again!! Quick posts,as promised... :) And as I'd mentioned in the previous post,this time I'll bring something completely unique in this site:FREW Phantom!
This time,for a change, enjoy some classic FREW-Phantom Covers.Few months back I got many FREW old issues(& few Moonstone/Pioneers) through exchanging with Aussie friends and I specifically choose Egmont-Phantom stories as already I have ALL Falk-Phantom Sundailies in form of nice printed B/W book-format(well known) as well as in form of several vintage Indrajal/DC-P colored versions.
Off late some Falk-classics were re-drawn by famous Phantom artist Felmang whose illustration is quite similar with legendary Sy Barry and loved by most ardent Phans!:) Among all re-drawns,Queen Samaris XII(S059) was the most famous(followed by Tiger Girl which was eventually published by Egmont(Ind) in colored version,wayback in 2000) and published in FREW too(#1070).For visitors I'm posting some selected page-scans from that book with nice glossy cover(a rare thing from FREW). As someone told me,few page scans fall under "fair use policy" so hope it'll be ok! Some other covers also posted as well....

MORE will follow......

ENJOY :-)

Bengali Diamond-Phantom & Indrajal Cover-Gallery.....

2010-01-28T10:00:00.013+05:30

Since I've started blogging ,back in April 2007,allmost 3 years have been passed.This is something which I've never imagined then as I took blogging just for heck which only later became my passion!! :-)

Now,when Diamond Comics took the licence of Phantom/Mandrake from KFS,many fans like me were eagerly waited for that new series.Well,DC-P & DC-M were not that popular as like Indrajal but still DC delivered a fair job for allmost a decade and for them we got more dose of Phantom & Mandrake. Today I'm posting some DC-P(Bengali) covers followed by some vintage Indrajal covers too!! (English DC-P covers I've avoided as those are already available in Prabhat's blog scanned by Ajay.)

Some of following Ijc covers were scanned from one binder and for that reason their numbering couldn't scanned as I don't want to damage that binder.

Will post more such covers in future.....

ENJOY!! :-)

More Bengali Indrajal Covers....

2010-01-26T10:00:00.008+05:30

A Republic day special, requested by Prabhat to post on a special day.....between,as next festival day(Doljatra/Holi) is more than 1 month away,so one might expect a new post in between....you never know!! :))
Till then enjoy these rare gems in their Bengali fonts....

Some rare Bengali Indrajal Covers...

2010-01-24T22:00:00.017+05:30

Hows life friends?? Hope everybody doing well! And it's the first post in 2010 @this blog-space. :)
Today enjoy some old and rare Bengali Indrajal covers...as some friend mentioned earlier,Bengali Indrajals have it's SPECIAL appeal with nice translations and very catchy titles,like for example,the #19(originally #41 - Veiled Lady) was titled "Obogunthita",which's quite catchy with....just loved these!! :))

MORE TO COME!!

Cheers.....(and well,during scanning I didn't choose any order,rather went randomly whatever I got in my hand and scanned those,started from Bengali Ijc #5 onwards)

Comic #45 & 46:Mandrake Sundailies:Kraken(S156) & Dollmaker(D100)

2009-10-02T14:30:00.003+05:30

Subho Bijoya to all friends,fellow bloggers & visitors!! :-) Today's Gandhi's birthday and tomorrow we'll celebrate Laxmi puja and in order to celebrate these occasions I'm presenting a couple of mandrake strips for all of you!
#1:Kraken(S156) from 1986 which had already appeared in Indrajal comics and all have read already BUT what I'm posting is Unedited b/w version which appeared in a US magazine 2 decades ago...it covers the 1st strip only.Soon I will post the remaining parts!

#2:Dollmaker(D100) from 1958.A old daily which never appeared in Indrajal or any other Indian comics.I can assure that,once you read this strip,you'll wish to re-read it again!! yeah...a old classic filled with thrill,mystery & adventure in each & every panels where the mystery evolved in a old forgotten town:Gynt!Also,this is one of those rare adventures where Mandrake's half-sister Lenore also involved...(Now,when reading this Dollmaker strip,seasoned Phans will find a very prominent similarity with another Classic Falk-Phantom!Well,that's no big surprise as we all know,he frequently used same basic-plot in both Phantom/Mandrake strips....well,some plots were worthy of that and believe me,this current strip is no exception!:) )

Now about d/l links,actually I've uploaded these 5-6 months back and then completely forgot!!Otherwise these post would had appeared much earlier....but as they said,late better than never,so eNjOy!!:_))))

Download Kraken(S156):
Part-1
Part-2
Part-3

Download Dollmaker(D100)

Some Bengali Phantom/Mandrake Covers & vintage Strips...

2009-08-07T14:00:00.008+05:30

These are from my old scans which I did few months back!! Besides some vintage Bengali Phantom/Mandrake Indrajal covers,I'm attaching a couple of pages of Bengali Phantom Sundays from a old magazine.....watch out for the fabulous coloring(despite the books are more than 20 years old & I haven't done any editing!!)

Actually,I have planned to scan more such stuffs but my scanner not working since long...hopefully things will be fixed soon!! :-)

eNjOy!!!

Comic #44:Mandrake Sunday:The Traveller's Tale(S096;1964)

2009-07-31T19:00:00.011+05:30

After a long-time posting a strip!! between,a new (& youngest) blogger arrived in our comic-blogging...you can visit his site & encourage him here.....bhalo effort dekhte pabe sobai!! :-)

By the way,this is the LAST Sunday from Falk-Davis combo! :-)

Now let's enjoy this strip..:-)

Download this Sunday

Review of High Seas Hjacker(The Governor and Suzie):A 1943 Phantom Daily

2009-05-27T20:30:00.007+05:30

In last few days I was reading many Phantom strips,mostly from Falk's earliest creations, and one SPECIAL of those was D019:High Seas Hijacker(The Governor and Suzie).
Matter of fact,I've heard about these strip among Phans many times,but somehow couldn't find time to read!Now,after finished this strip,only one thing I can say:WHY THIS KINDA STORIES NEVER RE-TOLD IN LATER PART OF FALK's GLORIOUS JOURNEY?? This is worth repeating,in place of many substandard plots!! :-)
Now,this adventure begans in a cargo ship,SS HARVEY,which was planned to hijack in the mid sea.Our Phantom was a passenger in that cargo and whole operation carried out by a couple of ladies,and Suzie was one of them.But they were mere assistants of master-mind, the General who was in fact the Governor of his own country - and secretly a Pirate by profession!!
The story was a fascinating(& long) one where Phantom had to nab the gang in a quite hard way!BUT,the part which made this adventure a pretty special was how Suzie,being one of the members of that hijackers,literally helped Phantom in his mission,well knowing if he nabs the gang,it means severe punishment for her too!! Well,like other girls,she was also madly in love with the Phantom and despite having many chances to help Governor's soldiers to nab the Ghost Who Walks(and also free herself),she couldn't managed ever!
In the climax,Suzie was shot by the Governor as she tried to shield the Ghost Who Walks - in order to save him and that was a fatal shot indeed!! In the whole adventure,from the beginning, she was curious to see Phantom's real face which she couldn't managed until in her last few moments,when she requested him for once last time, Phantom couldn't turned down her last wish. It was one of the rarest moments where Phantom shows his original face to a stranger and what a fitting moment IMHO!!!
In short, a thriller in it's own grade and a fitting climax without much melodrama,I loved this daily from my core!! :))

So buddies, let me know your views AND for your convenience,I'm putting a d/l link which already available in Prabhat's all-Phantom-strip post.Please read it and let us know what you felt.... :-)

Cheers! (and this file is NOT p/w protected...so enjoy!!)
DOWNLOAD D019:Governor and Suzie

Subho Nabo Barsho Post: Comic #42:Mandrake Sunday:Sports of The Magician(S161;1989)

2009-04-15T15:00:00.011+05:30

Hello again friends! Wishing you all SUBHO NABO BARSHO,the new year in Bengali(& Hindu) calender,which starts from today,dated 1st Boishak(1416)!! It's a Bengali festival! :))

On this occasion,enjoy a special Mandrake Sunday:The Sports of Magician(S161) which's infact the 1st Sunday strip of MTM from Post-Indrajal era i.e. 6th Part of famous KRAKEN series.The earlier one,part #5(Singing rocks) ,was the last MTM-Sunday appeared in Ijc(V26 N36)! So,while this is a Italian strip,but at least we get the Missing ones in some form!! Hopefully Bala will publish it's English version sooner than later.
And this has been contributed by Peder ...thank you man!:)))
NOTE:I've just edited the strip in order to fit in page-format(from original strip-format!)

ENJOY!!

Download S161