Comic #100 : Bengali Indrajal Comics(No.262) : Bahadur meets Bela in the Sada Bhuter Adda(সাদা ভূতের আড্ডা)

Friends,yesterday was the Valentine day(as you know it very much) and today is Swaraswati Puja - known as Bengali's V-Day!! :o) And in this occasion,enjoy the 100th comic of this blog(but not the 100th comic-post,it's 87th only, as some posts have multiple comics).

How Bahadur ,the brave crime-fighter, met his girl-friend Bela?? You will get the answer in this thrilling adventure,4th of the series,scripted by A.Surti & illustrated by G.Brahamania!
 Their meeting was quite dramatic as Bahadur had this wrong impression that Bela was faking that kidnapping story of her father and hence tried to capture her...

...but soon find out that was a wrong move, as Bela was a tough lady(and she taught him a lesson!)

And then, from Mukhia he learnt her true identity,that she was truly the daughter of seth of the village Pipli and her father was indeed kidnapped!!

Apart from their meeting,this tale is special for another character - who later became an integral part of CSF - the dacoit Lakhan(who was one of the kidnappers!).His fight with Bahadur,where he received severe beating from that brave soul,was quite famous!

Further,that infamous hide-out of the kidnappers,located nearby Jaigarh,"sada Bhuter Adda"(White Ghost's Dane), was first time mentioned in this series.Later we have seen it's mention in some other adventures aswell, renamed a bit as "Sada Bhuter Astana".

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Now,during a recent discussion at another blog, a thought pop-up in my mind that, while we ALL are ardent Indrajal fans no doubt but then,do we really love all characters appeared in this series or have some favorite heroes whose adventures we love to read,or rather,we actually read Indrajals just to read their adventure only?? From my personal experience & interactions,I learnt that some are fans of only Phantom & Mandrake and don't read other stories at all, while some like all characters published in this series.Well,I do stand between these two extremes.:)

If today I have to pick my favorites,here it is,exactly in the order of preference,or say, craziness :
Mandrake,Phantom, Bahadur, Flash Gordon, Dara & Rip Kirby.

About the rest,I read them more like a general comic-fan but I don't miss them,to tell you the truth!Like me every fan has his/her own picks.What's yours??

Now I can tell you the basic elements of each of the above mentioned heroes that actually hooked me in their respective series!
For Mandrake,it was primarily his amazing power of magic plus those fantasy plots included the adventures in the Central Galaxy with Magnon but one thing that attracted me most was his residence - atop hill exotic mansion -  XANADU and it's crazy drive-away!! I still can remember those stories,where one can have just a glimpse of Xanadu and it's drive-away, became my favorites!:) Despite Karma,Lothar's girlfriend,is bit bore, I do enjoy the stories where all four of them were present,sometimes accompanied by Hojo. And may I dare to say that some of Mandrake & Co.'s arc-enemies made him more popular like 'Cobra','Clay Camel' or that vicious 'League of 8'?? I do believe that,their presence put Mandrake & Lothar among the A-lister crime fighters and adventures became more thrilling and intriguing ones.What's your take on it?

Coming to The Phantom,well,apart from the top-quality stories in general,I love that tree-house & the isle of Eden!I know skull-cave is the most important part of the Phantom's universe but for some reason I like that exotic tree-house bit more.And who doesn't love that amazing world of Eden where all kind animals co-exist??I know most Eden related stories were tend to be less dramatic but that doesn't lessen it's charm any bit for me!Presence of integral characters like Guran,Rex,Diana and the adventures related with Jungle Patrol are among my top favorites.

Next is our own Indian hero - the son of a dacoit - Bahadur! I was introduced with his late '80s adventures where all major CSF(Citizen Security Force) members were more frequent in the plots - stories like Death Duel(V26 N18),Bank Heist(V26 N35) etc - and that made me to love the whole gang than the solely main hero and even today,I love to re-read those adventures more where you will find the majority of CSF members(Bela,Lakhan,Mukhia,Sukhia) having important roles along with Bahadur,compare to Bahadur's solo stunts! Then, it's needless to mention that the charming presence of Bela - Bahadur's live-in girl-friend - only increases the interest in the stories for me,much like for all Bhadur fans! ;o) But saying this,unlike Diana or Narda,Bela wasn't there for glamour quotient solely ,rather being a karate-pro,she helped Bahadur to nab those criminal many a time.So it's rare to find a story where the plot revolved around Bela-was-in danger/kindnaped-and-how-Bahadur-rescued-her!

Flash Gordon came much earlier phase of my Indrajal introduction and I loved the sci-fi elements in this series right from the beginning, read one of the best FG stories published in the Indrajal. The presence of wise Dr.Jarkov & Gordon's beautiful girl-friend Dale,their adventures in the planets Mongo & Kkrobu(ruled by Jarkov's wife Matara!), Ming the merciless, Barin's place Arboria and top of the all,the vicious pre-historic creatures(superb illustration by Dan Barry)   - all simply hooked me!

After Bahadur,the 2nd Indian crime-fighter introduced in Indrajal was Dara - the prince of the spies! Introduced in The Enemy Agent (Vol.25 No.43; 1988),he was of course inspired from James Bond - with a licence to kill - but had an Indian touch!He was originally from North India's Kashmir region,a prince and secretly,a spy and crime-fighter.Only few people knew his origin incld. the chief and that brought a nice suspense elements in the stories - 8 in total - those dealt with various kind of national problems,from the terrorists to drug smuggling to high-profile kidnapping.Beside the stories, the art,done by Pradeep Sathe, was simply the top-notch!

Finally,Rip Kirby.Other than Indrajal,his daily strips were regularly published till 2000 in ABP - a Bengali newspaaper - as Goyenda Rip. So I was quite aware about his adventures since the late '80s but wasn't that much of a fan,might be due to his stories were seems to be bit slow-pacy (with more relax atmosphere) than I would like to see in an adventure series(and reading a RK story parallel with Phantom/Mandrake/Bahadur stories didn't help me either)! But in the last few years, I have started to like this cool detective and his adventures,that funny-yet-efficient butler,Desmond, and the other regular characters like Amur sisters,Honey Dorian etc,read both RK-Indrajals and the earlier A.Raymond strips. [Between, I have this uncanny connection with RK Indrajals as other than my introductory Indrajal was a Rip story,the first Bengali Indrajal issue that I bought during my 2nd phase of the Indrajal-hunts(in the early 2000s) was also a Rip story! :o ]

Besides the top heroes,Indrajal was/is famous for the side-heroes/strips and the various informative features.Does anybody can forget the strips of Gunadhar(Henry),Chimpoo,Babua,Chotto Raja's 1-page strips or that kid detective,Timpa & his grand-pa's full-fledged adventures?? Then there were regular dose of  Ripley's own shocking news,Capries' animal world etc various informative articles as fillers, only enhanced the uniqueness of this series.

And last,but not the least,the advertisement pages!! I have never seen or heard about any other comic-series where fans are fascinated about those old ad pages - published solely for commercial purpose!!The most memorable ads were like gold spot,gems,amul etc!

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Now,to read the full adventure, download....

সাদা ভূতের আড্ডা

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

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

Bahadur -The Indian Super Hero

Bahadur... this one name was a huge sensation among the Indrajal comics readers in the late '70s to '90. Yes! I'm talking about the brave Indian lad Bahadur, the founder of CSF [Citizen Security Force] at Jaigarh in the Chambal valley.
His creator was the famous artist and painter Aabid Surti and later this series was continued by Jagjit Uppal. There were 75 Bahadur comics published in Indrajal Comics(1964 - 1990) and among them first 12 were written by Mr.Surti while rest 63 by Mr.Uppal. Except a few last comics, all were illustrated by Govind Brahmania,later done by his son, Promod Brahamania.
First Bahadur comics published in Indrajal was 'The Red bricks house' (on Dec '76 ;IJC No.267).
The story begins when a dacoit,namely Vairab Singh, who has been terrorising villages and people is shot dead by the Chief of Police Vishal. The dacoit's teenager son swears revenge on the policeman who caused the death of his father. However, Vishal convinces the young lad the folly of his ways, and helps him turn over a new leaf. The boy was Bahadur, and he grows up to enforce law and order in the little bustling town of Jaigarh.

Bela,daughter of seth Shivram of Pipli,is his love-interest. Their first meeting was very dramatic,in the 4th story of Bahadur,'The white ghost's den' (IJC No.284),where Bahadur saved her father from a group of dacoits and since then they were inseparable couple eventhough till the very LAST story,(The snake Charmer’s Bait ;Vol.27 No.5 ; 1990) they were not married.However, at the end of this story,Bahadur proposed her,and for the obvious reason, she agreed. So, one can say, if Bahadur comics were still continued (as after sudden cancellation of Indrajal ,there was no further publication of this true Indian Action-Hero ),we would see them as spouse in later comics like Phantom-Diana and Mandrake-Narda. :-)

Now, there are something special about two creators of this hero.In the initial Bahadur comics, Surti introduced several characters & most of them became integral part of this series.
First introduction was with the village-head Mukhia,inspector Vishal & old man Sukhia, whose son Dina was killed mercilessly by Saitan Singh & his gang (eventually Sukhia initially was Saitan's spy, but his son joined in CSF and went against Saitan). Later another ex-dacoit Lakhan and Bela were introduced as well.
After wrote 12 comics Surti quited for reason unknown (LAST comic was 'The Gang of Imposters' :IJC No.326; 1979).Then after one year Bahadur reappeared under Jagjit Uppal (who continued it till the end),though illustrator was the same:G.Brahmania. In this reappearance Bahadur visited Mumbai to protect some costly jewels to Delhi (a very good story indeed)[The Secret Assignment:IJC No. 352; 1980] and from then once again his comics regularly featured in Indrajals along with other heroes. In the very 4th comic of this reappearance,a fabulous story was released,titled 'The Mystery of the Headless Ghost' (No.370) i.e like Surti ,J.Uppal also delivered thrillers from the very beginning.
Now,here's the MOST debatable question appeared: who's the better.... A.Surti or J.Uppal??Many comic fans have their share of choice and reason behind that....but, for me BOTH were great in their own field. While Abid Surti was the pioneer, the ORIGINAL creator of Bahadur, Jagjit Uppal was no less!

Why ? is it for the reason he (Uppal) continued this series, otherwise which would met an very early end & as a result among many comic-lovers (including me!) Bahadur would be an unheard name? [The credit of last 10 years of Bahadur's 14-year glorious run goes to J.Uppal]
Frankly, it's true for to some extent, BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!
It had seen several times in comics script, that, when one writer took the charge from the original one, he drifted away from the real essence created by the original creator and develop own stories ,may be good or bad,but obviously real-touch was missing. A classic example is our favorite Henry comics, where new-generation comic-lovers see him as a silent kid,completely unaware the fact this 'silent' kid was 'very talkative' one under his original creator Carl Anderson.... after his death several cartoonist took the charge.
Another & most obvious example is PHANTOM comics. Besides the original creator great Lee Falk,there are several non-Falk phantom comics (eg. FREW,Egmont,GOLD KEY,Charlton and many more) which are not match an iota with the original Phantom stories, mostly 'cos while scripting those creators never keep the original essence/facts intact, never try to realise the mood of these stories and hence failed miserably!
Those who are readers of BOTH creations definitely agree with me.

And here's the excellence and credit of Mr. Uppal. While scripting, not only he kept all those original characters but also the basic essence,the almost same thrill and action sequences .... the CSF's main activity based on Jaigarh and it's surrounding villages ,which were present in Uppal's creations as well.Like Surti's era , here also sometimes Bahadur leave Jaigarh and visit Mumbai & in later comics ,Bahadur even went aboard & that's quite natural .
Still there are few additions/change made by Mr.Uppal during his own creation & needless to mention ,we loved those very much!
Here's some .....
[1]Chamiya: The Himalayan-dog who gave a new twist in adventures of Bahadur, accompany him in almost all missions.

[2]Mukhia:Being the head of Jaigarh there was a little distance between him and Bahadur, also he was not a member of CSF [in early (Surti) Bahadur stories].But, from very beginning of the reappearance ,he became very close friend of Bahadur and also an active member of CSF.

[3] Bahadur seems completely unbeatable in later comics, partly obvious as in Surti's era he learned Kung-fu in Mumbai (The Kung-fu kings:IJC No.312) after Karate and this is obvious that, even in real-life such double-belters are almost unbeatable, but still for sake of more twist it'd be better if Bahadur sometimes lost the battle between thugs before he won the war.

But ,in reality,there's hardly any difference between these two writers and it's tough for readers to distinguish ,if their names aren't mentioned in the first page of the comics.

In some last 9-10 adventures [roughly from 2nd half of 1988; vol.25] Bahadur became more stylist, stories were more gripping and also finishing was true dramatic like initial days.

Besides these, the modern and neat look of Bahadur (from 'long-hair-kurta' appearance he became a 'short-hair-T-shirt-jeans' modern guy) in the late '80s was also a huge hit among the IJC readers .
(here's some modern Bahadur pics from a 1987 Indrajal)
In short, Bahadur rocks from his very beginning upto the end (I still can remember the craze between us for the Bahadur comics published in late '80s) and for this we should thankful to the BOTH creators.

P.S.-  Bahadur comics publication has stopped around two decades ago,still this true Indian hero will always remain our favorite amidst the modern cartoon and video games era. :-)