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

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

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

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: The Astro pirates(S099) on probably 1967-8(the earliest know strip at ABP till date..)
• 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

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.)

Comic #36 : Mandrake Daily:Otiter Podochinho(Footstep from the Past:D246): Part-I

First Bengali Comic scan in this blog!ENJOY!!:-)

This is my effort in order to bring Mandrake's Bengali strips on-line,,in a Book-format with an introductory panel which's bit like ComicCrazee kinda effort ;-)!! Between,where are you?? This one is titled as "Otiter Podochinho" OR "Footstep from the Past", a 2004-Daily! This one is special as dealt with a vintage criminal from Falk-Davis era : The Great Grando!! :o)

As the whole strip is a 32-pager,thus I'll publish in 3 parts,as compilation & editing from the original single strips is bit lengthy job but matter of fact,this is quite exciting for me!!Hope you'll like it!:-)

Part-II coming soon....

"Independence Day" Release:Comic #33, 34 & 35:TRIPLE BONANZA:Phantom & Mandrake Dailies

For every human being FREEDOM is the 'next' important thing after oxygen i.e. life! And we've earned our much awaited freedom exactly 61 years ago,on this very day:15th August!! :-)

There are 3 Phantom/Mandrake comics for all of you on this VERY SPECIAL occasion,a small token from this friend who's a firm believer of one thing:an out-n-out enemy is FAR BETTER than those 'back-stabbing' friends!

Whatever are happening recently in India,those blasts,those destructions and terrorist activities which are meant to destroy our peace,wealth,life,,IN SHORT EVERYTHING!!And our government is still trying to be friendly with 'those' countries which are the main source/master-minds of these destructions & terrorist activities!!

But if this meant we're going to take these nonsense casually,then they are COMPLETELY wrong!!Truth is ,more they attack us,more we'll be determined to give 'em a tit-for-tat,,,BUT FOR THAT we have to be firmly united 'cos this is NOT a problem of Mumbai/Hyderabad or Kolkata alone,BUT ALL OVER India!It's a deep conspiracy from a few 'well known' enemy agents and instead of aware their 'original' source,we are(read our government) allowing 'em!!

HOPE WE'LL LEARN FROM OUR PAST MISTAKES and will act accordingly!!!

JAI HIND!!!!!
-------------------------------------------

[1] Mandrake: D229:Aliens(1998) ..one of the Falk-Fredrick's last dailies!

Download D229

[2] Phantom:D166:Rex,Prince of Baronkhan(1989) ....a story of cruel conspiracy against Rex and how our beloved Vetal aka Phantom dealt with that!:-)

Download D166

[3] Mandrake :D235: Return of Clay Camel(2000) ....another 'return' from this well known master-of-disguise who'd appeared very first time in '30s era,now made his first time appearance in Post-Falk period in 2000! A fascinating tale as usual....

D0wnload D235

ENJOY!!!

Comic #29:Phantom Daily:The Snake Goddess Island(S157;2003)

This one is among those very few Post-Falk Phantom strips I loved!! A fascinating tale wid a mysterious finishing too! Between,it's a contribution from Chatur Chetha and all though it may be available on-line somewhere,but reading in a one-go is a treat,,Ain't friends?? :-)
By the way,there are ONLY Three such 'special' Phantom adventures where GWW had to face Snake Goddesses!! :o)
First one was D161(The Snake Goddess;1988) published in Indrajal as the same title(Vol.25 No.27 & 28) while the later one was a Post-Ijc Sunday strip:S141(Queen Medusa;1994) .These two were created by maestro Lee Falk while the 3rd one was by Reimerthi in 2003!

ENJOY!!!!

Download S157