The Lost WORLD

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Forum Updates : NEW Forum Version & Header

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!

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Falcon Comics(India):Blondie & Beetle Bailey

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

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Russ Manning's TARZAN Sunday Strips in BENGALI

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. :)

Sunday, April 10, 2011

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

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

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

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!!