Comic Con Express – Bengaluru - 2012

Another year and another Express Event from Comic Con India. Our Pre-show coverage of the event in the Garden City.

Comic Con India – New Delhi - 2011

Get to know, more about India's first ever Comic-Con, how does it rate among the rest.

Chennai Book Fair - 2011

We catch up with the Annual Chennai Book Fair, and see what it has to offer for Comic fans.

Lion Comics Jumbo Special - XIII Collector's Edition

An inside look into a collection, touted as the biggest Comic Book released in India

Jun 30, 2009

News - Comics Bloggers making Waves | Jun '09

World is mourning the loss of an icon, famously known among his fans as the “King of Pop”, Michael Jackson. Even though I have reservations over his life at large, the fact remains that no one can deny the popularity and respect he enjoyed among music fans world over, whom he inspired and commanded for decades through his famed blockbuster albums. With that said, I hope he finds his joy in his afterlife.

In the World of Comics, the month of June was a pleasant surprise, as some of our fellow comics bloggers achieved important milestones in their respective means, garnering media attention too. This post is to highlight some of them, in the process honouring their efforts towards our unique passion shared towards The 9th Art.

Pran with his Creations#1: Toonfactory’s Chitrakathaa Rolls-On

Good friend and fellow comiker Alok Sharma, who is famously known on blogosphere, under his nickname Toonfactory, has finally restarted his most ambitious and dream project, Chitrakathaa. Chitrakathaa is a documentary which hopes to map the evolution of comics medium in India, with enough spotlight thrown on the creators who revolutionized this art form, which often is deprived of its fair share of accolades.

Chacha Choudhary As part of this great project, Alok has scheduled a line-up of interviews for days to come, in the process meeting up with some of the famous creators Indian comics scene has ever seen.

The first-up from his side, was the news that he indeed met Mr. Pran Kumar SharmaBilloo, known simply as Pran among Comics World. Pran was instrumental in creating a series of locally drawn and inspired comic characters, who looked at the day-to-day lifestyle of typical Indians, with a jolly-good humour attached to them. Some of his legendary creations include Chacha Chaudhary, Pinki, Billoo, which still continue to be syndicated and serialized on a variety of Indian languages.

Pinky There was a time (even now) when Diamond Comics wholly relied on Pran, for their in numerous titles, which still continues to find the reprints quite often, along with newly drawn series, which Pran continues to create for Diamond.

Pran was decorated with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Indian Institute of Cartoonists in 2001, It was my childhood dream to meet up this famous icon, who was once named even as the Walt Disney of India.

Good that Alok was able to achieve that feat for all of us. Alok has promised a big write-up and news about other creators whom he would be meeting for his project. Makes for an interesting wait. 

You can learn more about Pran, and the art institution he runs on his official website.


Comic World #2: Comic World on Press

Nobody is a stranger to the fact that comics blogs in India, are mostly dominated by fans of erstwhile brand Indrajal Comics (IJC).  People found their happiness in sharing what they have in their collection, in the process introducing these wealth of titles to new comics readers, as well for the older ones to cherish their childhood passion.

Even though, I have my reservations over releasing a comic in toto on net, I had to appreciate this bloggers enthusiasm in keeping up the comics reading passion alive.

Recently, the speed of these blogs had reduced significantly, as the number of IJC issues which are left un-scanned have reduced to a meager numbers. Many of the blogs have switched over to provide different content to enthuse the visiting readers. One such blogger, is long time friend, and fellow IJC blogger Zaheer, more famously known under his nick-name Comic World.

Recently, he started to venture on newer avenues, by discussing the pulp fictions of India, when Pocket Books based Novels ruled the roost. Many Comic friends would remember that, it was the publications which were publishing pocket books, who eventually started publishing Comics too. Most famous of among them are Raj Comics and Diamond Comics.

Comic World on News One such post at Comic World, which ignited this novel topic, was considered the best ever by many who commented on the topic.

Eventually, Comic World made its way to be featured in an article on a National Daily Newspaper called Hindustan Times.

The article talks about the childhood habit of many who have drooled over these pocket book novels, and comics in general, and their impact on modern society, and literary world. Kudos to Zaheer, for achieving this wonderful feat. Keep Rocking, Bro.


ComicBitsOnline #3: Comicology draws Attention

Well, I generally try not to blow up my own trumpet. But, it’s a matter of honour to mention that our blog was referred over at ComicBitsOnline, during one of the Interviews with CineBook’s
Olivier Cadic.

Comicology on CBO Interview CBO’s Terry Hooper, a comic creator himself, and the Keeper of the Black Tower, has always been a good old friend and staunch supporter of Comicology, which is highlighted by the fact that he used to feature posts now and then about our blog in his most visited website (Ref. these pages). I am grateful, to Terry for his support towards this long journey through our favourite Genre.

Bear Alley Not only that, everyone who is fan of British Genre of Comics, would remember the name Steve Holland. A comics historian on his own rights, who has a host of comics titles credited to him, runs a Rolling News section on his official blog, Bear Alley.

Comicology on Bear AlleyRecently our Lucky Luke post has found its mention among the list, which is generally reserved for comic creators and visionaries. I am thankful to Steve for giving this great recognition to our blog.

For me, these two references in blogs, rate over and above any media article published in newspapers, for the sheer reason that they are written by someone who share the same passion towards Comics, like us Comikers.

Vikatan 04 By saying that, I don’t decree the occasion, when Comicology was featured in a Tamil Weekly magazine, Ananda Vikatan. I am thankful for them to have allotted a space for us in the esteemed magazine. For other language friends, the article is part of the series, where each week a new blog is introduced to the readers, and this one talked about the various faces of Comics as available in our blog. (Scan Courtesy: Arun S)

Deccan Chronicle 28th July Chennai Edition Undoubtedly, when you talk about comics bloggers making news, there is no way we can forget that the evergreen Muthufan was the first to feature on a Newspaper article, which was syndicated in a handful of newspapers, including Deccan Chronicle and Asian Age.

The only problem that time was that the content left much to be desired, starting from the title (The title starts with the word Kitsch, can you believe it?). You can read more about it in Viswa’s blog post over here. A sheer case of how a reporter could conceive a topic, without knowing head and tail about the subject. (Scan Courtesy: Viswa)

Wasn’t I right in saying that a mention in comic blogs, rate over and above the media articles written by some unknown faces. Well you be the judge :).

Jun 20, 2009

Euro Books – Lucky Luke | 24 Albums | 2009

I am Back and have a story to tell about my recent absence at Comicology, which is by the way reserved for the end of the post; to save you from my blabbering and more importantly to pave way for the topic which turbo-charged me to comeback quicker: Euro Book’s Lucky Luke venture.

I am no stranger to the generation of kids who have grown reading Lion Comics, a Tamil comics brand from Southern India. My first encounters with Lucky Luke (for an Intro about this famous Franco-Belgian character, refer to the Lucky Luke debut post, here), were only through them. Even though later on I read on the web that few other publications have tried their hands on Lucky adventures in India, with mixed success. (For eg. Gowarsons).

Offlate, I need to admit that the humour in Lucky Luke stories have failed to tickle the fun bone in me, may be because we could have grown out of that target audience, or maybe because the Morris & Goscinny era is now over.

But the sheer glimpse of holding a Lucky Luke adventure and flipping through its pages is matched only by a handful of other series. It’s sure to bring you Nostalgic feeling and also take you back to your favourite childhood moments.

Smoking Lucky Luke (prior to 1983)And not to forget Lucky Luke series own style of featuring historical figures from the wild west in their comic books time and again with a comical style of representation (for eg., Dalton Brothers, Calamity Jane, Jesse James, etc.), and also for cultivating the good habits, as Non Smoking Lucky Luke (from 1983)the series progressed into more titles (for eg., Lucky used to be featured as a smoker in his initial run, before turning to a non-smoker in response to the non-smoking campaign on the rise in those times).

Lion Comics continues to feature Lucky Luke in their line-up, but their infrequent releases (their last Lucky exclusive release was in early 2008) meant that seeing a Lucky Luke adventure was increasingly difficult in India.

Surprisingly in 2007, Tara Press launched a limited edition 5 Set Luke series, and had plans to feature another series in Iznogoud, having obtained the copyrights for both of them. For whatever reasons, they chose not to continue the comics venture forward.

Lucky Luke with Dalton Brothers Later on CineBook’s debut in India, brought a host of Lucky Luke titles along with it, and they continue to release and add more titles on an incremental basis, every month. I have always been a great fan of CineBook, ever since they made their foray in India on 2008, due to their top notch quality of releases. So, these incredible Lucky Luke titles filled the void, now and then.

But in early 2009, Euro Books India, a comics publisher known for a set of graphic novel releases in one bunch (Ref. Biggles & Spirou and Fantasio Set releases in 2007), announced that they were working on a 24 set Lucky Luke release. Ever since hearing the news, I had been checking the stores, and bugging their local distributors, to check on their availability, but the announcement remained as Coming soon until now.

A couple of weeks back, I heard from some friends in the other cities that they have started to see the 24 set Lucky Luke Euro books editions on their local bookshops. I couldn’t wait to grab the copy, as the Chennai stores were still not showing any signs of their availability. So I managed to procure a set and had it shipped to me last week, through a friend.

So here is the list of 24 titles and their incredibly drawn cover arts, online first-up at Comicology.

EB LL 01 Daisy TownEB LL 02 FingersEB LL 03 Marcel DaltonEB LL 04 The ArtistEB LL 05 The Legend of the WestEB LL 06 The Daily Star

Typical to Euro Books Quality, these editions of Lucky Luke are incredibly well packaged. Waxed good quality papers, carefully bound on the edges, cost priced at INR 199 each, with A4 Size, all adds up to Lucky Luke Art Page Extra in Euro Book Collectionthe value. Euro Books this time around, even decided to not feature their logo on the front-cover, instead pushing it to   the back-cover. It highlights that they themselves didn’t want to disturb the incredibly drawn cover-art of each of these Lucky Luke golden titles. Look at the funny extras found inside the books.

Unlike Tara Press and CineBook, who relied on the Original albums released in early 60s (starting from 1962) to early 70s (up to 1971, as of their latest release); Euro Books have steered away from the current CineBook’s selection lot, by mostly selecting titles from the original albums released in 80’s, to the recent editions released a couple of years ago in 2006.

Talking more about that 2006 edition, The Beautiful Province, is said to be the highest sold Lucky Luke title post Morris & Goscinny’s successful partnership, where various writers worked with Morris to fill the void left by Goscinny’s demise in 1977. Later when Morris passed away in 2001, the series was taken over by French artist Hervé Darmenton, who is more famously known under his pseudonym Achdé. He was assisted in writing duties by Laurent Gerra.

EB LL 07 Lucky Luke's FianceeEB LL 08 NitroglycerineEB LL 09 The Cursed RanchEB LL 10 The Beautiful ProvinceEB LL 11 From the Gallows to the AltarEB LL 12 The Daltons' Loot

It is said that the duo of Achdé and Gerra, relied heavily on the instruction left over by Morris to base their storylines. Isn’t it a tribute to the legendary man who revolutionised the Lucky Luke series in his time Lukes Art page Extra in Euro Books Collectionwith the venture. Thanks to Euro Books for bringing this landmark title to India, which was the first title to have been produced under Achdé and Gerra partnership.

And does the title, From the Gallows to the Altar, remind you something very recently. Yes it’s indeed the title which fellow comiker, Lover of Dreams Shankar, enriched us with his wonderful translation on his blog, over here.

I would remember him, while reading this story. I don’t have high hopes over the English translation though, as compared to our desi version :). Moreover, there are no credits given for the English Translation in these Euro Book set. (Just like the Spirou & Fantasio series released a couple of years back).

I wonder, how would that change the storyline, as everyone knows that Translation plays a major part in making or breaking a series originally released in another language. I am not staying too optimistic, but let me give a final verdict after going through these titles. If not for anything, I would at least enjoy the incredible artwork, for which Lucky series is known for.

EB LL 13 The AlibiEB LL 14 Ghost HuntEB LL 15 Kid LuckyEB LL 16 Oklahoma JimEB LL 17 The ProphetEB LL 18 Belle Star

Other than the regular series, this lot of Euro Book also includes two unique titles to have been released in the Lucky Luke series. The ones which talked about the Lucky Luke’s early years as a kid.

lucky_jollyKid Lucky is the title, in which Lucky is said to have befriended Jolly Jumper, his most loyal friend and companion in many adventures. Oklahoma Jim is the other title which wraps up the Kid Lucky twin title limited edition series.

Everyone knows that Lucky is credited to be the man who shoots faster than his own shadow.

RantanplanNot many know that his trusted ally, Jolly Jumper, is credited as the most intelligent horse in the world.

Not only that, Lucky is also accompanied in many of his adventures by a prison dog named Rantanplan, which is credited as the dumbest dog in the world. I don’t remember reading such a diverse character set in any of the comic series in my collection. Talking of Rantanplan, it had its own spin-off series which lasted for some years. Clearly, the dumbest dog, scored over the smartest horse, in fan-base Open-mouthed.

EB LL 19 The KlondikeEB LL 20 The Pony ExpressEB LL 21 Sarah BernhardtEB LL 22 The Bridge on the MississippiEB LL 23 The Hanged Man's RopeEB LL 24 The Ballad of the Daltons

So with this batch of Euro Books, the total number of English editions of Lucky Luke in my collection has risen up to 41 (12 CineBook + 5 Tara Press + 24 Euro Books). , astonishing to know that 2 years back it was a total blank. Thanks To Tara Press, CineBook, and Euro Books, and Bye-Bye, my hard earned money, once again Sad.

 

Euro Books Lucky Luke Series’ Origins: Here is the list of titles published by Euro Books in their 24 issue set, with their corresponding original reference. Morris was involved in all of them, until his demise in 2001. But he was mentioned in the credits even when other Artists or Writers took over the reigns.

# Euro Books Title Original Album (French)

Writers/Artists

Publisher Year
1. Daisy Town #51: Daisy Town Goscinny DG, 1983
2. Fingers #52: Fingers Lo Van Banda DG, 1983
3. Marcel Dalton #67: Marcel Dalton Bob de Groot LP, 1998
4. The Artist #69: L'Artiste peintre Bob de Groot LP, 2001
5. The Legend of the West #70: La Légende de l'Ouest Patrick Nordmann LP, 2002
6. The Daily Star #53: Le Daily Star Léturgie, Fauche DG, 1983
7. Lucky Luke’s Fiancée #54: La Fiancée de Luky Luke Guy Vidal DG, 1985
8. Nitroyglycerine #57: Nitroglycérine Lo Van Banda DG, 1987
9. The Cursed Ranch #56: Le Ranch maudit Léturgie, Fauche & Guylouis DG, 1986
10. The Beautiful Province #71: La Belle Province Achdé, Gerra* LC, 2004
11. From the Gallows to the Altar #72: La Corde au cou Achdé, Gerra* LC, 2006
12. The Daltons’ Loot #47: Le Magot des Dalton Vicq DG, 1980
13. The Alibi #58: L'Alibi Claude Guylouis DG, 1987
14. Ghost Hunt #61: Chasse aux fantômes Lo Van Banda LP, 1992
15. Kid Lucky Kid Lucky (Kid Lucky Series-1) Leturgie, Pearce LP, 1996
16. Oklahoma Jim Oklahoma Jim (Kid Lucky Series-2) Leturgie, Pearce LC, 2003
17. The Prophet #68: Le Prophète Patrick Nordmann LC, 2000
18. Belle Star #64: Belle Star Xavier Fauche LP, 1995
19. The Klondike #65: Le Klondike Yann, Léturgie LP, 1996
20. The Pony Express #59: Le Pony Express Léturgie, Fauche DG, 1988
21. Sarah Bernhardt #49: Sarah Bernhardt Léturgie, Fauche DG, 1982
22. The Bridge on the Missippi #63: Le Pont sur le Mississippi Léturgie, Fauche LP, 1994
23. The Hanged Man’s Rope and Other Stories #50: La Corde du pendu Goscinny DG, 1981
24. The Ballard of the Daltons and Other Stories #55: La Ballade des Dalton et autres histoires Goscinny DG, 1986

EB LL 02 Fingers c2Publishers Code: DG: Dargaud, LP: Lucky Production, LC: Lucky Comics
* Were written & drawn by Achdé, Gerra under the guidance left by Morris

Here is the back-cover one of the issue, which provides a checklist for the 24 titles available in this series of Euro Book. Also a familiar back-cover of all Kid Lucky Typical BackCoverLucky Luke Titles, which showcases the myth that the man his faster than his own shadow.

Talking about which, the Kid Lucky series had its own spin-off from this most famous back-cover feature, which wasn’t featured in the Kid Lucky series released by Euro Books. Nevertheless, here is a glimpse of that for your view.

Rantanplan's Shadow ActIf you say that was innovative, then wait till you see the Rantanplan’s own version of this famous Lucky Luke Shadow spin-off, showcasing that unlike Lukes, Rantanplan is dumber than its own shadow :).

I hope that someday these Rantanplan series will also be available in India, as I have heard good reviews about them.

 

Closing Notes:  To wrap up our Lucky Luke post, let’s discuss about the closing scene, which is a familiar scenario of every Lucky Luke Lucky Sundowntitle, where Lucky rides solo on his horse under the sunset singing is famous Lonesome Cowboy song.

Lucky Sundown 2 I recently came across a wonderful blog, which discusses the various ending scenes on the Lucky Luke titles with a comparison chart and extensive study. Have a look at The Looniverse page. The man behind that website, really deserves all the accolades.

That brings us to the close of Euro Books Lucky Luke Preview post. So use this as a checklist for your comics shopping next time around, or enjoy the cover-scans of these wonderful titles. If you are a Lucky Luke fan, it surely deserves a place in your collection. If you are not, then it’s time you experience the series in the top most quality in which it could ever be available.

Apart from the INR 199 single edition, these Lucky Luke set is also available in the 3-in-1 bound edition for INR 450 from Euro Books. It’s a nice deal, but you might have to lose the chance of owning these titles with their cover arts in a full-blown page. That’s a choice you got to make, I couldn’t. Smile

Book Facts: Publisher: Euro Books | A4 Size | Single Title: INR 199 | 3 in 1 Title: INR 450 | 24 Individual Titles

Places to Buy:
Available at all leading book stores, like Landmark, Odyssey, Crosswords, etc. including individual stores like Blossoms.
flipkart.com offers around 10% discount. All the Lucky Luke titles are available at present.
indiaplaza.in offers aroound 25% discount generally, but you need to wait as the Lucky set is yet to arrive on their listings.

 

Lion Comics Logo Trivia for Tamil Comics fans: The titles published by Euro Books may be new for CineBook fans, but not certainly for their counterparts from Tamil Comics. Many of the titles published by Euro Books, have already been released by Tamil comics giant Lion Comics (and in their erstwhile brand Mini Lion).  Looking just at the Euro Books cover, itself would bring that MiniLion Logonostalgia feeling, as many of them were used as it is in our Tamil Comics.

Could anyone point out the respective Tamil Comics titles for the ones printed out of this 24 set batch? Not only full titles, even the small stories found in the two Other stories titles were also used throughout the run of Lion Comics as an additional feature. I will post the respective Tamil comics title names, in a month’s time, to keep the suspense, and the contribution going.


dicesb-wzone My Blabbering: By the way, I promised to talk about my recent procrastination at Comicology (Did you think I forgot or what?). It was more to do with a personal emergency, which didn’t allow me to sit on and complete a post for long hours. But, I did manage to sneak around in fellow comikers blogs during this time, and have made every effort to comment on those wonderful posts, whenever time permitted.

Black and White Also in the interim, I was able to obtain my long time ambition to change the background for post pages; from White text on Black Background to
Black text on White Background.
It was a long standing request from fellow comikers, which I had to oblige, even though Black background was one of my personal favourite (which was a commonality ever since the blog was started in 2005, and the very reason why it still finds its place on the Sidebar).

But, after working out a lot of changes, I hope that the reading pleasure is now improved at Comicology. The only drawback was that I had to individually edit all the 60+ posts at Comicology, to adopt to the new style. In this spent effort, I could have actually created 2 to 3 newer posts itself. But, I hope the hard-work paid-off, if it has made it eye-pleasant for all comikers.

And for those who came in late, a list of all the posts at Comicology, until today could be found in the Bibliography page, which is now categorised into wider groups, for easy access; and for any help refer to the newly revamped Help page of Comicology. I would be eager to hear about your view on this Euro Book series, and the changes which have gone on to the template of Comicology through your comments, so keep them coming.

 

Euro Books’ Other Series: Before we wrap-up, here is the two-page flyer, which prominently finds place in the Lucky Luke series, and talks about the other Graphic Novels or Comics titles released by Euro Books in the last couple of years.

Euro Books Collection List 2Euro Books Collection List 1Two of which (Biggles & Spirou) have already been discussed at Comicology.

What’s left are Phantom, and Quick & Flupke series, if we eliminate the other failed attempts of Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and Agastha Christie comic series.

Also there is another series which was missed out from this list. We will see more about them in the coming months at Comicology.

I hope your prying eyes would have noticed the advertisement about the Iznogoud series too on the flyer. Well, it is yet to be published, and as per Euro Books officials, it would only be available in the mid of July. After witnessing Euro Books quality release of Lucky Luke, I am all set to grab the Iznogoud series too, when it is available.

Some more dear money has to be shed. Comics collection is a costly hobby, I bet you on that Surprised

Adios Amigos !

References: 1. Wikipedia’s Lucky Luke page, 2. iFarm’s Lucky Luke page, 3. Dargaud’s Official Website.

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