Rani Comics – Rise and Fall | 1984-2005

Comics industry in India has traditionally been dependent on the foreign publications. Publishers and Distributors believed that obtaining licenses from the foreign syndicates and comics publishers were more easy and cost-effective then employing artists and writers to create local comic strips or books. This started off with Newspaper comic strips, and saw itself being adopted by leading comics publications which entered this picture based story-telling field of India, like Indrajal Comics, Star Comics, etc. Other than the legendary Amar Chitra Katha (ACK), which revolutionized a generation of kids with rich knowledge of our roots and heritage, only a handful of few decided to pursue the local talents with some quality, most notably Diamond Comics, Manoj Chitra Katha (MCK), and Raj Comics. But there was one common trait in acquiring International licenses among these comics publications. Their main source was the Golden genre of American Comics. Very few dared to go beyond the riches which were available in American Comics Industry, part of the reason was also due to the availability of American Syndication representatives (who were responsible for maintaining or licensing the copyright for these comic strips and books), who were available right inside our country. And this is where the Tamil Comics Industry in India scores ahead from the rest of its other state counter parts, by relying heavily on the British Genre of Comics. The trend undoubtedly was started when Muthu Comics made its debut in 1972.
Muthu Comics #1 (1972)starring Fleetway’s Steel Claw	The publishers were Sivakasi based Muthu Fine Arts, who had Mr. Mullai Thangarasan as the Editor for the venture. Muthu singlehandedly pioneered a generation of Tamil Comics, and was the first to establish the standards for the industry. Contrary to the the Superhero comics adopted by the publications backed up by big media houses, Muthu Comics decided to pursue the riches which were available in the British Genre, most notably in England based, and now defunct, Fleetway Publications. British Genre, unlike American Comics that time was more sentimental, and had a strong story-plot, which is often assisted by a equal dose of Sci-Fi storylines and characters, like Steel Claw, The Spider, Iron Man Archie, etc. (Pic: AkoTheeka)
So there were no surprises that the stories were well received by Tamil Comics fans, with the only complaint over Muthu being its irregular publishing, which often deprived fans from enjoying the titles uninterrupted. It took 12 long years for that trend to be reversed, with July 1984 marking a new era in Tamil Comics, with a host of 3 new publications joining the foray.

	The first, Lion Comics, from the same publishers of Muthu Comics, with Mr. S Vijayan as the Editor. Mr.Vijayan is the son of Mr. M Soundrapandian, the founder of Muthu Comics.
	The second, Mehta Comics, from the same Southern Indian city of Sivakasi, competing toe-toe to against the launch of Lion Comics. Surprisingly, Mr. Mullai Thangarasan who was earlier at the helm of Muthu Comics, had shifted base as the Editor of this new venture. To know more on this topic, read our Mehta Comics debut post here.
	The third, Rani Comics, from the famous Tamil Newspaper publisher Dina Thanthi, based out from the capital city Chennai of Indian Southern State.

Different types of comic characters, strength in the storylines, magazine’s standard and packaging, Laminated Covers with stunning artwork and color, galored as the 3 newly introduced publishers tried to go one-up to each other, in the process entertaining the Tamil Comics enthusiasts for decades. Mehta Comics soon closed shops, within a couple of years, then being reduced only to occasional reprints often with prolonged gaps. This left Rani Comics and Lion Comics as the two most recognised competitors, along with the legendary Muthu Comics.

Rani Comics, claimed the upper-hand early in the competition by acquiring the rights to feature world famous British Secret Agent James Bond 007, in its line-up. What’s more they even entered Muthu & Lion’s sacred place of Fleetway publications, to acquire Cowboy and Detective stories also into their fold. Much of Rani Comics success in this dream run, relied heavily on its wide distribution network, which was laid well by the most successful Dina Thanthi publication. Another star attraction was their pricing strategy. It maintained a INR price of 1.50 for more than 4 years, and then maintained INR 2.00 for well over a decade. Lion always had to play the second fiddle to this mighty combination, until the popularity of Rani Comics started fading.

Rani Comics, despite all its initial success had to face the law of averages, as it started to lose it sheen, contributed heavily by the change of his Editor, and then bad character and story choices. The latter's translation in Tamil also added to the misery, with Rani finally closing shops in 2005, after a total run of 21 long years.

While looking back at these lengthier run, we could classify its time period into three generations.

• Golden Age
• Bronze Age
• Dark Age

Let’s look into each of these generations, and the characters which were introduced during that period.

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GOLDEN AGE: # 1 (August ‘84) - # 90 (March ‘88)

Obviously, the Golden Age starts and ends in the period when Mr.Ramajayam was at the helm of the affairs. Not only he lined up world famous characters, he also added enough varieties, by introducing Cowboy, Wartime, Science-fiction stories in their host of titles, thus going on to establish itself as the best known Tamil Comics during its time. During this time, it was the only Tamil Comics, which even overshadowed the legendary Muthu Comics and its counterpart Lion Comics, by a long distance, both in terms of sales, and wide reach.

Some of the famous comic stars who appeared on Rani Comics, during this time period were: (Many of them were used with original names in Tamil, the exceptions being differentiated with bracketed names)

James Bond 007	Three Cowboys	Kit Karson	Tiger
ஜேம்ஸ் பாண்ட்	மூன்று குதிரை வீரர்கள்	கிட் கார்சன்	டைகர்

Johnny Hazard	Shuja	Inspector Aazaad	Axa
சாகஸ வீரர் ஜானி (Adventurer Johny)	மன்னர் பீமா (King Beema)	இன்ஸ்பெக்டர் ஆசாத்	புரட்சி பெண் ஷீலா (Rebel Lady Sheila)

Bruce Lee	Billy	Buck Ryan
ப்ரூஸ் லீ	பில்லி	ராயன் (Raayan)

My favourites out of this genre were: James Bond, Tiger, and the Three Cowboys.

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BRONZE AGE: # 91 (April ‘88) - # 288 (June ‘96)

Without doubts it was the time when Mr. AM Saami took over the Editor’s role, after Mr.Ramajayam quit the post. All the hard work done by Ramajayam, was spoilt by poor translation, editing, and story selections. But, one saving grace was that the characters which were introduced during Golden Age, gave him a host array of stories to choose from, so he somehow managed to drag the publication for quite a long time, thus we can call it as Bronze Age.

Moreover, this was the time when apart from featuring the British Genre of Comics, Rani ultimately ended up bringing some American comic characters too, by tying up with King Features Syndicate (many of the stories they used during this time were also published by Indrajal Comics)

Along with the comic characters introduced during the Golden Age, the other notable ones introduced during this time period were:

Thillon	Buck Jones	Cisco Kid	Modesty Blaise	Phantom
தில்லான்	பக் ஜோன்ஸ்	சிஸ்கோ கிட்	மாடஸ்டி பிளைசி	மாயாவி

Flash Gordon	Rip Kirby	Mandrake	Garth
ஃபிளாஷ் கார்டன்	ரிப் கிர்பி	மான்டிரேக்	முரட்டு காளை கார்த்

My favourites out of this genre, were undoubtedly: Modesty Blaise, Phantom, and Mandrake

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DARK AGE: # 289 (July ‘96) - # 500 (April ‘05)

The period, when Rani Comics was clearly on the decline, started with the introduction of a cheaply imitated character out of Phantom’s legacy, called Black Tiger. He was followed by other locally drawn characters and stories, possibly from the North India’s underground publications. Now this says why the publishers always decided against utilizing the local talent. If this is what is in offer, then it better be the way they have agreed on international licensing.

Ironically Mr.AM Saami, who started the slide of Rani Comics, was at the helm of the affairs until the shops closed with Issue #500. During this period, to arrest the sagging sales, they even adopted going in for full-color editions, with a price of INR 5, the coloring of which was the poorest standards of all. Often resembling, that it was done out of water colors, and by amateurs in the business. Clearly, it was meant to end the way it eventually folded.

Some of the famous (?!) comic characters introduced during this time were:

Black Tiger	Jadaayu	Tyson	Agniputra
கரும்புலி	ஜடாயு	இந்திய  டார்ஜான் டைசன்	அக்னிபுத்ரா

Not much are known about the origin of these titles, except the constant proof that they were owned by Diamond Comics in the North. If anyone can help by sourcing any original references for this title, please log your comments in the section below.

The Dark Age also saw a series of reprints from the golden oldies published in Rani Comics, in their new color format, but none could match the olden glory. There were some famous comic characters like He-Man, Thorgal, who also made their debut as an one-shot during this period. This period, also had the ignominy of seeing a home-made Modesty Blaise Comic Book featuring as an one-shot (thankfully, and obviously without any licensing). It was absurd to say the least, and it only contributed to the downfall by adding more reasons to eventual death of this legendary comic series.

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Overall, even though it was hard to see the Rani publication close shops, it was at least satisfying, since no one could bear and witness the nosedive it took from his glorious times. Nevertheless, the memories it left back, were one to cherish for long. So here at Comicology, we will try to map those glorious days by attempting to review the titles one by one.

Note: This blog post is a summary of two Preview posts published earlier in the exclusive Tamil blog for Rani Comics, here and here . The reason for reproducing the same at Comicology, is to introduce the legacy of Rani Comics to other language friends, as requested by some of the regular visitors. It will better serve as medium to advertise the golden oldies released in Tamil Comics industry.

This doesn’t mean that the Rani Comics blog is discontinued. It is well within my plans, and new review posts for the golden oldies of Rani Comics will continue to be published exclusively on Rani Comics blog, while only a summary post with a link back to the original post, will find its presence in Comicology.

Everyone understands that Unicode-rich blogs suffer from the poor indexing of Search Engines, and this is a way to create a workaround for it.

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Siruvar Malar – FlashBack | 1986

I bet all the Comicologists are really spending some quality time with the near and dear ones, in this holiday season.  In keeping with the same spirit, this is a New Year Surprise Post for all Comicologists. So far the pattern adopted at Comicology has been to brief and review the new titles or issues released in India, with a detailed link-up to the previous titles related to the reviewed issue.  That has been the case so far with Lion Comics, Muthu Comics, CineBook, Euro Books, Gotham Comics, etc. reviewed so far, and will continue to find their presence in Comicology.  Just to make things interesting, and to break-away from any trend-set, this post will start my long planned “Flash Back Events”, where we will cover some famous Comics initiatives and series released in the past.

Siruvar Malar (09-Jan-87)

First-up the order will be one of my most cherished collection from childhood, Siruvar Malar (சிறுவர் மலர்), a Children's magazine in Tamil (தமிழ்), which started it run in 1986 as a Free Weekly Supplement to the Tamil Newspaper (தமிழ் நாளிதழ்), Dina-Malar (தின மலர்) on Fridays (My estimates say that the first edition was launched in Oct’86. Unfortunately, I don’t possess this 1st edition.  Any Comicologists, having the same could contact me through email to update this post with 1st edition cover.) Dinamalar that time was considered as the 2nd most widely read Newspaper in the Southern Indian State, Tamil Nadu.  They earlier had huge success with an another Weekly, titled Vaaramalar (வார மலர்) released every Sunday, which was also provided for free.  Eventhough there were countless newspapers which tried to imitate this Free Weekly Supplements on different days, no one was able to emulate the success owned by Dinamalar.

So there was no surprises when they launched their second successful Weekly supplement in form on Siruvar Malar, this time to addressed to the younger audience, and children's. This was the same time I grew up reading and dissecting anything with pictures in a magazine, (obviously inspired by the erstwhile Rani Comics introduced by my brother), and it was a not a surprise that I immediately fell in love with Siruvar Malar from the very first time. There was a lot of carefully planned USP (Unique Selling Proposition) in Siruvar Malar to attract young minds, even though it was a free edition.  It had everything which a kid could dream of: Comic Strips Stories Riddles Competitions

Dinamalar claiming #2 Position Advt in Siruvar Malar (02-Feb-90)

The covers of Siruvar Malar initially carried foreign pictures, which was quickly changed to feature pictures from kids in Tamil Nadu, to make them touch-base with local crowd.  I still remember those days when every family wanted to send their kids picture for a possible cover feature in the future issues.  

They had tied up with the famous Northern Indian publisher, Uncle Pai inspired, Amar Chitra Katha (ACK) from Mumbai (formerly Bombay), to bring and introduce Tamil translated version of their wonderfully drawn and scripted storylines from Mythology, History, and Humour genre.  In fact, my first experiment with ACK was through this medium.

Siruvar Malar (03-Apr-87)

Siruvar Malar (01-May-87)

Siruvar Malar (10-Mar-89)

But there was also an another star attraction to Siruvar Malar in terms of Comic Strip, with their International licensing to bring Tamil translated version of some famous comic series.  Siruvar Malar was originally launched as a 16 page supplement.  But as per the readers demand it was quickly increased to double size, and that marked a new beginning, which let them to feature some international comic strips in their weekly.  Look at the announcement from the Editor on the same, and a preview of a list of Comic Series which were started with the double-sized issue debut.

Since, the erstwhile Indrajal Comics released by Times of India stable, was more famous and larger in size with their American Daily-Strips based issues featuring Phantom, Flash Gordon, Mandrake, etc., the team of Siruvar Malar kept their reliance on them to a little extent by featuring a single page occasionally for Mandrake and Flash Gordon in their Weekly.  Instead they set their eyes on the some of the untouched Comic Series from the Golden Generation of British Comics.  Comicologists would take a note that famous Tamil language based Muthu Comics from Prakash Publishers thrived on this market for a long-time introducing to us some famous characters like Steel Claw, The Spider, and Archie etc.  But, their concentration was on a “Super Hero” devoted storyline, by means of which they could engage their publication by printing their series of adventures for a long time.

Editor’s Note on the Double Size launch Siruvar Malar (01-May-87)

But, Golden Era of British Comics, was not only made up of Super Heroes.

There were some more one-off series, which were rich of script, artwork, with fair mix of creepy plots.  Comicologists would again remember that Thigil Comics, an sister publication of Lion/Muthu Comics publishers, tried publishing these series, but couldn’t do that successfully, as the brand was withdrawn with a short run.

Siruvar Malar (02-Feb-90)

Siruvar Malar (27-Jun-08)

Siruvar Malar (26-Dec-08)

Siruvar Malar, was the first to touch-base on this one-off British Comic series by bringing them over to the Tamil Comics fans.  And these series will form the base for our initial reviews to be featured as part of the “Flash-Back Post Series” about Siruvar Malar at Comicology.

As a kid, I remember those days when I was eagerly anticipating every Friday, in order to read the Siruvar Malar, first-up.  There was a basic understanding among family members, that being the youngest, I would be the first to read the Siruvar Malar on Friday, while the eldest will have the rights for that honour with Vaara Malar on Sundays.  Those were days of utmost fun and lasting memories, and here is a chance for me to re-experience them.

First-up the order, in our series of Siruvar Malar review, is one of the most famous creepy and a lengthy series ever featured in Siruvar Malar, or in fact, any other Tamil comics magazines; Uyirai Thedi (உயிரை தேடி).  Ever since I read about a new BBC series starting in UK, called Survivor, at the BackfromDepth website, the original of which was an inspiration to this comic series, I had been thinking long and hard to collect the old Siruvar Malar archives to blog about the same.  Now, with the arrangements ready, we could talk about the series in detail with our coming FlashBack posts.  Till then here is a preview of what’s in store for you.  I am confident this is going to take you back in your memory lane, if you had actually read this series in Siruvar Malar back in those days.

As an end note, Dinamalar still continues to hold onto his position among the growing competition in the Newspaper media, greatly strengthened by their subscription base.  They also have been continuously releasing their Siruvar Malar (a scene evident with the 2009 edition featured above), supplement along with Vaara Malar.  But the qualities which made the Original Siruvar Malar stand out from the rest, is now nowhere to be seen, as it is mostly occupied with local stories and artworks.  No wonder, they remain underground. 

But, it’s still a good gift for the children's.  Especially for those who miss out on these editions for whatever reasons, can browse through dinamalar.com, for downloading e-Books of past Siruvar Malar issues.  Dinamalar team has to be commended for making it available for free.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post, as much as I enjoyed writing it.  If so, why not share your views, reviews about this post using the Comment section below?  I would be eager to read them.  Until the next post, enjoy your holiday season.

UPDATE (03/09): The first part of Survival aka Uyirai Thedi is current available at Comicology, on this page.

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