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Showing posts with label Alfredo Castelli. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alfredo Castelli. Show all posts

Oct 29, 2008

Muthu Comics #310 - Martin Mystery | Oct '08

Muthu #310 – Martin Mystery
Muthu 310 - Martin Mystery Cover  
100 Pgs | INR 10 | B6 | B/W Laminated/Paperback

Muthu Comics makes its comeback after 3 months, with the edition of Martin Mystery (christened in Tamil as Marma Manidhan Martin-மர்ம மனிதன் மார்ட்டின்) starring, Ponnil Oru Pinam (பொன்னில் ஒரு பிணம்), 'Golden Carcass'. This time the delay is for all the valid reasons.

The compulsory power shedding for residential and commercial establishments, by the state governing body, has hit the Towns and Villages to the worst, which has resulted in delay (this time around).

Coupled with torrential rains, Prakash Publishers have indeed waged war to get this edition on our hands, and they should be commended for that incredible work.

Editor's Comics Time is testament to the fact that this was a comic which was planned before Diwali, as there is no mention about the biggest Indian festival.  Obviously, editor would have reserved his greeting for the Lion Comics, which could have been planned as Diwali release.

Prakash Publishers should be commended for their new-found commitment to get monthly releases for the Tamil Comics Fans, who are now left with only one choice to pick from, with the other publishers doing a No-Show.

But, the delay in the Martin Mystery extravaganza, is sure to have pushed Lion Comics instalment to the end of next month.  Coming back to the Martin Mystery feature, I should say that, Martin, off late has become one of the promising characters among those which were introduced by Muthu/Lion in the last decade. He himself makes a comeback in Muthu Comics, after nearly 2 years.  Since, this is the first time we are covering a Martin story on Comicology, here is a brief about this comics franchise.


Castelli
Alfredo Castelli

Martin Mystery (or Martin Mystère) is an Italian Comic Series, which was created by writer Alfredo Castelli and artist Giancarlo Alessandrini.  It was first published in the famous Italian Comics Magazine, Sergio Bonelli Editore, in 1982.  Publishers Sergio is a legendary Comics publishing company from Italy, which has some of the famous Comic characters introduced by Lion/Muthu Comics Editor S.Vijayan, including Diabolik, Tex Willer and Nick Raider (christened as Detective Robin in Muthu Comics).

Alessandrini
Giancarlo Alessandrini

Have a look at their Official Website to see their vast list of Comics characters

Castelli originally conceived the concept of a New York based explorer in 1978, named Allan Quatermain (named after another famous fictional adventurer), in the weekly magazine Supergulp.  It was the lead character of the magazine from 1978 to 1981, before it closed shops.  Castelli then suggested this idea to Bonelli, which subsequently was approved, and renamed as Martin Mystery thereafter.  Castelli roped in Alessandrini, with whom he worked earlier in the Italian edition of Cosmopolitan, to design the character and draw the stories. In April of 1982, Martin Mysterty (or Mystère) was born, and Alessandrini went on to produce all the covers and many of the specials.

The original character Allan Quatermain, on which Castelli initially developed the concept, is much famous, as he was the lead character in King Solomon's Mines novel.  Many writers adopted this character to their works, quite famously Alan Moore adopted it in his The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, which was later filmed in 2003, with Sean Connery reprising the role.

MartinComing back to our hero, Martin Mystery is said to be the forerunner in Italian Comics, which revolutionized the usage of modern and complex themes, over the traditional adventures type.  Martin is a man of many professions, ranging from Historian, Archaeologist, Anthropologist, Adventurer, Writer, TV producer and collector of Rare objects.

With this kind of passion, the author has a wide array of stories and plot, in which he could wove Martin around. 

Thus, you get to see Martin adventuring his way into some of the famous legends, like who really built Stonehenge (Muthu #304), the identity of the Santa Clause, the man behind the Iron Mask, and also has met King Arthur.  These wide array of adventures combined with a gripping storyline, is what makes Martin Mystery stand out from the other regular comic characters.  Armed with a Unique Ray Gun, he is partnered in his adventures by his confident Java, who himself is a strange Neanderthal man from a hidden kingdom in Mongolian mountains.


Muthu 310 Comics Time I remember those initial days, when Mr.Vijayan introduced the character with back-to-back titles, in Muthu #292:Amaanushya Alaivarisai (அமானுஷ்ய அலைவரிசை) and Muthu #293: Sarithirathai Saagadippom (சரித்திரத்தை சாகடிப்போம்) in 2003. The backlash he received from the regular fans of Cowboy storylines, prompted him to shelve his ideas for nearly 3 years, before he brought back the series again in 2006, with Muthu #303: Pezhayil Oru Vaal (பேழையில் ஒரு வாள்) and #304: Kaalathirkoru Baalam (காலத்திற்கொரு பாலம்).

He literally pleaded with readers in his Editorials to try and observe the new trend, and switch over from the traditional and most liked Cowboy stories. That showed the confidence he bestowed upon the series, and I am thankful for him to have shown the doors to a completely new genre.

There are over 300 monthly titles of Martin Mystery which is available with the original publisher, so Vijayan has tapped onto a market which he could very well print for eons to come.  But, as "Muthufan" Dhayalan pointed out in his comment, it is very clear that Vijayan has so far printed and advertised only the English Versions released by Dark Horse Comics, in 1998-99, serialized as 1 to 6.  You could see a comparison of that at the end of this post.

For the others who still despise the character, my sincere advise is to read the instalments again, and you will see how advanced the thinking of the creator is, who was able to imagine Sci-Fi fantasies even during the early 80's.  Cartoon Network used to feature an animated series of Martin Mystery, which is loosely based on Martin Mystery Comics, Eventhough Martin is depicted in that as a Teenager.

This Martin Mystery extravaganza, is themed around the real-life mystery surrounding the construction Sagrada Família and its architect Antoni Gaudi.  For the starters, the construction of this Catholic Church was started in 1882 and it is still unfinished.  The story starts with Martin's villa which is being refurnished.  Disturbed by his probing interventions to work, his companion Diana devises a plan to keep him occupied with a false note.  But, little does she know that her false note really turns out to be related to a mystery surrounding Sagrada Familia, which takes Martin to Barcelona to explore and find the facts about the incidents surrounding it. 

What we see next is a whirlwind tour back and forth from the past to present, where the plot takes it root from the pre-Christianity era, and the other religions and beliefs, and even touches the Chemical Explorations, which were termed as Black-Magic then.   The creator's unique knack of basing his storyline and plot with the real history interlaced, is evident throughout the story.  Overall, the readers are in for a big treat, and is surely another Martin Mystery classic.

Two of the glimpses from the storyline, where I could relate myself, are:

1. When Martin goes over rearranging his collections, and Diana jokes around with Java on his interest and passion towards those artefacts.  This is what happens at my home, whenever I try to rearrange my Comics/Graphic Novels collection.  My home people are the one who take the role of Java and Diana in real-life.  But then, I don't blame them; Different People, Different Perceptions.

2. When Diana, in order to get rid of Martin's interventions in renovation work, gets down to create a false document on his computer, which she intends to make it written by Martin in 1987.  She achieves it by changing the system date to 14 years back, which makes Martin to fall in the trap, when he verifies the authenticity of the write-up.  In our real life, Many of times people related to Muthu 310 - Buck Ryan - Norungiya Naanal MarmamComputers, adopt this strategy to make their documents relate to a past date, including myself.  But the punch is at the end of the Martin issue, when he reveals to Diana that he was aware of her supposed work all-along, in typical Martin style.

Editor Vijayan, had mentioned that the Story has to be read twice for understanding the plot, but I traditionally have a practice of reading through panels twice for observing the dialogues and relating it to the art panels, so I was able to understand the plot first-up.  But, even then, I couldn't stop myself from reading the story again, which is one of the mysterious plots I have read in a Comics format for a very long time.

Enjoy the cover scans, Editors Comics-Time, and a preview of the next Muthu Comics edition, which also features a comeback hero Detective Julian.  Also as a bonus, are the XIII Teaser Advertisement, with the back-cover featuring the Garfield like Mr. Meow (Original: Mowser - The Priceless Puss).

Lion Comics's XIII Teaser Mowser (Mr. மியாவ்) (BackCover)
Muthu 310 next2 Muthu 310 c2


Here is the Back-list of all Muthu Comics and Lion Comics which featured the Martin Mystery series. I have also provided the respective original cover scans and details. Courtesy twafc.com, where they are still available for back-order.

Muthu #292 - Sep'03
அமானுஷ்ய அலைவரிசை

Muthu 292 c1
Muthu #293 - Oct '03
சரித்திரத்தை சாகடிப்போம்

Muthu 293 c1
Muthu #303 - Apr '06
பேழையில் ஒரு வாள்

Muthu 303 c1
Muthu #304 - Jul '06
காலத்திற்கொரு பாலம்

Muthu 304 c1_v2
Original: Dark Horse
Martin Mystery # 4 of 6

ndmartin4
Original: Dark Horse
Martin Mystery # 1 of 6

ndmartin1
Original: Dark Horse
Martin Mystery # 2 of 6

ndmartin2
Original: Dark Horse
Martin Mystery # 3 of 6

ndmartin3
Lion #195 - Jolly Special
May '06
- பழி வாங்கும் "ரா"

Lion 195 - RAA
Original: Dark Horse
Martin Mystery # 5 of 6

ndmartin5
Muthu #310 - Oct '08
பொன்னில் ஒரு பிணம்

Muthu 310 c1
Original: Dark Horse
Martin Mystery # 6 of 6

martin6

As you could see Editor Vijayan has maintained an order in the series, except the Muthu's first Martin issue, which was originally #4 of the series.  All of these Lion/Muthu Editions are still available with Prakash Publishers, as listed in their backorder list. So grab them before they run out of stock.


One another hallmark of Prakash Publishers, is that the amount of cover art rework they do on the comics they release, even though they had a freehand in choosing the original ones. The cover-arts are improved with better coloring and even some minute modifications, like  the removal of controversial Swastika symbol in Muthu #303, and lately the addition of the Golden Carcass in Muthu #310 (which almost made me to construe this as the new title out from the English series, when I was first searching for the Original cover scan to accompany this blog post.  Thanks to Muthufan and his prying eyes, for pointing me to the website again).

The other website mentioned by Muthufan (bvzm.org), is the Official website of Martin Mystery's creator, Alfredo Castelli.  but predominantly in his native language.

Muthufan pointed out in his comment that there is only one more English edition pending to be released by Prakash Publishers.  But, as you would have seen from the list that even that has been released as part of Lion #195 Jolly Special, as Pazhi Vaangum Raa, which was then overshadowed by the other prolific stars, so no wonder it was missed out.  Also the popularity of Martin Mystery prompted Editor to ignore him on the cover-arts, thus we were missed out from seeing the reworked cover-art from #5 of the original series.

Now that Editor Vijayan has wiped-off the English Series from his tray, let's see whether he will tap onto the original Italian versions.  The series is promising enough for him to take up that job. But that depends on the plans he has over Lion/Muthu Comics for the future. Let's stay Optimistic, even though the absence of Martin future story advertisements over the years is a worrying factor.

 

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