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

Showing posts with label British Genre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label British Genre. Show all posts

Apr 6, 2009

Mehta Comics #20 – Monster | Nov 1985

After the Celebrity Comics run-down, which enthralled the Comicologists, we are back with our main theme of Comics Review. And what we have for this post is another yesteryear classic review for Tamil Comic fans, as we debut Mehta Comics (மேத்தா காமிக்ஸ்) in the Blogosphere. 

Mehta Comics LogoLong time fans will remember that Mehta Comics was started in 1984, the very same year, when the much famous Lion Comics and yesteryear Rani Comics started their venture in Tamil Comics Industry.  Eventhough, I won’t rate Mehta Comics, with more seasoned performers like Lion & Rani, the fact remains that they had their fair share of quality titles, which captivated Tamil Comic fans for a couple of years when it had its continuous publishing run, totalling up to 30 issues. (They had numerous re-runs, all with reprints of these line-up time in and again, but for obvious reason they don’t count towards the main lot.)

Indrajal Comics Tamil Logo Muthu Comics Logo Until 1984, there were only two recognised players in the Tamil Comics arena.  The first being the venture backed up by the Times of India Group, erstwhile Indrajal Comics, with their regional edition in Tamil language.  The second was none other than our very own and the ever-green Muthu Comics.  History of Indrajal Comics is well known in Blog-O-Sphere. Ref. Comix Planet

On the other hand, Muthu Comics was started by M Soundrapandian, and initially had Mullai Thangarasan as its Editor.  In 1984, S Vijayan, the elder son of Soundrapandian, joined his father, and started working on launching his own dream project, in form of Lion Comics.  Around the same time, Thangarasan left Muthu Comics, leaving Mr.Soundrapandian himself donning the Editors role for Muthu Comics.

1984's Mehta Comics #3 with John Havoc Whatever may be the reason for his departure, it was very clear that Mr.Thangarasan wanted to give a cut-throat competition to his former employers, by coming up with his own title before the impending launch of Vijayan’s Lion Comics.  He found an able ally in form of Ashok Mehta of Mehta Publications, in the same Southern Indian city of Sivakasi. Together they launched Mehta Comics in July 1984, with Mullai Thangarasan returning to don the Editor role.

John Havoc Unlike its competitors Muthu & Lion, Mehta & Thangarasan decided to base their titles on a titular character, in the form of John Havoc; an estranged pilot who lost his license, due to an accident, and wants to win it back at any cost. 

In the process, he is manipulated by the the British Intelligence Agency ‘Q Branch’, who promise to get his license back, in return for his help in their secret missions. 

The missions meant that he had to fight the crime lords in different parts of the world, but he did it with the sole aim of regaining his license.  Much of the stories of John Havoc always ends with him walking away in disgust from the Q Branch authorities, who would find some reason or the other at the end of the story to convey him that they couldn’t restore his pilot license. Havoc even though knowing that they are just buying their time to retain him in their service, would still continue to let himself be played as a pawn, hoping that he attains his goal someday in the future.

Top Secret Library with John Havoc (c) cgi.ebay.co.uk Top Secret Album 1 featuring John Havoc (c) amazon.com Havoc is another story arc from UK’s IPC Magazines Ltd, in their comics brand of Top Secret Picture Library.  Surprisingly, not much is known on the creator details for this wonderful story arc featuring John Havoc’s adventures.  The only references I could find on the web for the same were:.

1. British comics historian, Steve Holland’s Bear Alley comics post, and;

2. Fellow comics enthusiast Sunshines Weblog, from a fan’s account.

As much as like discussing John Havoc’s titles here at Comicology, it’s a long list, as other than Mehta Comics, he is said to have been featured in Muthu Comics as John Silver. I do have them in my collection, so can cross-reference it, once I get the reference to the original series, for a exclusive John Havoc post at Comicology.


But today’s post more importantly discusses about another Comic series, which was featured in limited issues in Mehta Comics, one of which was in in November 1985, priced at INR 2.  It was Mehta’s #20 Issue, by which they had changed their Comics title as Ashok Comics (they eventually changed to Mehta again). The first on the list, which is said to have covered the initial episodes of this series, is not in my collection, so I will add it later with this post, when I grab the same. (Thanks to Chezhi, for the reminder).

Mehta 20 Cover featuring MonsterThe Mehta #20 issue, was titled Iratha Bootham (இரத்த பூதம்), and it spoke about the life and troubles of a ill-fated living being, named Terry, who is cursed in this world to live with a defaced figure, and as a semi-minded powerhouse, much in the lines of the character made famous by Marvel’s Hulk persona.  The only difference being that while Hulk is an alter-ego, Terry was born with the god-cursed persona, to live a life of his own.

Kenny-Terry IntroThe disfigured and frightening physique, leads him to live a life away from the common men, lurking in the shadows and abandoned sites. But there was one person who loved him the most, his nephew and 12 year old Kenny. 

Kenny finds one day that Uncle Terry was kept locked up all his life, in the secluded place at their home.  He had just now killed Kenny’s father, who had been torturing him all along. But, despite these circumstances, Kenny understands that Terry has done them only in the act of defending himself, and also understands that he still is a small child at his mind and heart.  So, he decides to escape along with Terry, now his only living relation, to fly away from the crime scene.

Police start their Search for TerryThis Mehta Comics Monster issue starts with this scenario, where Kenny and his Uncle Terry flee from their home, in order to avoid a police patrol, who have come to know of the deaths caused by Terry, albeit unintentionally.

Terry's Intro SceneReaders get to witness the terrifying face of Terry, during this scene, and also there is a hint of his innocence, where he is shown to be unaware of the words "Dogs", even.  Highlighting the fact that the secluded life of his has made him unaware of any external lifestyle.

During their stay, through a newspaper, Kenny becomes aware of a Scotland based doctor who is said to have cured the over-tempered people from their violent ways. Kenny decides to make the journey to cure his beloved uncle.

Terry controlled by Kenny Terrys Incredible Power on Show Kenny and Terry escape the town by hiding in a load truck, and manage to get away from the following police patrol.

But, they are attacked by some goons, who try take advantage of them for a ransom, as their faces are now more known through a Police Vigilants on Run advertisement being continuously flashed on State Television Channels.

During their escapade, readers get to see the Incredible power of Terry, as at one stage he even manages to roll a police wagon over the mountain’s cliff, as they try to stop them from their search of a new life.

Kenny despite being wary of these violent activities of Terry, understands that he couldn’t do anything less, as the aggression was always started from the other end, and Terry just responds to shield them away from harms ways. He is determined to lead his Uncle to the Scotland based doctor, for a possible cure to his running rage.

Closing  ChapterPolice arrives at the SceneAll through these scenes we are able to witness the love shared between these unlikely duo, and Kenny somehow controls the anger and tempered Terry, at times.

In return Terry finds his lovable friend Kenny, as his only trusted ally, and silently follows on his quest to mend the ways of his beloved Uncle. 

This one shot title spanning 64 pages, finally ends with the police officials arriving at the scene, and wondering how many more casualties would this fearsome creature lay on their paths before they get him under long-hands of law.

Readers are left to wonder, what happens next, as the final scene closes.

Terry Coming Back ? Even though, in the end page Mehta Comics had promised that there will be more stories on escapade of Uncle Terry and Kenny.  They were never released, as far as my memory serves, and the abrupt ending of the story might have fused this title as a not so impressive one, for the first-time readers back then, which includes myself.

But recently I came to know about the original of this series, and after reading through it, I understood how good the whole storyline was which was shown in poor light by this venture of Mehta Comics. A clear lesson that, you shouldn’t zero in on the series, without having a dedicated mind to continue it for long. 

Eventhough, the translation was well within standards, an area for which Thangarasan was known for during his stint with Muthu Comics, the story was mishandled starting with the very title of the issue (Blood Demon, if translated in its entirety).

By which they had put a wrong image over the character of Uncle Terry, which was to have been shown with a proper limelight. The Coupled with the chasing scenes, and gore action, many would construe to think him as what the title suggested.

Well, one of the good thing out of the whole scenario, was that we were exposed to a wonderful series, the Original of which is now available for the aspiring readers. And it is certain to put our thinking's and presumptions to a back-burner, when we meet a physically deprived person next in our life.


The Original for this Mehta Comics title was a Weekly series called Monster which debuted in the British Horror Comics Monster LogoScream! in its first edition, released on March 24, 1984.  Much like the Thirteenth Floor series reviewed at Comicology, this was also a weekly series which ran for 15 episodes in Scream.  The story was abruptly ended, with the closure of Scream magazine on 30 June 1984, which was mainly due to a strike at the parent company IPC Media (International Publishing Company).

Scream was then merged with Eagle.  Later, Monster along with Thirteenth Floor became the only series from Scream, which began their weekly run in Eagle magazine.  Monster was continuously featured then on weekly episode which spanned more than a couple of years.

The 1st episode of the series was originally credited to Alan Moore (the man behind the recent “Supposed-to-be” blockbuster movie Watchmen, as it was adopted from his graphic novel by the same name), with an artist named Heintl.  But from the very second episode the credits page started featuring Rick Clark as the scripter.  Rick Clark is actually a pseudonym of John Wagner, who is more known to the comics world as the creator of Judge Dredd in 2000 AD Comic series.


John Wagner (c) comicvine.com John Wagner was born in Pennsylvania, United States in 1949, but he was moved to Scotland when his family shifted location.  He started his publishing career when he joined DC Thompson as a Sub-Editor in 1960’s, and met his eventual long time friend Pat Mills in there.  In 1971, they both left DC Thompson, and started doing freelance jobs in UK.  During this freelance period, they also worked on a a handful of projects for IPC Media.  Monster was one such series which Wagner went on to script during its entire run. 

During his tenure with IPC, he is often credited along with Mills for their successful Battle Picture Weekly’s launch. Tamil Comics fan will remember that many of the wartime stories featured in Rani Comics and Lion Comics, during those yearly years all came from this IPC magazine.  Ironically, Battle Picture was a direct competitor to Warlod Magazine, which was from the stable of Wagner & Mill’s former employer DC Thompson.

Judge DreddMills, who is often credited as the Godfather of British Comics, then gave Wagner a chance to script stories for his new  comics magazine 2000 AD started for IPC Media in 1977. Wagner went on to create Judge Dredd, his more popular creation till date, which also remains the titular character for the entire 2000 AD Comic series.

In 1980s, Wagner was one of the members who were famously touted as the British Invasion of American Comics, which was often dated to Alan Moore’s work on Swamp Thing & Watchmen.  The so called Invasion, saw a number of writers from the 2000 AD Series, working for the US comics giant DC, and later with Marvel.

In 1997, Wagner wrote his first graphic novel, A History of Violence, which many critics consider as a good work even though it was a commercial failure.  I recently acquired this title, and found it impressive enough for an exclusive review at Comicology, very shortly.

Wagner till date remains a prolific writer for 2000 AD Series, still working on majority of Judge Dredd series every year.  He is said to be interested in retiring sooner, if we finds a suitable replacement to pen Dredd’s future series.


There is not much known about the Artists for the Monster series, which was Heintl for the 1st episode, but later was handled by Redonodo for its entire run.  In all possibilities this could have been the pseudonyms of artists, much like how different creators worked during the Scream and Eagles Horror series run, to give their pseudonyms an Imaginary feeling.

There was a significant difference between the artworks of Heintl and Redondo, as the later’s work brought the seriousness of the comic series in display.  Have a look yourself and take the judgement. (Pics Courtesy: BackfromDepths)

Monster v1 01-1 Monster v1 01-2 Monster v1 02-1 Monster v1 02-2

Overall it’s an issue, which certainly deserves its place in your collection, if you are a Tamil Comics fan, with a different taste.  Looking at the relative recent past this issue was released, I hope everyone do have this already in your cherished possession.  The English Originals can be found on BackfromDepths weblog.  So enjoy reading, while the content lasts over there, and get to know of another golden series from the Golden age of British Comics Genre.


Quasimodo (c) unrealitymag.com Origins of Uncle Terry: Staying on with the Uncle Terry or the Monster character, I was under the impression that the more famous Frankenstein character might have been the inspiration of this characterization too. But fellow Comicologist ShankarV shared an interesting fact that he shared much in common with the Quasimodo, a hunch-back character from the French novel Notre-Dame de Paris. After reading through the archives, it looks this character was the real inspiration for this comic series itself. Have a look at the image from a Movie, which was made on the Novel, and judge yourself.

But that doesn’t hide the fact that Quasimodo itself could have been inspired by the Frankenstein character. As the novel featuring Frankenstein was released in 1818, while Quasimodo made his appearance in Notre-Dame novel in 1830.

Thanks to Shankar, and his wide knowledge on every media. Without whom I wouldn’t have even known about the existence of this classic work.

And that brings us to the close of to our first ever Mehta Comics review at Comicology.  Hopefully, you would have found it useful and fun reading, just like I felt while working on it.  If so, then why not leave your comments to let others know, for which you could use the Comment section below.

Wish you all a Happy Week ahead.  Have Fun & nJoY, while I will be back with another post shortly (to go with April Fool’s Day concept, which should have taken place in this post, but needed a little more preparation). Adios Amigos !

Mar 3, 2009

Siruvar Malar – Survival #1-11 | 1988

Number50 When I started Comicology few years back, I wondered would I be able to keep up the tempo and the same energy level to continue it for long?  Well, I believe that question is now partly answered, as I am proud to announce that this our 50th Comic post at Comicology.  The 25th Comic Post at Comicology was only achieved in September last year.  So, with all your permissions, let me pat myself for being more active up recently.   

Siruvar Malar It is certainly a time to cherish, and what better way than posting about a comic series announced at the start of the year 2009, featured in one of the beloved Tamil Children’s magazine in South India, Siruvar Malar (சிறுவர் மலர்).

We have spoken enough about Siruvar Malar, in the post here.  So, let’s move onto the longest comic series ever published in that magazine, named as Uyirai Thedi (உயிரை தேடி), which literally means In Search of a Life.  The Series captivated children's and teenagers for over a year.  Me being one of them, can talk you through a first-person account.

Eagle Logo The Series was originally featured in erstwhile UK Young Boy’s magazine, Eagle, which had a publishing run from 1950 to 1994. Eagle is best known as the comic magazine which debuted Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future, comic series.  In 1980s, immediately after the completion of  “The Thirteenth Floor(about which we spoke in detail during our last Thigil Comics review at Comicology) the Eagle started the Survival Comic Series, which spoke about a horrible future, where the entire population on earth is wiped out by a mutating Virus.

Survival (c) backfromdepth.co.uk You would wonder that the series has its similarities with the George Romero’s Living Dead film series, but there is a difference in Survival.  The Killing Virus as portrayed in Survival, had only killed all the adults in the world.

The plague had spread throughout the Earth, the only survivors were a handful of children (who have a rare blood group) and a few adults who had mutated into fearsome creatures. The strip followed one boy, named Pinkie, as he gradually contacted more of the surviving children.

Typical, to the golden age of British Comics, the Survival also was serialized as 4 or 3 pages per episode, where the end panels usually puts the characters in seemingly dangerous situation, and the following episode’s opening panels gets them out of it.  This makes the readers glued to the comic series as they follow episode after episode.

Survivors TV Series (c) survivorstvseries.com The series is said to have been originally inspired by the then famous British TV Series, Survivors, which aired during 1975.  Recently, the Survivors series has been re-booted on BBC, which has completed Season 1.  As expected, words are that, the series is no way compared to its original version. 

If you look closely at the Logo of the TV Series, then you can detect that the same was also used in 28 Days Later, and 28 Weeks Later post-apocalyptic science fiction UK films, where the former was directed by, recent Academy Award winner for Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle.  I wonder, why there was never a mention about the similarity, or who copied whom. Even though the concept of deadly virus in both medium were totally different.  I especially liked those two movies, as they had a complete different plot than the Living Dead Series by Romero (which I should admit I was a never a fan of).

I am LegendThere was also another Hollywood Movie named I am Legend, in 2007, starring Will Smith, which was also about a Virus ravaged future, but had close resemblance to the concept of the Survival Comic series, in terms of rare blood type as a reason for survival. 

The Movie is actually an American take on the 28 Days Later, but it did have its fair share of Thrill.  Especially the scene where Smith is cornered by his own tricks, and thrilling minutes when the Zombies approach him in the shades of darkness.  Thanks to fellow Comiker ShankarV, for reminding me of the movie.

Kids Rule OK (c) sevenpennynightmare.co.uk Coming back to our topic, the Survival Comics series had a same plot like another comics series, titled Kids Rule O.K.,featured in Action Comics magazine during 1976.   The series was Written by Jack Adrian, with Art by Mike White.  It was different from the Survivor series, in the way that it was depicted as Children's Vs the surviving Adults, with some gore in its panels.

But, the continual and senseless violence depicted in the comic series eventually led to parent comics magazine Action being banned in Britain. Luckily, Survival series didn’t meet that fate, as it involved far more appealing plot than the former one.


Survival comic series was written by D. Horton and wonderfully illustrated by Jose Ortiz; the same artist who did the works on the previous episode The Thirteenth Floor.  Little is known about the writer, but about the artist, we will see more on our next pending post on The Thirteenth Floor.

Uyirai Thedi Siruvar Malar, started featuring the Survivors comic series, translated into Tamil as Uyirai Thedi (உயிரை தேடி), as a weekly feature starting from 29-Jan-88.

The first episode was of 4 pages, while the rest were a standard 3 pages per episode.  The Original series in Eagle was full Black & White. But, Siruvar Malar back then was following a colour scheme of alternative colour pages in its weekly.  So, we witnessed some breathtaking coloured pages once in a while, during Survival’s run in Siruvar Malar.

Uyirai Thedi - Survival Colored Uyirai Thedi - Survival B-W Uyirai Thedi - Survival Bi-Colored

Since the Survival Series was featured over an year, with 61 episodes in Siruvar Malar, I am planning to review them over a series of posts at Comicology.  So, for the first part, let’s discuss the storyline as depicted in the first 11 episodes of the series.


The scene opens up with images of a dying world, with streets and hospitals in total chaos, ravaged by a killer virus.  Scientists who try to find a cure, are also impacted by the deadly virus, virtually rendering the whole humanity, helpless.  People die in bunches, all the places, and we reach the epicentre of the storyline, in a city named Barancoat, in Britain.

Pinkie, a survivor, walks across the desolate streets, filled with the remains of mutated bodies by the killer virus.  Apparently, he survived the virus because it had no impact on children's with a rare blood group.  But, Pinkie finds no other survivors in his locality, and decides to pursue his search by walking through and beyond the locality. 

In his journey he initially witnesses a Prison, whose gates were opened up so the in-mates could flee for their life.  But it had little impact as mutated bodies laid in and around the desolate place. Pinkie is then attacked by a mutated adult, but before it does any damage, the virus puts it out of its misery.

On further through, he is attacked by a Tiger which escaped from the erstwhile Zoo of the locality.  But, he is saved by an Elephant, whom Pinkie finds as a good friend to travel along with.

Pinkie then decides to spend the night in an abandoned Airfield, but wakes up in the middle of the night, with the humming sound of flying aeroplane.  But, his joy of finding a survivor, at last, fails again.

The kid who was driving the aeroplane crash lands it, and dies on the hands of Pinkie.  Pinkie repents on his fate, and wonders would he ever see another living human being.

What follows him then is the attack by blood-thirsty dogs, rats, and even a man like Gorilla.  He finally manages to find a Car which he plans to drive out of the city, little does he know that there is an unwanted passenger as a fellow rider in it, as Chapter 11 ends.  Does he manages to get away, or does he find any survivors? or then detailed in the next episodes.

Now here is a surprise for you, as in celebration of 50th post, I planned to upload the complete Survival series at Comicology.  Here are the first 11 episodes as discussed in our review.

The Original publication is no more in business, and there are some sites like backfromdepths which also has few episodes of XIII & Survival at their web space.   So, I believe as a matter of promotion, this might be allowed.  Anyways, this is a One-Time-Only too for Comicology.  So, enjoy the episodes, for which I eagerly awaited every Friday, and hopefully there are more with the same feeling. We will continue further episodes in our next Survival comic post at Comicology.  So, Stay Tuned.

I hope you enjoyed reading this post, and also the first 11 episodes of Survival aka., Uyirai Thedi. If so, please leave your comments to mark your presence. I will meet you all again with another comics review over here at Comicology.  Adios Amigos !!

Feb 22, 2009

Muthu Comics #311 – Buck Ryan | The Saint | Feb '09

Muthu #311 – Buck Ryan
Muthu 311 Buck Ryan Cover 
120 Pgs | INR 10 | B6 | B/W Laminated/Paperback

The entire world might have celebrated the New year 2009 in January, but for Tamil Comic fans, it had to happen only in the mid of February.  The reason, our beloved Prakash Publishers (PP), have launched their first comics edition of 2009, in the form of Muthu #311. 

Muthu #310, starring Martin Mystery, was released way back in Oct’08, and the last release from publishers, Lion #205, was in Nov’08.  So, it is the longest break once again for Tamil Comic fans, which by now I believe everyone would have got accustomed to.

I finally received my Muthu copy on 13/02, after numerous calls to Lion/Muthu Office enquiring about the edition, as some fans had claimed that they received their subscription copy weeks back. 

The reason behind this confusion, as I came to know of was that our publishers had received a sample set (of 20 copies) from their binders, and in “good spirit” they decided to courier them to select people first-up.

Obviously, I was not fortunate enough (or may be not in the elite club) to receive this initial dispatch, and had to wait a couple of weeks for receiving the same.

Muthu 311 Comics Time But it is definite, that our publishers would be refraining in future to send this batch release, as they would have surely got bugged by the enthusiastic readers’ repeated calls and queries on the availability of this comics issue :).

It’s a double bonanza, as it contains two classic stories from the 1960’s, with

  • Buck Ryan (christened in Tamil Comics as Detective Julian) starring Norungiya Naanal Marmam (நொறுங்கிய நாணல் மர்மம்); and
  • James Bond fame Roger moore starrer, Paavamai Oru Puli (பாவமாய் ஒரு புலி).

Here is the Editor’s own Comics-Time, where he puts-over his take on these classical stories.

Editor also silently describes the big debate which we had over the Martin Mystery stories continuity, with a hint that we may never see him again in Muthu.  We had earlier discussed in our last Muthu Comics review, about Editor Vijayan exhausting all the English editions of Martin Mystery so far in our comics.  So the great debate is answered, and I for one will be disappointed, as I felt Martin stories as a star attraction for Muthu Comics, which added all the more oomph factor for the otherwise most classic reprints, for which Muthu Comics has been now renowned for.

By now, everyone would have got their copies of Muthu 311, so let’s look at the storylines in detail for this Muthu extravaganza, on the way detailing the creators behind these series.


Bucky Ryan Story

Buck Ryan aka Detective Julian, needs no introductions for Tamil comic fans, as he has made a couple of appearances in Muthu Comics earlier.

In this issue Ryan explores mysteries surrounding a series of kidnapping cases targeting the elite and the rich. The act is done so swiftly that some of the kidnappings even happen when the police force are right at the crime scene.  Readers are left to wonder and ponder how this hideous crimes are committed without any traces.

But typical to Ryan’s style, he starts probing by piecing together the little evidences he gets around the crime scenes (for e.g., exploring a broken thistle) and figuring them out with other incidents happening around the city. 

Ryan exploringIt should be noted that, Ryan gets a massive assist from unlikely sources, like people coming into complain about their problems, which makes his job even more easy, as he finally nabs the mysterious mob boss at his own layer. (Actually, the suspense of who the mob boss was long revealed by an advertisement featured in Last Muthu Comics.  Maybe, Editor didn’t think of it back-then).

Ryan gets help from Unlikely sources

Censorship by our Artists

In between we get to see some sweet moments, like our local artists handwork on enforcing the censorship, without compromising the panels (which has become a de-facto standard for our Lion-Muthu editions), Julia’s Indian Saree Act (proud to see a reference to Indian females, even though Julia’s feeling that the cloth is too small for a Saree, might have been proven wrong, if the story was written at the present modern era pioneered by Indian actresses on silver screen).

Jula's Indian ActRyan packs a surprise of his own by playing as a dead body to enter the mob’s secret place.  I should say I was surprised with this turning point, credits goes to artist-writer duo.

By the way, did anyone notice a probable reason why our editor decided to name Buck Ryan as Detective Julian? I believe he might have wanted it to rhyme closely with his assistant named Jula.

Julians Dead ActAlso, the reasons may be that he would have wanted to avoid naming him with his original name, as Buck Ryan was already introduced by erstwhile Rani Comics to Tamil comics fans, as Raayan (ராயன்), closely rhyming with his real name. 

But, long time Tamil Comic fans would have noticed that the Artwork is pretty different between these instalments of Buck Ryan stories, which has valid reasons, for which we will explore more on this classic comics hero’s origins.


Buck Ryan (c) ebay.com Buck Ryan was original created as a fictional young private investigator, to be featured as a comic strip for UK’s Daily Mirror Newspaper.  The creator of the series was writer Don Freeman and artist Jack Monk.

Don Freeman (real name, John Henry Gordon Freeman) (1903-1972), was the youngest of three children's to his parents, all of whom surprisingly had an inept interest towards writing stories right from their childhood.   Freeman was the first among them to get his creations published for other audience, by joining Daily Mirror, at the early age of 15, initially as an Office-boy.  But he was known to have contributed to the children's page of the newspaper as early as 1922. 

Don Freeman (c) eagle-timesHe became assistant to Bertram. J. Lamb, who as "Uncle Dick" was the editor of the Mirror’s children’s pages, and he provided story lines to many of the titular characters featured in these pages. Shortly before, Lamb’s death in 1938, he took over as "Uncle Dick”, and continued to use the pseudonym for many of his creations, even though he also started attaching his name to few of them here and there.  Freeman had an unique knack of writing scripts, which unlike other writers, were not just limited to series of text.  In fact, his technique heavily relied on “rough” out the story, sketching it in “pencil” with his visualizations.  This proved a great help to artists, who were able to grasp his works to their style, with his visual plots.

Jack Monk (b.1901) on the other hand started his career as an artist initially with UK’s Daily Express, creating a couple of comic strips for them.  He eventually joined Daily Mirror, where he forged a long successful partnership with Don Freeman.  Both of them initially worked together in adapting Edgar Wallace’s Terror Keep cult-classic, into comic-strip form.  Eventhough, highly appreciated, the series couldn’t continue long, as it ended up with copyright disagreements.  This is when the creators duo, planned to create a comic-strip series of their own, and the result was Buck Ryan, a brown-curly haired, young British investigator fighting crimes, and bringing the wrongs to justice.

The Daily Mirror The series ran in Daily Mirror from March 22, 1937 to July 1962, a tremendous run of 25 long years.  Now that highlights why Ryan is shown with different art-styles, as there is a strong possibility that Monk wouldn’t have been the artist for all those lengthy years when the script ran.  It could also be from the fact that 25 glorious years would have given Monk a lengthy hand to try and improve on his artwork over.  But it should be noted that Buck Ryan was indeed a British classic comic strip, to be rated among the great fictional comic detectives of his time.

buckryan09 (c) bookpalace.co.ukFreeman continued to script more comic series like Jane, Belinda Blue Eyes (both of which are often rated for adults for explicit content), and Garth (whom Indrajal & Rani Comics are more familiar with).  Monk also moved on to Fleetway and D.C.Thomson, in the process creating more comic series like ‘Commander Cockle’, ‘Inspector Jelicoe’, etc.

By far, Buck Ryan continues to add glory to these two great creators from British Golden Age of Comics.  No wonder our Editor S.Vijayan finds a place for this comic series time and again in his line-up.

This particular story of Muthu Comics, was collected in a Comic Book format in Australia, by a Comics titled “World Famous Comics”.  Here is a cover of that Original, which was #9 in that series.


The recent 118 and odd page of Muthu & Lion Comics standard, prompts that Buck Ryan’s typical 60 to 70 page adventures aren’t enough to fill up the pages.  So, we have an un-announced surprise appearance in form of James Bond fame Roger Moore, in another adventure of his.

charteris (c) rossall.co.uk Charteris-LastHero (c) mysteryfile.comWe had earlier described the origins related to The Saint series, created by Leslie Charteris, which was christened as Roger Moore, by Mr.Vijayan in Muthu Comics.  For the new-comers, here is a link where I have detailed the complete history of Saint Series in Comics form, while we reviewed Muthu #307, which also featured Saint as Roger Moore, in one of its stories. 

Have a read, before you proceed further with this new instalment of Saint in Muthu Comics, as it contains a write-up about why our Editor decided to name him as Roger Moore.

Saint Story

Paavamaai Oru Puli (பாவமாய் ஒரு புலி, another wonderful title by our Editor), which is the 2nd story of Muthu #311, details another Saint adventure, where he tries to decode a mysterious death of his rich friend Laila. 

During a party hosted at her palace, Laila decides to entertain her guests by playing as a Ring Master, along with her ageing Tiger pet, a sombre animal to say least. 

But, in a sudden rage, the pet tiger kills her, during the show.  Saint’s later probe reveals that the unexpected rage was actually caused by a chemically filled air-gun shot, brewing the suspicion surrounding her death.

The immediate heirs as per Laila’s will, are interrogated and the blame-game, and twists (for which Saint series are known for), unfolds in the following pages. 

Overall, it’s another classic suspense thriller, which will make every Muthu Comics fan proud.

Laila is attacked by her PetThere were some sweet moments in-between, like:

- Saint confronts the seemingly arrogant cousin of Laila, by giving her a witty reply, for her derogatory talk.

- Laila’s statement during her death-bed, to not kill her pet, as she believes it was forced to that rage, highlighting her good nature.

- Saint swiftly finds the evidence of Air-Gun by exploring the Armoury cum Firing Range located at the palace, all the while talking to a murder suspect.

Saint's Witty ResponseThese speaks volume on the effort of writer-artist duo, who were able to capture the essence and style of the hit Saint TV Series, upon which the comics were later inspired in the second innings.

Saint is supposed to be a cunning Thief as per his original characterization. But, since Roger Moore played his role, it seems they decided to wipe of that origin and present him in equals to a private investigator.  That’s how all his later adventures are portrayed as.

Saint explores Armoury

But, did anyone notice that the Roger Moore aka Saint series featured in the different titles of Prakash Publishers namely Muthu Comics, Lion Comics, and Thigil Comics, all had different styles of drawing.  Even the last Muthu series where Saint was featured, had a different art-style, about which I had expressed my reservations

But, surprisingly this Muthu Comics Saint title’s artwork is quite standardized, but it still doesn’t look like one drawn by Santiago Martín Salvador, who was the main artist of Saint Series in Sweden (and has previous experience of working on James Bond Comics itself, which explains his James Bond style artwork for Saint series too). 

Obviously, there could have been a host of artists for the series, seeing its long run during its second innings.  Hopefully, Editor would pick only from these pool of work, where the artwork is creditable, while selecting future Saint titles for Muthu Comics.


Muthu 311 c2 MuthuComics144VinvelikKollaiyar Overall, Muthu’s current issue is a Classic Collector’s item to behold, for all Tamil Comic fans.  And Editor does leave us with a block-buster announcement that the forthcoming Comics Classics will feature the original size of Steel Claws Superhero act published decades back. 

As promising it may look like, I would have hoped him to have chosen a classic Steel Claw story, rather than a cheap imitation of Superhero genre by Steel Claw, which marked the demise of this wonderful British Comic-Strip. 

But, for the sheer reason that Editor is trying to re-introduce the A4 Size in Comics Classics (he tried it once last time for another Steel Claw adventure, but had cited poor sales as a reason for not continuing the same), let’s welcome the issue.  Here is the cover of the original Muthu edition of the same title. If you can read Tamil, then don’t miss out from checking out Comics Doctor’s full-blown preview for the Steel Claw issue, here.

Muthu #312 PreviewTalking about Comics Classics, the back-cover highlights the last Comics Classics edition published in October last year, Comics Classics #23.  Mr. Vijayan is known for pre-producing the covers for many future issues, even before the issue is translated or in-production.  So that may be the reason for this late advertisement.

As per the norm, we get to see the forthcoming Muthu Comics advertisement, which features one of my favourite childhood classics magician Mandrake (Lee Falk’s another master-works).  Fans of erstwhile Indrajal Comics would remember that this story was featured in there issues back then, including Tamil.  But it’s one classic you would want to read again.

Also, Editor lines up Reporter Johny (Johny Hazard) and Wing Commander George’s series as the probable issues following Mandrake adventure.  Let’s see how long does it take for us to see those issues in the coming months.

1984_6

The last time we discussed Prakash Publishers Lion Comics edition, we had the man himself making his presence felt at Comicology.  Would that happen again, or was that just a flash in the pan?  Let’s wait and see.

Also, did anyone notice that there are no advertisements about the XIII Jumbo Special with this month Muthu instalment.  That clearly foretells that the release of the special issue will be prolonged further, possibly because Editor had complained about not achieving the targeted advance booking mark yet, on his previous issues.  May be it is indicative enough for all those who haven’t booked their copy to do so.

Before we close the review, here is the original cover which was the inspiration of Muthu Comics #311 Cover. This time around it is from the Semic’s James Bond Series released in 1984. More about it here.

I will meet you all again with another comics review over here at Comicology.  Adios Amigos !!

 

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