Lion Comics #202 - Lucky Luke | Jan '08

Prakash Publishers | Price: INR 10 | Pages: 68 | Color | Size: B6 | Tamil | Laminated/HardCover

Merke Oru Maamannar (மேற்கே ஒரு மாமன்னர்)

Lion Comics, another flagship brand of Prakash Publishers, makes it return with Issue #202 this month.  Featuring our favorite cowboy Lucky Luke in "Merke Oru Maamannar" (மேற்கே ஒரு மாமன்னர்), Multi-color saga promises to be another classic Lucky Luke stories, where Lucky tries to save an American city from a puppet millionaire, calling himself as the King of USA. A hilarious tale for which the Man who shoots faster than his own Shadow, is known for. Release of Lion Comics and Comics Classics from Prakash Publishers at the same month, shows a promising start to the new year for the legendary publishing house from South India. The paper quality though is a worrying factor.  I don't remember a Lucky Luke issue being printed in a sub-standard paper for a long time.  That has discredited the usually stunning artwork in color.  Seems, editor has used the same paper which is used for printing the black and white stories.

After witnessing the high quality Lucky Luke series released by Tara Press recently, this brings us back to the sub-standard at which Tamil Comics Industry still lingers at.  Hope it changes for better.

The Hotline of this edition touches upon the modern day threat to general media, the piracy. Editor Vijayan, has expressed his concerns over a reader who has found a way to make some big money by scanning and illegally selling our vintage Lion-Muthu issues.  Editor ends his hotline by requesting the other readers not to support these piracy, and reveals his plans to launch a legal action against the mischief-maker.

Piracy has been a hotly debated topic up recently, with publishers all over the world concerned about the industry as a whole affected by what's called as digital preservation and Free Internet, by those who are involved with scanning and distributing Comics through Internet.

But, rather than pin-pointing who is wrong, what matters is to find why do these problems arise.  For instance, what has caused this habit to spread over to the unfamiliar territory of Tamil Comics? where Comics reading habit is cherished and the select few who run business are considered to be scarce.

To that extent, Prakash Publishers and Mr. Vijayan have themselves to blame for this predicament.  Eventhough, time and again Editor reiterates that regional comics business is not that profitable one to continue uninterrupted, but the fact remains that it isn't a loss making business either.

By what I hear from the reliable sources, every comics issue printed by Prakash Publishers are made in a sizeable number, much bigger than the 10k which editor claims. Then what makes him not produce titles more regularly, when there is a clear fan-following for their comics and a wide spread interest towards seeing the new releases from the publication?

The fact remains, that much of it is due to the Editors interest towards his other businesses, like Printing and publishing newsprint's and textbooks, coupled with him being involved in importing and selling the Print machines in South India.  Obviously, the bucks made there are far superior and instant, then what's made of Comics publishing.  So Editor only releases a comic when he finds time to lighten up his old hobby, and the readers are left with uncertainty over the period releases.  This is what has resulted in the situation Prakash Publishers find themselves in.

Let's hope the moment of reality would make Mr. Vijayan to think of being more regular, thus avoiding the die-hard fans from diverting into other modes to keep alive their passion.

To bring us back to the current happenings, as per the norm, we get to see a preview of upcoming 3 part Tex Willer Saga, which promises to be a sure hit.  Seeing the color advertisement, I wonder how it would be to see Tex Willer in full color. It may never happen, but no harm in living in a fantasy world :). 

The next big special featuring XIII is the other advertisement taking its share in the back cover.

As always would be eager to see your views about this post, and the Lion Comics edition we have received in it, through the comment section below. Adios Amigos!!

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Tara Press - Lucky Luke | 5 Albums | 2007

Guess what, we have a new player in the Graphic Novel/Comics Biz in India.  Tara Press, a trade imprint of
India Research Press have ventured on bringing Franco-Belgian comics treasure to Indian Comic Fans.  And what a better way to start the proceedings, by introducing our favourite Lucky Luke in English to India. 

Their copyright content states they now have the exclusive English language rights for Indian sub-continent.  Well, there are 7 titles to start of with in this series, but as a first instalment only 5 of them are released. Each one of them priced at INR 195/- each, mirroring the Euro Books pricing strategy.

Lucky Luke is a masterpiece Cowboy story franchise created by Maurice De Bevere (1923-2001), under the pen-name Morris, in 1946 for then comics magazine Spirou,  from the legendary publishers, Dupius.  Morris served as creator-artist throughout the initial run of Lucky Luke, where he is pictured as a solitary cowboy travelling across Wild West, and helping the needy and poor.  He is assisted in his adventures by his faithful companion, Jolly Jumper, the Horse.  The first adventure, Arizona 1880 was released on Dec 7, 1946.

Morris was considered as a central artist of Spirou magazine, and often regarded among the elite club known as, Gang of 4, which comprises of other heavyweights like Jije, Franquin (Spirou and Fantasio fame), and Will. 

Together they laid the foundation for what is came to be known as Marcilleni School, which has been discussed in detail on the Spirou and Fantasio series review at Comicology.

The Lucky Luke series, was yet to touch the mainstream, when Morris decided to travel to America, in order to know more about the Wild West, and their arts.  He eventually met, Rene Goscinny (1926-1997), who was an unknown French comic writer and artist that time.  But he eventually, went on to form a formidable partnership with Morris, in the process creating the golden period of Lucky Luke adventures.  Together they were known as Morris & Goscinny, in the 31 adventures they worked in tandem.

The dynamic duo’s run with Lucky Luke came to an end in the late sixties, when Morris left Spirou, and joined Goscinny in his new magazine, Pilote.  But, Goscinny went on to write all the Lucky Luke stories from 1955 to his eventual death in 1977, moving him into stardom, along with his other legendary work on Asterix.

The success of Lucky Luke stories owes much to its plot revolving around the historical events and people, much like the successful Asterix & Obelix franchise.  And we get to see the same with Tara Press's imprints.

Here is a Preview of what's in store for you in these titles:

Dashing White Cowboy takes us to a trail of dacoit mystery linked up to a Theatre crew, and the highlight of the story turns up when Lucky Luke makes his nervous stage debut, as the Dashing White Cowboy himself.

Tenderfoot, takes a hit of the foreigners traverse in the wild-west on a lighter note coupled with humour all along.  The highlight of the story is when the Butler trying in vain to train the Red Indian to his ways, which ultimately turns the other way around.

Ma Dalton features the the foursome Dalton Brothers joining forces with Ma Dalton.  The climax involving a gun fight duel between Ma Dalton and Lucky Luke (with him admitting that he was afraid for the first time in a One-on-One fight) was the highlight.

Lucky Luke deals with mischievous Jesse James in his solo title.

While, Western Circus brings us fond memories of our childhood days of watching the now rare Circus events.  It takes us through the struggles and troubled times faced by Circus companies, and the highlight is the induction of Red Indians in the bigger troupe at the end.

This Lucky Luke series is neatly bound, translation and print quality are good.  So, Euro Books and Tara Press seem to have entered into an encouraging battle (for comic fans) in introducing the Franco-Belgian Comics Treasure to Indian Comic  Fans.

On further news regarding Tara Press, they have also acquired the rights to Iznogoud series, which is another masterpiece of René Goscinny.  So the coming months promises to be great for all Franco-Belgian Comics Fans.

There might be a curiosity among masses, to know how many more Lucky Luke Titles might be in production.  I received a link from Comic Collectors Forum in Orkut, which lists out the number of English editions Lucky Luke stories released so far.  By that records, 5 are only few of the 16 English titles available so far.

UPDATE (11/08): But as it is evident Tara Press, hasn’t released any further titles after this 5 set pack, It looks highly unlikely that they will ever be back in the graphic novels/comics market again.  Surprise, because I couldn’t notice any of these Tara Press titles on the newsstands or bookstores, citing the reason, that they were all would have been sold-out, thus giving enough interest to publish more.  Seems, they were never in the business for a long run from the start.

Recently, Euro Books have made an announcement on their website stating that they are coming up with 12 titles of Iznogoud and 24 titles of Lucky Luke.  So, I guess Tara Press, may not be able to utilize their previous copyrights, as the Publishing rights are mostly based on the First-Print formulae.  Till they materialize, we have CineBook’s
Lucky Luke set, to keep us enthralled. Good days are ahead us, and no wonder I am eagerly looking forward to them.

UPDATE (03/09): (Covers Comparison with Tamil Comics Versions)

Lucky Luke might be new for Indian Comic fans, but not certainly for Tamil Comics fans, as the legendary Prakash Publishers, have published 4 out of 5 of these titles (except Tenderfoot) already in their line-up. 

As promised earlier, here are the covers, from my humble collection, of those 4 wonderful titles, in the order they were published. 

Obviously, the first among the list is the First-ever issue of erstwhile
Junior Lion, which featured a full-color Lucky Luke adventure for the very first time. No need to mention that it is now considered as a “Holy Grail”, among Tamil Comics Collectors.

Anyone, for the Exclusive Review Posts featuring these wonderful titles at Comicology ? :) Please log your comments, in the section below.

       

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