Euro Books – Iznogoud | 12 Albums | 2009

After the Black & White Classic of Will Eisner’s Dreamer, we are back to the colourful world of comics, with the The Infamous Iznogoud, to do the honours.

It’s the second blockbuster release of the year from Euro Books, who only a couple of months back brought the much famous Lucky Luke back to India, by launching him in an exclusive 24 set release.

This time around they have taken-up the mantle to bring the ever-cunning Iznogoud, in his own 12 title set.

Iznogoud, the Grand Vizier to the Caliph or Sultan of Baghdad, Haroun El Pashid, always aspires to become the Sultan himself, which is attributed to his trademark catchphrase ‘I want to be Caliph, instead of the Caliph’.

René Goscinny & Jean Tabary, the co-creators of Iznogoud, were at their humorous best, where they continuously chalked out witty stories, often placing Iznogoud in precarious situations; where he attempts to dethrone the Sultan, and finds his plans backfiring on himself.

The creators, would only give a consolation for the poor soul, by giving him the company of Wa’at Alahf, his trusted henchman. Wa’at sticks to his master in all of Iznogoud’s misadventures, even though he ends up facing the wrath of his master’s blunders.

The charismatic duo of Goscinny & Tabary, continued to enthral the comics fans across the world, until the former’s death in 1977. Tabary then decided to continue the series with a new direction, where he chose to feature full-fledged stories running an entire album, unlike the short witty stories for which the famous antagonist, Iznogoud, was known for.

We will cut short the intro to the series and the creators here, as we have looked into as much details as required, during our review of Iznogoud’s debut title on Lion Comics. If you missed the post, now is a good time to check back on the same.

Euro Book’s love towards latest albums means that all the 12 titles which they have hand-picked are post Goscinny era, and that’s where the difference lies.

Goscinny, was involved only in two of the albums out of the 12; one in the Returns of Iznogoud, and two where his name is given credit for one of the Nightmare tales, along with Buhler. Otherwise, all the other titles were solely worked by Tabary, donning the dual role of Writer and Artist.

With all due respects to Tabary, we can clearly see that the titles which were worked by him solely, misses out badly on the Goscinny charm. Some of the stories, are too lengthy and often misses out on the central plot work, with the story revolving around various scenes, and situations. Obviously, the short witty stories attraction was totally absent in these new adventures.

 

For a best example, within the current lot, take the Returns of Iznogoud title, where the script is  credited to Goscinny. It has a different plot unlike any other Iznogoud titles. It follows the same short story style of Goscinny, but this time limited to only to two pages each.

Those who followed Iznogoud series for long, would have witnessed one common ending scene with all of them – Iznogoud finding himself in a sorry state, or figure.

But, in every new adventure he will be back to his full-form, devising new plans to outwit the Sultan. Majority of the readers (including me) might have ignored from questioning this logic, with the assumption that it is the most common aspect followed in much of the humour series; where connecting one to another, doesn’t make much sense.

But, Goscinny & Tabary decided to reasons these supposed Returns of Iznogoud, for themselves and for their loyal readers, by bringing in their witty and humorous touch to them.

Each one of these stories were Iznogoud comes back to life, from where he was left in the original story, is a full blown laughter package. Goscinny has left no stone unscathed in bringing this title, a classic cult status. For a sample refer to the first story of the this monumental release, above.

A clear example, what an interesting plot and a creative thinker could add the difference in a classic series. We will talk more about this monumental title, when we select it for our first review from this series.

 

In comparison, the other titles are much below the norms set to the glorious time of Goscinny & Tabary.  One of which is undoubtedly the Nightmare series, which has spanned a total of 4 albums, out of which 3 of have been picked up in the current lot, by Euro Books.

The Nightmare stories mainly follows a one page theme, of ‘If I was’ type, with Iznogoud playing different roles with his trademark punch. To say frankly, none of the stories were impressive enough to even draw out the laughter, and Tabary’s zoomed artwork to adapt to the one page style, didn’t work that well either.

Majority of these stories were written by French writer, Alain Buhler, with one title even crediting Goscinny as the writer, which I believe would have been minimal, mostly related to the original concept.

Just in case, if you felt that the Translation could have been the culprit, then I can vouch that it’s not so. As you might have known by now, that all the titles selected by Euro Books, were never translated into English before.

Even though, Euro Books have never revealed their translating sources, or even given them due credits on their published titles, this time around the translators have done a considerable effort in maintaining the puns and word-magic from their original French source, to the maximum.

Not everyone can become Anthea Bell or Derek Hockridge (the famous translators of Asterix comics, who also worked their magic on the original English translations of Iznogoud series), but Euro Book’s translators for Iznogoud was certainly up to the readers standard.

One more notable change in these titles, is the predominant presence of Tabary in between the stories. Even though, it could be said that Goscinny and Tabary, have often placed themselves in the crowd or between panels, in the Iznogoud series in past, never before was Tabary involved in such a lengthier presence.

Obviously, being the sole owner of the creativity, Tabary would have been lenient on his presence more often. Which to an extent, does add up to the humour part, as witnessed in the panels next.

I wonder does Tabary’s wife still looks so young, or is it one of Tabary’s imaginary character :) 

Euro Books Iznogoud Series’ Originals: Here is the list of titles published by Euro Books in their 12 issue set, with their corresponding original reference.

In their selection from the original series, they have gone in a sequence, only missing out the latest one, Issue #28, which was worked for the first-time by Tabary’s kids. Given the relativity of the release (#28 was released in 2008), it is understood.

Also as noted above, all these titles are being translated from French into English for the first-time. Thanks to Euro Books.

With CineBook, currently publishing the Goscinny-Tabary genre of Iznogoud series, at 2 titles a year rate, the day won’t be far when we would have all 28 titles of Iznogoud series, in English.

#	Euro Books Title	Original Album (French)	Creator(s)	Published Year
1.	Iznogoud and the Women	#16: Iznogoud et les Femmes	Tabary	SE, 1983
2.	Some More Nightmares of Iznogoud	#17: Les Cauchemars d'Iznogoud (Tome 4)	Tabary & Buhler	SE, 1984
3.	The Accomplice of Iznogoud	#18: Le Complice d'Iznogoud	Tabary	SE, 1985
4.	The Nightmarish Birthday of Iznogoud	#19: L'Anniversaire d'Iznogoud	Tabary	SE, 1987
5.	Caliph at Last	#20: Enfin Calife!	Tabary	ET, 1989
6.	The Trap of the Siren	#21: Le Piège de la Sirène	Tabary	ET, 1992
7.	The Nightmares of Iznogoud	#22: Les Cauchemars d'Iznogoud (Tome 2)	Tabary & Buhler	ET, 1993
8.	More Nightmares of Iznogoud	#23: Les Cauchemars d'Iznogoud (Tome 3)	Tabary, Goscinny & Buhler*	ET, 1994
9.	The Returns of Iznogoud	#24: Les Retours d'Iznogoud	Tabary, Goscinny#	ET, 1994
10.	Who Killed the Caliph?	#25: Qui a tué le Calife?	Tabary	ET, 1998
11.	A Likeable Monster	#26: Un Monstre Sympathique	Tabary	ET, 2000
12.	The Ancestor's Mistake	#27: La Faute de l'Ancêtre	Tabary	ET, 2004

Publishers Code: SE: Séguinière, ET: Éditions Tabary
* #23 was scripted by Buhler, but Tabary credits some of the stories to late Goscinny
# #24 was scripted by Goscinny, which was brought to a book form by Tabary, later

Here is the back-cover one of the issue, which provides a checklist for the 12 titles available in this series of Euro Book.

As far as the pricing goes, Euro Books have tagged the single editions at INR 199, and they are also available in the 3-in-1 bound edition for INR 450. There are advantages and disadvantages in both formats - While single editions, gives you a chance of owning the titles in their full form, with their wonderfully drawn cover-arts; The bound volume editions, gives you proper binding for safe book-keeping.

I wonder, why Euro Books have continuously ignored, the individual titles binding issue. They are just glue-sticked, then the much required corner stitch, which is prone to get damaged as you read. Hopefully, they would try to avoid this blemish, in otherwise wonderful package comprising glossy paper quality and layout design.

That brings us to the close of Euro Books Iznogoud Preview post. So use this as a checklist for your comics shopping next time around, or enjoy the cover-scans of these wonderful titles.

But remember, despite my review comments, and the post Goscinny-Tabary era tag on this series, these classic titles are worth to be in your collection, as there are only 28 titles ever released in them, and this is a chance to own almost half of it, in one shot.

And before we close, here are the covers of those 4 bound editions (Courtesy: N.Suresh, from his recent acquisition). Happy Reading. Adios Amigos !

Book Facts: Publisher: Euro Books | A4 Size | Single Title: INR 199 | 3 in 1 Title: INR 450 | 12 Individual Titles | August 2009

Places to Buy: Available at all leading book stores, like Landmark, Odyssey, Crosswords, etc. including individual stores like Blossoms.
flipkart.com offers around 9% discount. All the Iznogoud titles are available at present.
indiaplaza.in offers around 25% discount generally, but you need to wait, as the Iznogoud set is yet to arrive on their listings.

Note: I suggest you to keep an eye over the discounts factor, while getting these bulk editions. I was sincerely, hoping to pick up these titles on Indiaplaza for a handsome discount, but was disappointed to see their slow moving Sales team, yet not listing these titles on their online site. Frustrated, I had to bug my other city friends, to procure a set for me with a local store discount. One of the pains to be in a city, where chain book stores, don’t offer any sort of discount for prospective buyers. I only wish, that the Online bookstores be more active to put these bigger bookstores in a corner.

References: 1. Skot’s Iznogoud World, 2. Wikipedia’s Iznogoud Page, 3. Lambiek’s Tabary Profile, 4. Edition’s Tabary

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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.

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 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.

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.

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 the 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.

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 with 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.

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.

Kid 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.

Not 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 .

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 .

 

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

Publishers 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 Lucky 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.

If 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 title, where Lucky rides solo on his horse under the sunset singing is famous Lonesome Cowboy song.

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.

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.

 

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 nostalgia 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.

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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.

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.

Two 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 . 

Adios Amigos !

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

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