Conan the barbarian - Marvel Pocket Books

Greetings Barbarian!

Robert.E.Howards creation have caught many a fantasy from pulp to comics and off course movies.
Yet nothing have surpassed it's popularity in the comic format which to date is on print and much sought after.
Continuing on this saga I'm bringing today a unique collection of Marvel's pocket books published in UK back in the 80's.
These were reprints of the original Marvel's Conan the barbarian but in black and white.
buckle up for a most interesting ride .
I couldn't complete the collection as these are very scarce and very difficult to come by,nonetheless worth a try by Crom!

Collecting #3,5,7,8,9,10,11,12,13.

Rare Books - The Vagabond in Limbo

Greetings Barbarians!

The franco belgian books of which not many have been translated in English have a rich collection.
One among them is a sci-fi series called Vagabond in Limbo,this unusual series saw 31  books being published in french.
The theme of the series is to question our understanding of reality through Axle Munshine our protagonist who reaches out to the far flung corners of the universe in his quest accompanied by a girl Musky.

Excellently scripted by Godard and penciled by Ribera in a satire tone,unfortunately it saw only two being translated in english and subsequently getting published.

1. An Ultimate Alchemist
2. What is reality papa?

Layouts and inking are great check out for yourself

They say "Madmen never tire" so keep hunting till then -
Adios by Old Crom.

Rare Books - TinTin

Greetings Barbarians!

Before i  start yammering on more mundane books available, i would like to talk about Tintin.
I'm sure most of us have had a whiff with this nosy reporter popping up with his uncanny sense of deduction accompanied by snowy and capt. Haddock.

Well it has a cult following and still rarer books have been released like "Tintin in congo" and "Tintin in the land of Soviets". With uncle Steve(-en Spielberg) recapturing our imagination this guy has has been going strong since last 75 years!

There are various artwork,memorabilia and rare auctions one such among them on which i could get my hands were 2, 1st English editions of Tintin printed by Methuen in 1958 (UK editions)

Here are a few things which makes these books rare and sought after among collectors -

First UK edition and first english lenguage edition of The Crab with the Golden Claws published by british publisher Methuen in 1958.
This adventure belongs to the story of the new Spielberg’s film.
We can see that in first edition, pleasure of reading as collection become very intense.
Quality of cover (more bright than the original french edition), paper and colours are differents. So once you read a first edition that’s a renewed exciting discovery.
Notice the pictorial back cover includes some description that never existed in other edition than first UK and first US edition (nonetheless their introductions are not the same).

Also in subsequent publishings like mamoth and paperback editions the pictorial frames(Full page splash) were cut short and not available check these out

I acquired these many years back on the streets of Mumbai on my weekend persuits of sourcing rare books,Old Crom did help me out this time i guess as these are trading upwards of 200 pounds depending upon their condition!

Comic Con Express - Bangalore 2012

Greetings Barbarians!

As for my leave of absence from the scene (which  has been long) i compensate it with giving you all a first hand account of our own Comic Con Express Bangalore - 2012.

Was organized in September for a period of 2 days in NGV indoor stadium.
I could squeeze an hour's time from my schedule to visit the same.
It was a wonderful experience watching comic aficionados  praying and swirling in numbers.Honestly i had thought that the response would be luke warm but was proved wrong!

Surely Old Crom had schemed to beat in some sense in the otherwise nonchalant comic averse people.

There were stalls from all (almost) Indian comic production houses like level 10,Vimanika  also some newbies in the business.
Interestingly there was contemporary art processed in comic format.
Saw some art materials and Hatchet Co. (The Marvel distributors in India) and People dressed in comic characters roaming the realms of men.

The journey has truly begun.
Crom doesn't promises any afterlife for humans and it is reassuring that the fever is catching on here.

Will be sharing the loot of comics from Comic Con express in my next post,till then barbarians-
By Ishtar merry Christmas.


 

Your's truely's romanticism with Gotham

Greetings Barbarians,
Though i have no allegiance to Old Crom but in true sense i have an affinity to the sword and sorcery hero hacking and slashing till his last breath.
Conan had caught my imagination when i had just crossed 9 moons, and to this day i have been following his exploits throughout Hyperboria.Imagine my happiness when i found out that Gotham was printing Conan in India !
After the unsuccessful run by Falcon (which i have covered in my blog not 1 moon back !) , of which i could only own up one .This seemed to me a golden opportunity but to this day i have not been able to complete the Gotham's run of Conan.
Gotham's  run of  Conan   had foxed me for quiet some time,being an ardent Conan fan and collector for so long I couldn't place their issues,I was sure that they had been reprinting "Savage sword of Conan" and renaming it as "Conan the Barbarian". The problem was that though they had used SSOC covers and stories but they had chosen to do so out of sequence(from Marvel's original run of SSOC) which had made it difficult to fix the start of the issue. 
My luck break came in issue #14 where they had reprinted #200 of SSOC (both cover and story being the same, further the opening splash page clearly mentioned #200). Actually Gotham had started from #186 of SSOC and reprinted them in sequence in India as Conan the Barbarian.

Still i lack a few in my collection but here's the rest-

Finally got the #1 Conan published by Gotham whew!!!

Covers for issues #5,6,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,24.
That's all i could collect so far ,Let Crom know that I tried my best!

Second Coming of Gotham

Greetings barbarians!

Taking up from the first run of Gotham and their closure , they had a change in their strategy and tied up with the who's who of the industry namely Richard Branson to form Virgin Comics.
In 2007 Gotham started printing Virgin Characters in India as the original were only meant for US consumers.
Interestingly the characters were mostly from the mythology pantheon and i must say they were good actually i enjoyed them with great artwork.

Not only did they set an outstanding standard in printing and artwork and original theme they showcased and introduced great artists to the world.

Jeevan Kang,Samit basu, Mukesh Singh people who had set the Indian Comic Screen on fire just to get a feel of what I'm saying I'm uploading the covers from my collection.

Devi (India Issues)

The Sadhu

RAMAYAN 3392 A.D VIRGIN TPB (U.S)

Cover Art : Alex Ross

The US versions of the TPB were priced at 15$ and they also had some original series like-

Voodoo Child - Nicolas Cage

Seven Brothers - John Woo

Shadow Hunter - Jaemma Jameson

Gamekeeper - Guy Ritchie

Along with India Authentic and Tall tales of Vishnu Bhagat. Sorry i couldn't afford all of them as they were released only in US. In all they had all the ingredients to make this a Marvel of India but Old Crom had some different plan!