The Reprints - DC London Edition Magazine

Hey Hey Hey Barbarians! Lasti-sh we checked with Marvel's reprint with Panini,but can DC remain far behind?
Dc started Superman and Batman reprints monthly in the UK using London Editions Magazines under license.
When Egmont bought Fleetway Publications from IPC in 1991, London Editions was merged with it,
with the combined company known as Fleetway Editions. They also had a line up of DC heroes in various varying publications like
Zones, DC Action, Heroes and Shockwave.In 1996 this became Egmont Fleetway,
and post 2000 Fleetway's name vanished from the titles, and Egmont Publishing took over printing the company's comics

uploading some covers from my own collection..

Will return with more soon..By Crom!

The Reprints - Marvel Pocket Books

Hey hey hey Barbarians ! Hope old Crom treated ye'all well this Christmas!
Yours truly had a big catch of large out of print this Christmas which will be presented over time!
But for now with all the niceties kept in the cupboard let's delve deep into the serious business of reprints.

Most of us in this galaxy of comics some time or the other have come across books which have the same cover and content and yet,
the value for them remains missing.In fact reprints are a great way of introducing new people to old pantheons in an inexpensive way.

About 9 years back I use to frequent allies of Mumbai to "landmark" almost every week-end,during one such outing i came across
Marvel pocketbooks by Panini.These were not the UK published b/w pocketbooks published in late eighties.
This series of ongoing reprints hasn't got much attention - I didn't find any mention of any official site.
Published by Panini, who hold the Marvel license through Panini UK, and have produced a series of "Marvel Pocket Books"
reprinting Marvel issues from all eras in a color, digest format.In fact they used digitally enhanced colors, with glossy pages.

Recently i don't see them anymore in the book stores , uploading from my collection

 Fantastic Four: Doomsday 

 Reprints  Fantastic Four #52-60

 Fantastic Four: Where Stalks The Sandman 

 Reprints  Fantastic Four #61-67 & Annual #4

 Hulk: The Coming Of Hulk

 Reprints The Incredible Hulk #1-6

 The Invincible Iron Man: The Tragedy and the Triumph 

 Reprints  Tales Of Suspense 91-99, Iron Man/Submariner 1 & Iron Man 1-4

 The End of the Green Goblin

Reprints Amazing Spider-Man #39-46, though Annual #3 has been left out

 To Kill A Spider-Man

Reprints Amazing Spider-Man #53-61

 Silver Surfer: Origins

 Reprints Silver Surfer #1-5

X-Men: Magneto Triumphant The Uncanny

Reprints X-Men # 104-117

 Will come back with more soon, By Crom!

In A Galaxy Far Far Away...

Hey Hey Hey Barbarians!

Long time no see,Yeah your's truly was caught between festivals.Well we look forward to something in our monotonous lives, In b/w these festivals your's truly was also busy in collecting and sourcing some rare books,during such a conversation one of my contacts in the west asked me about Indian comics and it struck me that I haven't written anything on newer genres of Indian comics.

During this age where most of the things are going social a hard copy is increasingly getting obsolete,same goes for the Indian market,production houses
are increasingly finding it difficult to sustain cost with rising input costs and dwindling markets.
yours truly picks some of the happenings from the Indian comic scene.

1. Ravanayan     -     Holy Cow Entertainment
   Artists           -    vivek goyal
   Story             -    vivek goyal/Vijayendra Mohanty
  
   Summary      -    The world only sees the triumph of good over evil,Ramayana is a story laying down the modalities of Indian civilization, more than 7000 years ago,Ramayan depicts actions and consequences but when The protagonist is bound to this cosmic world with his duties can it be that his arch nemesis is not? Ravanayan explores The duties and actions of Ravana the vanquished and the dharma he viewed with his own lenses.

   Review - It's not a new concept but yes getting it in comic format is new.The Cover pages are well done,especially the depiction of the popular 10 heads/faces of Ravana on issue #1 cover.The Fight with the gods cover on Issue #4 is very good as well and worth mentioning. Coming to interiors, panels have been removed by sketches as splash pages with brown background,my opinion would be actually to go for detailed pencil sketches with grey inking.Overall a good read.    

2. Aghori    -    Holy Cow Entertainment
   Artist        -       Vivek Goyal
   Story        -        Ram V
  
   Summary    -    "For Matured Readers" Present day Vira the Aghori has a violent past and he is in serch of answers which had turned his life into a living hell. He took an unothodrox education to seek the answers and become an Aghori What are these questions what does the Aghori do?
  
   Review - A very well written book with dark content and good artwork and intuguing story.The cover and the back cover is both awesome.Real good work in making.

3. Ware- house    -    Holy Cow Entertainment
   Artist                -    Vivek Goyal
   Story                -    Akshay/Soumya/Shweta
   Summary         -    Horror Fiction
   Review            -  This reminds me of "tales of mystery" from EC horror flicks the artwork which made those books much sought after unfortunately is lacking here.
   But all the 3 stories are good and actually gives a sense of belonging to the book.

4. Aveon9    -    Rovolt Entertainment
   Artist        -    Abhishek Malsuni
   Story         -    Shamik Dasgupta

   Summary    -    Sci-fi adventure inspired by Indian mystical classics.
   Review       -    what happens when StarWars meets Chandrakanta? An imaginary world of Starwars - Long long ago in a galaxy far far away. with editor as Ron Marz who is like the who's who of comic industry production, presentation and art can only go to newer heights. I will appreciate the Art the colors and the presentation, not since now defunct Virgin (Devi,Sadhu,Ramayan 3392 AD) have i seen so much professionalism in creating a book in Indian Market.Having said that I would like to see a better story where readers would wait for the next episode to hit the stands.

    
5. Damned    -    Chariot Comics
   Story          -    Aniruddho Chakraborty
   Artist          -    Tarun/Rohit
  
   Summary    -    In a Future not far from today exists shapeshifters,immortals,socerers and the likes.When a top Industrialists gets kidnapped,A sorcerer mercenary named Anga is hired whose motivation is unknown.
  
   Review     -      Interesting Artwork which is heavily inspired by modern art canvases with big splashes,In fact the size of the book is bigger
   than contemporary comic books.The overall layout is dark and reflects the dark mood of the Damned.Cover art uses different shades of Brown. Interiors have a lot of action I didn't like the page layout as it is difficult to understand the paneling with cross panel expressions.

Although I'm tempted to add Daksh and Odiyan from Level 10 but to do justice it will have to be in a new post!Till then Barbarians ..
happy hunting, n'uff said!
  
   

The Greatest Heroines Of Comicdom!

Hey Hey Hey, Barbarians!

Figure-atively speaking Marvel has a monopoly in this scene.
Not only by the sales figure and appearances on the movie screens which is trending now, but the amount of anthology present infornt of us is huge.
No sooner yours truly had started penning this topic,some figures had already crossed his mind to establish a strong content.

After quite some deliberations yours truly lined them up thus on the ramp-

1.Elektra - The European lady had by far exceeded all expectations when featured in her own movie.Starting as a back-up character in DD by Frank Miller she had everything from Kung-fu to appeal, but really what was that really placed her apart for the top slot? I think it's her unique costume!

2.Vampirella - Ok the vampire part kept aside,where our lady goes on a hunt to suck blood(only when in need) she has her own fan base over the years although no movie has come out yet but she does enjoy her provocative comic presence. 

3.Red-Sonja - Yeah she had a movie dedicated to her and her first appearance was on SSOC #1 with Conan the barbarian.She clinched this spot because of her Armour which helped her more in making a style statement rather than in war!

4.Ms.Marvel - If you happen to know what a feminist stands for she's the one,has been around in the comic industry for 40 + years with so many revivals but have always come on top.

5.Black Widow - So Scarlett did her justice in Avengers,as depicted she is sexy and dangerous,her black dress has given her glamor which has become synonymous with assassin personification in hollywood.

6.Medusa - A checkered history(the Inhumans) but a strong female vocalist ,she's the no nonsense type who would spank you if you cross her.True friends!"Spidy" got the kick as well.But hey her long autonomous hair is like mythology rehashed (name and trait) to comicdom.

7.Angela - was with image but marvel won her over , ok doesn't bothers me First appearance in spawn #9 is a bounty hunter Angel hunting out devil-spawns she is cool with her spear.

Now there’s a bunch of characters who i would like to feature spider-woman,she-hulk,Tigra,Shanna and team players like phoenix and scarlet witch ,but hey this is a countdown and somebody got to loose.

my 2 cent on it ! By Crom!

The Lone Ranger

Hey hey hey Barbarians!
Was lazing around the Idiot box last night, and after flipping a few channels saw Johnny Depp's Interview on the upcoming movie - The Lone Ranger.
That send me reeling in the past ,Sure we are going through interesting times!
I see the growing clout of Comics on Hollywood ,whether Hollywood has run out of Original ideas or Publishers have now a strangle hold over the studios is a debatable question.

But your's truly's political views are his own and neither this blog endorses politics and debates ha ha ha!

Coming back to Our Lone Ranger i'm sure many(at least in my country) would have questioned about the protagonist's popularity!
Yeah, but Pop culture is more or less inspired by this guy,Long ago in the dawn of Pop culture when our daily doze of sound bytes came from a box called Radio,
The lone Ranger spawned an inspired tale of a Masked Texas ranger with his Red Indian associate Tonto and his Silver horse to fight injustice.(There are others as well like Zorro)
The Popular Radio show also culminated in news strips and Comics.
The Original Comic format publisher of the Lone Ranger title being DELL Comics somewhere in the 40's,and sure it was huge success.
The idiot box soon followed suite and by the 60's The lone ranger was securely entrenched in the mass media.

Dell Comics "The lone Ranger" was very successful and lasted for 20 odd years!These books had painted covers and line drawings like we see in the golden age books of classic's Illustrated.
Soon after that it was taken over by Gold Key (reprints?)the last i know Lone ranger being published by Dynamite now.
Uploading a few books from my own collection TLR -#107 Dell 1957 and TLR #7 Gold Key 1969

Interestingly The 2013 Movie's Trailer was unveiled in San Diego Comic-con. 
So wipe out those quizzing looks from your faces coz The Lone Ranger has a history of 80 years,India being the second biggest market of Hollywood movies we are yet to test the waters ,but then so was Iron Man eh! 

My 2 cents on it, By Crom!

Comic Con Bengaluru - 2013

Hey hey hey Barbarians,

Today was the closing day of Comic Con 2013 Bengaluru edition.So your's truly turned up.
MSM had by the way given this event a pass except the in your town pages with a small article.
The article basically discribed how big partners have got themselves associated with ComicCon turning around it's fate!
To cut a long story short it was a PR job talking about publicity and revenues,well i decided to check the entire thing myself.
I had been to the last edition of Comic Con in 2012 sometime in september ,check out my blog Comic Con Express 2012.

Here in India there is a biscuit which is quiet famous known as Hide&Seek,the USP of this biscuit is, it is a normal biscuit but sprinkled with chocolate chips, and not a chocolate biscuit.

So what is this biscuit business all about? To start with in the entire indoor stadium there were only 7-8 shops selling comics otherwise the entire place was filled with people selling posters,USB sticks ,sketch pens ,marvel merchandises and tid bits! There were launch of some indigenous media houses in comics Aghori,The caravan etc.

Rest apart there was no representation from the comic fraternity what so ever. Sad i had thought they will catch up but i was living in fool's paradise.
The truth is Comic Con has become a merchandise expo in the garb of comics!
Dark horse had a shop and imagine in their shop they didn't educate anything about "The walkin dead" not even a comic was present! yeah it was annoying Hachette India selling TPB's from eon's old marvel catalogues which has no significance in the marvel universe.

I walked up to a store and asked the publisher that his title looks like a Naruto rip off and he just shrugs...
well I had thought that this will be the right platform to bring about a change in educating people of the ongoing trends in the comic universe(San Diego) but it was not to be.

Hence for the first time i'm not uploading any pictures in this blog post.
Comic Con Bengaluru we had a lot of expectation and it turned out to be a prop show and merchandise expo!

R.I.P you have lost one enthusiast here , by Crom!

Rocketeer! Dave Stevens

Hey hey hey Barbarians!

lastish we checked out Marvel's awesome offering of Conan,so today it is right that we give equal time to some independent publishers and their awesome work.
The gentleman's name is Dave Stevens,Dave who?

Came across this book Pacific presents #2 Rocketeer which yours truly recollected had seen a movie of the same name way back in the 90's.I dug up and learned about "the book came first and movie followed syndrome", and more about the artist of the series Dave Stevens.

The Rocketeer is an adventure story set in a pulp-fiction-styled 1930s, in the pre WWII setup about a down-on-his-luck pilot named Cliff Secord who finds a mysterious rocket pack.First he uses the rocket pack to woo his Hollywood aspiring model girlfriend(characterized on the lines of Betty page) but soon uncovers a massive Nazi conspiracy in which he gets entangled unknowingly.
It also has some high flying thrills when Secord's jet pack tanks off and he goes in a free fall dramatically saved by hanging on another plane's wing!
Page after page panels depicting Steven's vintage setup and fabulous splashes creates a believable script which is far from superhero genre being fed to the readers.

Steven's art and originality gives this title and the era a much needed freshness which was absent in the early 80's.
Worth noting is the research that he had done in depicting planes ,1930's N.Y he had actually gone to aerodromes scouting for planes which were well preserved and successfully captured the essence!
Uploading some panels from the book -

 Rocketeer was released in 1982. Those first stories appeared as a second feature in issues #2 and #3 of  Pacific Comics' Starslayer series. For its next two installments, Steven's feature moved to Pacific Presents #1 and #2. The fourth chapter ended in a cliffhanger that was later concluded in a lone Rocketeer comic released by Eclipse.
Despite its erratic publishing history,Rocketeer leaves a lasting impression on the minds of the reader's and proved to be one of the first successful features to emerge from the burgeoning independent comics movement.

By Crom!

Sword Vs Sorcery - Savage Sword Of Conan

Hey hey hey Barbarians!

Ever wondered if at all there was a time in which all the collective minds came together to build something Hyperborious?
Well back in time between conan the barbarian comic books being a success and Arnold became a superstar Roy thomas was convinced that to adopt the story lines of REH and to do justice to the collective band of fantabulous artists like Boris ,John,Giordano ,Neal Adams to name a few, something radical was required.
Out came the magazine Savage Sword of Conan under Curtis imprint. Debuing in August 1974 this didn't need to confirm to comic code authority and yet preserving the true essence of workmanship and freedom.

Black and white in comic format and with art from the who's who of comic world these contents were meant for matured readers and adopted some of the most talked about novels of REH like "black colossus" , "A witch shall be borned" etc. giving conan more pages more space and yes more readership!
 The painted covers, the portfolios the ads makes these a cult classic.
Uploading the covers of SSOC from my own collection judge for yourself by crom!

  Collecting issues #1,3,4,5,10,32,38,54,64,89,175 - Conan saga #73(80's reprints of SSOC)

 These books also had REH's other adaptation of Solomon Kane coming soon under a new post under Sword vs Sorcery!