The Fly-By-Night Operators - Chellsons Comics

Hey hey hey Barbarians! Sticking to my on going series on obscure Comics and publishers today yours truly will introduce you with another such player which lived a short life.
Chellsons Classics and Comics
Was published by the publisher with the same name during the early eighties from Shivakasi, Tamil Nadu.
Now Shivakasi is also very famous here in India for being the hub for manufacturing crackers.
The interesting story that goes is, since the crackers have very colourful ads and packaging which required a printing press,however the press were only in use during a specific time of the year and were lying idle that's when they decided to join the band wagon of printing comics.
As usual information is scarce but from whatever yours truly could gather it looks like they had intended to start with a classic line coloured comics in which they published Hercules and was supposed to be their flagship.
They also had a parallel line up of British comics by acquiring the rights through IPC magazines (Publishers of Commando,Mandy,Fleetway Library etc) in which they started printing characters which were not introduced by then in India.
IPC Magazines of UK had a basket of characters out of which a few Indian Publishers had already acquired the rights especially War Genre and Western Genre also some Publishers from Tamil Nadu had been successful in popularising "The Steel Claw" and "The Spider" by translating the stories in Tamil.
Chellsons hence decided to go along with the Spy Genre and to that they chose Top Secret(John Havoc),Girl Detective(Kim) and Mam'selle 'X' a world war 2 spy.

The Fly-By-Night Operators - AFI Comics

Hey hey hey Barbarians! If you have gone through my last post HERE on rarity by Number Crunching, you would find that there’s a chunk of the pie which goes to Fly-by-Night operators. Fly-by-Night operators were publishers or series who joined the publishing boom but wrapped up quickly for various reasons thus leaving a footprint so small that it takes decades to track them.
This series of posts (which will be updated as and when Yours truly accumulates info on the go) will introduce to the readers to some such Series or publishers. A word of caution since information is scant readers are advised to share information with this blog so that posts can be updated with correct information.

First up is AFI Comics

Published by New World Publishers of Mumbai in early 70's and started with 3 characters in their line-up.
Rip Kirby, Agent Corrigan and Cisco Kid. They are the one who introduced characters Rip Kirby and Agent Corrigan to Indians much before Indrajal. The print quality of these books were very good and had Black n White interiors with a coloured cover page.
The books were sized at 4' * 6' which was odd even for that period being even smaller than the pocket sized books.
The fact that paper supplies had caused delay in prints maybe a reason or to cut printing,between 73-74 they had pretty much wrapped up and changed their business model. They held the rights to these characters and later supplied them to Indrajal comics in the early 80's.(Click HERE to know about first issues of Rip Kirby and Agent Corrigan)
Judging by their numbering it's possible that they had some other titles since yours truly have only seen numbers in 100's denominations.
Print run was also small the fact that AFI comics was priced at 1.75 in 1973 while the more popular Indrajal comics was priced at 1 and coloured with popular characters while AFI had literally unknown Characters,which lead them to close their shops by 74.

AFI #101 - First Issue (Photo courtesy Vineeth Abraham) 

AFI Comics #102 (Credit:Indiancomiccovers.com)

 AFI Comics #106

AFI Comics #108

 AFI Comics #112

 AFI Comics #116

IYTHO (In Yours Truly Honest Opinion) the AFI comics Agent Corrigan series was much ahead of it's times especially when you are talking about Virus warfare a step ahead of James "Shaken not Stirred" Bond!

Number Crunching for Rarity!

Hey hey hey Barbarians!
For a long time now Yours trooly have been ranting about rarity of comics interlinked with number of copies produced.
Till now there was no tangible data as it's a black box and scarce info is available online.
However after some digging Yours trooly did come across an archived news report from 1982.
It looks like 1982 was the golden year for comic book publishers as the market grew 500% !
Yes in 1978 the overall comic market in India was 1 Cr which shot up more than 5 times to 5.5 Cr the sharpest in any year !

The data provided also shares the number of copies printed by the major publishers like IJC,ACK and other publishers from Delhi.
By making these a reference point and doing some back calculations a reasonable guestimate can be made about copies printed in 1970's and before.

Yours trooly have taken the liberty to create some charts for collectors so that they can use their reasonable intellect and separate the chaff from the wheat!

                                                                                                                                                                   
For the sake of simplicity and the sheer number of copies being printed we will call them "Big 4" which constitutes ACK, IJC, Chandamama and Diamond.

Also with some more archived reports the printing ratio in languages also gets clearer which on an avg is 5:2:3 i.e 50% of printed copies were in Hindi,20% in regional languages like Bengali,Tamil,Malayalam and the rest 30% in English.

The sprouting of numerous publishers in early 80's establishes a fact that it was a lucrative business. Down the line it lost it's steam due to mismanagement, same goes for IJC as the cancellation of the series is not coz of falling subscriptions but due to mismanagement.

Any comics published before 1978 is much rarer compared to comics published in 1980's unless published by fly-by-operators,simply because the number of printed copies were very less and the chances of their existing till today is pretty less as there was no secondary market for them.

Most of these copies would have got pulped ,lost, torn due to neglect unless coming from private collectors.

obscure publishers before 80's with a far lesser print runs will be that much more difficult to get.

So buckle up barbarians coz the way we know collecting is going to change!

External references-

1. http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/comics-become-money-spinners-of-indian-publishing-world/1/392121.html
2. http://homegrown.co.in/a-complete-timeline-the-evolution-of-comic-books-in-india-1926-present/

Key issue Alert! [Gotham Superman Adventures Issue #4]

Hey hey hey Barbarians!

Come October 26 and 'SuperGirl' will invade small screen in an upcoming series. For some time now the "SuperHero" genre has been growing at 300% each year on the silver screen,but now the rivalry of the publishing giants "Marvel" and "DC" has spilt over to the small screen!
If Marvel hogged the start of the year with Daredevil, DC intends to repeat the same in the last quarter with SuperGirl.
Your's truly will not get into those details for which there are dedicated websites,after all this is no gossip mongering blog!

R&D has lead yours trooly to believe that the super villain casting role of this series has the potential of opening up new avenues !
Lately the internet is abuzz with introduction of "LiveWire" a supervillain in this series and have casted Brit Morgan,who is quite popular amongst fans! bottom line is, DC has a plan/future for this Character!
For the purpose of this blog a little bit of digging by yours trooly lead to a few facts

"LiveWire" just like "Harley Queen" was introduced as a supporting character for an all different animated series from the original line of Superman story arc called Superman Adventures.

Issue #5 of Superman Adventures introduced "LiveWire" her first appearance.

 

ebay has not many copies listed for this key book and prices have already been booming!

There exists an "Indian reprint" with the same title, albeit a different Issue done by Gotham way back in 1999, during their first stint!

This issue will soon be the Harley Queen of Superman ,keeping my fingers crossed !
So long Happy Hunting!

Complete Guide to Collecting Gotham Comics!

(This is a Maxipost)
 
Hey hey hey Barbarians! If you are reading this post then chances are that just like yours truly you must have spent hours to unravel the mystery behind Gotham Comics!
Fret not!Yours truly too have spent hours in search not only online but from small street vendors to hyper malls and decided that its time to write a "Fools guide to Gotham Comics"!
Previously few topics were covered here and here but it's time now for a more comprehensive guide.
Gotham re-booted itself thrice in it's short lived existence of just over a decade, and now have mutated into "Graphics India" the term mutation is used as a metaphor here since Graphics India retains its old DNA from Gotham Comics and is re-re-printing stuff of the now defunct Gotham,with the only caveat that it re-prints creator owned characters like Devi,Sadhu etc.

Back to Gotham now, if you happen to check the wiki-page for Gotham you would get dazzled and hence this blog will give you the facts and no pandering on repeat mode to a celebrity!

1998 ~ Gotham's First Avatar - Books were standard issues comics format just like other American comics
Series highlights-
(Comics Format)
Batman Gotham Adventures
Superman Adventures
Superman
Batman
(Magazine Format)
Mad comics
Batman

Superman

2001 ~ Gotham's Second Reboot - Books got shortened into pocket books format,and 3 formats were introduced
Single issues,Double sized issues (2 issues together),Giant size issues(6 issues together ~ 140 Pages),{Special Formats ~ 200 Pages - subscription give-aways}

1.Marvel Comics Presents
2.Ultimate Spider-man
3.Amazing Spider-man
4.The Spectacular Spider-man
5.Spider-Girl
6.Ultimate X-Men
7.X-Men: The Hidden Years
8.Astonishing X-Men
9.Wolverine - For list of Wolverine published under Gotham click Here
10.DareDevil and The Marvel Knights
11.Fantastic Four 
12.Fantastic Four Adventures 
13.NightCrawler
14.The Incredible Hulk 
15.The Avengers
16.Conan - For list of Conan published under Gotham click Here
17.Marvel Team-Up
18.Marvel Adventures
19.Batman Gotham Adventures
20.Batman Detective
21.Batman Beyond
22.Teen Titans 
23.Superman
24.Superman and Supergirl 
25.WonderWoman 
26.Justice League Adventures
27.Thundercats
28.Tarzan
29.Tomb of Dracula
30.Flash
31.Planetary
32.Catwomen: When in Rome 
33.Hawkman
34.DC Comics Presents
35.The Ultimates
36.Robotech
37.Dexter's Lab
38.Scooby Doo
39.The Powerpuff Girls
40.The Flintstones & the Jetsons

Movie Adptations

Spider-man 1,2

X-Men 1,2

Hulk

Giant Super Specials-

Total 72 in numbers Printed in India for Indian Markets - For list of Giant Super Specials published under Gotham click Here

18+ in my knowledge for Singapore Market and are called Singapore editions
Unknown quantity for Malaysia,Brunei etc called Malaysian editions
                                                  
Both the Malaysian and the Singapore editions were different from Indian editions as they were printed on glossy papers and had a very good finish infact they were no lesser to modern day graphic novels and in some cases better. A few Giant size published for the Singapore,Malaysia markets were not printed for the Indian market

Uploading images of the unpublished Giant Size Super Specials which were not published in India!

Special Editions-
Superman,Spider-man,Marvel Presents

                                                
2006 ~ Gotham's second Reboot
Gotham along with Virgin comics and who's who of the industry forayed into adding Indian Mythological Characters

1.Devi
2.The Sadhu
3.Ramayan 3392 AD
For list of books published under these titles click Here

4.Spider-Man India

So long Gothamites Happy Collecting!

Indian Reprints of Famous International issues ! High Value!

Hey hey hey Barbarians! Yours truly had been toying with this idea for long, to write a post on reprints of Major Key issues in India.
The value of these comics may not be so high in the eyes of Indian collectors but my experience tells me that they are constantly being sought by International buyers.The Comic industry especially in the US has undergone a sea change ,both the big houses Marvel and DC have been constantly re-booting the established characters every 2 years by killing and reviving them.This approach worked but fans realised that it's another marketing stunt to generate hype and en-cashing the hype.
Secondly a newer phenomenon of artificially creating rare comics through Variants.Variants are nothing but the same comic book with different covers,by limiting the number of covers printed an artificial demand and supply gap has been created.
Thirdly collectors have realised that US comics can be bought off the shelf any time ,you just need to have money to buy them there's no specific skill or networking required to obtain them.
Simply put the thrill of the hunt and the fun of collecting is missing hence a bigger shift for foreign variants!

Key issues Indian reprints-

1. The Amazing Spider-man #1 - First self titled series and issue of Spider-man 1963 - Current price in any condition copy Avg. price $2000+

Reprinted in India
First Reprint~Modern Classics in 1989 with the same title and issue and in as is condition.

Second Reprint~More recent reprint is by Diamond Comics Spider-man #6 ,in early 90's,
but, Diamond Comics reprints have a few differences, cover is not a complete copy, minor modifications and interior panels have only RGB colours

2. Action Comics #252 - First appearance of Supergirl - Avg. Price $1500+ and above.
                                                                 
                                                     

 

Reprinted in India by Dolton comics in 1982. 

                                                

                        

3. Detective Comics #232 - First appearance of Ra's Al Ghul - current price of a Very Fine Raw copy Avg is $399
                                                                                                                                  

Reprinted in India by Gotham Comics in 2002 as Detective Batman #10
                                                                                                                                  

4. Conan the Barbarian #1- The coming of conan- First appearance of Conan in comic book format,first in a self titled issue 1970 - Current price in VF condition $250+
                                                                                                                                 

Reprinted in India 
First Reprint~Falcon Comics in 1984 in the series Conan issue #2 under a different cover
                                                                                                                                 

 

Second Reprint~Gotham Comics also introduced Conan the barbarian however they started reprinting from "The Savage Sword of Conan" Magazine #186.This book has 2 stories the second story is a black&white reprint of Conan the barbarian #1.
                                                                                                                                 

 

5. Ultimate Spider-man #1 - Re tells the saga of Spiderman alebit differently 2000 - Avg price of a VF copy $100+                                                                            

Reprinted in India by-
Gotham comics in 2001 with the same title and issue

6. Wolverine #145 - Avg price $50+

Reprinted by Gotham under Marvel Presents

7. the Amazing Spider-man - 9/11 commemorative issue - Avg price $70+

Reprinted in India by Gotham in 2001 however the Indian reprint is a variant edition as there were changes to the original making it a Foreign Variant of the Original!

8. The Amazing spider-man #121 - Death of Gwen stacy - Avg Price $200+

Reprinted in India by Diamond Comics in 1994 under a different cover

9. The Amazing Spider-man #122 - Death of Green Goblin - Avg Price $200 +

Reprinted in India by Diamond Comics in 1994 under the same cover in a pocket book size format although a full colour print but unfortunately the reprint uses only three primary colours! Strangely for some unknown reason the books were not printed in series.

10. Wolverine Origins - The back story of Wolverine's origin, 6 part story arc, issues trades at $100+

Reprinted by Gotham in 2001 under Giant Size Wolverine

Minor Key issue Reprints by Gotham

1. Batman: HUSH Complete Story Arc ~ Batman #608 -#619 ,Jim Lee art and famous for it's Original story line and Unique covers!

 

One of the most sought after covers is Batman #608 Retailer Variant-

 Gotham's Interior cover of Batman #608 below!

 

 

2. Doomsday & Death of Superman

3. New X-Men ~ Wolverine cover "First appearance of of Precog"

4. Wolverine RRP Variant "Enemy of the state"

5. Movie variants (X-men 2 set of three,Spiderman 1 & 2,The Hulk)

6. Michael Turner's Supergirl German Variant (Superman & Batman #13)

Note: Non-Watermarked Comic Covers have been used from free internet sources under GPL licensing. Credits goes to Original posters!