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Sunday, August 31, 2008

What page size you prefer to read a comic? Please register your opinion.

Concerning the resolution of the scanned images, an interesting anonymous comment I received on the last post. It goes like this:
Anonymous said...
The greater the original image is, the better I can get it to read / print due to computer technics (dithering / smothing, etc.) A friend of mine says: "there is no need of 10 MPixels digital photo camera, 2MB are enough" ! I do not think so, I explain to him and let him do what he feels is good for him. Cheers.
Now, it's an old debate. What should be the ideal page size of a scan to be read without disturbing comfort level? Most of the indrajal comics posted on blogs are typically of a size smaller than 800 pixels wide, and no one had any problem reading them so far. Most of Mr. Ajay Mishra's work fall in this category. CW is also posting his scans in the same range. In fact he has set the height of the imges at 1024 pixels which makes the width falling somewhere in between 760-770 px.

Over three years ago, when TCP started posting indrajals, most computer screens were having 800x600 resolution set, but during this period many of them have migrated to 1024x768 px or even higher. The new comers are also having a higher resolution on their PCs. The sitemeter stats shows that majority is using 1024px resolution today. That makes the old pages to appear quite small on screen.

Obviously this is the time to increase the size of the page so that the comics can be enjoyed to the fullest. But what should be the ideal size then? For last many issues I am posting 1024px wide pages. Most of the comics contributed by Anurag to the indrajal community are even larger than this. While it is good to have big pages but that poses another big problem: a huge file size of around 20 MB per comic.

Today most of the visitors are on broad-band, so we can imagine that they would not have any issue with a large file size. But I still believe 20 MB is a bit too much for a 32 page comic. It is like a luxury that everybody cannot be expected to afford. Aren't we limiting the expansion of the community by providing such big files when under 10 MBs can be achieved rather easily? I happen to think so.

One very important aspect of all this discussion is to remind the bloggers of the target audience. I do believe, to attract new generation towards sweet comic culture the things must be made as simple as possible for them. Isn't that the expressed goal of most of our fellow comic bloggers?

Think it over friends. It's ok with established comics lovers. They would be going for even 50 MB file but can you really expect someone who has not tasted the thrills of Indrajalian era to download and read that big a comic? Then how are we going to increase our user base?

And now for our anonymous friend. Dear anon, You may be quite an expert with the graphical software (smoothing/dithering etc), but for majority of the visitors a good trade-off between page size and file size is also important. A 10 MP camera is always better than a 2 MP camera "IF" you don't have any budgetary constraints to take care of.

Have your say on the issue friends.

I wanted to announce a new experiment in comic posting in this post. But the current post has already become too lengthy. Will give the details in my next post. Don't forget to check it.

Cheers.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Queen Samaris' Crush on Phantom (Remix version of Indrajal Comics No. 13)

[Update: 30/Aug/2008, 09:50 PM]
Download link for this comic is provided on my other blog. Please visit:

http://indrajalcomics.blogspot.com/

In 1887, H. Rider Haggard’s famous novel "She" was published and became an immediate hit. Later, many sequels and prequels were written by the author which were also very successful. In reprints it was extraordinarily popular in its time, and has remained in print to the present day. "She" is generally considered to be one of the classics of imaginative literature.

A large number of other stories by many other writers came to light which were loosely based on the original idea of this novel. Lee Falk’s 1961 sunday strip story of Queen Samaris XII is also inspired by the same novel.

Plot of She
Professor Horace Holly is a professor at Cambridge University and Leo Vincey is his ward. The real/biological father of Leo leaves him a piece of clay artifact in which he is instructed to visit Africa. In the jungle they encounter a white queen, Ayesha, who has made herself immortal by bathing in a pillar of fire, the source of life itself. She becomes the prototypical all-powerful female figure. She is to be both desired and feared. She is a breathtakingly beautiful creature who will not hesitate to kill any one who displeases her or stands in her way. The travellers discover that Ayesha has been waiting for 2000 years for the reincarnation of her lover Kallikrates. She believes that Vincey is the reincarnation of Kallikrates.

In the climax of the novel, Ayesha takes the two men to see the pillar of fire. She wants Leo to bathe in it as she did so that he can become immortal and remain with her forever. But Vincey is doubtful about the safety of the act. To show him the fruitful result that is in wait for both of them and to remove the doubts from his mind, she steps into the flames once more. However, with this second immersion she reverts to her true age and immediately withers and dies.

Falk’s adaptation
In the Falk’s story, queen Samaris is actually 300 years old but by a magical treatment done on her by witchcrafting, appears only 20 years. The general people’s astonishment at observing their queen not gaining years in her age is tackled by the plot made by the queen Samaris to replace herself by her daughter only to fool the public, when everytime she herself returns in the new role. In the twelfth repeat of her long established routine act, she falls in love with Phantom and as a consequence of the curse of the witchwoman, finally reduces to a heap of ash.

This comic has already made its appearance on net but I am posting it here again in a different form. The following changes have been made to the previous version:

1. This release contains only the 20 pages of the main story and not anything from the other features of indrajal like Henry (Gunakar), Ripley’s Believe it or not (mano na mano) and other similars.

2. The resolution has been reduced to 1024 px width.

3. The pages are brightened and made a bit more colourful using Photoshop.

4. As a result of all the above steps, the file size has reduced to a mere 6 MB (from original size being 16 MB something).
    The comic has been scanned by Anurag Dixit.

    Indrajal Comics No. 13 (Jaadugarnee Ka Shaap)
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    Monday, August 25, 2008

    TPH #052 Gufa Ka Rakshas - Phantom (Indrajal Comics 252)


    Another phantom indrajal, this time an old one from 1976. One of my favourite, and why only my, it is one of the most popular stories from phantom saga. Enjoy this one.


    Sorry about the page quality of first few pages. Scanning was done a year ago, or so and therefore resolution is not too large.


    Both front and back covers and their inside pages are provided by CW. Many Thanks to him.


    I am also posting this on my other blog simultaneously. The download link is being provided there. Please visit

    इंद्रजाल कॉमिक्स अंक २५२


    Cover


    Page 1


    Page 2


    Page 3


    Page 4


    Page 5


    Page 6


    Page 7


    Page 8


    Page 9


    Page 10


    Page 11


    Page 12


    Page 13


    Page 14


    Page 15


    Page 16


    Page 17


    Page 18


    Page 19


    Page 20


    Page 21


    Page 22


    Page 23


    Page 24


    Page 25


    Page 26


    Page 27


    Page 28


    Front-In


    Back-In


    Back