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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