The Phantom Head: February 2009

A year and half ago, when I decided to scan my first Indrajal Comics, there were not too many scanners in the field. Only 'Comic World' was active in the dual role of a scanner and a blogger. Most of Mr. Ajay Mishra's scans were available to a select few in the form of DVD. Both TCP and ICC were enjoying a good earned holiday without a slight hint of their possible future returns. A lot many indrajals were unavailable for the majority of the visitors of these Indian comics blogs. So, I felt it as my duty to share with all whatever little I could do to spread the joy of reading the beloved indrajals, the nostalgic elements of the wonder years of childhood, the long goneby.

It gave me immense pleasure in sharing my collection in e-form, though I never counted myself in league with the big names like ICC and CW who are having a vast collection of indrajals in physical form, not to forget Sagnik, the most enthusiastic lover of comics I ever came in contact with.

The joy of scanning and sharing has been great and soul satisfying experience as in some way I was able to touch the soft corners of the comics loving generation of yesteryear's. Today after scanning and posting 70 plus comics, I am feeling proud of my achievement.

With the passage of time many new contributors to the community arrived on the horizon with nice intentions and generous efforts to submit in the greater interest of all. It became clear that soon we'll have all the indrajals on net. That's a very nice feeling to have all that were published. But then, what next? The question is already put by some of the friends. Greater lovers like Sagnik want discussions over the comics. I feel it will require some planned efforts to form a plateform where meaningful thought exchange can take place. Let's hope to build it soon.

Meanwhile, my creative energy is forcing me to try and do something different. Some original contribution to the comic lover's community is what I am eying currently. Few weeks ago, I translated into hindi and put on my blog a full 26 page sunday strip from Graham Nolan. That was a good experience and I felt happy that it was recieved well by many great comic experts like Rafiq Raja and Alok sharma (Toonfactory), together with old stalvart like Desiguru.

For the past couple of weeks, I have been seriously trying to learn the art of comic book coloring. The field has always excited me. When Comicrazee contributed some awsome colourful pages to Balaji (MTM), It made me desirous to work in this area. So I selected Lee Falk's original story with great Sy Barry's own illustrations. This is sunday strip number 136, "The return of the thuggees'. Published in the year 1990, it is a very interesting tale which spread over as many as 65 pages. I have just colored the first 10 pages till now as the process is very time consuming for an ameature like me. It takes me roughly 4-5 hours to colour a page.

Well, here is my first effort in coloring a black and white phantom comics strip for all of you. Those having this story in black in white can add these pages to the story if they wish.

Enjoy friends.