Phantom comics coloring: Other publications

Last time I discussed the coloring of some phantom publications, namely, Harvey-hits, Gold-key, king, charlton, indrajal comics and also the coloring of some newspaper and magazine strips. Continuing with the discussion, here are few more publications and my opinion about them.

5. Diamond Comics: If I have to choose the worst phantom publication from the coloring point of view, then without doubt the prime contendent for the crown will be Diamond Comics publications. Not only the coloring, the overall printing quality of most of the phantom comics they published was far below even the ordinary level. The only consolatory thing in their favour is that they printed far less edited versions of original Phantom dailies compared to indrajal. Look at the sample here. How terribly they have treated the great Sy Barry's artwork. Miserable job.

6. Wolf: Now this is the best. Very eye-catching color selection with excellent blending of colors in panels. The perfection with even the very small and delicate objects are painted makes it almost perfect job. They have a very different style than others. Superimposing a similar (or in some case contrasting) color over a light background produces excellent effect. I just want to learn this style.

7. Egmont: We see a large variation in color quality of egmonts. Sometimes they come up with very good coloring but in some other comics their work is pretty ordinary.

8. Defenders of the earth series (1987): Normal quality work. Less than one's expectation.

9. DC (1989): Illustrating a comic book is highly different than drawing the panels for a daily or sunday strip. While in strips the diamension of the panels are fixed, comic book artist have liberty of using more work-space because of the big panels available. The same thing reflects in coloring also. Have a look.

10. Marvel (1995): To make the soulless stories sellable, the publishers opted to go for much darker/brighter coloring, something which closely resembles todays TV shows which are as dull and ineffective in catching public attention and to pull the public to the shows they rely on making it as much shiny as possible. Average work, no marvels done.

11. Moonstone (2008): The worst stories. Probably more matching the today's public taste in US, but for the old lovers of phantom they are a complete no-no. I don't like their coloring work either.

TPH #062 Inspector Azad aur Bagula Bhagat

First it was the article in The Times of India, and then Toonfactory mentioned this fact in his post on Mr. Abid Surti that Inspector Azad was such a popular Indian comic character during seventies that a few filmmakers (including Mr. Raj Kapoor) had planned to make a film based on this character. The project couldn't be realised due to some reason but that gives enough idea of the popularity of the character.

Inspector Azad was a comic strip which was a regular publication in some magazines (notably the famous Hindi crime monthly 'Satyakatha'). But I never came across this strip. Didn't have sightest of clue about the comic book incarnation of the strip either.

As luck would have it, a few months ago, I found this rare comic of Inspector Azad in one old book shop. But unfortunately, it didn't live up to the hype created by the TOI article in my curious mind. I am not only disappointed by this Surti creation but actually disliked it for a number of things. It is a very poor comic from the story point of view.

Story Notorious thug Cheetu Pindhari is released from the prison after serving 5 years for his crimes. Azad wishes him an honest life here after but Cheetu has some other plans in his mind. He quickly gathers few small time crooks and after training them in various criminal activities, turns them into a gang of killers. The gang works under the deceptive cover of a group of 'Saadhus'. A number of heinous crimes are committed by this criminal team before the police could suspect them. Then, in an encounter the boss Cheetu is killed and most of the gang member are arrested. The story ends.

What is most disturbing is the way the story writer elaborates on the violent sequences. It is hard to believe that it is a comic expected to be read by a majority comprising of children. The cold blooded murders of men and women is illustrated in minute details, something good comic writes always avoid to display. Emphasis is laid more on the acts of the villain as though he is the main public puller. The hero has nothing much to do except for challenging the villain in the climax and finally be saved by the police chief who appears in the scene at the right moment for him.

Mr Surti's obsession with Dacoit stories is well known. If he could make it a bit more pleasant and balanced by bringing few more less bloody incidences and more interesting characters. Sadly it doesn't happen.

The present story once again reminds us of the hapless condition of Indian Comics. Read it yourself and let us know if you have any other impression about this.

Writer: Abid Surti
Illustrator: Ram Mohan or Pratap Mullick (the two worked on Azad stories, don't know who dealt with this one)

Download TPH #062 Inspector Azad aur Bagula Bhagat

(33 pages, 1000 px wide, 7 MB)

TPH #054 Saanpon Ki Devi (part 2) - Phantom (Indrajal Comics V25N28)

Second part of this story is presented now. Couldn't scan much during the last few weeks but finally it's here.It's a very nice story, I hope everyone enjoys it as much as I have.

A supplementary Indian comic is also included in this issue, named Timpa, and this one is also very interesting. Created by Avijit Chatterjee, Timpa's adventures were published in few Indrajal issues. Sagnik informed in one of his post (on in some comment) that few independent comics of Timpa were also published.

Talking about the present Phantom story of snake goddess, the plot is very interesting and has all the qualities of a good phantom adventure. But it's sad to notice that Falk and Barry were creating such good stories even in 1988 and soon after Indrajal stopped its publication, leaving a large fan follwing in displeasure.

Well, for now enjoy this one.

Indrajal Comics V25N28 Sanpon Ki Devi (part 2) - Phantom, 1988

Download TPH #054 Saanpon Ki Devi (part 2)

(32 pages, 1280 px wide, 11 MB)