# चौथा पुत्र

दोस्तों,महाबली वेताल के जन्म-मास उत्सव को मनाते हुए हम आज एक और लोमहर्षक वेताल कथा पर बात करेंगे जो अपने-आप में कई कारणों से विशिष्ट हैं । यह एक ऐसी कथा है जिसमे कई वेताल मानकों और स्थापित परम्पराओं को तोड़ा गया है और मज़े की बात यह है की इन मानकों को किसी और ने नहीं बल्कि खुद ली-फ़ाल्क ने तोड़ा है और मुझे भरपूर शुबहा है कि इन तथ्यों कि तरफ़ शायद ही पहले किसी का ध्यान गया हो । 

क्या हैं वो वेताल परम्पराएं और क्या हैं वो मानक इन पर हम आगे तो बात करेंगे ही लेकिन उससे पहले बात करते हैं इस कहानी की अन्य विशेषताओं पर ।  वेताल-पुरखों के कारनामों पर आधारित कथाएँ हमेशा से सामान्य से अधिक रोमांचक और दिलचस्प हुआ करती हैं और यदि कथा खुद फ़ाल्क द्वारा लिखित हो तो फिर क्या कहने ! 

ऐसी ही एक सन्डे कथा है S-137,'The Fourth Son' या 'चौथा पुत्र' जो अख़बारों में नज़र आई थी 18 अगस्त 91 से लेकर 17 मई 1992 तक यानि की इंद्रजाल कॉमिक्स के दु:खद अवसान(1990) के उपरांत जिसकी वजह से यह कहानी इंद्रजाल कॉमिक्स के पन्नो की शोभा तो न बन सकी लेकिन डायमंड कॉमिक्स के डाईजेस्ट न.61/62 में अवश्य ही इसने अपनी सतरंगी छटा बिखेरी ।

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# Review of the Phantom:'The Gold Key Years:Volume 1'

Friends its the month of February and we have just celebrated the 5th anniversary of Comic World few days back.The indents at my finger tips caused by rigorous and continuous typing for the anniversary post haven't been fully recovered and i am back with another post within a span of 3 days driven by some special cause.


All of you must be well aware of that Phantom's very first strip 'The Singh Brotherhood' appeared in newspapers on 17th Feb. 1936,hence February could be termed as Phantom's month and Comic World would be celebrating this month by posting different-different features/comics relating to Phantom in general.


To start with here is the review of 'The Gold Key years:Volume 1' published by Hermes Press Publication.You must be knowing that Hermes Press is the publication which has recently brought out the 3 volumes of Phantom Daily strips and planning to publish all Gold key,King,Charlton and Sundays too.


The 'Gold Key' was the publishing banner of K.K.Publications of US which published 17 comic books of Phantom based on Lee Falk original strips(except issue no.11,12 and 13) illustrated by Bill Lignate and script by Bill Haris(from issue no.1-10) and Bill Lignate(issue no.11-17) within the period spanning from Nov.1962 to July 1966.


In this series Hermes Press has published the first 8 stories of Gold Key in its 1st Volume followed by a 2nd volume consisting of remaining nine stories out of a total 17 Gold Key stories.

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# 5th Anniversary Post

Friends a warm welcome to all of you at this special occasion which is the 5th anniversary of this blog.A whole five years have been elapsed since Comic World came into existence on blogosphere with a motive behind to share and discuss the comics,specially Indrajal comics,with all of you. 

In 2007,debut year of the blog,a total of 87 posts were posted in a span of one year in which mostly were Indrajal comics and that too dual version of a single issue.After arrival of 2008 several other comic blogs came into existence too with a purpose of sharing Indrajal comics as a result the no. of posts reduced to 43 in its 2nd year.


The depletion of limited quota of 803 IJC at a quick rate made me think that what will be the future of blog after all IJC issues will be posted ! This concern made me to switch over to other non-IJC comics and my passion associated with comics in general made me to discuss/post more and more about comics,novels,magazine which added a variety and difference to this blog.The posting frequency,though,decreased but the colors and variations did certainly added. 


In the meantime i steered towards my other passion movies also which prompted me to prepare posts on movies like SHOLAY,talented but defunct directors and popular film magazines too which was appreciated by all of you.


Once moved away from mere comic posting it further disinterested me to post comic links only and i started looking upon any such opportunity which inspired me to discuss/share something meaningful along with comic links,thus trading of with the posting frequency.The no. of post per year reduced further but selectivity and variety increased accordingly.


Of late i discovered the opportunity of doing something that which i was longing from a long time,i.e.,discussing in detail about the comparative study between original Phantom strips and published Indian comic books over these strips such as Indrajal and Diamond comics.


These comparative analysis were also liked and quite appreciated by all of you to my satisfaction and served as a inspiring force behind another dream project of mine,i.e.,conversion of all non-Indrajal Phantom strips in Hindi,about which more i will discussing in coming paragraphs.


The blog which was initiated to revive and rekindle passion for Indrajal comics in particular ignited the passion for comics in general and morphed me into a avid comic collector of bygone comics beginning with Indrajal comics and followed by manoj chitra katha,
diamond,chitrbharti,kiran,star comics,amar chitra katha etc to name a few.
Days,months and years passed resulting in growing up of my collection which time to time i did displayed in several posts too.


During the 5 year journey of this blog it happened to interact with finest passionate comic collector/readers all over the world.In beginning the regular visitors were mainly the IJC lover and collectors like Ajay Misra,ICC,TPH,Chandan,Sagnik,Col.Worobu,Bala,Anurag Dixit etc to name a few,and when the focus shifted to comics,magazines and novels in general then avid comic readers like Kuldeep jain,Arun,Lalit,Vijat Kr.Sappatti,Anand emerged with their appreciative knowledge base and nostalgic writing skills.


One of the major achievement during this journey proved to be the mentioning of Comic World in Indian leading daily The Hindustan Times which highlighted and appreciated the different nature and quality of this blog.


Since then the journey is still ON despite of daily life hectic schedule and other priorities of life but missing certainly that much level of enthusiasm which was earlier,anyway lets see till when this journey could be continued through this blog.


So,after the preface lets begin this special anniversary post welcoming all of you by a comicoanalysis of a Indrajal comic which was the main inspiring force behind the formation of the blog.
This comic,'Dayalu Pret'(IJC No.321) is scanned,analysed and posted by a dear friend and fantastic comic lover cum collector Vishal Sharma in his unique posting style which is similar to a poet singing heroic ballads.
For his unmatched style of posting all credit for this comic along with a heartfelt thanks goes to him.   


"Dayalu Pret"(By Vishal sharma)

(Cover Courtesy : Zaheer Bhai)

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# " जंगल से बुलावा "

दोस्तों,सबसे पहले इस ब्लॉग के सभी पाठकों को नव-वर्ष की हार्दिक शुभकामनाएं | उसके बाद ख़ुशी की खबर यह है की इस वर्ष के प्रथम दिन ही एक नयी पोस्ट लेकर हाज़िर हुए हैं जनाब विशाल शर्मा जी अपने चिरपरिचित जोशीले अंदाज़ में जो पढ़ने वालों के दिल में खलबली मचा देता है | इनका प्रस्तुतीकरण ऐसा होता है जैसे कोई कवि वीर रस से सरोबार कोई कविता भरी महफ़िल में पेश कर रहा हो | 

यह कॉमिक वर्ल्ड के लिए सौभाग्य की बात है की अपनी कविता पेश करने के लिए इन्होने कॉमिक वर्ल्ड को चुना जिसके लिए इन्हें हार्दिक धन्यवाद् | 

तो दोस्तों मैं ज़्यादा देर तक आपके और इस कॉमिक के बीच नहीं आते हुए पेश करता हूँ विशाल शर्मा जी का नायब प्रस्तुतीकरण "जंगल से बुलावा" उन्ही के अंदाज़ में उन्ही की ज़बानी |

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# Shammi & Dev

The later half of this year proved quite unfortunate for Indian film industry as it took away two of the finest suave stars of their time of Bollywood viz flamboyant Shammi Kapoor and evergreen Dev Anand.
A lot of already has been written in print media as obituary about these two hence i don't wish to add more in it except posting here some of the unseen vintage pix and interview/article about these two deceased actors taken from magazines of 60's.

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# पठनीय 'पाठक'

दोस्तों तकरीबन दो साल पहले की एक पोस्ट में मैंने लुगदी साहित्य के चर्चित उपन्यास एवं उपन्यासकारों जैसे की वेद प्रकाश शर्मा,गुलशन नंदा,ओम प्रकाश शर्मा,वेद प्रकाश कम्बोज,राजहंस,प्रेम बाजपाई इत्यादि का शदीद ज़िक्र किया था जिसमे आम हिंदी पाठक के बीच इन लुगदी साहित्य के उपन्यासों की लोकप्रियता और इन उपन्यासकारों के रुतबे पर भी चर्चा की गयी थी | 

उस वृहद पोस्ट में-जिसे आप सबकी काफ़ी सराहना भी प्राप्त हुई थी-लुगदी साहित्य के तक़रीबन तमाम लोकप्रिय उपन्यासकारों का नाम लिया गया था लेकिन एक बहुत बड़े उपन्यासकार-जिनके रुतबे से मैं उस समय तक वाकिफ़ नहीं था-का नाम छूट गया था जिसकी मुख्य वजह थी मेरी उन उपन्यासकार के उपन्यासों से नावकफियत क्योंकि तबसे पहले मैंने उनका एक भी उपन्यास नहीं पढ़ा था |

वो नामचीन उपन्यासकार हैं जनाब सुरेन्द्र मोहन पाठक(जन्म:19 फ़रवरी 1940) जो मौजूदा उपन्यासकारों में लोकप्रियता के पायदान की सबसे ऊँची सीढ़ी पर विराजमान हैं | 

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# The Lost World

Friends there was a time when rental library culture was flourishing all over India and specially in northern India.
In almost every mohalla of every town there were small libraries which use to provide comics/novels on rent to the readers,the rent being normally 10% of the printed price of comics/novels.


The library business was quite a profitable one as a majority of Indian middle class readership could afford to read via renting only,in many cities library business established like a self funded small scale business providing employment to a large volume of under educated Indian population.


Mostly a library was formed by those persons only who themselves have great interest in reading and after purchasing comics/novels continuously finally comes up with the novel idea that why not to earn by this habit also !


As i have also mentioned many times that during my school days i too use to open up a temporary library at my home which was functional in summer holidays where i first use to read all comics myself and then put them in library for renting.


In many libraries there was also facility of home delivery and home picking where one or two library guys use to deliver comics/magazines/novels on bicycle to nearby homes and pick it also after stipulated time along with rent.
Local libraries were the most voluminous customer of the local comics/mags/novel dealer.In my city only there were as many as 15-20 renting libraries within a radius of 4-5 Km.


But later on time changed and with the advent of TV first then video then video games,mobile and now internet reading culture suffered a huge setback which laid a drastic effect on library business and slowly slowly almost all renting libraries from cities and towns got vanished.  
Now neither i could find a renting library anywhere i visit and nor do i hear about it.


Recently when i went to my home town then somehow i thought of to search any of the still existing rental libraries nearby my locality and in the process i was able to found two of them about which i am going to discuss here.

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# Transliterated Phantom Strips

Updated:18th July
..............................
Friends,late Lee Falk wrote a total of 150 Sunday Strips and 195 Daily Strips,means a total of 345 strips in all.Times of India publication  published 105 Sunday and 111 Daily Strips under banner of Indrajal comics in both English and Hindi language,meaning that a total of 216 strips out of 345 were published in Hindi,thus leaving behind 129 strips which were never published in Hindi in India(except a very few which were published by Diamond comics publication).

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# Kimberly's Diamonds

The Kimberly Diamonds is another among one of my favorite Phantom story which was published as Daily Strip No.154 spanning from 28th May to 9th Sept.1984.
It was also published by Indrajal comics in two parts subsequently titled as 'Curse Of The Kimberly Diamonds' in Vol.22 No.43 & 44.(1985)
This is one of those rare stories in which adventure passes from father to son and the left out job of 20th Phantom was eventually completed by his son,21st Phantom.

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# The Jungle Patrol

दोस्तों काफ़ी मुद्दत से इस मौजूं पर लिखने की सोच रहा था जिसपर ज़िक्र करने के लिए मेरी उँगलियाँ इस वक़्त कीबोर्ड पर थिरक रही हैं.यूँ तो वेताल की मरहूम फ़ाल्क लिखित सभी कहानियां अपने आप में बेजोड़ हैं लेकिन वो कहानियां जिसमे वेताल पुरखों के कारनामे बयान किये गए हैं वो अपने-आप में लासानी(बेमिसाल)और लाफ़ानी(अमर)हैं.ऐसी ही एक कहानी है जो यह बताती है की जंगल गश्ती दल कैसे वजूद में आया,और यह कहानी है The Founding of Jungle Patrol(Sunday Strip No.64).

यह कहानी 12th वेताल के समय की है जिसमे वेताल ने समुद्री दस्यु के सबसे बदनाम दल को ख़त्म कर उन्ही के द्वारा जंगल गश्ती दल की स्थापना की.....है न अचरज की बात!

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