# 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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