#Comic World Draws Attention & Recent Hunt

Friends,first of all a good news for all of you.Your favorite blog Comic World has been mentioned today in Hindi edition of "Hindustan Times".Congrats and thanks to all supporters,friends,readers and visitor as without your support it was not possible for Comic World to attain this status.
The post over Novels,Sushma & Ved Prakash Sharma was discussed in detail in that article.Readers can read that article through this link "Article in 'Hindustan' on Comic World"
Here is a screen shot of that article for easy reference.





















Friends,i was out of station last weekend to attend wedding reception of one of my colleague,taking advantage of this opportunity i carried on with my usual comic hunt and found some good old comics.
Many of times i am asked by many of you that how and where to find old comics/novels.Well,
the best way to find these is to search at the old book shops as i use to do.Whenever i find chance to visit any city,i try to find addresses of old book shops of that city and try hard to visit those shops,same as i did this time.
Whereas my other friends,who were with me during this trip,were busy in utilizing their free time in marketing and shopping & i was searching religiously for comics in the fiercely scorching heat.Sweat was dripping like a open tap from my body but i was working hard to cover as many shops as possible within the available time frame.
Here are the scans of some of those comics/novels which i found during this hunt.This time i was searching for novels of Surendra Mohan Pathak,found none except this old one.I still haven't read it,can anyone throw some light over this particular novel!!




























Found a bunch of 1975's Chandamama sewed together,seems interesting read,will read and let you know.










































Do anyone remember this vintage ad of Poppins....




























Got a couple of Fauladi Singh,but in English......












































Also got these novels with eye catching covers.





























Normally i don't use to take Diamond comics of other than selected heroes but this time took few of these...



























Found this rare and early Manoj Chitra Katha,see the ad of 'Bahu Mange Insaaf' over its back cover page.



























Anupam,this last one is for your project,found a comic from this publication for the very first time.See if it can help you,for details pls drop a mail.

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#Comic No.127 & Sushma

Friends,last post was talked and appreciated quite a lot,thanks to all of you and specially 'Kuldeep,Deep & Ashish' for making out such a thick and long discussion.
My friend Alok,who is making a documentary over Indian comic industry sent these fresh pics of cartoonist "Pran",which he clicked during his interview a few days back.
The name of 'Pran' is taken with great respect in the name of comic industry,his creations "Chacha Chaudhry,Raman,Billoo,Pinky" etc doesn't require any introduction.
So rightly here are the few snaps of Pran in action,its very 1st time to see a Indian illustrator in action,all thanks to Alok only.

































Alok with master craftsman...



Something about him...



His famous creations....













































In last post we discussed about Bal Pocket Books and popular Hindi novelists.In this post we will discuss in very brief about some of the popular Hindi film magazines and some other left out novels.Kuldeep,you may be remembering i mentioned about 'Sushma' in last post.
'Shama(Urdu) & Sushma(Hindi)' were a pioneer and very popular film magazine of Indian Hindi movies.I remember reading lots of Sushma and a few Shamas.The editorial article and stories were used to be very entertaining including other articles from veteran film industry personalities.
Here are the few vintage Sushma covers of 80's.


















































Shama/Sushma were at the peak of popularity in 70's and 80's as they were the first magazine to start highly prized quizzes based on Indian Hindi movies.The cross-word puzzle of Shama and questioner quiz of Sushma were highly popular among Indian masses,in late 80's and early 90's Sushma was the lone magazine to give Televisions as reward for its quizzes.I too have won a audio cassette from one such quiz from Sushma.
One such article popular article was 'Sushma Sabha' in which witty/funny/light questions of readers were answered by the magazine in a very interesting and entertaining manner. Here is the image of one such page from Sushma.Read them yourself to find the quality of those answers.



























Has anyone seen a better pic than this of cute and innocent beauty of Dimple Kapadia...




Deep,the next one is for you,have you ever seen Dharam paji's such a young picture....this one is from the 'Muhurat' of his movie "Shola Aur Shabnam"




A vintage ad and Sushma of 90's....



























Coming back to novels,here are some covers of novels contributed by Deep,have a look and say thanks to him.











































































Also some novel covers from my side of the likes of 'Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyaya' and 'Devkinandan Khatri' who wrote 'Chandrakanta & Bhutnath',and VPS on the similar lines also wrote up 'Devkanta Santati'.I read few parts of Devkanta Santati and find them just ok,what you think about them Kuldeep!




























In the last,finally comic for this post.Its a Fauladi Singh comic,sorry for missing cover,if anyone have its cover then pls send so that it can be included here.





























(P.S:Indrajal comics and Phantom lovers,from a long time i strayed away from posting Indrajal comics and other Phantom/Mandrake stuff,but don't worry will be coming back soon with Indrajal comics.)

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#Bal Pocket Books & Popular Novels

Alike comics,Bal pocket books were also very famous once upon a time.These Bal Pocket Books were used to be like mini novels consisting of stories of King-Queens,Suspense,Thrill,
Murder Mysteries etc.
I remember being a fan of Rajan-Iqbal of S.C.Bedi series before i was addicted to novels in general and to Ved Prakash Sharma in particular. Popular bal pocket books publishers of that time were 'Manoj Pocket Books,Harish Pocket Books,Sadhna Pocket Books,Diamond Pocket Books..etc. Diamond pocket books use to publish novels of almost their comic characters,i.e Fauladi Singh,Chacha-Bhatija,Tauji,Mama-Bhanja and many others,whereas Manoj pocket books use to publish of Ram-Rahim and King-Queen stories. I use to read Rajan-Iqbal series and MPB,though also read a few of Diamond pocket books but liked their comics more rather than pocket books.
Here are some of the images of pocket books from my collection which i purchased in recent past.


































































These are of the famous S.C.Bedi....


























































In the comments section of last post an avid reader and living encyclopedia "Kuldeep" mentioned about Ved Prakash Sharma novels,inspired by his comment i thought to post something on VPS too,checked the old forgotten bag consisting VPS novels,find that rats had made their path into that bag but fortunately not much damage was done except few sides eaten up by rats.Thanks Kuldeep for making me look into my VPS novels before they would have been damaged permanently.
Well,Kuldeep,interestingly there is striking similarity between you and me regarding reading VPS novels. Do you know the very first novel which i read of VPS,before being addicted to him is also "Alfanse Ki Shaadi"!!There was a friend in my Mohalla who was elder to me,he gave me this particular novel to read,at that time i was a master reader and use to read anything whatever comes my way,though alike you novel reading was also a taboo for a kid of 9 years at that time. Prior to 'Alfanse Ki Shaadi' i did had read few novels of 'Manoj,Prem Bajpayi etc..but not liked them much,but after AKS i was totally engrossed into VPS.
I remember visiting daily to the nearby books stall of my locality in search of its concluding part "Kafan Tere Bete Ka" and after a religious inquiry of months finally it did arrived but i was unable to take it as it was costing Rs.6/- which was impossible for a kid to arrange who use to get a meager 10-25 paisa pocket money per day.
With heavy heart i asked shop keeper to keep it booked for me unless i could arrange the required amount. After a month or so of rigorous saving of pocket money i went back leaping to that shop keeper with Rs.6/-(all 25 paisa coins) in my upper shirt pocket.There the shop keeper replies that all the copies has been sold,i was disappointed as never before,walked back to home like a failure or loser.
But fortunately not much time later i find that priced novel at a old book shop and at half the cost of the cover price,i.e for Rs.3/-.....finished that novel at a one go,was fully satisfied that my long wait was rewarded finally.
After it i was addicted to VPS like anything,read all his available novels from a local library and still use to read his new novels which are not a fraction of his oldies,but still somehow i have traces of addiction left in me of him.
Ved Prakash Sharma was at his career best when he was being published by Manoj Pocket books,the format of MPB and its page/printing quality was unmatched.I feel disappointed when i see the page and printing quality of latest novels which is far-far inferior than MPB. The granular cover design of MPB was also something still unmatched and exceptional,i still long to see a cover matching with of those times.




Have a look at the granular cover design of these VPS oldies.











































Do anyone remember "Keshav Pandit & Kanoon Ka Beta"!!One of the best of VPS.


























Ved Prakash Sharma was inspired by Ved Prakash Kamboj and on his lines he started with Vijay series and soon developed a style of his own,created Vikas at a later stage and soon became very popular with Vijay-Vikas series,continued to write on them till "Teen Tilange",which was a non Vijay-Vikas thriller.It was a huge hit after which VPS carved a successful space for non V-V novels. "Naseeb Mera Dushman,Vidhwa Ka Pati,Dulhan Mange Dahez,Sulag Utha Sindoor,Aag Lage Daulat Ko,Kanoon Badal Dalo,Phansi Do Kanoon Ko,Aa Bail Mujhe Maar,Lash Kahan Chhupaun,Insaf ka Sooraj" are some of the successful novels from this space.



















































Apart from VPS i also liked Gulshan Nanda a lot,in my view GN was the best romantic novelist,he was a master craftsmen who had a tight grip over his story line.The focus of his novels was on social issues with a undercurrent of romance in tuned with moral issues.He mesmerized readers with magic of his pen,he was expert in expressing difficult human expressions in simple words,a quality very rare to find.
Gulshan Nanda was the most successful novelist of his time on whose novels many blockbuster movies such as "Kaajal,Pathar Ke Sanam,Ajnabi,Khilona,Hanste Zakhm,Kati Patang,Jheel Ke Us Paar,Sharmeeli,Paley Khan etc..were made. He wrote only 47 novels in all but all his novels were masterpieces.



























If one talks about very first successful thriller and spy novelists of India then the name of Ibne Safi can be taken without any doubt.He was the first novelist to set a trend for spy and series novels,which was followed up by likes of Om Prakash and Ved Prakash Sharma. Ibne Safi was born as 'Asrar Ahmad' in 1928 in U.P.,his work comprises of "Jasoosi Duniya" and "Imran Series" with former use to be published from Nakhat Publications,Allahabd(India) and later from Israr Publications(Pakistan).He was originally a Urdu writer whose work was also used to be translated into Hindi and Bengali. To know more about Ibne Safi please use this link













































There was a time when i use to read any novel which i could find of,during my summer/winter holidays i use to rent many comics/novels per day and devour them.My reading speed was so fast that i use to need at least 3 novels or 10-15 comics per day.That was the time when i read most of other novelists like Om Prakash Sharma,Rajhans,Raanu,Sameer,Kushwaha Kant,Rajvansh and many others.

Here are the few scans of novels of those innumerable novelists.













































































You people must be knowing that screenplay along with dialogues and stills of successful Hindi movies were also used to published as novels by Hind Pocket Books in order to cash the success of these movies.Here are two such novels.

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