Showing posts with label Review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Review. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

# 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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Wednesday, June 30, 2010

# Review of Vol.1 of Hermes Press Phantom Dailies

When it was announced by Hermes Press last year that they will print all Lee Falk written Phantom Dailies and Sundays in full color,from then the first volume(1936-37) of the series was being eagerly awaited by Phantom phans all over the world.
This very first volume was released in March-April this year but in India till May it was not available within reasonable price range which could be afforded by an average Indian reader.
Its cheaper(around Rs.1400-1500/-) version can now be procured through online shopping sites such as flipkart,infibeam etc.


















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Monday, February 15, 2010

# My Name Is Khan & I m Not a Terrorist

"My Name Is Khan & I Am Not A Terrorist"
"There Are Only Two Types Of Peoples In The World-Bad Peoples & Good Peoples"
"मेरा नाम खान है और मैं दहशतगर्द नहीं हूँ"

"दुनिया में सिर्फ दो तरह के लोग होते हैं--अच्छे लोग और बुरे लोग"
























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Wednesday, December 31, 2008

#Comic No.100:New Year Post


A very warm and Happy New Year (2009) to all of my visitors, friends, contributors and comic lovers at all over the word. May our heartiest ambitions may be fulfilled this year, may our country be a much better place to live in.

**नया साल बहुत बहुत मुबारक हो **

Well, today is a double celebration moment as today is the 100th comic post being posted on joyous moment of arrival of New Year. Though, technically more than 100 comics have been already posted as CW used to post both versions of comics in its initial stage.
When CW was born on 4th Feb.2007 it was not expected at all it to go so long to complete almost 2 years, as after arrival of CW a quite few other fabulous comic blogs also came into picture and shared the load of posting comics hence it was supposed that the Indrajal quota (of 803 comics) will soon be depleted thus putting curtains over all comic blogs but the quota is still isn’t depleted yet and a few blogs are also inactive hence leaving room for the remaining blogs to carry on.

The comic-trilogy which reveals the identity of Octon was being demanded by many comic lovers from a long time,its being presented now.The 2nd and 3rd part are scanned and generously contributed by TPH for CW's 100th post for which i am very much thankful to him,whereas the 1st part is scanned by me.























While going through a Phantom Fan forum thread I came across with an interesting topic, which was “Why do you love/like Phantom?” indeed it’s an interesting topic that why we love Phantom. After going through my thoughts over Phantom I have these following points over which I can say why I love Phantom:
1. He fights against cruelty, injustice and evil though he has no superpowers, in fact he is a common man and as common as any of the person reading this post.
2. He uses effectively the powers which a common man can enhance and sharpen such as wits, strength and a quick decision taking ability.
3. He uses circumstances and myths to strike fear in evildoers mind and use it to the fullest in fight with them.
4. He was a loyal lover and is a faithful, dedicated husband and loving father.
5. He loves animals and is the most efficient animal conserver and trainer.
6. He love human life and thus never kills any human.
7. He is a follower and staunch supporter of democracy and human rights.
8. He is well educated and equipped with well up to date modern information.
9. He is not materialistic, proudy, arrogant and greedy at all though perhaps he is the planet’s richest person.
10. He is a strong supporter of secular values and never shows any partiality towards anybody on the basis of religion or regional grounds.
These are few points in support of my liking towards Phantom. Now, what will you say if you are asked that why do you love/like Phantom? Pls. take part in the discussion and put forth your points in support of your answer.

'The Strange Contest' (Vol.25-No.34) is a republication of the 'The Law of Jungle' (No.309),
which in turn is the comic version of Sunday Strip No.35,'Madcap Marion' (31-5-53' to18-10-53').
Though 'The Law of Jungle' has been already posted on Indrajal blogs but it doesn't mean that the republished version isn't worth of posting!! So here are the both republished version as well as the orignal strip too.Republished version is a CW orignal and strip is,with thanks,from Ajay.Enjoy both...




Download Strip


Phantom comics have been published in different languages all over the world with attractive covers.If it is asked which Phantom comic contain the most attractive covers then in this context the names which can be mentioned for sure are Fantomen(Sweden),Gold Key(USA) and Indrajal comics(India). It’s rather strange to know that the longest lasting Phantom publication, Frew comics (Australia), has a history of producing of very ordinary covers. Frew is still in publication but the quality of covers is still pretty ordinary.
Look at some classic covers produced by Fantomen and Gold Key....







































































After Swedish Fantomet our Indrajal comics certainly has produced some classic covers though at a couple of times it simply lifted the cover design from of those Gold Keys. Here you can witness those copied covers….

Original Gold Key Covers....






















Copied Indrajal Covers.....
























GHAJINI:A Short Term Memory



















Today watched again a movie after a long time in theater,hence can't stop myself writing about it.The movie was "Ghajini",yes the current most hyped movie.Normally a Aamir Khan movie raises expectations above a certain level and particularly after 'Taare Zameen Pe' the expectation level was certainly very high.
'Ghajini' fails to meet all those expectation and is just a average movie if compared with normal Aamir Khan class.
Aamir Khan(Sanjay) is a multimillionaire CEO,accidentally falls in love with common street girl Aasin(Kalpna) who is murdered by a Kidney mafia Don Ghajini(Pradeep Rawat) in presence of Aamir who was also intended to be murdered but survives somehow and due to head wounds got affected by a short term memory loss disorder (anterograde amnesia) which wipes out his memory after each 15 minutes just like wind screen wiper wipes out raindrops.
To make him remember the things Aamir tattooes his body by necessary details of the culprits,and how he avenges the death of Kalpna forms the rest crunch of the story.
No doubt the idea is novel for Indian viewers,which in turn is 'inspired' from a Hollywood movie (Momento) but the film fails miserably in the script part.Aamir-Aasin romance in not developed and built up convincingly to reach to that so strong emotional level where the gruesome revenge can be justified.
Screenplay is not so tight and offers not much grip over screen happenings thus loosening the necessary cohesiveness between the different part of story.The biggest drawback of the story is selection of a comparatively weak villain Ghajini(Pradeep Rawat) to match the persona of Aamir Khan.The script demand was of somewhat more evil and more 'hateful' bad personality where Pradeep Rawat lacks miles behind.To glorify and 'use' the latest developed 8 pack abs body of Aamir few fight scenes are pumped and exaggerated unnecessarily,specially the climax where the viewer is made to think that whether its a movie or a Aamir Khan's WWF show.
On the positive side the devotion and newly developed body of Aamir Khan is the wonder side of story which justifies him in thrashing out a bunch of villains together at a time,he performs the role with a expert ease but weak treatment and 'pothole' script blindfolds him.
Aasin (Kalpna) looks like a seasoned actress,Jiah Khan,Tinu Anand,Riyaz Khan fill the bill effectively.A.R.Rehman music is worth humming in a couple of songs only.Director A R Murugadoss direction is quite pacy and loud
.
In totality Ghajini will prove only a depreciation to Aamir Khan's reputation if judged by quality rather than mere box office collection.






















Cast:Aamir Khan,Aasin Thottumkal,Pradeep Rawat,Jiah Khan,Tinu Anand,Khalid Siddiqi,Vibha Chhibbar,Kunal Vijaykar,Anjum RajabAli,Riyaz Khan.
Producer:Allu Arvind,Madhu Verma
Direction,Story,Screenplay
:A R Murugadoss

Music:A R Rehman
Lyrics:Prasoon Joshi
Photography:Ravi K.Chandran
Actions:Peter Hein
Dances:Ahmad Khan
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Sunday, November 11, 2007

Frews Vs Indrajals/Diamond Digest/Amar Chitra katha :Om Shanti Om

Recently i got a few double copies of Phantom Diamond Digest,the cover of which are being put up here






















Friends i am looking for Frews and Indrajal Comics (below no.300,English and/or Hindi) and i am having quite considerable amount of spare Indrajals (Both English/Hindi),Diamond Digests (Phantom/Mandrake both English/Hindi) and Amar Chitra Katha (Both English/Hindi).
So anybody,specially any Australian friend interested in trading/swapping Frews in lieu of Indrajal/Diamond Digest/Amar Chitra Kathas/Tinkles then kindly please contact at comik.world@gmail.com for further details.
I also got a Diamond Digest consisting of Mandrake story never published by Indrajal but i am not sure about the serial no. of the strip.Here are the scans of two pages of it..can anybody help in locating the details of the strip...!!..Sagnik...!!!





















OM SHANTI OM:Reincarnation of KARZ


After quite a long time i watched any movie in theater and i enjoyed it quite a bit (not the movie particularly but the environment there,claps,exclamations on the entry of Shahrukh,whistles and sighs on the entry of Deepika,Hangama when the song Dard-e-Disco reels out)....all that was quite enjoyable.
But if talking about the movie itself its a weak reincarnation of Block Buster of 80s,Karz.
The movie opens with the scene where the famous song of movie Karz (Meri Umar ke Naujawano...) was being filmed and Om Prakash (Shahrukh Khan) was in the crowd of Jr.artists,yeah,he plays a Jr.artist who is a die hard fan cum lover of the famous heroine Shanti Priya (Deepika Padukone) of that time.
After few incidents in his favour he gets quite well acquainted with her and later came to know that Shanti was married secretly with top notch producer Mukesh Mehra (Arjun Rampal) who hasn't disclosed the marriage in order to sustain the image of Shanti and ultimately to prevent any adverse effect which might reflect on his dream project 'Om Shanti Om'.
But Shanti was more eager to get a married lady status and to be a mother rather than a top class heroine and presses Mukesh to declare the marriage as she was pregnant..,cunning Mukesh pacify her for the time being and plans to eliminate her in which he was quite successful expect that Shahrukh came to knew about his heinous plans but was unable to save Shanti and in the try, himself gets succumbed to injuries.
30 Years later Shahrukh gets reincarnated as Om Kapoor,a top film star haunted by the memories of his previous birth..how he came to find out about his last birth story and how he avenges the death of Shanti forms the rest crunch of the story.
As a remake of KARZ its naturally prone to get compared with the original one,in which it fails quite miserably as its music stands nowhere in the comparison of explosive and evergreen score of KARZ.The most hyped Dard-e-disco,an item song,is a filler which is of no help in smoothing out the flow of movie...also the climax ('inspired' by the classic Madhumati) is quite predictable with no shocking effect in it.
If talking about the positive points of the movie it is good in parts..the scene,inspired by the movie Naseeb,in which a galaxy of stars were congregated for a song ('John johny janardan.....' in Naseeb) provides eye soothing effect to watch so many stars together in a scene,the scene where Shahrukh gets his 1st Filmfare award and gives the speech driven by haunting memories of his rebirth,the scene where the union of mother and son takes place.
Also the positivity about music is the song 'Agar mai kahu...." which feels sweet and poetic to ears.
Shahrukh handles the role with a experts ease and displays his trademark mannerisms more too often,newcomer Deepika Padukone fails to create any sensation and hence seems so-so,but still its too early to pass any solid judgment about her..rest of the cast Kirron Kher,Shreyas Talpade,Javed Khan,Bindu etc did justice to their roles.
Vishal-Shekhar score is just ok,Javed Akhtar brilliance glitters in only one song 'Agar mai kahu...'
Overall this Farah Khan movie can prove to be a fair timepass if watched in a cool time sans-ticket in black after the initial Shahrukh euphoria settles down.

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