[gatsby_great]

During childhood I was a huge fan of Raj Comics and used to buy complete fortnightly sets for which there was a discount of 25%.
I had most of their published comics that came out till 2003. Later got a feeling that most of the characters were hugely inspired by some established comic characters from the West. Also, the comics became costlier. Still feel pretty nostalgic when I come across them anywhere.

[vibbs]

Originally Posted by gatsby_great

During childhood I was a huge fan of Raj Comics and used to buy complete fortnightly sets for which there was a discount of 25%.
I.

Same here. An out & out Raj comics fan. Nagraj, super commando Dhruv, Doga, Bhokal all fill my childhood memories.

A few from my collection that I left back in India while relocating to Singapore.

[Ithaca]

One question for all book & Comic book lovers.

What is the best way to avoid termite infestation.
I managed to lose a lot of my fiction book sets due to a wet wall which caused termite infestation. And have bought those books on Kindle now.

I would love to buy all the books as posted by forum member chase_nt (The Comic Books Thread) but I am scared of termites.

Thanks in advance.

[GeeTee TSI]

Lovely memories of my visits to my maternal grandmother's house in Chembur during summer vacations throughout the nineties. I vividly recall re-reading the original 80's editions of Amar Chitra Katha (priced at Rs 3/- or lesser) collected and neatly bound in sequence by my mother and her siblings. They were very much in demand and enjoyed by atleast 2 more generations.

The train journeys to Mumbai from Calicut (then) used to invariably be accompanied by Tinkle (Holiday special if I got lucky). I used to relish Gokulam (with its very South Indian styled Jayabalan Stories), Champak and not to mention Chacha Choudhary with its Hindi translation making into English editions as 'arrre'

[chase_nt]

Originally Posted by Ithaca

One question for all book & Comic book lovers.

What is the best way to avoid termite infestation.

That's a good question. What I do nowadays is remove all my comic books off the shelf once every ten days, inspect them as well as clean the shelf. Its a time taking process especially with the sheer number of comics I have and I wish there were some other easier way of preventing pests such a termites or silverfish from destroying them.

[deathwalkr]

Originally Posted by Ithaca

One question for all book & Comic book lovers.

What is the best way to avoid termite infestation.
I managed to lose a lot of my fiction book sets due to a wet wall which caused termite infestation. And have bought those books on Kindle now.

I would love to buy all the books as posted by forum member chase_nt (The Comic Books Thread) but I am scared of termites.

Thanks in advance.

Ouch that hurts. Well plastic covers help and i guess prevention is better than cure. I use moisture absorbers in my book shelf and ensure books are not in contact with walls.

Some of my books. Also in the process of completing the hardcover editions of Spawn origins. But 2 out of 10 are out of print and are not available anywhere :(

[Ithaca]

Originally Posted by chase_nt

That's a good question. What I do nowadays is remove all my comic books off the shelf once every ten days, inspect them as well as clean the shelf. Its a time taking process especially with the sheer number of comics I have and I wish there were some other easier way of preventing pests such a termites or silverfish from destroying them

I admire your commitment to do this every 10 days but after what I went through, I think it is essential. After the termite infestation, we hired Pest Control Of India who did the treatment and as of now, there is termite problem. Fingers crossed.

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

Ouch that hurts. Well plastic covers help and i guess prevention is better than cure. I use moisture absorbers in my book shelf and ensure books are not in contact with walls.

I envy that collection. Will begin my journey once this lockdown is over because for now, Amazon will not deliver non-essentials for a while. Will try and source moisture absorbers and use them.

This is my humble collection of most of the Asterix & TinTin I could lay my hands on. And three graphic novels by James Patterson based on his Maximum Ride series.

[deathwalkr]

Originally Posted by Ithaca

I envy that collection. Will begin my journey once this lockdown is over because for now, Amazon will not deliver non-essentials for a while. Will try and source moisture absorbers and use them.

This is my humble collection of most of the Asterix & TinTin I could lay my hands on. And three graphic novels by James Patterson based on his Maximum Ride series.

Thanks Asterix and Tintin are always a surefire way to get started right. Happy collecting.

[ads295]

It's funny you should mention Tintin... I visited a used bookstore in Delhi recently and suddenly got this craze for Tintin. My brother has the complete Asterix and Calvin and Hobbes collection. I've collected 15 of the 24 so far, am gathering the books piece by piece. Struck a few good deals on OLX and bought mint condition Tintin comics for Rs 200 each.
Also, I managed to find the Joe Zette and Jocko set of comics from a guy in West Bengal, I bought all three of them, I think they're out of publication now (they were written by Herge). Check those out, they're really cool too.

[npal]

Until I completed school, all I had access to were comics in Tamil, in a small town in TN. But we were lucky - we had translated comics from all over the world from a few comics publishers. Spider and Archie and Modesty Blaise from lion comics, a few British characters like Johnny Nero and Steel Claw from Muthu comics, James Bond and westerns from Rani comics. Indrajal used to be available translated into Tamil too.



What little I'd bought those days are still with me, although crumbling a bit. BTW, lion comics and a few other imprints from the group are still getting published VERY regularly, and I still have a subscription going. They do reprints occasionally of older hits as part of the subscription, and I believe they're quite popular in book fairs which happen annually in Chennai and other cities in TN.



As for preservation from termites - I keep them in plastic covers, the same covers they're delivered in. I keep them in dry shelves. I've heard of special plastic covers available in US for preserving books, but haven't bought any so far since what I'm doing seems to be holding up decently.

[rajwheelz]

During my school days sharing of comic books was done more frequently than sharing of lunch boxes. Approaching 50 now, I still have the below fresh in my mind and I can still smell the comic pages in my mind.
1. Do you dare scare me when I am cutting mistletoe Asterix !
2. Blistering barnacles, Thundering Tycoons !
3. And kalia hoodwinks doob doob again
4. The karate kicks of Bahadur The Brave
5. The mighty muscular Lothar ( Mind you, Bahadur & Lothar were my fitness inspirations those days )
6. And Uncle Pai of course and all of his ACKs
7. Chacha Chaudary's brain works faster than a computer !
8. The good ol' Archie of Riverdale. I loved the puns exchanged between Reggie and Juggie
9. Champak
10. Chandamama ( Vikram & Betal was my favorite )

[BombayDragon]

I love comics but dont get time to read anymore.

In 2017 I actually started the first online store in India selling original US Marvel & DC comics.

The idea was to create an online bookstore but I soon realised that its not possible to compete with Amazon & Flipkart on pricing. In many instances their selling price was equal to or less than my cost price mainly because book distributors who supply to retail bookstores sell directly on Amazon at close to whole sale prices. This explains why most book stores have closed.

I continued to sell comics online as these are not available on Amazon but there were hardly any sales mostly because I cannot invest in marketing.

As far as I know mine is the only site in India where buyers can pre-order all issues of comics like DC, Marvel etc. I dont have any pre-orders listed on my site right now because the supply chain got impacted due to Covid but as I said there are hardly any clients and this kind of thing is more of a hobby than business in countries like us given the issues with unpredictable customs duties etc. The reality is people dont read comics anymore :(

[ritzy]

Originally Posted by Amit_breakfree

Good old memories.

Not many would know, however, Super Commando Dhruva was once ranked as one of top 10 superheroes in the world (by number of votes).

I was a great fan of Raj comics’ characters in my school days. Super Commando Dhruv remained my favorite superhero. IIRC, Anupam Verma, who created Dhruv, was responsible for the turnaround of Raj Comics in those years. He brought in the scientific edge and crisp sketching to the characters he wrote for.
I am not sure if that was all his original work, but his writing had good depth & details. Even to this date, I fondly remember many stories of SCD.
Anupam later started writing for Nagraaj franchise, also which IMO changed Nagraaj completely for good. The character and the story plot became deep and intriguing. I fancy that someday a competent direct would make a movie on one of these characters.

[Amit_breakfree]

Originally Posted by ritzy

Anupam Verma, who created Dhruv. Even to this date, I fondly remember many stories of SCD. I fancy that someday a competent direct would make a movie on one of these characters.

Slight correction, Anupam Sinha. I remember almost all the SCD comins which came upto 2006-7 (when I was in 10th). Moved to Delhi and then Hyderabad post that and Raj Comics wasn't as popular at these place as compared to my hometown so lost touch. Three timelines I vividly remember:
1. When Dhruva goes to Paris to find what happened to his family
2. Dhruva and Nagraj coming together. It was like Batman and Superman working together
3. Nagayan - Which was based on Ramayan

I hope so too. We are sitting on a goldmine and no one seems to be interested in utilizing it. There were rumuors that Anurag Kashyap was making a movie on Doga but nothing came out of it. Imagine a well made web-series on some real superhero, rather than again getting Krish 4 and other similar dumb movies.

@chetan_rao - Waiting to see if you manage to get some pics

[slicvic]

A nice article for all comic book fans and in particular for all the Asterix Fans

the 1970s ensured that I had a childhood awash in comics. This was the era of the fortnightly release, all of Rs 1.50, from Amar Chitra Katha and Indrajal Comics. Plus there was the huge backwash of what had never been thrown away in the neighbourhood — mostly of foreign provenance, ranging from Tarzan, Korak, Superman and Batman to Richie Rich, Wendy and Caspar, the Friendly Ghost.

Why are most of these comics or similar ones not available now ?

I remember having an abundance of Indrajal Comics, Richie rich, Casper and so many other titles as a kid.

If we may mangle an advertising slogan written for the watchmakers Patek Philippe, you didn’t merely own a Tintin or an Asterix comic, you wrapped it in polythene so as to be able to lend it after due deliberation to those you thought of as good, rel...

Asterix was built for the long draught, for multiple returns, for top-ups, and for re-reading, because it abounds in visual and textual enigma, in gags that you don’t immediately get, and in gags that make you groan in the here-and-now.

Source: https://www.deccanherald.com/enterta...ix-823804.html