[vkochar]

Don't know if a thread exists on Comic Books. However please merge if it does else here is a new one.

I was a big big comic reader in my early school years. I developed this habit in 1988 when I was 6 years old and we were in Bombay. I grew up in Bandra and I still remember the many many comic book shops around that areas where we could rent / buy second hand and new of course. I also remember entire roads on Sundays and some shops on Linking road.

I also remember Bike Rental places where I used to hire BMX's and ride them. Do wheelies. Ah Good old days !

So many many years back I stuffed my comics in a few cartons and kept them somewhere.

And then we moved houses back in 2009 and somehow a vague distant memory of where I kept these always remained. When the 21 day lockdown was announced I started cleaning the terrace with my driver and there were 2 locked small store rooms made on the terrace that I never opened and no idea what it contained. I thought maybe these cartons are here and we went and found 2 out of 3 cartons. A 3rd one with some LP's still remain missing.

I have laid them on a table and will start organising them tomorrow.

I gave my daughter and son a TINTIN and an ASTERIX and they could not be bothered since the have Ipads and Phones and I am afraid Youtube wins any day over these.

I am going to store these properly now.

Here are a few pictures of the treasure I found.

I checked online and some of these are pretty valuable I am told

[am1m]

Nice!

Personally, I find that I can no longer read Archie comics. I used to read so many when I was a kid, but don't find the story lines interesting anymore. Can still read Asterix, Tintin, Mandrake, Phantom and a lot of the DC Marvel stories, of course Amar Chitra Khata is as interesting as ever. Tinkle too seems less interesting than before.

[Amit_breakfree]

Good old memories.

Anyone here remembers Indian action superheroes - Super Commando Dhruva, Doga, Nagraj - they might seem to be a rip off from the Western ones, but they had their own sense of originality and background.

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

[AZT]

Had borrowed this from a friend a while back and never got down to reading it. Now looks like a good time to start

[indian21r]

A friend of mine had excellent collection of comics. I read quite a few of them. Dennis the menace and Chacha Chaudary stories were favorite of mine at that time. I guess the theme continues for me even now. I either like mystery stuff or comedy stuff.

Originally Posted by AZT

Had borrowed this from a friend a while back and never got down to reading it. Now looks like a good time to start

An excellent read. Have read the complete collection ages ago.

[jkrishnakj]

I grew up with heavy doses of :
1. Phantom
2. Mandrake
3. Chandamama
4. Gokulam ( English & Tamil versions)

I used to have binders and binders of each, which my cousins used to take away. I now wonder where they might be lying, but these 4 above were my childhood all time favourites.

[hiren.mistry]

Originally Posted by AZT

Had borrowed this from a friend a while back and never got down to reading it. Now looks like a good time to start Attachment 1987012

Attachment 1987013

I've got the entire collection many years ago. Calvin and Hobbes is my fav comic series and have read them multiple times...
Everyone must read these once.

[naveenroy]

Thanks for starting this awesome thread! I love "graphic novels" too LOL.

As was all of us, I was crazy for comics - Commando, Conan the Barbarian (for the artwork wink wink), Phantom, Mandrake the magician, Modesty Blaise, Asterix and Obelix, Tintin are my earliest memories.

Of late, I am getting back into reading graphic novels - one of my favourites has been "Habibi". Spectacular artwork.

These days, I read them online from my local library - I use the Hoopla app or Libby.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by Amit_breakfree

...

Anyone here remembers Indian action superheroes - Super Commando Dhruva, Doga, Nagraj....

Most of my comics are back home at my parents' place. I do have a load of Raj Comics from over the years. Bankelal was my funny favorite.

I'll check my book storage on the weekend to see if I have some with me in Bangalore.

Better half has a load of Tinkle double-double digests (the two doubles is not a typo) but she refuses to share.

[chase_nt]

I was just a toddler when I was introduced to comic books by my father. I still remember the good old days back in the early 80’s when I would lie in bed and my dad would read comics to me while flipping through the pages showing me the pictures as I was still too young to read back then. That was the beginning of my fascination with comic books which ebbed back in the mid 90’s as I got busy with stuff like college, work etc. I began to miss comic books over the years and flirted with rekindling my passion but shied away after seeing how costly new comics were.


As a kid I would say I was more interested in comic books rather than toys. Comics helped me develop my vocabulary as a kid and also were a vista into a world of imagination. Thanks to my father by the time I was 12 I had a massive comic collection that was the cynosure of other kids. I had every comic imaginable right from A-Archie to Z-Zorro. I was mostly into Walt Disney comics and Archie comics which constituted the bulk of my collection. I never really liked the desi comics such as chacha choudhary or tinkle etc. Back in the early 80’s Chandamama classics and comics had a run of Walt Disney comics under the aegis Wonder World and I had each and every comic from that collection. These very comics are most sought after by comic collectors today. I was a huge Disney fan and loved Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse and the entire Disney gang. I also had a huge collection of London Editions Disney Magazines. As I grew older somewhere around 1987 I got hooked to Archie comics and those books began to grow into a plethora in my comic collection. Archie comics such as Jughead’s Time Police, Archie’s R/c racers, Archie 3000 to name a few were part of my collection. I also had the entire Enid Blyton’s Famous Five series in the form of comics. I was introduced to Tintin the boy reporter sometime in 1987 when I was 9 years old and as the years rolled on I had read each Tintin comic book and owned 80% of the entire Tintin collection. I have to be honest and say that I didn’t have a lot of superhero comics in my collection compared to Disney/Archie comics but I did have quite a few Indrajal comics featuring Phantom and Mandrake the Magician. Indrajal comics are now collector’s items with good examples fetching close to Rs 50,000 for a single paperback. Back in the good old days of the 80’s the comics that I used to buy in paperback form used to cost between Rs 2 to Rs 10 while the most expensive comic I ever made my dad purchase for me was a Tintin comic that cost Rs 40.


As the years went on (especially in the mid to late 90’s in my city) it became increasingly difficult to get comics and I was also tired of rereading my old collection of comics over and over again. I stored all my comics in boxes and left them lying in a storeroom at home never to see them again. Basically I got busy with college/life in general and one fine day after many years I was really nostalgic and wanted to go through my old comics again but unfortunately my entire comic collection was destroyed by termites. It felt devastating to have lost all those books which were an integral part of my childhood which had so many memories associated with them. They say you don’t really know the value of something unless you lose it and that is absolutely true. Alas I never really knew the value of those comics when I was a kid as they were just a source of entertainment for me however more than the monetary value of my collection in today’s money it’s the memories associated with my collection that were lost forever.


Fast forward to 2017 and one fine day after years of toying with the idea of buying/reading comics I decided to bite the bullet and start building my comic collection yet again. Though I can never get the books that were lost due to my carelessness I now know better and cherish each and every book in my collection. For those of you wondering, I’ve been spending 1 hour each day reading comics since 2017. I’d like to spend more time reading comics but buying comics nowadays is an expensive proposition and I need to ration myself so I don’t end up splurging too much dough on comic books. The following are photos of the comics that I’ve accumulated since 2017. Take a wild guess on how much I’ve spent on my collection so far.

[xway]

i am big time fan of Tintin.

The pictures and detailing is so much that i have not seen in any comics till date.

I had visited so many countries and understood their dressing, culture, food and traditions just by reading Tintin.
Each and every picture, the detailing including the flaura, fauna, language, to the nuts and bolts everything is impeccable.

Have read the comics more than a 100 times over but still enjoy it as much even when these are almost 70 years old.

Have downloaded the softcopies on tablet and mobile and read it now too.

[BZ25]

Originally Posted by AZT

Had borrowed this from a friend a while back and never got down to reading it. Now looks like a good time to start

Oh wow! I too have this collection, the artwork is so beautiful. And Bill Watterson is definitely one of the best cartoonists ever.








Though I prefer Marvel over DC, I don't have any Marvel comics lying around at home.


All DC fanboys will recognise this comic, that led to the reboot of the DC Universe in 2011, 'New 52.'






And a true comic fan knows how important this one is:









And I have a few Archie's, Tintin among others lying around. Some random images:





Rest in Peace Albert Uderzo, you will be greatly missed.

[Sreesh1009]

This is a great thread! Quite refreshing during the current times.

My favorite comic books would have to be:
1. Tinkle
I used to stand in bookstores like Crossword, Sapna etc and stand and read Tinkle. Loved the illustrations and stories.

2. Calvin and Hobbes
Another series that had such evolved sense of humour and imagination. Both the characters cracked me up no matter what. A good friend if you've had a trying day.

3. Amar Chitra Kathas
As a kid I was always attracted to mythological stories. I started reading ACKs at an age of 5 and was obsessed with them. We would go to Bookworm at MG road and buy few. ACKs are the only reason my knowledge about Hindu Gods is at it's peak.

Thank you for this thread. Bought back many happy memories

[1.2TSI7DSG]

I am on my way to collect the Peanuts Collection. Have collected from 12 years in 6 books!!!

[deathwalkr]

Started young with Tinkle, Amar Chitra Katha, Phantom, Flash Gordon, Mandrake etc in the 80s. Still have them bound and my parents take good care of them

Then it was all Marvel and DC with Thor hogging up my reading and collecting. Spawn and The Darkness were some good reads as well.

I still buy the TPBs of Thor when they come up on sale and pretty soon i hope to collect all from the modern era [post 90s].

Was all the more saddened how Marvel movies made him in the last avengers movie :(