A Short Memoir on Comics

Anil Kumar.R

Comics had always fascinated me, especially during my younger days. When I was studying in Middle school (Class 5-7) I will be eagerly waiting every day for the morning news paper, so that I can find out what happened to Mandrake. Those days the news paper subscribed in our home was publishing Mandrake by Lee Falk on every day except on Sundays. On Sunday there was another Lee Falk creation -The Phantom.

The hypnotic Powers of Mandrake and his highly sophisticated mansion Xanadu with CCTV and other modern gadgets was a wonder during our child hood, especially in 70’s when there were no high tech films such as Jurassic Park or Matrix. Mandrake’s Father Theron was in some mysterious caves of Himalaya with his magical Crystal Ball. Mandrake’s Companion Lother, girl friend Narda etc. were other characters in these comics. Suspense was the main motivating factor to read these stories.

Phantom by Lee Falk was another genre. He was someone like Tarzon with Fire power. He depends on his physical powers to defeat the Villains unlike Mandrake. He was in some African Island trying to protect its flora and Fauna and geographical resources from the evil men from outside.

Another interesting Comic published in Malayalam was Boben and Moli fom Cartoonist Toms. It was published in Manorama weekly which was not available at my home. On Ocassional visit to some relative’s house, it was always an entertaining feature. I always thought that if Tom’s had drawn in some foreign magazines he would have been better recognized all over the world. He had shown the originality in ideas even though the themes were mostly regional .The underlying humor could evoke an involuntary laugh. My younger brother continued to be a fan of Toms even after he has grown old.

My classmates were another important source of comic books. They will bring various books like Flash Gordon to school. I have not seen many books on Spiderman or Superman those days- Probably because it was a village school. There were detective comics like CID Moosa , published by Kannadi Viswanathan who was a hero of a particular generation. We used to find leisure time between classes to get engulfed in these marveling stories.

Later when I was working in Calcutta I become a reader of the newspaper The Telegraph .They used to publish three or four good cartoons on every Sunday in booklet. Among them I loved Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Waterson very much-The small kid and the stuffed tiger.

The wild Fantasies of Calvin were amazing and was highly humorous. In one such issue I still remember, Calvin got an A grade in School exam. He fantasies that he has been honored in a procession along the streets of the city with banners advertising “Calvin- A grade Boy” and onlookers cheers at him. His moods are always got reverberated by his companion Hobbes. The Cartoon strip was first published in 1985 and and Bill Waterson stopped this strip in 1995.

I came into contact with the world of Tintin very late.It was during my training period at Jabalpur, our training centre library had a very good collection of Tintin Comics. Almost all Tin Comics created by Herge was available there.

The world of ever dynamic Tintin and the picturesque drawings of Herge were always enervating and create a pleasant mood. Snowy the dog, Captain Haddock, detective Thomsons, Professor Calculus etc were extremely well portrayed characters with unique sensibilities. The Destination Moon, Explorers on the Moon, Tintin and Picaros, The secret of Unicorn ( Which was later made into film by Steven Spielberg) were most enthralling and removed the boredom in class rooms. It is to be noted that Herge has drawn Explorers on the Moon in 1950, Nineteen years before the actual landing of man on the moon. The adventures of Tintin were always captivating and can generate enthusiasm in the most sedative minds. Herge started the Tintin series in 1930’s and he died in 1983.His actual name was Georges Remi.

The World of Comics were always fascinating and the child in your mind will sprang out while getting engrossed with them