12 Mekala Comics: 01-A Summer Special 1995–Buz Sawyer, Johnny Hazard, Juliet Jones & Bujjai Stories

Dear ComiRades,

Welcome back to TCU. We are currently in the series post on Mekala Comics and this is the second post in this series. The previous post (Mekala Comics 01), we have reviewed the history behind the 1st issue and the storyline featuring Agent X-9 AKA Phil Corrigan. The 1st issue of Mekala Comics was launched in the month of May 1995 and as the month of may coincides with the summer holidays, the publishers planned for a special issue as well.

The summer of ‘95 was one of the very best for the summers for the ComiRades. The reason for that was the innovative special launched by Lion Comics titled as Lion Top 10 Special. Priced at INR 25, this was the most costliest ever comics book published at that time in Tamil comics history. The innovation with that special was, it was the readers who picked which story to be published and which one not to be. The Editor has given a choice of 16 stories and asked the readers to pick the top 10 stories amongst them and hence it was titled as so. More on that special can be read over here in TCU’s 50th Special Post. The response for the special was encouraging and the comics distributors felt a new wave emerging in the comics domain.

Seeing all this, Mekala Comics publishers also believed that they can also pull a coup by publishing their own summer special. The outcome was this. In the annals of Tamil comics history, there was no complementary issue (Not a free issue given along with the 1st issue) with the 1st issue of any book. However, Mekala comics changed all this and they have numbered this book as Issue No 1 only and the next issue was numbered as No 3. Moreover, this was published in the same month as well (albeit, a little bit later than May 1st, when the actual 1st issue was launched). Comirades were waiting for the Lion comics special, and they received both the books almost on the same week in the month of May 1995.

Yours truly was on a family tour and picked up the Lion comics special and this book. However, one of the relatives switched this book with the Suspense Novel’s summer special. As it was a long train journey, there was no way that this book to be bought in another shop for the next one week. Well, let us not get into the sad stories if how yours truly has missed the book and get on with the review of the summer special. The cover art work of the 1st issue was much appreciated by the ComiRades and the in the second issue, the cover art was radically different. The USP of the 1st issue’s cover was the local touch provided by the talented Artist Shyaam. Even the back cover of the summer special had that distinct local touch. Later on, from Dr 7’s post in Akotheeka (No Comments – 007 Special) we got to know the origin of the cover’s inspiration.

Mekala Comics Issue No 01 May 1995 Agent X9 Phil Corrigan Black mail Joint Issue Ad	Mekala Comics Issue No 01-A Summer Special June 1995 Cover – Art Work by Artist Shyaam	Mekala Comics Issue No 01-A Summer Special June 1995 Cover 2 – Art Work by Artist Shyaam

Unlike Rani comics, Mekala comics had the editorial page in the beginning issues where the editor used to voice out his thoughts on all possible things related to comics. Wherever possible, the distribution strength of the Filmalaya and group magazines were highlighted. The other thing to be noted is the serialisation of this particular issue. They have mentioned it as complementary issue No 1. Isn’t is strange to have 2 issues from the same brand in a single month? If you think so, then you are sold a googly as this phenomena has already been carried out by Lion comics editor S.Vijayan in the very first year of his arrival.

Mekala Comics Issue No 01-A Summer Special June 1995 Editorial	Mekala Comics Issue No 01-A Summer Special June 1995 Index

The stories were from the KFS group and it was great to see Buz sawyer appearing in another group’s comics apart from Muthu Comics & Indrajal comics, in Tamil. Though he made his odd appearance in Rani comics under a pseudonym, he wasn’t supposed to be a regular over there. The story is very much similar to what Roscoe Sweeny has to undergo in one of the earlier adventures which was published in the Muthu comics group publications. The elements of Love, revenge and humour are mixed in such a manner by Roy Crane that reading this story was like a soap opera.

Talking about Soap opera's, there wasn’t any better comic strips on opera like that of the “Heart of Juliet Jones”. Though we had the pleasure of Elliot Caplin’s Big Ben Bolt in Tamil (Again another odd appearances in Muthu Comics & Rani comics), ComiRades never had the opportunity to read his master piece – The Heart of Juliet Jones. Though Times of India published few in English in Spectrum comics, they were not available in Tamil Language. Along with one of my all time favourite artist Stan Drake, Caplin produced this long running opera elevated by Drake's exceptional artwork. The figure drawing was characterized by Drake's pioneering use of naturalistic movement and expression, a style he achieved partly through the use of Polaroid photographic reference. The storyline is very simple: A Talented singer (managed by Juliet) keeps the fact that he got married and has twins under the wraps from the public in order to keep his rising fame. How the circumstances force him to acknowledge his family is the rest of the story.

Mekala Comics  No 01-A Summer Special June 1995 Buz Sawyer Story 1st Page	Mekala Comics  Summer Special June 1995 Heart of Juliet Jones Story 1st Page

The 3rd story in this special is from the uber talented Mr Bujjai. Well, it will be gross injustice to summarise a great career in a single paragraph and hence TCU will post a detailed lengthy post on the creator who is touted to be the one behind the introduction of comics in South India in the 50’s itself.  A Wonderful story with great narration is what awaits the reader in the mysterious bungalow. If this particular book is considered a collector’s delight, partial reason is the complete story of Bujjai appearing in Tamil language. His talent was well recognised by Mr Vasudevan and wherever he moved as a Editor, Bujjai used to produce his creative works. Be it Dina Mani or Rathnabala, the trend continued. More on him will be spoiler to the post TCU is planning.

The fourth and final full length adventure features none other than Johnny Hazard, the wonderful strip from the famed Frank Robbins. He was a popular character in South India with his appearances in various publications such as MalaiMathi AFI Comics, Muthu Comics, Rani Comics etc. Even the next issue of Muthu comics is an adventure of Johnny Hazard only titled as Vinnil oru Kullanari. This particular story, Deadly date, was serialised in Daily strip No 99 starting from 30th June 1969 spanning over 2 months to be completed on 30th 30th Aug 1969. The story line is very much in line with the series - Staying in New York for a well-deserved holiday after completing his latest assignment, Johnny runs into an old friend with a two-fold problem: his valuable stamp collection has just been stolen and his new fiancée has been brutally murdered in her flat minutes after he left. Is there a connection? Agreeing to help an old friend in deep trouble, Johnny follows the clues to the dating agency responsible for the matchup that encouraged the assignation, only to find that ‘dating’ is not the only risky game on offer from that agency. Very interesting? read on.

Mekala Comics Issue No 01-A Summer Special June 1995 Bujjai Story 1st Page	Mekala Comics No 01-A Summer Special June 1995 Johnny Hazard 1st Page

Mekala continues it’s trend of having lots of fillers in the book, making it more interesting to read. This was the one thing which was missing from Rani comics for a long, long time. Initially rani comics also had some very nice fillers when Mr Rama Jayam was at the helm. With him moving away from Rani comics, so were the interesting fillers as well.

Mekala Comics Issue No 01-A Summer Special June 1995 Filler

Bujjai continued to showcase his amazing repertoire with his strips like Mr Tommy (a re-boot of his old Bhairava strips), Idea Appu adoring the pages of Mekala for the 2nd consecutive issue. Though they may look very simple, Bujjai proves his customary point to the viewers. A Pet lover like yours truly doesn’t need secondary reasons to like him than his strip Mr Tommy.

Mekala Comics No 01-A Summer Special June 1995 Inner Cover Bujjai Story	Mekala Comics No 01-A Summer Special June 1995 Inner Cover Bujjai Story 2

One more short story from Bujjai was part of the summer special, thus making it a grand issue to remember for the fans of Bujjai. Apart from that short story, there was another reader review contest in the book. Just like the previous issue of Mekala, this one also reiterated the concept of advocating the best panel of the story and reasoning it. The best reviews will fetch the prize and instead of the usual INR 500/- prize money, it was the double of INR 1,000/- as this is a special edition.

Mekala Comics Issue No 01-A Summer Special June 1995 Bujjai Story 3	Mekala Comics Issue No 01-A Summer Special June 1995 Review Competition

As a whole, the summer special was a grand success and this was mirrored in the readers letters in the next issue. Most of the readers were the group’s loyal readers and they liked the idea of a new comics in the market. There was even odd fan followings for Bujjai’s works in the book. The cover was much appreciated and the credit goes to the editor and the Artist Shyaam.

Mekala Comics Issue No 3  Readers Response for Summer Special 1	Mekala Comics Issue No 3  Readers Response for Summer Special 2

The best review was reserved for the story – The twins, from the series of Heart of Juliet Jones by Stan Drake. Here are the prize winning reviews from the readers. Kindly note down the 3rd consolation prize winners village name. You wouldn’t be surprised.

Mekala Comics Issue No 4 Summer Special Readers review – Award winning Reviews for the best panel / part of the story – Juliet Jones Story Segment

Well, that's all for the time being & TCU will be back with the next issue of this series in the next post. As usual, post your comments in the comments section. For those who want to Pen their thoughts in Tamil, Kindly Use the Option Provided in the Widget in the Blog.

Thanks & Regards,

King Viswa.

10 Comic Cuts 34-News 34: M.S.Subbu Lakshmi’s Graphic Novel (Kungumam), Spider Man’s Death (Kumudham) & A New Steel Claw?

Dear ComiRades,

Welcome back to TCU with another dose of Comics & related news features. As TCU is nearing 100 posts, the number of news posts (Comic Cuts) keep on increasing and this trend is rather healthy. Healthy in the sense that at least we have some news and related articles when we don’t have enough comics in Tamil. Hopefully this shortage of Comics will be overcome very shortly and we will be having our monthly new comics review very, very soon. Enough of the future and let’s get on with the current news.

01 Kungumam – Lakshmi Devnath’ s Graphic Novel: Since the launch, this particular book is getting more and more positive reviews in the media space and this holds good for the other entrants in the graphic novel domain. The message is loud and clear: If the content is good and provided the presentation is world class, we will welcome with both arms. Now, it is the turn of Kungumam Weekly and the review is wonderful, to say the least.

Kungumam Tamil Weekly - Issue Dated 11072011 - Page No 70 - Article on MS Subbulakshmi Graphic Novel – Conceptualized & Created By Ms Lakshmi Devnath

02 Kumudham – Spider man’s Death: TCU has already covered this particular news in the regular Comic Cuts section in THIS post. On the heels of those news articles in English news papers comes this article in Kumudham weekly. Sadly none of the other frontline media cared to give coverage to this news. Anyway, here is what Kumudham got to say on this topic.

Kumudham Tamil Weekly Issue dated 13072011 Page No 30 Spiderman's Death	Kumudham Tamil Weekly Dated 13072011 Page No 32

03 Dina Malar Siruvar Malar – Another Steel Claw?: We all loved THE Steel Claw aka Irumbuk kai Maayavi (இரும்புக்கை மாயாவி) as he is known in South India since the last 41 years. There have been more than a dozen copy-cat Steel claws from the local comics stories and most of them were failures and the few ones which got some sort of success was from Mullai Thangarasan himself. Some years ago, there was a TV Serial in Jaya TV which was in 3-D format where the hero had similar traits to that of Louis Crandell.  Now, here comes another one. Some time back TCU has done a post about the resurrection of Siruvar Malar. Sadly, they have reverted to the old style with very little space for comics, that too translated from Hindhi market. On the wake of that thought, here is Lee Rock.

Remember, you can read Siruvar Malar free of cost in their home page. Here is the link for that: Siruvar Malar

Well, that's all for the time being & TCU will be back with the next issue of Mekala Comics in the next post-which happens to be one of the very few Special issues in Tamil comics history where Editor S.Vijayan was not involved. As usual, post your comments in the comments section. For those who want to Pen their thoughts in Tamil, Kindly Use the Option Provided in the Widget in the Blog.

Thanks & Regards,

King Viswa.

15 Mekala Comics: 01 Black Mail–George Evans-Agent X-9 Phil Corrigan Adventure in Tamil

Dear ComiRades,

Welcome Back to TCU. Another Week gone by and Tour also gone by. When this happened, the laptop has also gone for a tour and it is yet to come back to normalcy. While getting back to the Old desk top that Yours truly once had sometime in the 18th century, there were many posts which were ready to be posted in that system since time immemorial.  TCU thought that if they are not posted now, they may never see the day light.

During the inception of TCU, there were couple of series on a particular comics. Series like IceBerg Comics, Secret Agent James Bond Comics etc. During those times, Our dearest Muthu Fan has also posted a nice & thought provoking post on Muthu Comics – Mekala Comics. It was based on the request made by Saleem about the Golden oldie “Pani Theevin Devadhaigal” and since that story has appeared in Mekala Comics under the title “Maaya Vimanam”, Muthu Fan discussed about Mekala Comics in THAT post. During that time, TCU was on a running hot with almost alternative-day posts and at that time only these were planned and made ready. However, due to various reasons, these posts never saw daylight. Muthu Fan has also wrote on the same post that “very soon” you can expect a post from Yours truly. Well, that “very soon” has arrived, at last. Now, Enough of the nostalgia and move into the book review part.

Filmalaya Group: During the early part of the 90’s, there were many publications which were doing good business with a collection of varied magazines from the same publishing house. Most of them were trying out the Kumudham / Rani formula by which they have a Monthly Novel (a la Rani Muthu), a magazine in A-4 size catering for the masses (a la Rani), Another magazine for health related issues / Family reading (a la Kathir) etc. One such publishing house which was doing extremely good at that time was Filmalaya publications which had M.G.Vallaban at the helm for their Cinema magazine (Filmalaya) and were also giving a good competition to Rani Muthu through their monthly Novel (Mekala) and also had a fantastic Health Magazine titled as Health itself. Somewhere in 1995, they thought of entering into Comics business. The reason for this launch were varied and many. The distribution strength and the core value gained through the primary readers of Filmalaya & Mekala, The successful launch of PCK 3 summers ago-thereby proving that there is still a market for comics in Tamil, the (sort of) re-launch of Rani Comics with 3 Rs package, The successful come back of Lion Comics and Muthu Comics in a grand way etc. With a consideration on all these and many more, they decided to launch a brand new comics of their own.

Mekala Comics – What is it?: Once they have decided to get into comics, they have done their homework and approached the syndicates. As shown in old Tamil films during the 80’s that whenever a new comer with dreams to enter in Kollywood, the director invariably show him approaching AVM Studios. Likewise, Mekala people have also approached KFS (King Features Syndicate, for those who came in late). They have tried out many characters and their search zeroed on Phil Corrigan. Considering the fact that a comics being started on the strength of a single character had met with not much of success (Secret Agent James Bond Comics), the move from the publishers was a brave one. Of course, they were considering other characters as well. Once the storylines were finalised, The remaining was packaging. At that time (in fact, exactly on the same day) Rani Comics revised their price by 0.50 Rs (INR 2.50 to a new rate of INR 3.00) and with that they tried to bring on many new characters and also played their cards close to their chest by publishing Rip Kirby story (only the 2nd ever-in a bid to thwart others), bringing back Flash Gordon, bringing on Thorgal, and instead of publishing Phantom on alternative titles, they published him continuously to make sure that they gain the upper hand in the market as Phantom was a hot cake in those days.

Now, let us not get into Rani Comics story as this post is not about them. The packaging of Mekala Comics was one of the very best in the annals of Tamil Comics history. They had a very nice size (akin to Mekala Monthly novel), wonderful laminated cover with artwork from the uber talented Artist Shyaam, clean and clear printing in quality paper and to top it all, a strong distribution network which was no way inferior to that of the Rani group. The pricing was the only factor which was on the other side of the spectrum. Even Lion/Muthu comics were not pricing like Mekala did in those days. However, quality comes at a cost and the die hard comirades wouldn’t mind another additional rupee getting into this book. Once all these were decided, the logo was also designed with Lord Vinayaga symbolising victory in the logo itself. Old timers may recollect the fact that the other children’s magazine that had Lord Vinayaga was a tremendous hit and sill going strong (Gokulam). Once everything was decided, they have advertised this in their home magazines and the response from the distribution network was encouraging, to say the least.

1st Issue: The very first issue of Mekala comics was anticipated with much eagerness. What will be the design? how will the cover look like?  will they go for the tried and tested method of re-drawing the story panels or design their own cover art? will there be fillers like the Lion comics or just the title story alone, like the rani comics? What will be the price (the price of the book was not mentioned in the advertisement) of the book? There were so many questions and the 1st issue was a let down in terms of expectation. However, it was better than the Rani comics and the people who care about the goodwill of the Comics felt that here is somebody to give a tough fight to Lion / Muthu comics.

Cover Art: The plan to make a new cover design is, in fact, a novel idea. However, where they could have done much better was the re-creation of the Hero. The guy on the cover never looked like Phil Corrigan. He was somebody in the story and even the other characters were also not identified with the cover art. The success of a comics book (mostly) depends on the cover. Here the artwork was impressive. Still something was lagging. may be the artist should have been instructed to make the character-like art instead of the work he has done. Still, much better than Mali’s work in Rani comics. However, the Rani Comics covers will linger in memory much longer than this cover for the simple reason that they were part of the storyline and hence much easier to recognise.

Megala Monthly Novel Apr 1994 Page 3 Devi Bala Ketten Thanthaai Ad for Megala Comics 1st issue	Mekala Comics Issue No 01 May 1995 Agent X9 Phil Corrigan Story Black mail Cover – Art By Shyam	Mekala Comics Issue No 01 May 1995 Agent X9 Phil Corrigan Black mail Editorial By Archana Das

Those who have read above mentioned Muthu Fan’s post,  would have known about the editing policy of the Mekala comics. In a bid to cater both the children’s category and the teen-age category, they have designed a editorial philosophy whereby they will make it easier by editing certain non-important panels and make it short and simple for the readers. Let us be very clear on one point-This kind of editorial policy was never a winner and history joined hands with the statistic and made sure that Mekala’s editorial policy didn't’ last long. Kindly do a small comparison of where the Indrajal comics starts and where our Mekala comics story starts and you will know what we are talking about.

Mekala Comics – Tamil Monthly Comics - Issue No 01 – Dated May 1995 - Agent X9 Phil Corrigan Adventure - Black mail – Art Work by George Evans - Story 1st Page

Story Line: This is one story which Connects Agent X-9 (Phil Corrigan) with his father, who also happens to be a Top detective in his day for the FBI. In this story Phil completes what happens to be the only case which was not solved by his father. It is a case of politics, threatening, Black mail, one up-man ship and everything that you can relate even in today’s politics. A Senator comes to FBI for protection from a blackmailer and Phil is given charge for this case which takes him to the 2nd world war files and the truth is startling, to say the least. The story is available in Indrajal comics in English and can be downloaded HERE.

The styling by which each and every important character was introduced in the 1stpage reminded of the good, old Rani comics days when they did a similar introduction scheme to make sure that the readers didn’t surprised by the sudden entries of the regular characters.

Though Indrajal Comics introduced Phil with much fanfare, They have published a majority of George Evans stories only. Had they gone with the Archie Goodwin-Al Williamson combo stories, they would have met with more appreciation and success than what they got. Even Lion Comics (when they brought back Phil Corrigan) started with the George Evans stories only. Later on when they reverted to AG-AW combo. Later on, TCU will do a comprehensive post on Corrigan in Tamil comics with the index and cover gallery and at that time we shall discuss the importance of AG-AW pair to the revival of Agent X-9 series. Here are the covers of the same story which appeared in Lion comics and Indrajal comics.

Lion Comics Phil Corrigan Agent X9 Issue No 97 Pinam Kaatha Pudhaiyal – Black mail in Lion Comics	Indrajal Comics – Tamil Weekly – Issue Dated 29th March 1987 - Tamil V24 I-13 Pettip Paambu Cover	Indrajal Comics – English Weekly – Issue Dated 29th March 1987 - Tamil V24 I-13 Scandal From the Grave

The answer for the question on package was answered emphatically with the stories such as Mr Tommy and Mottaiyan. Those who have read the Dina Mani Kathir in the late 70’s and early 80’s, would have surely remembered the fantastic one page comic series “Bhairavan” by the Great Bujjai. TCU has complete collection of the Bhairavan series and later on when we do Artists indexing, we shall cover it there. Now, that series in Dina Mani Kathir was in multi colour and this one was in Black & white. Still, it was nice to see a good old story line being revived.

Mekala Comics Issue No 01 May 1995 Agent X9 Phil Corrigan Black mail Mr Tommy Inner Cover Strip Bujjai	Mekala Comics Issue No 01 May 1995 Agent X9 Phil Corrigan Black mail Filler/ Tamil Indrajal 1st Page	Mekala Comics 01 May 1995 Agent X9 Phil Corrigan Black mail Mr Tommy Back Inner Cover Strip By Bujjai

There were 2 next issue advertisements in this issue. The reason for that was the advent of summer special in the same month with the serial number for that magazine also being No.1, just like this being the 1st book in the Mekala comics. Much on that later on in the next post. Apart from the next issue ad, they also had an advertisement for the readers review section of the most important Panel in the story. This review section was also very much similar to that of the Rani comics and Secret Agent James Bond comics.

Mekala Comics Issue No 01 May 1995 Agent X9 Phil Corrigan Black mail Next Issue Ad-Art By Shyaam	Mekala Comics Issue No 01 May 1995 Agent X9 Phil Corrigan Black mail Joint Issue Ad – Summer Special	Mekala Comics Issue No 01 May 1995 Agent X9 Phil Corrigan Black mail Last Page-Review Contest Ad

Response for the 1st issue: The response from the readers was tremendous with most of the books being sold out within the 1st week itself. That was the encouragement that the publishers wanted and they were very much happy. One could sense that the regular readers of the Mekala / Filmalaya were the major readers of the new comics and the letters to the editor page had no names to remember amongst the comics fraternity, except our own S.S.Karthick.

Mekala Comics Issue No 03 Review About Issue No 01 Page No 64 – Readers Review Results	Mekala Comics Issue No 03 Review About Issue No 01 Page No 65 – Readers Review Results	Mekala Comics Issue No 03 Review About Issue No 01 Page No 66 – Readers Review Results

Well, that's all for the time being & TCU will be back with the next issue of this series in the next post-which happens to be one of the very few Special issues in Tamil comics history where Editor S.Vijayan was not involved. There are couple of Comic cuts also waiting in the wings.

As usual, post your comments in the comments section. For those who want to Pen their thoughts in Tamil, Kindly Use the Option Provided in the Widget in the Blog.

Thanks & Regards,

King Viswa.