BTT #22 - Russ Manning's Tarzan Sunday - Return to Opar [Conclusion]

Conclusion of "Return of Opar" from the pages of vintage Anandamela!

Some moments...

 Queen La,being herself at the danger,still worries about Tarzan!! They say love is blind...I guess,it's selfless too!! right??

A new girl,and...a Love Triangle?? Not likely...La is not in that mood! ;-)

Finally,Tarzan rescues the queen....

DOWNLOAD Part-II(Conclusion)

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 Now the cover-gallery of the remaining Anandamelas from which this part has been scanned(from বর্ষ ২ সংখ্যা ৪/ July'76 to বর্ষ ২ সংখ্যা ৯/ Dec'76) ...

BTT #21 - Russ Manning's Tarzan Sunday - Return to Opar [Part-I]

This was the 2nd Tarzan sunday strip published in the monthly Anandamela issues from the mid '70s. Art was as usual done by Russ Manning!

This story ran in 14 issues from Nov'75(বর্ষ ১ সংখ্যা ৮) to Dec'76(বর্ষ ২ সংখ্যা ৯) issues, where in each issue as many as 4 color pages were published!
[The very first story of Tarzan @Anandamela has been already posted here. That story ran from the issue dated June'75(বর্ষ ১ সংখ্যা ৩ ) to Nov'75(বর্ষ ১ সংখ্যা ৮ ).]

It's about that lost city Opar,queen La and how Tarzan rescues both Jane and that beautiful queen who is in love with him!

  And mystery continues.......

Read Part-I of "Return to Opar"

Enjoy!
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PS - Here is the cover-gallery of those Anandamela's from where Part-I of this strips has been scanned(বর্ষ ১ সংখ্যা ৮ to বর্ষ ২ সংখ্যা ৩ )...

BTT #15 - Two Adventures of Sherlock Holmes AND Some Cover-arts by Subrata Ganguly from ANANDAMELA

Update(22/7/14) : 
There are some start/end dates of Western comic-strips ran in the Anandamela in various period(all strips cudn't cover in one post as ABP introduced/stopped strips just randomly,so bit difficult to locate!)

• Batch-1:

Bagha - 18/7/1979 to 8/4/1984
Roverser Roy - 18/7/1979 to 31/3/1993
Flash Goron - 30/6/1982 to 9/1/1985
He-man - 17/4/1991 to 3/3/1993
Batman - 15/11/1989 to 25/12/1991
Aranyadev - 3/3/1993 to Apr/2004; Aug/2008 to present

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Bengali teen-mag Anandamela introduced Sherlock Holmes' translated series in the July'84 which ran till Feb'88 and covered 27 stories. The translator was Subhadrakumar Sen,and after trying out several other translators work on this series,I can confirm that his work is indeed the BEST! There are some who did decent enough,like Subhadra Mitra(Granthamitra pub.), but he was phenomenal!
 Along with Mr.Sen's translation,the brilliant b/w painted art by Subrata Ganguly(mostly) were a treat! Undoubtedly,their combination made this series even more appealing to the readers...

From that series,I have picked two stories.These are 'ভায়লা হান্টারের সমস্যা' based on 'The Adventure of the Copper Beeches' and 'চরম সংঘর্ষ' based on 'The Final Problem' i.e. the 'last' adventure where Holmes was 'killed' as Sir Arthur C Doyle was willing to end this series...but what happened after some 10 years is a different topic! :)

 ভায়লা হান্টারের সমস্যা was appeared in the Anandamela pujabarshiki 1392(1985) while চরম সংঘর্ষ was published in 4 parts in the pakkhik issues dated 27/5/1987 to 8/7/1987.

DOWNLOAD Sherlock Holmes' Stories

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 Now,some fantastic cover-arts by Subrata Ganguly from the '80s Anandamela issues....these are simply treat for the eyes! (click on the images for better view)

BTT #14 : Aranyadev aka Phantom Special - A 1992 Anandamela!

  A special issue on Aranyadev aka Phantom was released on 5th August 1992 in the Bengali teen-mag :  Anandamela !!

The write-up was supported by various compiled arts and important information...

One of the most fascinating one was a list of Phantom's animal friends....

Also,this issue had a 10-pager Aranyadev tale from Gold Key : originally based on 43rd Sunday : A Proper Husband : titled "Dianar Songi Aranyadev"...

DOWNLOAD অরণ্যদেব (আনন্দমেলা 1992)

BTT #12 : The Devil's ISLAND by Mayukh Chowdhury(Translated)

 During a recent discussion on a topic on Mayukh Chowdhury - the renowned Bengali artist and story-teller - at Facebook, a fan commented what would happened if MC was born outside of Bengal/India where his work would had been not restricted in the regional language(i.e. Bengali) but in English and would been read by millions!! And that's so true because his works were mostly free of the regional/national boundary, be it wild-life based comics,or Robinhood comics or those alien tales - all these stories deserve a much wider  range of readers because of the contents!
 But what a pity that,even after 52 years of his first published work and 18 years after his demise, there is no single translated job done on his work,at least I never seen/heard about any!!(While Narayan Debnath and Satyajit Ray's some works have been already translated,it's baffling why MC was omitted till date!)

 That particular discussion promoted me to do the job. And so as a very small tribute to this legendary artist, I have translated one of the Mayukh's earlier work - a fascinating thriller based on the Californian coast - ''শয়তানের দ্বীপ" i.e. The Devil's Island!

 I have tried every possible way to retain the original feel,starting from the way MC narrated the dramatic events happened there to the font/text color and font size! Hopefully it will show to many,specially those who can't read Bengali,that what a great artist-cum-narrator he was!
 And then, this is a just very small piece of his numerous creations!

 Cheers!!

• Original Story Title : শয়তানের দ্বীপ
• First Publication Year : 1965
• Original Version : Bengali
• Creator : Mayukh Chowdhury (1926-1996)
• Translator : HojO

DOWNLOAD The Devil's Island

BTT #11 : A TRIPLE POST - James Bond, Walt Disney and Raat Gobhir(A Horror Story)

• A JAMES BOND COMICS :

Probably one of the first 007 Bond comics(if not the very first) in Bengali. This Ian Fleming's original(For your Eyes Only) was drawn by first Bond artist :  John McLusky. And the illustration was superb.
 On 2009, Titan released some volumes of JB comic-strips where the first volume was exclusively for JM's strips!
 [ Indian comic fans might remember that Diamond Comics introduced James Bond in the '90s and published several issues but majority of  those were by Yaroslav Horak - another prominent Bond artist.]

• Title of the Story : একান্ত গোপনীয়(For your Eyes Only ; 10th Daily strip)
• Publication period(in Bengali) : Anandamela Pujabarshiki 1989(১৩৯৬)

DOWNLOAD একান্ত গোপনীয়

•   A Walt Disney's COMICS :

The first Walt Disney's comic-strip appeared in the monthly Anandamela issues,although this series was already introduced in the Pujabarshiki!

• Title of the Story : ডাইনোসর-চুরি(One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing ; 87th Sunday strip)
• Publication period(in Bengali) : Anandamela Monthly issues from 1976(২য় বর্ষ ৩য় সংখ্যা - ৯ম সংখ্যা ; ১৩৮৩)

DOWNLOAD ডাইনোসর-চুরি

And the 3rd part of this post, a short but intriguing Bengali ghost story by Harinarayan Chattopadhay...

• Title of the Story : রাত গভীর
• Publication period : Anandamela April 1975(১ম বর্ষ  ১ম সংখ্যা ; ১৩৮২)

DOWNLOAD রাত গভীর

Now time for some trivia :
  Billy's boot was once again appeared in the Anandamela Pujabarshiki 1989(১৩৯৬),after his first appearance on 1983(১৩৯০),but this time he was not Bilas Roy but Billy Dane i.e. publisher retained the original name.It's quite amusing though to see a character in two different names under same publication within few years only,indicating they didn't check the archive before posting!
 But in this Anandamela, it was only a 2-pager,so not exactly a full-story but like a filler!

 And last but not the least, we all are familiar with Iznogaud and Timpa - two completely different comic-series - in English book-format,but do you know that they had their own Bengali series?? Yes,a quite lesser known publihser, Bingsha Shatabdi,published some issues of these series in Bengali in the late '80s as you can see the ads from an Anandamela issue.
 Only regret is that neither I have ever seen any of those issues in old-book shops nor the publisher is showing any response...might be they have moved in a different direction!
Anyway,it's amazing to see how rich Bengali comic-culture was in those days of  '70s and '80s till '90s...

BTT #10 : Two 'First' Anandamelas AND A Russ Mannings' TARZAN Strip

• First Anandamela Pujabarshiki : Sept 1971(বঙ্গাব্দ ১৩৭৮)
• First Anandamela Patrika : Apr 1975(বঙ্গাব্দ ১৩৮২)

  In the last few days fortune favored and I have managed to add the above mentioned two first Anandamelas and the first two years worth - Apr'75 to Mar'77 - of mashik Anandamela(among the 24 issues,all are in good shape and except #1 all are with covers!).
[These buys were bit pricey as sellers understand the craze very well and Pujabarshikis as well as the first 2 years worth of mashik Anandamela(1975-77) were charged highly! Anyway,not every day you come across these rarer stuffs and some other sellers might demand even higher prices,so I went for the whole buy!]

 You might remember that our fellow blogger Mahashobir was the person who, for the first-time, told us about Pujabarshiki's introductory issue,that's on 1971,which was 4 years earlier than the first monthly magazine!

But the cover was missing that time which you can see here :

Also few other earliest Pujabarshikies :

 Now,the 'first year first issue' of Anandamela was released on Apr 1975(you can see the Index as my issue is missing the cover) :

 Earliest issues were filled with many rare articles,novels,stories,(Indrajal ads!!) and of course,colored comics of Herzes' TINTIN & Russ Mannings' TARZAN!

 (The introductory page of Tintin....the first adventure in the pages of Anandamela was কাকঁড়া রহস্য...)

 For today enjoy a Mannings' beautifully drawn Tarzan adventure in Bengali,originally titled Korak and the Amazons of the Mammoth(S019), published in the Anandamela issues 'Year 1 No. 3(Jun'75) to Year 1 No. 8(Nov'75)'.
[In the first two years of Anandamela,as many as 4 colored pages of Tarzan strips were published in the each issue,which later on reduced to 2 pages/issue and later, 1 page/issue in the pakhik/choto Anandamela!The last Russ Manning's TARZAN appeared in the 28th Jan'81 issue. All later strips were drawn by other artists and quality was much inferior,as you know well!]

• Russ Mannings' SUNDAY : Korak and the Amazons of the Mammoth(S019 ; 1975) :

DOWNLOAD S019(Bengali)