BTT #26 - Prof.Shanku, Pakkhiraj o Onnanyo...

 Prof. Shanku is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating character in the history of Bengali sci-fi stories! Few months back,there was a Satyajit-special issue in the Bengali-magazine 'Prothoma'(May issue)..

In that issue there was an article on Shanku where it has been discussed about Shanku's two friends-cum-occasional-side-kicks i.e. Abinash babu and Nakur babu! But somehow the article-writer missed a certain 'Bhobotosh babu'!! ;-)
 Yes,while many of the Shanku fans might haven't heard this name,but he was the very first neighbour mentioned in any Shanku story,that is,in the introductory Shanku story - Bomjatrir Dairy - in the original Sandesh issues from early '60s!  But later,when SR wrote the 2nd Shanku story,he introduced Abinash babu and when 'Bomjatrir Dairy' was reprinted in the book-form(Prof.Shanku),Bhobotosh babu was 'replaced' by Abinash babu.SR made this change might be to establish a continuity but I see no harm in keeping both names,as it's highly possible that Shanku had more than just one neighbour!

Anyway,after all these years,this seems one of those fun-facts in the Shanku universe!(check the images below):

Also check this Facebook post on the same!

Next is that short-yet-interesting write-up on Shanku's two friends...from Prothom May'14 issue :

DOWNLOAD Shankur Dui Bondhu

Between,besides this Shanku article,it has a reprint of vintage Satyajit-Roy interview which was taken by Aparna Sen - the editor of Prothoma -  on 1986.

And finally,there was a reprint of first Feluda story "Feludar Goyendagiri" from 1965.Incld. this there are three different versions of this landmarking Feluda story(original Sandesh print,book-version and this one)..

A special Shanku-ubach from SR(from that 1986-interview):

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Since childhood when I was introduced with several SR's creations,majority were from the Ananda publisher except the very first Shanku-book "Prof. Shanku" which was by NEW SCRIPT publisher. Later Ananda bought the right of that book and now the NS version is out-of-the-market.And then years after,on the last December I have come across a 'different' Shanku compilation from a publisher other than Ananda - 'Shaiba prokashon' - at a local Book Fair.The title was "Prof.Shankur Obhijan"..

It has seven Shanku stories by SR,all were already printed by Ananda.But the uniqueness of this particular book lies in two things : first, it has a SR interview and secondly,and most importantly,all of those seven stories have the original head-pieces drawn by SR at Sandesh issues which were later omitted by Ananda! So just for these things I have bought this book,and I have liked this quite a bit..I wonder whether there is a 2nd book of this kind??(This book was first printed on 2003 and the latest edition is actually 6th of the line,and it's bit strange that I have never heard about this book before that book-fair!)

DOWNLOAD the interview with S.Ray

Some head-pieces,reproduced from the vintage Sandesh issues...

For more original Shanku head-pieces from Sandesh,check this Facebook post...

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Next is.....the 'Albino'  Suktara..!!

Yes,the September 1978(Aswin 1385) issue of Sukatara was actually printed in 'two distinctly-different-colored' covers,one is completely white(without any back-ground colors) and other,with the usual yellow-patch!!

Well,one of the rarest 'printing error' that made it possible!! That is,DSK mistakenly published some issues with a half-done cover and then the actual version!

Check by yourself the rare albinism... ;o) 

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And finally,the last of the lot : Pakkhiraj pujabarshiki 1390(1983) which has a 'Brishchik' comics by Indranil Ghosh.It is one of the earliest,if not the very first Brischik story ever printed. So before appearing in the pages of Suktara and Kishore Bharati,Brischik was appeared in this magazine!

DOWNLOAD Brishcik

BTT #20 : সুপ্রভাত Once Again!

১৯৫১-র পূজাবার্ষিকী সুপ্রভাত থেকে আরও চারটি গল্প । গল্পগুলি কিন্তু random pick নয়, বিশিষ্ট কিছু লেখকের অনন্য সৃষ্টি যা আমার শৈশবেই পরার সুযোগ হয়েছিল ।
প্রথম দুটি গল্প আর পরের দুটি বিশেষ রচনা ।

সেগুলি হল তারাশঙ্করবাবুর "পরিচয়", সুধীন্দ্রনাথ রাহার নিজস্ব রচনা "কয়েদী", যাদুকর পি. সি. সরকারের(senior) "ম্যাজিক" আর বিশু মুখার্জির "প্রাণিভোজী উদ্ভিদ" ।

DOWNLOAD পরিচয়+কয়েদী

DOWNLOAD ম্যাজিক+প্রাণিভোজী উদ্ভিদ

BTT #18 - Two Comics from DSK Pujabarshiki

 Two comics from DSK pujabarshiki : অন্ধকারের হাতছাানি(by নারায়ণ দেবনাথ) from মন্দিরা(1977) and নরকের রাজা(by তুষার চ্যাটার্জি) from চন্দনা(1978).

 I am not a big fan of তুষার চ্যাটার্জি,specially the way he portrayed human figures! While anything looks good(or decent,at least) on the old, vintage pages of these DSK pujabarshikies,and so this comic,নরকের রাজা, but the way 're-production' of many old comics were done in the recent years(by some publishers,incld.DSK itself!!), I do believe the result will be quite inferior with this artists' out-puts,which are nothing compare to his contemporaries like নারায়ণ দেবনাথ or ময়ূখ চৌধুরী .
 Plus, in reality,TKC was a very ordinary artist,he picked some fantasy-based/adventure stories but the art ruined whole thing,sadly!
[The only TKC story which I believe worth re-reading or reproduction,is কালো বাঘের থাবা, originally ran in the late '70s SUKTARA covering 29 issues..]

 Meantime,enjoy these comics....

downLOAD অন্ধকারের হাতছাানি

DOWNload নরকের রাজা

BTT #17 - সুপ্রভাত !

 প্রথম দুটি গল্পটা যে বইটা থেকে নেওয়া আগে তার সম্পর্কে কিছু বলা দরকার। বই না বলে বরং 'পূজাবার্ষিকী' গোছের কিছু বল্লেও অত্যুক্তি হয়না, কারণ DSK পূজাবার্ষিকী-গুলির সমকক্ষ এতে রয়েছে হাস্যরস থেকে রহস্যমূলক গল্প,প্রবন্ধ থেকে সামাজিক রচনা, সবই বিদ্যমান । তখনকার অনেক নামী লেখকের লেখাই এতে ধরা রয়েছে যা সূচীপত্রটিতে চোখ বোলালেই বোঝা যায় । 
 আর সম্পাদনাটি করেছেন প্রখ্যাত লেখক হেমেন্দ্রকুমার রায় ।

• নাম : সুপ্রভাত
• প্রকাশকাল : ১৯৫১ (বঙ্গাব্দ ১৩৫৮)
• প্রকাশক : শরৎ-সাহিত্য-ভবন

  বইটা আমার কেনা নয়, আমার পিসিদের ছোটোবেলায় ভাইফোঁটা উপলক্ষে এক তুতো-দাদার কাছ থেকে প্রাপ্ত, সেই ১৯৫১-তেই ! অর্থাৎ সুপ্রভাত আমাদের বাড়ির ৬৩ বছরের পুরোনো বাসিন্দা...আর আমার লাইব্র্রেরীর প্রাচীনতম সদস্যও বটে ! তবে শুধু এই কারণেই নয়, গুণগত মানের বিচারেই বলছি - বৈচিত্রময়-সম্ভারের বিচারেও এটি অন্যতম সেরা। আজও, ছয় দশক পরেও, যদি এর reprint হয় তাহলে পাঠকেরা সমান আগ্রহেই পড়বে বলে আমার বিশ্বাস।

  এর থেকেই দুটি নিখাদ হাসির গল্প তুলে ধরছি, যা ছোটোবেলাতে আমায় অত্যন্ত প্রিয় ছিল এবং আজও আছে...

• ১ম গল্প : ভোম্বার কীর্তি
• লেখক : বীরেন্দ্রকৃষ্ণ ভদ্র

• ২য় গল্প :  ফিসটের ফিসটি
• লেখক : শিবরাম চক্রবর্তী

DOWNLOAD ভোম্বার কীর্তি + ফিসটের ফিসটি

BTT #16 - Duhswapner Deshe(দুঃস্বপ্নের দেশে) by Narayan Debnath(1975)

 Enjoy a rare color comics by N.Debnath - দুঃস্বপ্নের দেশে - published in a DSK pujabarshiki, Balaka(বলাকা), on 1975.

This comic was later reproduced in ND Samagra Vol.1 by Lalmati but that was in black-and-white(converted from color pages) and hence lost the charm!So if one has to read this comic in original color-form,he/she has to depends on this old DSK special only...

You might have noticed that some publishers are publishing ND's original b/w comics in color to present those vintage comics in more 'attractive' way and some other are converting the original color comics in b/w for just cost-cutting purpose AND in both way,they are destroying the original art!A sad but common practice that's going on currently...soon they realize the better for fans!

• Comic title : দুঃস্বপ্নের দেশে
• Original Publication : বলাকা
• Publication Year : 1975(১৩৮২)
• Artist : NARAYAN DEBNATH

download দুঃস্বপ্নের দেশে

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)