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)

BTT #9 : Two Teen-sensations : Kolaboti and Billy

  Remember Kolaboti(কলাবতী)? That bright teenager girl and her various fun-filled adventures(created by late Moti Nandi)?? Her first appearance was in the story titled "Kolaboti" in the '80s Anandamela.Then she re-appeared in another fun-filled tale "Kolaboti-der diet-chart" published in the Anandamela Pujabarshiki 1391(1984). The compilation of the first two stories were also released by Ananda titled "Kolaboti" on '85(see the cover). The book was quite popular among the readers and hence Moti Nandi wrote six more stories keeping her in the central character!

Now,recently Ananda decided to compile all titles under "Kolaboti Samagra" but they did a blunder - unintentionally or intentionally(either way due to lack of proper professional attitude) - and hence we got a Samagra where the above metioned two famous stories were skipped and the 1st story there was actually the 3rd of the line - কলাবতীর দেখাশোনা !!(See the list)
 I couldn't see the probable reason behind this!!Did they lost their archive or what?? So this is a mystery that people behind the compilation can answer but of course this blunder reduced the appeal of this newly released book quite a bit!!
Between,the scan of that out-of-print book(কলাবতী) is easily available on-line(through sites like Boi Collector etc). Also do check the old Pujabarshiki issues for the original print!!

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Now,Billy...er...Bilu!!

 Well, Billy,the famous kid footballer used to appear in Sukatara, was indeed appeared in Anandamela Pujabarshiki(1391) where he was re-named as Bilu or Bilas Roy...his friend's name was Jagabandhu Basu! And that footballer Dead-shot was Golandaj!!

That is,Anada completely transformed and renamed those characters in Bengali!! ha ha.....

It's a short story...just read and enjoy(the scans are from the binded Pujabarshiki,so excuse me for the lesser clarity).

DOWNLOAD ভূতুড়ে জুতো

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Post Script - In the request of some fans who thought Bagha(Part-2) was bit over sized,I have re-uploaded a smaller file this time!Visit the post & enjoy!

BTT #8 : Bagha Returns!!(Part-2) and more....

 Once again B-A-G-H-A!! Yes,after a while he returns and this time with 30 more strips.All these strips are from the earliest era i.e. covering '79-'80 period(between Bagha was introduced in the July'79 issue of choto Anandamela).So together with the previous post where you got 20 strips,you will have a total of 50 rare strips filled with funny activities of this naughty kid and his friends!
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 Now,I take this opportunity to introduce two NEW blogs for vintage Bengali books and comics,where you will find some more treasures!
First,let's introduce Boi Collector - a blog just old more than one-year - filled with some really rare stuff!! You will get there Pujabarshiki, Upanyash,Short stories and Comics!
And one of the comics posted there was the  Shadashib(সদাশিব) series published in the Anandamela!! Earlier,we don't had a complete set of illustrated version of this Saradindu Bandopadhay created cult series,drawn by famos Bimal Das,which is now available in this blog(Boi Collector) in 3 parts as follows :

• Adikando (আদিকান্ড)
• Agnikando (অগ্নিকান্ড)
• Douradouri kando (দৌড়দৌড়ি কান্ড)*

The credit goes to the original uploader(s) who preserved and shared such a vintage and great comics with us....
[* : As we know Anandamela cancelled Shadashib in the mid-way of the 4th part(হৈহৈ কান্ড),so only these 3 were the complete ones appeared in this teen-mag,unfortunately!]

So just visit this amazing blog and download the stuff and while doing this you should post a thanking note for this unknown poster as he truly deserves it! :-)

Now the 2nd blog : Indrajal Comics in Bengali(ICB) - probably a blog by BT members and finally they are posting Indrajal Comics for public view!! I truly support this effort and you should as well.....
 The clarity of scan is fine,quite neat,only a bit less cleaning i.e. keeping the original paper-color of the Indrajal bit more would be preferable! But otherwise,they did a very decent scanning...

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DOWNLOAD Bagha's Kirti(Part-2)