About 20 years ago, when WWII was the worst thing the world had seen, like millions of kids around me, I was fascinated by it. Back then, you could be interested in war without taking sides, and no one would arrest you, or point fingers at you. Being too young to read my grandfather's collection of WWII books (and he was an avid reader of the subject), I turned to the only other alternative: Commando comics.
Being odd-sized, they stood out on any shelf; their covers were reminiscent of war movie posters; and they told stories of heroes. And that they claimed to be actual stories from WWII (don't know how far this is true) made them irresistible to a 7 year old.
Not having seen them for over a decade, I grew out of the habit of collecting them, and recently, was pleasantly surprised to come across a copy of one of the Commando collections - True Brit. Needless to say, I bought it immediately. As I started reading it, I rediscovered the simplicity that comics once had. Good and Bad were clear - no characters like Batman who had shades of grey; the Hero was not fighting any internal moral conflict; and no one had any superpowers - just regular people with extraordinary courage.
Sure, there's some degree of stereotyping involved - such as the Nazis always being the bad guys (all the good ones always turned at the end) and all the Allies were gentlemen Officers, but at the end of it all, it preached courage, patriotism, and instilled in the reader a certain degree of respect for these traits. The major difference, it occurred to me, was that these comics didn't give the reader any excuse to behave otherwise themselves. For instance, one can say that Superman can afford to be brave because he's superhuman and Batman can afford to take a stand against crime because he's a millionaire with amazing gadgets . In addition to this, they operate out of imaginary cities like Metropolis and Gotham City, where there are super-villains… all in all, they give the reader a clear way to not get involved in the story, or identify with it. Whatever other values they hint at, the likes of Superman and Batman stop being role models for readers above the age of six.
This is perhaps the main differentiator between comics like Commando and the Justice League variety. I wonder if there'll be a time again when comics will just revolve around regular people.
Rediscovering the Commando comic
Quick & Flupke in India (finally!)
Heard of these two? Not surprised if you haven't. Way back in 1930, it was published regularly in Le Petit Vingtieme as a black & white cartoon by the eminent Herge. After his Tintin stories took off, he was forced to devote more time to it and hence had to stop the Quick & Flupke series. In 1985, after Herge's death, Studios Herge got them coloured and published in 12 volumes. It was only a full five years later that these comics were translated for the english-speaking audience. And 18 years after that, the series was released in India. That's right… they came out here in 2008.
The series follows the misadventures of two street urchins in Brussels - Quick and Flupke, who're incapable of staying out of trouble. The only other main character is the neighbourhood cop, and their parents turn up once in a while. There's no real order to the series, so you can just go to the store and pick one up at random. Released by Euro Books (who also re-launched the Phantom), each digest is priced at Rs. 199 and good fun to leaf through. Remember, don't expect it to be a Tintin, or even a Jo & Zette - it’s a collection of comics that were originally syndicated for a newspaper; 18 panels to a story at the most.
For all Herge fans, it’s a definite collectors item. And for children-toting parents, it’s an quick and easy read for kids - stuff they can't ask you to read out to them (which is a great reason to get them).
A bit of interesting trivia - here's a list of the appearances that Quick & Flupke have made over the years in Tintin:
- Tintin in Congo - They are among the crowd seeing Tintin off in the first panel
- The Shooting Star - They can be seen running towards the docks as the expedition sets off.
- On the back cover of some Tintin editions - about to fire a slingshot at Captain Haddock
Matt Groening before The Simpsons
Not too many people know, or bother to know, what Matt Groening was up to before The Simpsons. While media stats argue that The Simpsons, being America's longest running sit-com, is his greatest work, a true comic buff would never agree. As early as 1980, nine years before The Simpsons became a household phenomenon, Matt's cartoon 'Life in Hell' was syndicated by the Los Angeles Reader, and is still carried regularly in 250 weekly newspapers.
While it can be a wee bit hard to get your hands on US dailies in India, the good news is that all these cartoons can be found anthologized in a series of comic books including 'Work is Hell' (which fellow cartoonist Nicole Hollander hailed as the Kama Sutra of employment), 'School is Hell', 'Childhood is Hell', 'The Big Book of Hell', and 'The Huge Book of Hell'. Matt himself is so attached to the series, he said he would "never give up the comic strip. It's my foundation."
One of my friends recently lent me 'Childhood is Hell' and 'Work is Hell', and I can tell you that you can't pay too much for them. So, if you've got a friend or relative coming down from the US, you know exactly what to ask them for.
The Ghost Who Walks is back!
Remember the masked man from the Deep Woods who lived in a tree-house, had offices in the Skull Cave, and sought out evil-doers? Well, Euro Books has re-launched Lee Falk's 'Phantom' in India.
Over the past 3 decades, the Phantom has been re-introduced by publishers several times. In terms of format, first, it was the Rs. 2 comic book (remember those good old days when comics would only cost that?); then, it came as a A5-size digest of stories, and then, it disappeared from the scene for a long time. You could only find a dusty copy or two in some corner of the book store, and of course the vendors at train stations always had a few.
With the recent import of superheroes, like X-Men, Spiderman etc. from the likes of Gotham and DC Comics, its hardly surprising that kids today have little respect for mere humans. I'm hoping this latest avatar of Phantom comics changes that a bit. Each of these hard-cover magazine-sized digests has 2 full-length stories. Priced at Rs. 199, the digests come with special sections like 'Legends', which give the reader a peep into some of the Phantom's secrets (the one I bought presented Excalibur, the sword of King Arthur, as one of the Skull Cave's treasures) and articles on various objects associated with the Phantom. The stories, too, seem to be stuff that's not been released earlier in the market. I, for one, had never read 'The Ghost who Died Twice' or 'The Assassination of President Lincoln' earlier. As of now, there are a total of 15 such digests available in the market.
While there seems to have been an effort to modernize the product, I'm sorry to say that there's still a long way to go if it has to keep up with the quality that today's readers have come to expect. The paper and printing quality can easily be better, as can the quality of lamination on the cover. I'm guessing this is a test phase, and if the market laps it up, hopefully there'll be several more titles in the offing.
