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.