Sunday, March 22, 2009

#Comic No.116-117 & The World Of Illustrated Weekly Of India

Friends recently i got an opportunity to put my hands over very early issues of The Illustrated Weekly Of India spanning from 1948 onwards.It was really a pleasure to go through these vintage issues.
Illustrated Weekly of India was started in 1880 named as "Times Of India Weekly Edition",later renamed as 'The Illustrated Weekly of India' in 1923 and continued weekly publication till 1993.
Now most important aspect of it is that it was the first Indian magazine to publish Phantom strips,earlier i was under impression that Phantom strips started publishing somewhere in 1940,but its not correct as i found Phantom strips in its 1957 issues,not before.Phantom strips continued in it till 1987 after which they were discontinued.
IWI used to publish only Phantom Sundays and those the current one only,before now i never saw any other strip other than illustrated by Sy Barry in IWI but in its issues of 1957 i found MCcoy strips too.Also these strips were used to be published in color(occasionally in B/W too) but later converted to full-fledged Black & White in 80's.
More on IWI will be continued in this very post but first let me present the comics for today post which are contributed by Ajay Misra,who possesses such a passionate enthusiasm for scanning and sharing comics that his passion is being carried to his next generation too.His kids Divish(son) & Parishi(daughter) helps in sharing his load by scanning comics and mailing the files to bloggers like me.This unmatched passionate attitude of Ajay and his family certainly deserves a open hearted appreciation.
As i also mentioned earlier that we use to fight but use to make it over soon without any unrecoverable damage.People try to take advantage of such indifferences by inciting and making fun and mockery of the situation without first having a look on themselves.
Anyway here is the first part of The Phantom's Adored Gem,for which all credit and thanks goes to Ajay only.

























Download Comic

In the last post it was asked to identify a personality which was correctly identified by Venkit,Grouchy and Bharat.The personality was Vijay Mallya,the liquor barren,who was recently in news for bringing the personal belongings of Mahatma Gandhi back to India by bidding in a private Auction for it.
Have a look on a old picture of him published in IWI.
















Here is a feature of IWI,can you tell who is the illustrator of the pictures in it..!



























Witness few vintage ads from the IWI 1948-57 issues..



















































Have you ever seen a Indian Prime Minister borrowing a lighter/match stick to lit his cigarette....no!! Ok,watch here.





Have a look over these Phantom strip featuring MCcoy's work.The page size of Weekly is large than my A4 size scanner glass hence please bear with me for any of cropped images.




























Please go through with few cover pages of IWI.


























Noticed the price of 1957 issue!!.yeah,correct,its 75 new paisa.Now tell what can be the price of this 1949 issue....



Can't guess!!Ok,notice down the price yourself.


How much it is....12 Anna's,Isn't it! 12 Anna means how much rupees?

One more comic strip use to follow in IWI which is worth mentioning here.It was short stories illustrated by Kavadi.Have a look on a couple of them.




































Kavadi was another talented artist who didn't got his cake of glory.He use to draw the pictures which were associated with crime stories published in 'Satyakatha','Manohar Kahaniyan' etc.
His painted pictures were quite effective,have a look at one such of his drawing.




While browsing through these issues it was pleasant surprise for me to know that Abid Surti's another famous character "Azad" also use to appear in IW.Want to see it..?Here are few of them.



















































Can you identify the personalities in the picture given below!!They were/are very famous political personalties.Identifying four persons in the picture excluding the leftmost woman will be enough as the woman standing left most was not that much renowned and well known than the rest four.





Enjoy few more nostalgic and vintage ads from IW.











































































Can anyone identify these famous Bollywood personalities.


































































Finally enjoy the concluding part of Phantom's Adored Gem contributed by Ajay only.More on IW,Dharmyug and Abid Surti's work in next posts.Please keep visiting along with your inputs.



























51 comments:

Venkitachalam Subramanian said...

Thanks Ajay, for the comics scanned and Zaheer for posting.

The people from the right are the Late(s) Indira Gandhi, Dr.KaranSingh, Jawaharlal Nehru And Sheikh Abdullah.

I do have a request though - Try to keep these kind of posts seaparate from a post containing scanned comics. It kinda causes a distraction.
Just my two cents. I don't want any flames thrown my way.

All the best.

Anonymous said...

Congrats, CW. You've got a rare collection in your hands. Really loved those old ads & photographs. Real Gems. Thanks for sharing, CW.

Thanks for the IJC, Ajay.

pattu said...

Terrific post! Am at work Will read at leisure in the evening and comment again. Great stuff! Many thanks.

Pattu

Amith Nag said...

Man, what a mail! Thanks a bunch for all the scans - brings back memories of 80s and the older "inherited" comics/books I had from 60s/70s with such ADs.

Comic World said...

Venkit: Correct Venkit.Congrats for being first to answer correctly,it seems you have a keen interest and deep knowledge data base when it comes to politics/political personalities.I think Dr.Karan Singh,who is a decedent of Raja Hari Singh of Kashmir,is still alive.Isn't so!
All stuff was combined in a single post to provide something for everyone,but didn't have a slightest idea that it can cause any sort of distraction(?)!
Your demands/requests/advice/suggestions are heartedly welcome,pls don't apprehend that they could ignite any sort of offense/dispute.

Comic World said...

Deb: Thanks and Welcome Deb.Much more on other vintage magazines such as Dharmyug,Saptahik Hindustan is coming for sure.

Comic World said...

Grouchy: Thanks Pattu.Waiting for your in depth detailed comments.

Comic World said...

Amit Nath: Welcome Friend.We would love to know about your 'inherited' vintage comics and books,if you can share.

Anonymous said...

Chodwhi ka chand ho yaa aftab ho jo bhi ho tum khuda ki kasam lajabab ho.
Need any more praising words!
It is wonderful. Waiting for more such posts. A separate thank for each page.
Pardeep Sathe is the illustrator of pictures of that feature.
Do you have any vintage film magazine carrying features/obituary on Sanjeev Kumar on his demise including information about films which he left incomplete? If you have, plese post it on your movie blog.

bharat said...

Thanks Ajay and Zaheer for the comics.. About the Bollywood personalities they are
1. Vinnie Paranjpe
2. Karan Kapoor
3. Leela Chitnis..(not sure)
4. Nastasha Sinha

Comic World said...

S.B:Thanks for kind words.
Yeah,correct the illustrator is Pradeep Sathe only.Seems you have a eagle eye.:o)
Well,i may be having few of the old filmy magazines such as Madhuri/Sushma etc carrying information/obituary on Shri Harihar Zariwala-Jethawala who was popularly known as Sanjeev Kumar in Bollywood.
At the time of his demise(6th Nov.85') only dubbing work of Qatl and few long shots of him in K.Asif's Love And God were remaining which were completed with some duplicate and dubbing of both the movies was done by famous mimickery artist Sudesh Bhonsle.Apart from these two movies 25% of his work was remaining in Professor Ki Padosan due to which film was delayed and released only in 1993 after changing the role of Sanjiv Kumar to justify his absence in rest of the movie.

Anonymous said...

Those are "Rex" stories aren't they?
Somehow, even after the twins were born, I always hoped that Rex would get a chance to succeed as the phantom. After all, he WAS an adopted son. And in these more enligthed times, Heloise too deserves a run. :)
Unfortunately, towards the end, Rex became a true king and started having a teenage romance. :)
Did that storyline make further progress?

Anonymous said...

P.S. Is it wrong to point out that Pravin Aunty is looking absolutely hot? :)

Vineeta Yashsavi said...

wonderful post...

Comic World said...

Bharat: All your answers are correct except no.3.Can you tell which was the first movie of Natasha Singh and who was the hero of that film.

Comic World said...

KK: Lee Falk was having a better idea for Rex,hence didn't emphasized him to succeed Phantom.
Few post Falk strip are dealt with 'King' Rex adventures,can post it if you want.
Parveen Babi and Zeenat Amaan were two leading glamorous leading ladiaes of 70's not only due to their 'exposing' roles but due to their life style too.Parveen Babi chose to openly 'live in' with Kabeer Bedi which was a bold step indeed at that time.

Comic World said...

V.Yashasvi: Thanks and welcome.

bharat said...

The First movie of Natasha Sinha was Anand Aur Anand.. She starred opposite Suneil Anand son of Dev Anand.
Was dissapointed could not guess 3rd person. Looks a lot like Waheeda Rehman too.

Comic World said...

Bharat: Terrific knowledge Bharat!!Its pleasant to come across with somebody who possesses keen knowledge and interest in Hindi films.The way you wrote the name of son of Devanand (Suniel Anand) shows you have a wide range of knowledge over Hindi Movie personalities.
Sunil Anand added an extra 'e' in his name due to some numerological reasons prior to release of his second movie "Car Thief",unfortunately which also met to same fate as his first movie did.
"Anand Hi Anand" was also a debut movie of a renowned singer of today,can you name the singer!!
The 3rd personality was a famous actress of yester-years and is associated with a historical classic movie.Additional hint,she married a famous villain of 70's era.

bharat said...

Its interesting answering such questions but this time i had to turn to google to find out the answer.That singer has to be Abhijeet.
The 3rd personality has me totally stumped.
I used to love reading the Illustrated Weekly of India and I remember buying around 3 copies of the last issue printed because it was given in a plastic bag with many freebies thrown in.
I used to have a huge collection of Comics, Magazines particularly connected with computers and today i regret not having being able to maintain them with me.I owned a Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K computer in the year 1986 and had many magazines associated with that computer..
I feel honored to have met people thorough these blogs who have maintained painstakingly the comics and magazines that they had.
Thanks and Regards
Bharat

Comic World said...

Bharat: Again correct.Yes,that singer is Abhijeet indeed.
Its nice to know somebody who was a active reader of Illustrated Weekly.I was more interested in Hindi comics/magazines though occasionally use to go through English ones too whenever got a chance.I remember turning pages of IWI,Dharmyug and Saptahik Hindustan.
Ok,more hints,husband of this personality has acted as hero in a movie which has the same title which a famous movie of Bobby Deol does have.

bharat said...

Because of the continous hints given I am giving one more try.I know i an sure on this one now.
The 3rd personality is Bina Rai, wife of Prem Nath. She was the heroine of Anarkali

Venkitachalam Subramanian said...

Bharat - you beat me to it.

And yes, I killed Dr.Karan Singh. My apologies. Placement of unwarranted phrases at unwarranted places could lead to mass murder!

Anyway there was a question about the annas and rupees. 12 annas was almost equal to 75 paise. Because 1 rupee used to be 16 annas.

The lady near Sheikh Abdullah in the group photo seems to look like Indira Gandhi. If she was not the Sheikh's Begum or Dr.Karan Singh's Rani, I would venture a guess that she is Vijayalakshmi Pandit, the sister of Nehru (and the first woman to head the General Assembly of the United Nations Organization).

Comic World said...

Bharat: Now its correct.Yes,she is Bina Rai,wife of Premnath and Heroine of classic Anarkali.
Premnath was the co-hero of Barsat along with Raj Kapoor who was his brother in law in real life(Premnath's sister,Krishna,was married to Raj Kapoor).

Comic World said...

Venkit: You are absolutely correct on the relation of Anna with Rupee.
Well,that lady's name is Mrs.Krishna Hutheesing,this much i know about her.If you are having some more information on this name please do share.

Rafiq Raja said...

Heah... back in Tamil Nadu, we still call 25 paise as 4 Anna, 50 paise as 8 Anna.... atleast in Tamil... but it's slowly going out of its usage :)

I guess the other questions are already answered.... so I will enjoy the scans alone.

I wrongly posted a comment in previous post, which should have been here.

CW, where did you get all these IW's from... ??? :)

ÇómícólógÝ

Comic World said...

Rafiq Raja: Welcome Rafiq Bhai.Well,we too call 25 paisa as 4 Anna or Chavanni and 50 paisa as 8 Anna or Atthanni here,but the usage is obviously diminishing.
These IW were collected from old books shops when i was searching for comics.

Venkitachalam Subramanian said...

Well, I was off by only one sibling. Krishna HatheeSingh(sp?) was also Nehru's sister - the not so famous one.

Comic World said...

Venkit: Amazing knowledge Venkit.It was informative to know about not so famous sibling of Pt.Nehru.

Anonymous said...

Well, comic world I am surprised you think people have forgotten about anna.

chowaanii
aathani
solay annae ki baat.
etc
paanch rupaiya, baraah annna.
marega bhaiya, na na na.

Comic World said...

KK: No,i did not think so,but its a fact also that these proverbs are fast being forgotten.Isn't so!!

Colonel Worobu said...

Old id gold! Now everyone seems to share my love for vintage ads :o) These bring back some real memories. I have actually read some of these weeklys when they first came out (the ones with inspector Azad). Of course I only read the comic pages alone. There used to be Dennis the menace and hubert on the opposite side.

Let's have more of these posts if it is not too much of a burden for you.

Best,
Col.

Comic World said...

Col.: So you are here at last..was waiting to hear from you as i have to take extra care while scanning to include the publication date and year of IW keeping in mind your fondness with publication date tag.
I am loving these off-beat post as mere comic posting doesn't incite any charm and extra enthusiasm in me.
Will be posting more for sure.

Dr PC Sarkar said...

I have been searching for scans of Inspector Azad and Inspector Vikram for years now. Both would appear above the Phantom strip in the IWI. But no luck. These few scans of Inspector Azad really made me nostalgic. The website of Time Group mentions that entire archives of Illustrated Weekly are available on microfiche. But the link for ordering doesn't work..

Keep up the good work, folks!! Try to trace IWI, if possible. God Bless..

pcsarkar

Vinayak said...

Great post and what a collection!
That old photo: (from right) Indira Gandhi, Karan Singh, nehru, Sheikh Abdullah and Vijay laxmi pandit.
The others - Veeni Paranjpe (worked in his father's Katha and serial Hum Panchi Ek Chal Ke,), Karan Kapoor and Natasha Sinha (again a faous face from Tv and later films). Just wanted to write down the ones that i could recognize.

Comic World said...

Vinayak: Welcome on CW Vinayak,you are correct about the personalaties.Please keep visiting.

KGN said...

Great posts abt Illustrated Weekly of India. I am looking for an article / cartoon by RK Laxman / RK Narayan on the Peaceful Nuclear Explosion in Pokhran in 1974 and about Dr Raja Ramanna. It appeared in IWI in May / June / July 1974. Has any one access to it - and share it? - KGN

Comic World said...

KGN: Welcome KGN,i am having few issues from 1974,let me check if the mentioned interview is there,if it is,will be sharing it.

KG Narayanan said...

Thanks, Comic World. I will look forward to seeing that.

KG Narayanan said...

Hi Comic World, Any luck with the IWI of May / June 1974 with Laxman's feature on Raja Ramanna? - KGN

Comic World said...

K G Narayan: Well,my IWI are stuffed in bags,which i am unable to check at the moment because of messing up comics and magazines.Whenever i can check will let you know for sure.:o)

aabid said...

It's fantastic. U have done a remarkable job that only a committed person like u can do it.

Comic World said...

Abid Ji: Many thanks Abid ji for such appreciative words from a artist of your stature.If you have put something in praise then all the efforts bore fruits for me.
Many many thanks and pl keep advising from time to time.

Unknown said...

Thank you very much for all these nostalgic things which were a must during my college days. Weekly's Phantom and the 'Indrajal Comics' were the favourite ones since my schooldays. These magazines were closed down bt the TOI group in 1993. Keep up your efforts!
---PURNACHANDRA RATH. Email:purnachandrarath@gmail.com

Comic World said...

Purnachandra: Welcome pal.The Indrajal comics were closed down by TOI in 1990.

Anonymous said...

Excellent and great work!! Thanks for bringing back the old days. Advertisements are always my greatest interest. I love all collections..Please accept my best wishes and continue this good work-Rajan

Comic World said...

Anon: Thanks and welcome.

जितेन्द्र माथुर said...

मज़ा आ गया हसन भाई मज़ा आ गया । ये हमारी वो यादें हैं जो गुजरे हुए कल को ज़िंदा रखती हैं । इलस्ट्रेटेड वीकली मेरी भी पसंदीदा पत्रिका थी । मुझे आज भी इसकी वो आवरण कथा याद है जिसका शीर्षक था - 'प्रिंस चार्मिंग' और वो माधवराव सिंधिया और उनके परिवार पर आधारित थी । मैं देश के हालात को जानने-समझने के लिए धर्मयुग और साप्ताहिक हिंदुस्तान के अलावा इलस्ट्रेटेड वीकली और ब्लिट्ज़ को भी बराबर पढ़ा करता था हालांकि ब्लिट्ज़ मुझे राजनीतिक रूप से पक्षपातपूर्ण लगता था (रूसी करंजिया इन्दिरा गांधी और उनके बाद राजीव गांधी के बहुत करीब थे, शायद इसलिए) । आज कहाँ हैं ऐसे चित्र, ऐसे विज्ञापन और ऐसी मनमोहक बातें । अब तो अश्लीलता का कारोबार होता है और ज़ेबें भरी जाती हैं ।

हुज़ूर से दरख़्वास्त है कि अपना कीमती वक़्त और ताक़त फ़ेसबुक पर ज़ाया करने की जगह ऐसे ही मानीखेज़ कामों में लगाएं । मैं जल्द ही फ़ेसबुक छोड़कर सार्थक ब्लॉग और समीक्षाएं लिखने पर ध्यान दूंगा । कुछ मौलिक सृजन का जो विचार मन में आया है, उस पर भी अमल करने की कोशिश करूंगा ।

आप अपने ऐसे ही उम्दा ब्लॉग के लिंक कॉमिक वर्ल्ड पर डालते रहें ताकि ख़ाकसार जैसे लोग जो उन्हें पहले नहीं पढ़ सके थे, अब पढ़ सकें ।

तह-ए-दिल से शुक्रिया और आगे के अदबी काम के लिए दुआएं ।

जितेन्द्र माथुर

Comic World said...

धन्यवाद् जीतेन्द्र भाई । शानदार भारतीय इतिहास के साहित्यिक कब्रगाह से पुरानी कब्रों कुरेद कर उनसे अब भी उठती जाती खुशबु सूंघने का मोह खाकसार छोड़ नहीं पाता है और अक्सर ऐसी हरकतें करता रहता है जिसमे की ऐसी ही की गयी यह हरकत आपको पसंद आई । इंसान की रुचियाँ समय की मोहताज होती हैं और जैसे ही रुचियों का चक्का वापस इस तरह घूमता है मैं फ़िर ऐसी की कब्रों की टोह में लग जाऊंगा ।

KCHASE said...

Hello Comic World,

This is such a great blog post! Kudos! I'm looking for the Cover of May 1974 Illustrated Weekly. Would you be able to help? If you can, that would be a HUGE help!

please email at kripachase@gmail.com if yo happy to find it :-))

KCHASE said...

Hello Comic World,

This is such a great blog post! Kudos! I'm looking for the Cover of May 1974 Illustrated Weekly. Would you be able to help? If you can, that would be a HUGE help!

please email at kripachase@gmail.com if yo happy to find it :-))

Related Posts with Thumbnails

Contributors

Navdeep
Srinivas
Frank
Achala
Venkit