# Vidyarthi Mithram & Chitra Bharti Kathamala

Friends,Tarzan has been published by mostly Kiran Comics in India,but there was another Indian publication which perhaps was the first to publish Tarzan in India,and that was Vidyarthi Mithram(Student friend) comics from Kottayam(Kerala).






















Few weeks from today i was totally unaware about this publication until i got hold of some of VM Tarzan comics very recently.From the ad at the back page of their comics its seems that VM were mainly dealer of scientific and laboratory equipments for schools/colleges,its amazing to notice that they also use to publish comics.
In one of their ad its mentioned that they also use to publish Phantom and Mandrake,though Phantom was published in Malayalam and Tamil,Mandrake in Malayalam and Tarzan in English,Hindi and Tamil.


























Going by this its totally new information about Phantom and Mandrake Indian publications,as far as my information is concerned VM has never been mentioned anywhere among Phantom/Mandrake Indian publications,even in Bryan Shedden site over Phantom which is considered as best complete reference guide for Phantom publications of all over the world,VM has not been mentioned there also in Indian Phantom publication list.
Perhaps Rafiq or Col.Worobu can throw more light on VM Phantom/Mandrake editions.

VM started publishing Tarzan in early 70's,hence going by this VM becomes the first Indian Tarzan publication as Kiran Comics was started in 80's.Early issues of VM Tarzan were in monochrome color and later issues in 4 color format.






















These are mostly illustrated by John Celardo and others,Col.Worobu can you tell more about this Tarzan illustrator!!.










































Chitra Bharati Kathamala

In early 80's reading culture was at its peak and comic business was a highly profitable business as already proved by super success of Indrajal comics,Amar Chitra Katha,Manoj Chitra Katha,Dalton Comics and many other publications at that time.
Sensing the business opportunity in comic industry a already well established name in school/college books publication house,S.Chand & Company of Delhi thought of trying its hand in comic publication and started Chitra Bharati Kathamala,which use to publish comics based on Historical stories,science fiction,comedy series and on well known historical persons life story.









































Though comics from this publication were of sub-standard except few series such as those written-illustrated by Anupam Sinha such as Kapil,Space Star,Mahamaya and other.









































Junior James Bond by Sukhwant was also one of the popular characters of Chitra Bharati.






















In late 80's and early 90's reading culture took a back seat with the advent of T.V/Video and comic business no longer remained a profitable venture.Comic publication houses shutters start dropping down due to cold business and in one such year S.Chand and Company also bid adieu to Comic publication and Chitra Bharati Kathamala became a history in readers mind.
Though not of very high quality but still CBK will be remembered by avid comic readers because of Anupam Sinha creations in it.

Today's Comic
Comic of this post is contributed by Navdeep,hence all credit to him only.This is a Fauladi Singh comic,hope will be liked by FS lovers.





















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# Inspector Azad & Covers

This is a quickie between next post which hopefully shall be a big one,hope all of you will like it.Found this cover-less comic recently,posting for all of you though cover is missing but comic is complete. Its about Inspector Azaad,a brainchild of Abid Surti,clearly inspired by Bahadur,another successful character by Surti.
Comic consists of a simple story of a notorious and womanizer Dacoit,Dhatura,who was neutralized by Inspector Azaad after Dhatura kidnapped his lady love.

























Publisher:Goversons comics
Writer:Abid Surti
Illustrations:Mullick Studio

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Also found some MCKs,cover of some of them posting here,normally i avoid taking Manoj comics but took these digests as they seem interesting enough.
















































































Chalte,chalte...watched 2012,really a disastrous movie(at box office),after all for how long special effect can glue the viewers. Continue Reading »

# Tarzan with Strip

Friends here is another Tarzan comic along with its strip version for comparison purpose contributed by a dear friend,ardent comic lover and collector Mister Alf for which all credit and thanks to him only.

























Download Comic


You can also download its strip version for reference/comparison purpose from here.
Download Strip

Mister Alf has a considerable collection of these Tarzan comics and strips,let him know if you like these and wish for more from his collection.

Friends do you remember vinyl Long Play audio records!!!A long disc like records which were played(rotated) on gramophone by stylus arrangement.Many childhood memories are associated with these vinyl rotating discs.We will be discussing more and in detail about them in coming posts.


































Can anyone tell about the format of these Diamond Comics and did anyone of you read them!If yes then can you throw some light on these type of Diamond Comics.


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# Manohar Kahaniyan & Satyakatha

Mitra Publication of Allahabad was a pioneer name in Indian publication history,there was a time when bunch of the most popular magazines use to come from Allahabad press.Magazines/novels as the likes of 'Jasoosi Duniya,Manohar Kahaniyan,Maaya and Manorma' etc were the glorious names of the Mitra Prakashan.

In this post we will discuss about Manohar Kahaniyan and Satyakatha in particular,there was a time mainly after post independence era when reading culture was at its peak in India, specifically around 60's after cinema,reading was the only affordable entertainment for the middle class mass.
At that time many publications came into picture publishing various kind of magazines,novels suiting to the different-different kind of taste of society.There has been a strange kind of fascination of human being toward crime,the crime news arises a strange kind of mix feelings of fear and sympathy toward this dastardly act,one can either hate or find interest in such news but can't ignore them and because of this sole reason crime based magazines,novels and now TV programs such as 'Sansani,S.P.Arjun' etc are hugely poplular.
Manohar Kahaniyan was launched in 1957 to capture the market using this human phsycology where crime stories titilliate the nerve of common man.Soon 'Manohar Kahaniyan' became the largest selling Hindi magazine of India pouring out lakhs of copies per month,encouraged by its bumper success Mitra Prakashan in 1974 launched another crime story magazine Satyakatha and it was also given a warm welcome by Indian mass.Both these magazine rode on success horse till late 80's and early 90's,but after the advent of TV,Video and internet Mitra Prakashan also suffered setback as other publications did and gradually all these big names 'Maaya,Manorma,

Manohar Kahaniyan and Satyakatha' lost in sand of time.

Today Mitra Prakashan is a shadow of its hay days and somehow struggling for its existence.Its magazine which was last to shut was 'Manorma' and to boost up its sales the publication started a crossword quiz in it.Winners were assured of handsome prizes and i also use to take part in those quizzes and also won it once,encouraged by this win i again participated and luckily was declared 1st or 2nd prize winner in one of those quiz very shortly,but month passed and the prize was not sent.I waited and waited,wrote several letters to the publication but no result. One or two years after i got a chance to visit Allahabad and encashing that opportunity visited Mutthhiganj(Mitra Prakashan office) in Allahabad and demanded explanation for the delay in prize delivery from the related persons.They pretended to look into the matter but from the lower staff i came to know that from months the staff has not been paid with their salary.

The picture was clear,publication was in huge loss,because of it they were unable to pay staff salary then how can they clear the pending quizzes prizes!! With heavy heart i returned and a year later 'Manorma' also closed down thus pulling curtains to the glorious Mitra Prakashan. They are still active but as a hazy shadow of their prime.
'Manohar Kahaniyan' was the most popular and selling publication of Mitra Prakshan,it use to publish basically the crime and fiction stories written by their reporters and fiction writers supported by beautiful illustrations and cartoons.







note the quality of illustrations associated with stories..







As it was the largest selling Hindi magazine hence use to get a lot of ads too,few attractive ads from Manohar Kahaniyan are here for you.
Do you remember this Raj Babbar's Red & White ad......"Hum Red & White peene waalon ki baat hi kuch aur hai"





















More Vintage ads.....








































ummm....'Gagan hi khaao,gagan hi khilaao.....




Remember this Lipton Tiger Tea ad....how this big moustache man sit on his jeep's bonut and sips Lipton tea facing the tiger.




Those were the times when novel culture was also on its peak and likes of Ved Prakash Sharma,Surendra Mohan Pathak were hugely popular among the pulp readers.Publishers of their novels use to give a full page ad of their forthcoming novels in this high profile magazine MK.























I remember turning the pages of Manohar Kahaniyan only for the brilliant cartoon feature by 'Ranjit'.His cartoon were so compact,funny and humurous,i wonder what happened to him as i didn't saw his work in any other magazine other than MK and Satyakatha,if anybody have some information on him please share.

































































Satyakatha was the another co-Publication of MK and was on the same pattern,only difference was its small size.I use to read in it the comic feature of Inspector Vikram by Aabid Surti.






















(pls bear with the poor image quality as these images are taken from mobile cam)

During my recent comic/magazine hunt i find quite a lot of Satyakatha,Manohar Kahaniyan along with many other vintage comics too.I was surprised to find a Bharat Kumar comic published under 'Trishul Comics',this is something new to find as far as i know Bharat Kumar full comics were published by Goverson Publication under the heading of Madhumuskan comics only.




Have a look at this comic also.....



This Rajan-Iqbal comic i read in my childhood,was glad to find it again,many memories associated with it reeled down.



Please share your thoughts about this post.Much more to come about mini bal pocket books and comics,Col.Ranjit and vintage Indian magazines/comics in coming posts.

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