My first visit to a comic bookstore

It took a long-haul flight from Mumbai to Vancouver for me to finally visit a comic bookstore I’d only read about online and watched with envy on The Big Bang Theory.

The comic bookstore I went to was on Vancouver Island, in a small, charming place called Coombs, within the district of Nanaimo. Coombs, as you might know, is famous for its Old Country Market—more popularly known as Goats on the Roof—where a family of goats actually lives on the low sodded roof. It attracts over a million tourists every year, apparently.

The comic bookstore, as it was simply called, was a single room and not very big. Its walls were lined with storage racks holding dozens of white boxes filled with comics in polyethylene bags, each neatly labelled with the names of superheroes on the side.

When I went in with my family, the place was nearly empty. A young man, presumably the owner, sat at a counter watching something on his phone, while a couple of kids were noisily sifting through trading cards in the centre of the store. I practically had the comic bookstore all to myself. I wandered through the shelves, looking for my favourite characters from DC and Marvel, and other imprints. They were all there, and some not so familiar ones too.

With help from my family—since the boxes were quite heavy—I went through hundreds of backdated comic-books, mostly Superman and Batman (my childhood heroes), the Hulk, Flash, Daredevil, Captain America, Punisher, Justice League, Fantastic Four and the Avengers. I picked out several, put them back and then took them out again. Being spoilt for choice wasn’t easy. There were so many old titles, I wanted them all.

At one point, I decided to collect the multi-part Superman: Funeral for a Friend special series I had always wanted to own. With more help from my family, I spent over an hour searching for all the parts but came up three short. In the end, I dropped the idea and settled for the equally prized Reign of the Supermen! 1993 series instead.

I suppose you could say, “You lose a Superman, you gain a Superman!”

Some three hours later, as I was paying for my stack of comic-books, I suddenly realised I hadn’t seen two other favourite characters from my teens—Tarzan and his son Korak. They were there, all right; I had somehow missed them.

After the owner pointed them out, I got down on my haunches and quickly went through a couple of boxes of early Tarzan issues with their vintage-smelling covers, my comic-book antennae tingling with excitement for a second time that evening. Unfortunately, we were running late, and it was with some reluctance that I put the ape-man back in his box.

Comic-books have brought me endless joy since my school days, and visiting this little haven felt like a dream come true. I’ll be going back to Coombs again, hopefully in the not-too-distant future—for the comic-books and, of course, the goats on the roof.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a comics fan!

© Miika Laaksonen/Unsplash

Bill Maher, political commentator and television host, was accused of mocking comic-book fans for mourning the death, November 12, of Marvel legend Stan Lee. He wrote on his blog, “The guy who created Spider-Man and the Hulk has died, and America is in mourning. Deep, deep mourning for a man who inspired millions to, I don’t know, watch a movie, I guess,” and added, somewhat self-righteously, “Personally, I’m grateful I lived in a world that included oxygen and trees, but to each his own.”

As a comic-book fan, reading and collecting comics for over four decades, I wasn’t offended by the American comedian’s ill-conceived remarks. Maybe he was trying to be funny, except no one felt like laughing. Comics are a serious business, an alternate religion, even for the lighthearted among diehard fans.

Here’s what happened next. Like dirty linen, Lee fans took Maher to the cleaners, to be washed, rinsed, spun and dried on social media. His attempts to clarify that he meant no disrespect to Stan Lee failed to cut ice with his legion of followers.

Stan Lee and Peter Parker in Spider-Man 3. © Sony/Marvel

The outrage against Maher can perhaps be explained in the words of Hollywood actor Chris Evans who, in an unrelated context, said, “The comic book world is so dangerous. You know what I mean? You say one thing and people—they’re ravenous—they are very opinionated fans. But they're great fans.” Who better to tell us than the man who plays Captain America and the Human Torch in Marvel’s Avengers and Fantastic Four?

What Maher probably didn't realise is that, comics, in spite of spawning a global cultural phenomena for nearly a century, is a personal thing. We may share and enjoy comic-books collectively, swear lifelong allegiance to the sequential panels of vivid characters, images and balloons, but we read them as individuals, in the seclusion of our mental cocoons where no outsiders are allowed and trespassers like Maher are prosecuted.

Most of us, and certainly those who grew up in the second half of the 2oth century, have fond memories of spending many a summer holiday borrowing and reading comics, and then exchanging those for new ones from the circulating library. Mine are no different.

Here, I'm going to digress.

I recall the first time I stepped inside the world of comics. I was around eight years old when an uncle from San Diego, California, sent my dad 40 DC and Marvel comics by post. The crisp and glossy Silver Age (1956-1970) and Bronze Age (1970-1985) comics, neatly packed in a carton, travelled nearly 7,000 miles and inspired him to start collecting comics and rope me in as his young co-conspirator.

It was the beginning of a delightful adventure with an eclectic roster of valiant heroes and superheroes—the Pandavas and the Maurya Kings, Justice League and the Avengers, and so many others—dedicated to fighting evil and making the world a better place.

© Amar Chitra Katha

One evening, my dad picked up Gopal and the Cowherd, a popular Bengali folktale from Amar Chitra Katha (Immortal Picture Stories)—India’s largest-selling comic-book imprint—and read it out to me.

In the comic-book, Gopal, a poor young lad who lives with his devout mother in a tiny village, must walk alone through a dark forest to get to school on the other side. Naturally, he is afraid to make the journey alone. His mother calmly tells her son, “Whenever you’re scared, call out to your brother. He is a cowherd and his name is also Gopal. He will come and protect you.” Relieved, the boy happily sets off for school. As he is passing through the forest, Gopal calls out to his “brother” who materialises out of nowhere—wearing peacock feathers in his golden crown and playing a flute—and escorts the boy to school and back. When his mother hears about the mysterious brother and the herd of cows with tinkling bells, she realises that her son’s saviour was none other than Lord Krishna. She prays with silent gratitude, “You took care of my son, my Lord. I called and you came.”

It was one of the most beautiful and poignant stories I had heard and read at the time. It was also one of my earliest inspirational lessons in values and virtues. And that’s what comic-books are all about; often, a better teacher than pedantic textbooks.

Over the years, since then, I frequently turned to comic-books, to such brave and self-sacrificing heroes as Arjuna, the maverick archer in the great Indian epic Mahabharata and Captain America, the patriotic super-soldier, for both inspiration and entertainment. I found the richly illustrated panels and speech balloons riveting. In difficult times, comics were a form of escapism, a secret place where you overcame fear and despair, replaced negative emotions with hope, wonder and positive choices, and steered through life’s inevitable challenges with a new strength and optimism.

In that sense, comic-books, notwithstanding their digital avatars and billion-dollar movie franchises, are a liberating medium primarily because of their emotional appeal and visual influence and because, as Peter Parker’s Aunt May tells us so eloquently in Spider-Man 2, “There’s a hero in all of us, that keeps us honest, gives us strength, makes us noble, and finally allows us to die with pride, even though sometimes we have to be steady, and give up the thing we want the most. Even our dreams.”

May Parker’s eulogy, in many ways, is a tribute to comic-book fans who yearn to be like the mortal, supernatural and other-world heroes they admire and venerate so much. Actually, the rest of the world isn’t very different. Everyone, at some point, imagines living vicariously through the lives of those they look up to. Even Bill Maher.

Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again, 1990

For Overlooked Films at Todd Mason’s blog Sweet Freedom, this Tuesday, a very hazy recollection of a film that was best left inside the comic.

I have only the vaguest of memories of Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again, 1990, based on the popular teenage icon Archie and his friends. They return to good old Riverdale High for a grand reunion. Unlike in the comics, Archie and the gang—Betty, Veronica, Jughead, and Reggie—are all grown up, their teenage angst replaced by adult troubles. There is much talk among the old friends. But, as in the comics, the freckle-faced Archie must still choose between the dewy-eyed blonde and the spoiled-rich brunette. The weirdest bit in the movie, if I recall correctly, is that woman-hater Jughead has a young son. There is no sign of a wife, or Big Ethel, around. In short, I remember not liking it much.

The film is directed by Dick Lowry, known for television films and serials, and has Christopher Rich as Archie Andrews, Lauren Holly as Betty Cooper, Karen Kopins as Veronica Lodge, Sam Whipple as Jughead Jones, and Gary Kroeger as Reggie Mantle. Fran Ryan plays Miss Grundy, David Doyle impersonates Mr. Weatherbee, and Mike Nussbaum is Pop Tate.

Going only by names, I don’t know who Dick Lowry is or who any of these actors are, though I might have seen them elsewhere.

I have found that there were at least two other films, Archie (1964) and Archie's Weird Mysteries (1999), a television series.

Impersonations
It’s not easy to recreate a comic book hero on screen. For those who demand exactness, like me, it’s also more difficult to accept them. They seldom live up to my expectations. Christopher Rich and Sam Whipple did not seem like Arch and Juggie to me. They could’ve been in any film.

But then, neither did Michael Keaton, George Clooney and Christian Bale as Batman, Brandon Routh as Superman, Robert Downey, Jr. as Iron Man, Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man, Billy Zane as The Phantom, Macaulay Culkin as Richie Rich, or Christian Clavier as Astérix and Gérard Depardieu as Obélix.

As far as Dr. Bruce Banner/The Hulk is concerned, I’ll give the benefit of the doubt to Eric Bana, Edward Norton, and Mark Ruffalo.

The only actors who have looked the part of the comic book heroes they have played are Christopher Reeve as Clark Kent/Superman, Val Kilmer as Bruce Wayne/Batman, and Ben Affleck as Matt Murdock/Daredevil.

Steven Spielberg did a wise thing by deciding to recapture Belgian cartoonist Georges ‘Hergé’ Remi’s famous hero, Tintin, only in animated form. The first of the series, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (2011) was a big success mainly because the young reporter stayed inside his comic book.

Archie lives
Coming back to John L. Goldwater’s creation, Archie comics are still around, though the drawings and storyboards have gone through significant changes. The Riverdale gang is almost unrecognisable. They’re more snazzy and colourful. Some years ago, Archie Comics released a six-part series about Archie’s marriage (to either Betty or Veronica) that wasn’t entirely convincing. Today, the Archies look as if they are caught in a time warp, somewhere between Little Archie and Teenage Archie. Obviously, Archie Comics is catering to a new and young readership.

A couple of days ago, the family picked up some old Archie double digests (classified as magazines) and it felt nice to read the original adventures of freckle face and his friends. When was the last time you read an Archie comic?

Batman & Spider-Man, 1997

“I am here at my father’s side for the same reason that I love you: not because I am compelled to but because I choose to.”
— Talia al Ghul, daughter of Ra’s al Ghul, to Batman

Batman & Spider-Man, one of the earliest DC-Marvel crossovers, has terrific graphics that isn’t spoilt by the above average plot revolving around our two superheroes on one hand and mafia lord Wilson ‘The Kingpin’ Fisk and mad man Ra’s al Ghul on the other.

In a strange turn of events, Batman and Spider-Man join hands with the massively built underworld czar of New York to stop Ra’s al Ghul from realising his insane dream of a world where all men, all nations, are under his control. He wants Fisk’s powerful backing and vast criminal network to succeed in his evil plan, beginning with the Big Apple. The Kingpin may be the most dreaded underworld don but he’s not stupid enough to compromise his empire or destroy the city he loves and helped build.

If Fisk appears to side with supervillain Ra’s al Ghul, it’s because he has a secret agenda—an antidote that will cure his beloved wife, Vanessa, from a Ghul-induced terminal illness. But does Ghul really have it?

Over the years I have known about Batman’s many girlfriends, from Catwoman to Batwoman and Poison Ivy to Batgirl, but I didn’t know that he had a thing for Talia al Ghul whose desperate plea to the Dark Knight for “one night…for one moment (when) we can just forget who we are… what side we’re on. Can’t we just?” Yes, says Batman, if she left Ra’s al Ghul.

The 52-page comic-book is not bad although I’ll admit I’m up to my chin with Spider-Man’s corny sense of humour. Poor Batman gets the brunt of it.


For more Forgotten Books this Friday, check out Patti Abbott's blog Pattinase.

Ten animal comics I grew up with

Off the top of my head, these are some of the animal comic books that I read as a kid, and still do, as one who has never really grown up. I've left out many such as Jughead's old English sheepdog, Hot Dog, which I don't recall reading as a separate comic. 

Then there is Tintin's terrier, Snowy, and Obelix's Gaulish dog, Dogmatix, in Asterix comics, but they didn't have comics of their own. Come to think of it, Dogmatix did have a small comic book of his own.

I have left out animals from comic strips like Fred Basset, Marmaduke, Hobbes, Garfield, and Dennis the Menace's Ruff, perhaps, in another post.

I can't help thinking I've left out some obvious names. If you can think of any, let me know.

Racism in Phantom and Mandrake comics

I offer this post as part of Friday’s Forgotten Books which Todd Mason is hosting at Sweet Freedom in place of Patti Abbot who usually does the honours at her blog Pattinase.

A childhood without comics is like a newspaper without the comics page.

Phantom—The Ghost Who Walks, The Man Who Cannot Die and Guardian of the Eastern Dark—and Mandrake the Magician—who gestures hypnotically—are considered racist comics by many and for more than one reason. Personally, I've never read them with prejudice. To me they're just comic books, to be read and savoured.

I'm sure Lee Falk, the American writer, director and producer who created the famous heroes, never meant the comic strips to be racist. Mandrake first appeared in 1934 preceding Phantom by two years. I think he wanted both the strips to be original and appealing and popular, which they have been over 70-odd years of their existence. Over the years the comics have gone through a few changes.

However, the racist implications in both the comics are unmistakable. 

The Phantom reads out to Guran. I have no idea what.

Initially, Phantom’s abode, the Deep Woods, was located in Bengali, probably a reference to Bengal in eastern India. It all started when a band of pirates called the Singh Brotherhood attack the ship captained by Christopher Walker’s father somewhere in the 16th century.

The 20-year old lad witnesses his father’s brutal murder by the pirates in the Bay of Bengalla (which, I think, is Bay of Bengal) and takes an irreversible oath on the skull of the killer-pirate.

"I swear to devote my life to the destruction of piracy, greed, cruelty, and injustice, in all their forms! My sons and their sons shall follow me."

Christopher Walker thus became the first Phantom. We are now reading the adventures of the 21st century Phantom, known to us as Kit Walker, married to Diana, who works for the UN, and with twins, Kit and Heloise.

The portrayal of the Singh Brotherhood (not that it exists) as thieving and murdering pirates raised objections in India, prompting Lee Falk to take Phantom out of Bengali and transport him to a far-away jungle near Denkali in Africa. I don’t know how far this is true. I believe Bengali (originally Bengalla) was supposed to be a fictional country located near India, but the similarities between the two are all too obvious.

The racist charge doesn't end there. The young Christopher Walker, the sole survivor of the pirate attack, is washed ashore on a Bengali (or Denkali) beach and is saved by pygmies of the dreaded Bandar tribe, the poison people, who nurse him back to health. Now the pygmies are the only people who know that The Ghost Who Walks is a mortal with a long line of Phantom ancestry. Believing him to be the Man Who Cannot Die, the other jungle tribes worship the masked hero and even bow before him. He is treated like the lord of the jungle. He is their messiah, their saviour, their guardian. His every word and wish is their command. Phantom, of course, treats them with respect and kindness. 

Mandrake and Lothar

Lothar, the black prince, is to Mandrake the Magician what the Bandar tribe and its present-day leader, Guran, are to the Phantom. Lothar, a classic image of Mr. Universe, is Mandrake’s man Friday, sidekick, bodyguard, and troubleshooter. In reality, he is the magician’s best friend and confidant. A quiet man with impeccable integrity, Lothar does what Mandrake tells him to do, including thumping the bad guys when the need arises. He lives with Mandrake in his high-security mansion, Xanadu, and their respective girlfriends, Princess Narda from Europe, and Princess Karma, a black African model.

I first read Phantom and Mandrake comics in school. At that time it never occurred to me that both the crusaders against crime were white or that their friends were black. I read the comics in all innocence. I still read comics except now I also see them through tinted eyes. I don't let it bother me. I read comics because I love reading them.

VINTAGE COMICS

The Freedom Train

Freedom Train by Howard Lockhart Fogg, an American artist
who specialised in railroad artwork.

Freedom is fought hard and won. In a novel concept, America ran the Freedom Train from 1947 through 1949 to remind its citizens not to take their freedom, as enshrined in the principles of liberty and democracy, for granted. Two years after the Second World War ended, Attorney General Tom C. Clark mooted the idea of the Freedom Train so that Americans did not forget the sacrifices made by the country and its people during successive wars. The idea was approved by President Harry S. Truman.

Christened the Spirit of 1776 on September 5, 1947, the Freedom Train travelled over 37,000 miles through more than 300 cities in 48 states for 413 days, capturing the imagination of Americans wherever it went, as did the distinctive red, white, and blue colour scheme of the locomotive. 

What was significant about the train was that it carried the original versions of the United States Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Truman Doctrine, and the Bill of Rights among other rare documents and artefacts.

The bicentenary of the Freedom Train was celebrated in 1975-1976 when a similar locomotive called the American Freedom Train toured the country.

The historic journey was captured in popular culture including comics which, admittedly, first caught my attention. Until then, I didn't know about the Freedom Train, a fascinating piece of America's history.

Comic books on Mars

I haven’t done a Vintage Comics post since September 27, 2012, when I wrote about The Mighty Marvel Superheroes’ Cookbook (1977) and shared some of the favourite (junk-food) recipes of the world’s mightiest heroes. They not only love their burgers and submarines, combos and chowders, and pastas and steaks, they cook them too. The Hulkburger is a particularly mean looking burger.

This morning I read a news item about NASA’s ongoing mission to Mars, which hopes to send the first man to the red planet by 2037, when I decided to explore my collection of e-comics for any adventures on Mars. I found 14 e-comic books about the planet including Flash Gordon published under the erstwhile Indian imprint, Indrajal Comics.

I found all the e-comics at Archive, which deserves praise for showing consideration towards comics buffs like me. In gratitude, I have provided links to all the comics most of which are complete. The list is in no particular order. Happy reading, downloading, and reading!

Buster Brown Goes to Mars 

Publisher: Western Publishing 

Year: Early 1958 

Link: www.archive.org/details/BusterBrownGoesToMars 

Mystery in Space: Cowboy on Mars 

Publisher: DC Comics 

Year: February-March 1952 

Link: www.archive.org/details/MysteryInSpaceCowboyOnMars 

John Carter of Mars #36

Publisher: The Funnies 

Year: October 1938 

Link: www.archive.org/details/JohnCarterOfMars361939

Mystery in Space: The Martian Horse

Publisher: DC Comics 

Year: August-September 1952 

Link: www.archive.org/details/MysteryInSpaceTheMartianHorse 

Wonder Woman: Mystery of the Rhyming Riddle 

Publisher: DC Comics 

Year: March-April 1949 

Link: www.archive.org/details/TheMysteryOfTheRhymingRiddle 

Lars of Mars

Publisher: Ziff-Davis Comic #10 

Year: April-May 1951 

Link: www.archive.org/details/LarsOfMars10 

The Face on Mars

Publisher: Harvey Comics 

Year: September 1958 

Link: www.archive.org/details/TheFaceOnMars 

John Carter of Mars #375

 

Publisher: Dell 

Year: 1952 

Link: www.archive.org/details/JohnCarterOfMars375 

The Planetary Adventures of Flint Baker

 

Publisher: Planet Comics #1 

Year: January 1940 

Link: www.archive.org/details/ThePlanetaryAdventuresOfFlintBakerAndTheOne-eyedMonsterMenOfMars 

The Martian from Gotham City 

Publisher: DC Comics 

Year: June 1960 

Link: www.archive.org/details/BatmanRobbinTheMartianFromGothamCity 

First Earthman on Mars

 

Publisher: Fiction House Comics 

Year: July 1944 

Link: www.archive.org/details/FirstEarthmanOnMars 

Lost in Space

Publisher: EC Comics 

Year: March/April 1955 

Link: www.archive.org/details/LostInSpace_843 

Flash Gordon: Trapped on Mars 

Publisher: Indrajal Comics (India) 

Year: November 1973 

Link: www.archive.org/details/FlashGordonTrappedOnMars 

Gulliver Jones: Warrior of Mars

Publisher: Marvel Comics 

Year: 1971 

Link: www.archive.org/details/GulliverJonesWarriorOfMars

BOOK REVIEW

The Mighty Marvel Superheroes’ Cookbook (1977) 

Can comic-books be considered as books? Strictly no, unless they're like Stan Lee's The Mighty Marvel Superheroes’ Cookbook. A perfect recipe for Friday's Forgotten Books over at Patti Abbott's blog Pattinase which is being hosted by Todd Mason at his blog Sweet Freedom this week. Check out the two blogs for plenty of FFB action.

Now your kids can cook with the comics! 

As a kid I used to wonder how Superman could drink water, sip wine or eat food when he was made of steel. I don’t think Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster ever explained these life-sustaining aspects of their superhero’s life. As a teenager I wondered how the Man of Steel could make love to Lois Lane. Imagine the bionically-challenged Terminator taking a woman to bed…something like that. And as a grown-up I’m still wondering how he’s doing all of the above.

Come to think of it, in the comics Superman is rarely shown drinking or eating let alone making love though in the movie, Superman-II, he (Christopher Reeve) does sleep with his girlfriend (Margot Kidder) on a crystalline bed created out of kryptonite.

Turns out Superman isn’t the only superhero who drinks and eats and burps (let’s forget the sex for now).

A caboodle of Marvel superheroes not only wolf down large quantities of food, they even cook their own food, or so Stan Lee would like us to believe in The Mighty Marvel Superheroes’ Cookbook which is one of the most imaginative comic-book offshoots I have read—and own. Good thing I do: exaggerated as it sounds, used paperbacks of this book cost $124 (Rs.6,200) on Amazon USA and £109.90 (Rs.8,800) on Amazon UK.

A Fireside book published by Simon and Schuster, New York, in 1977, Superheroes’ Cookbook is a 95-page book of everyday recipes by some of Marvel’s leading heroes. Stan Lee claims it’s “the world’s first (and only) superhero cookbook.” It must be—I haven’t come across cookbooks of its kind over the past thirty-five years. At least, I don’t think DC came out with a rival cookbook by the Justice League of America. 

“Our recipes taste and smell Marvel-ous!” Head Chief Captain America proclaims as he takes you through what appears to be a normal cookbook with recipes for five-course meals, kitchen guide, do’s and don’ts, tips and all, except with one significant difference—you feel as if you’re reading a comic-book while browsing through the delectable recipes, which are accompanied by large colourful illustrations of the superheroes as they show off their favourite dishes.

So, for ‘Heroic Breakfast’ you can try out Captain America’s day starters comprising fruit juice pancakes and milk; cereal with milk; or fruit juice, eggs, bacon, toast and milk; or you can have the Hulk’s fried potatoes with bacon and eggs; or the Thing’s clobbered omelette. I can picture his brick-coloured fist pounding the eggs.

You can skip the breakfast and jump to the Fantastic Four’s superhero sandwiches and soups; the Sub-Mariner’s Submarine; The Human Torch’s Fireball; Spider-Man’s Parmigiani; or the Hulk’s Hulkburger.

 
There are six exclusive Heroic Combos as well, if you like.

If you’re still hungry then you can go for the main meal starting with soups from Dr. Strange’s instant eatery besides Doctor Doom’s Lima Bean Chowder; Thor’s Asgardian Vegetable Soup, Iron Man’s Splendid Split Pea Soup; or Silver Surfer’s Surfboard Sensation.

In the main course you have some mighty recipes consisting of meats, poultry, pasta, and fish. Particularly, Thor’s Cabbage Rolls; Doctor Strange’s Mysterious Stew; Daredevil’s De-Deviled Swiss Steak; Conan’s Kung Fu Chicken; Sub-Mariner’s Magnificent Tuna Bake; the Hulk’s Jumbo Shrimp in a Basket; and Spider-Man’s Seafood Platter.

If these sound a tad boring or if you’re looking for something light on the tummy, then you can have some vegetables and salads in the Hulk’s kitchen where you'll find the Fantastic Four enticing you with Zangy Casseroles, Stuffed Peppers, Spinach and Corn Casserole, and Grilled Tomato with Cheese. 

Pasta can hardly satiate the Hulk’s hunger and so the green goliath often has Spaghetti and Meat Balls in between clobbering General Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross’ armed lilliputs. He has a simple credo: “Hulk hungry—must feed face.” 

The Marvel gang takes the battle of the palate right to the end with recipes for delicious cakes and cookies, pies and tarts, and desserts and beverages.

The Mighty Marvel Superheroes’ Cookbook has great art and lettering by Joe Giella, a renowned American comic book artist who was on the staff of both DC Comics and Marvel. Presented by Stan Lee, the book is the brainchild of Gene Malis and the recipes are by Jody Cameron Malis of Celebrity Kitchen, Inc.

To round up here’s a tip from the superheroes’ kitchen guide: "Be Neat!! Don’t forget to clean up the mess in the kitchen! It’s easier to clean as you go along than to leave it for later."

BOOK REVIEW

To The Last Man by Zane Grey

Another comic-book contribution for this Friday’s Forgotten Books edition over at Patti Abbott’s blog Pattinase. Don’t forget to read the fine reviews of forgotten books by other bloggers over there. 

Much of my reading of western fiction in early days was shaped by Oliver Strange, Zane Grey, Louis L’amour, George G. Gilman and J.T. Edson. British writer Strange remains a favourite to this day. His ten Corgi paperbacks about Sudden, the heroic two-gun Texas outlaw, captured my youthful imagination of the Wild West like little else. His compatriot Frederick W. Nolan did a terrific job by writing five more books in the Sudden series. There have been no reprints since.

Zane Grey came next and one of his novels that I read very early on was To The Last Man which he wrote in 1921. Unlike Strange and Nolan, I haven’t read all of Grey but I remember liking this novel a lot. It had an original storyline, I’d assume, of love between a young man and woman caught on the opposite sides of a blood feud between their two frontier families. 

The theme soon became staple diet for subsequent books and movies, both western and non-western. Bollywood still thrives on it.

Young John Isbel and Ellen Jorth are loyal to their families and at the same time hopelessly in love with each other. They realise the futility of the range war sparked by rustling by one of the two families and played out in Tonto Basin, Arizona.

Grey first serialised To The Last Man in The Country Gentleman magazine during May-July 1921. But then, many of his stories were serialised in various magazines before they were published into books. 

A couple of days ago I downloaded To The Last Man comic-book by Dell and was pleased to find that it stayed true to Grey’s story based on the Pleasant Valley War or the Tonto Basin War. Having read the comic-book, I now want to reread the book and see if I feel differently about it. I doubt it, though.

BOOK REVIEW

Comic-books on economy

A not-too-insignificant contribution to this Friday’s Forgotten Books edition over at Patti Abbott’s blog Pattinase. Don’t forget to read the fine reviews of forgotten books by other bloggers over there.

Back in school, comic-books gave me more education than text-books, starting with Amar Chitra Katha (Immortal Picture Stories), India's largest and most popular comics imprint. In spite of their often mediocre artwork, these comics retold captivating stories from the great Indian epics like the Mahabharata and Ramayana, history, mythology, fables and folklore, and the Indian freedom movement, apart from easy-to-read profiles of noted social reformers, political leaders, freedom fighters, and spiritual gurus—all in comic-book format.

I don't know much about economy, so these days I'm brushing up my knowledge of this rather tiresome subject by reading the comic-book series brought out by the publications division of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. You can read and learn the basics of economy in comic-book format and enjoy it too.

Here are introductions to six comics from the series, courtesy of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Public Affairs Department.

Learn the major functions of the Federal Reserve System, the tools of monetary policy and how they work, and the other ways in which the Fed helps the US economy and financial system to function.

A history of the US monetary system and events leading to the establishment of the Federal Reserve System.

This comic-book explains the meaning and purpose of monetary policy, how the Federal Reserve makes monetary policy, and how the tools of monetary policy work.

Find out the causes and effects of inflation.

Illustrates the importance of savings, how it benefits all of us, and the various types of savings instruments and institutions.

Three young entrepreneurs use sophisticated bank services over a 23-year period. It also explores the role of checking deposits and lending in money creation.