Comics that shaped me!!!!! Part two.
When I was a kid… I was a dreamer, like everybody else… Comics used to provide me a wing or two to dream more. And once the stream of comics died up, I did something unusual. I tried making my own comics… by my own hands… I created characters like Aloo, Ajay Vijay, among several others. (They, however remained a part of my scrap book and memories only)
Ajay and Vijay were wonderful characters… their story go back to a war between Surs and Asurs (the good and the bad guys of Hindu mythology). In one such war Lord Shiva was also participating from the Sur side, the Asur king used a Brahmastra (the most potent arrow that is impossible to defend) on Lord Shiva. To save the lord, one of his faithful servants came in the way and sacrificed himself. This infuriated Lord Shiva… he killed the Asur king and told the Surs to bring the mutilated bodies of both his faithful servant, so that he may bring him back to life.
However the sides of Sur had a Trojan in between them… he fooled the Sur side and placed the head of Asur King and body of the faithful servant together… and Lord Shiva accidentally brought him back to life… Now this Frankenstein was controlled by Asur king's mind… and armed with Lord Shiva blessings, he became invincible. Upon realizing his mistake… Lord Shiva brought back to life the body of Asur King and head of his faithful servant to counter the Frankenstein. And then started an eternal war between the two entities… who were nearly equal in power. The evil part was called Ajay and the good was Vijay.
Confusing, isn’t it. But what it highlights is a fertile mind of kid, catalyzed by comic books.
My comics had a captive reader… my younger brother. One day he picked up a fight with me… and I stopped showing my scrap book to him… Insulted, he bought a scrap book and started drawing his own comic strip…Tamatar. When he picked up the pen… we all were amazed at the ease with which he drew… rest as they say, is history. He grew up graduated from an Art College, became a Graphic artist and now dabbling with film-making.
Coming back to Tintin… I read him for the first time when I was in class 8th, 13 year old. The first comic that I read was "Prisoners of the Sun"; this was the first time I was introduced to Peru, Incas, and Llama… I was mesmerized. My eyes started dreaming about being there and doing that. (Funny thing, do you know what does a Llama do when he is angry… he spits on the person or thing with which he is angry!!!! I still remember one of them spitting on Captain Haddock and he cursing the Llama in his funny style- Billions of blue blistering barnacles in the ten thousand thundering typhoons)
Very first comic and I knew I have a friend for life in Tintin, Snowy, Captain Haddock, Professor Calculus, Bianca Castafiore, and finally Thomson & Thompson. Life was never same again.
There was however one problem… Tintin was prohibitively expensive a comic… and I had to wait for months to see a new title of his… I read Tintin in Tibet, Destination Moon, and Seven Crystal Ball. And then when I was in Jamnagar… I stumbled up and entire collection of the Tintin comic books in a library. My childhood wish was fulfilled when I was 23.
Tintin did something magical to me… it introduced me to places all around the world… places about which I wouldn’t had ever studied. Peru, Red Sea, Congo, Mexico, Tibet, Egypt etc. It didn’t only introduced me to all these places… it coaxed me to dream visiting them… locate them in map… play an armchair globe-trotter. He set the foundation of one of the most compelling traits of my character.
If there is one legacy, I want to leave for my sons… then it is the wanderlust that I have in my eyes… I couldn’t actualize myself… suffering as I was with the proverbial "middle class morality" and the middle class thirst for social security. I want him to feel that magic, to wander, to tread where no one had ever… to break barriers… and to love Tintin the way I did.
Thank you Herge, for giving me Tintin.
Ajay and Vijay were wonderful characters… their story go back to a war between Surs and Asurs (the good and the bad guys of Hindu mythology). In one such war Lord Shiva was also participating from the Sur side, the Asur king used a Brahmastra (the most potent arrow that is impossible to defend) on Lord Shiva. To save the lord, one of his faithful servants came in the way and sacrificed himself. This infuriated Lord Shiva… he killed the Asur king and told the Surs to bring the mutilated bodies of both his faithful servant, so that he may bring him back to life.
However the sides of Sur had a Trojan in between them… he fooled the Sur side and placed the head of Asur King and body of the faithful servant together… and Lord Shiva accidentally brought him back to life… Now this Frankenstein was controlled by Asur king's mind… and armed with Lord Shiva blessings, he became invincible. Upon realizing his mistake… Lord Shiva brought back to life the body of Asur King and head of his faithful servant to counter the Frankenstein. And then started an eternal war between the two entities… who were nearly equal in power. The evil part was called Ajay and the good was Vijay.
Confusing, isn’t it. But what it highlights is a fertile mind of kid, catalyzed by comic books.
My comics had a captive reader… my younger brother. One day he picked up a fight with me… and I stopped showing my scrap book to him… Insulted, he bought a scrap book and started drawing his own comic strip…Tamatar. When he picked up the pen… we all were amazed at the ease with which he drew… rest as they say, is history. He grew up graduated from an Art College, became a Graphic artist and now dabbling with film-making.
Coming back to Tintin… I read him for the first time when I was in class 8th, 13 year old. The first comic that I read was "Prisoners of the Sun"; this was the first time I was introduced to Peru, Incas, and Llama… I was mesmerized. My eyes started dreaming about being there and doing that. (Funny thing, do you know what does a Llama do when he is angry… he spits on the person or thing with which he is angry!!!! I still remember one of them spitting on Captain Haddock and he cursing the Llama in his funny style- Billions of blue blistering barnacles in the ten thousand thundering typhoons)
Very first comic and I knew I have a friend for life in Tintin, Snowy, Captain Haddock, Professor Calculus, Bianca Castafiore, and finally Thomson & Thompson. Life was never same again.
There was however one problem… Tintin was prohibitively expensive a comic… and I had to wait for months to see a new title of his… I read Tintin in Tibet, Destination Moon, and Seven Crystal Ball. And then when I was in Jamnagar… I stumbled up and entire collection of the Tintin comic books in a library. My childhood wish was fulfilled when I was 23.
Tintin did something magical to me… it introduced me to places all around the world… places about which I wouldn’t had ever studied. Peru, Red Sea, Congo, Mexico, Tibet, Egypt etc. It didn’t only introduced me to all these places… it coaxed me to dream visiting them… locate them in map… play an armchair globe-trotter. He set the foundation of one of the most compelling traits of my character.
If there is one legacy, I want to leave for my sons… then it is the wanderlust that I have in my eyes… I couldn’t actualize myself… suffering as I was with the proverbial "middle class morality" and the middle class thirst for social security. I want him to feel that magic, to wander, to tread where no one had ever… to break barriers… and to love Tintin the way I did.
Thank you Herge, for giving me Tintin.
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