By Vaidehi Rawool
All of us have loved cartoons in our childhood; some of us have been thoroughly obsessed with them. At some point you must have wanted to have a pet that could talk and be amazing company, or to have superpowers and save your town from monsters of all kinds, or go on various adventures and meet dragons and fairies and help them fight off evil or just have plain fun in magical lands.
Most of us loved watching these cartoon shows and never missed even one episode. But, there was a certain period of time in our childhood where, at a certain date every month we waited with bated breath, to hold one of our most beloved possessions in our hands, comic books.
Comic books were born in the early 1880’s and evolved from newspaper editorial to the magazine form which we see today. It may seem that it was the Japanese who might have started the whole comic culture before the Europeans as in Japan these satirical and witty cartoons have forever been the rage. Comic books basically contain illustrations and other devices like the speech bubble and bright colors to convey their stories. These comics have caught the fancy of children for eons now and many of us have grown up with them as a staple of our childhood pass-time. It’s not a surprise then that adults are still enraptured by the comic culture and love dressing up as their favorite comic book heroes (read comicon/cosplay). Here are five comics which should most definitely read at some time in your life.
1. MARVEL COMICS
Marvel Worldwide Inc. started in 1939 is considered to be one of the most famous comic book franchises all over the world. Through their Marvel Universe they have given us some of our most beloved superheroes like Spiderman, The Avengers, The Fantastic Four and the most loved mutants, The X-Men. In spite of almost all the Marvel comics being turned into movies, the comics will forever be a world apart and perpetually loved by one and all.
2. DC COMICS
DC Comics Inc. a company owned by The Warner Bros is one of the largest and most successful company operating in American comic books and produces material featuring numerous well known superheroes and anti-characters. Some of these are namely Batman, The Joker, Robin, Superman, The Suicide Squad and the most loved of them all, The Justice League.
3. GARFIELD
The original sarcastic cat, this comic strip was created by Jim Davis. Published in the year 1978 it chronicles the life of this tabby tom-cat, Garfield his not so intelligent owner, Jon and Jon’s over the top, enthusiastic dog, Odie. Garfield has human tendencies of laziness, obsession about food, disdain for Mondays, boredom and sarcastic cynicism which had made him the most loved cat of them all. This comic strip holds the Guinness World Record for being the most widely syndicated comic strip, featuring in almost 2,580 newspapers and journals so far. One famous kitty, isn’t he?
4. CALVIN AND HOBBES
Calvin and Hobbes is a daily comic strip by American cartoonist Bill Watterson that was syndicated from November 18, 1985 to December 31, 1995. It follows the humorous antics of Calvin, a precocious, mischievous, and adventurous six-year-old boy, and Hobbes, his sardonic stuffed tiger. The pair is named after John Calvin, a 16th-century French Reformation theologian, and Thomas Hobbes, a 17th-century English political philosopher. At the height of its popularity, Calvin and Hobbes was featured in over 2,400 newspapers worldwide. As of January 2015, reruns of the strip still appear in more than 50 countries. Nearly 45 million copies of the 18 Calvin and Hobbes books have been sold. It seems to be loved by kids even today as it solidifies the whole idea of having a best friend who will be next to you forever.
5. TINKLE COMICS
We all agreeably loved all the fore-mentioned western comics but had more affinity towards Tinkle. This magazine published mainly in India has forever remained a favorite of kids and adults alike with its enthralling stories, addictive puzzles and fun games. Who can ever forget Suppandi and his antics and the cowardly Shikhari Shambus’s good fortune or the perils suffered by Tantri the Mantri. Also the new and old characters of tinkle namely, Pyarelal, Zimzim and Gotala, “butter-fingers” Amar and the cutest identical twins Ramu and Shamu. Even today Tinkle remains a great fun read for whosoever who is looking for pure Indian cartoon entertainment on pages.
The above five merely make a quarter of all the other loved and cherished comic strips and illustrations there are. We all have loved Archie, The Peanuts, and Marvin to name a few bone-tickling reads. The newest on the block seem to be the Manga comics, these Japanese comics are fast gaining popularity among the young .So go on and get your hands on one of them and lose yourself in the amazing world of comics.
