From: madanga@hobo.ECE.ORST.EDU (Arun Madangarli)
Newsgroups: alt.culture.kerala
Subject: Re: Malayali humour/comic strips.
Date: 5 Jan 1993 18:33:42 GMT
Organization: ECE Dept.,OSU,Corvallis
NNTP-Posting-Host: hobo.ece.orst.edu
Keywords: kerala,malayali,humour,comic strips

In article <harikuma.726246593@enterprise.ifp.uiuc.edu> harikuma@enterprise.ifp.uiuc.edu (G. Harikumar) writes:
>
>If I had to name the one thing
>that I miss most about Kerala, I would 
>unhesitatingly choose the comic strip
>"Bobanum Moliyum". This particular
>strip that appeared regularly in the 
>"Malayala Manorama" since I was born till
>a few years ago has made me laugh more than
>anything else. 
>
>Is it only I who feel this way? 
>
>

By no means !  I must say that seeing the name of "Bobanum Molliyum"
in your article brought on a wave of nostalgia, which I made no 
attempt to fight down. It was a comic strip non-pareil, unmatched
by anything that Bertie Wooster or Asterix could offer you.

May be its charm was in the absolutely true to life characters it
had. You could identify everyone of them in the folks you had around
you in your village or town. And Toms picked his stories from the 
everyday life of Kerala...from incidents that you have seen happen...
so that you get an "Aha !" feeling every time you read this comic strip.

All this makes his split from "Malayala Manorama" all the more difficult
to digest. Toms had a rather bitter quarrel with them, and is now
drawing the "Bobanum Molliyum" cartoons for (I think) "Kalakaumudi".
"Malayala Manorama" brought a suit against him, claiming that "Bobanum
Molliyum" was their "intellectual" property ! Pure balderdash !
I know nothing about the relevant laws...but "bobanum Molliyum" is
Toms's and Toms's alone. ( In a way, I can appreciate their concern;
it was this comic strip that gave this third rate magazine its claim
to fame. For, IMO, notwithstanding the fact that it is/was the largest
circulating magazine in India, MM is a third rate mag. !).  Anyway,
they have got one of their staff artists drawing the "Bobanum Molliyum"
cartoons for them, and now we have two varieties of "Bobanum Molliyum"
floating around.  The Toms version, and the Manorama version !

>When I was a child, there used to be a series of
>comics published by a gentleman called "Kannadi
>Vishwanathan". They were ostensibly detective

I remember one series published by "Kannadi Vishwanathan", that I used to 
devour, during my primary school days !  It was " Irumbu kai Mayavi "..
the iron handed sorcerer ! A gentleman who could plug two fingers of his
iron hand (or rather, palm), in to any power socket nearby, and...pfffft!..
disappear.  All except the iron palm. It was unnerving for his antagonists
to see just an Iron palm float towards them in an otherwise empty
room.  "Irumbukai Mayavi" was a detective,and if I remember correctly,
one of his iron fingers was actually a short barreled gun that could
shoot five bullets, one could propel a sleeping gas, one could be used to give
a shock, one was a magnet or something, and the little finger was in fact
an antenna for a shortwave radio ! (The speaker was concealed in his iron palm)

What imagination !

Even in those tender years I used to laugh AT these stories, instead of
WITH them..(I mean, an Iron handed detective ! ..Well, really !)...but 
now I wonder why.  What the heck, if we can drool over the unadulterated
drivel offered by Marvel comics, under the names of Superman, Batman,
Aquaman,Green Lantern,Flash..etc., we certainly must give "Irumbukai Mayaavi"
his due !


>
>Oh well. The old days past. 
>

Too true !

>Good luck, everyone. 
>
>G. Harikumar.

Arun.P.Madangarli