LION COMICS

Lion comics is a Tamil Comic Book series published by Prakash Publishers, in South India. Both Lion Comics and its sister publication 'Muthu Comics' ,are published monthly in Tamil language. In fact, Muthu Comics is the forerunner to Lion Comics, even though the later has taken over as the leading brand of the comic publication. The Editor/publisher of the concern, Mr. S Vijayan, is based in Sivakasi, where the comics publishing house also is based out. Almost all of the stories published are Tamil translations of primarily European or American comic series, including those from the British Comics Publisher of the same name - Lion. Tex Willer, along with Lucky Luke and Mike Blueberry are the most popular cowboy heros; Steel Claw and The Spider were the more popular superheroes during the comic house's best of times. Muthu Comics Thigil Comics Mini-Lion andJunior-Lion are some of the other publications from the same concern. Comics Classics is the a latest addition with reprinted run of more famous titles published in the past, during the so-called Golden Age of Tamil comics. History The first issue of Muthu comics was published in 1971 as a monthly (128 pages, INR 0.90). It featured The Steel Claw Although there had been a few comics publishers in Tamil from the early 60s, the entry of Muthu Comics marks the beginning of the Golden Age of Tamil Comics. Muthu comics enjoyed a warm welcome from the Tamil audience and with M.Soundrapandian, continued to grow steadily over the years. The first among the Comic House's expansion ventures - a weekly was started in the early eighties, which was subsequently withdrawn after a few years. In 1984, after a brief lull, when there was no comics publications in the market, came Lion Comics . Lion Comics was a creation of Mr.Soundrapandian's son Vijayan. Vijayan became the Chiefeditor of Lion comics when he was seventeen. Expansion continued with the launch of the Junior-Lion , Mini-Lion and Thigil comics , all of which were published in parallel, on a monthly basis. Festivals like Diwali, Pongal and summer holidays promised special Digest Issues, which were bigger and costlier than the regular comic. These were the Golden years in Tamil Comics history. 1984 is also the year in which the Other major player in Tamil Comics - Rani Comics was started by the ThinaThanthi group of Publishers. Rani comics would grow over to become the dominant market player for the next ten years or so.

Mid-eighties - The launch of private Television Channels and Satellite / Cable TV Public-access television, marked the beginning of the spiraling decline in the readership in the State, and Comics readership was no different. Children and youth were increasingly drawn in to the new world introduced through Television media. During the worst periods of hardship, readers were plagued with problems such as shortage of quality story/art work, non-availability in local stores and frequent delays in releasing scheduled titles. Those dark times have remained to stay, as far as Lion and Muthu Comics are concerned to date. One by one, most of the local comic publishers perished, in this changed market place. Rani Comics bowed out with its 500th issue; Mini, Junior and Thigil comics were also eventually stopped, and later their comic characters or series were brought under the two "last men standing" brands, Lion and Muthu comics.]Lion and Muthu post 2000 As of 2008, the Official Lioncomics.com website is no longer owned by Prakash Publishers. The site was up for renewal, and the publishers didn't show interest in keeping their presence on the Web, even though they continue to release Lion Comics and Muthu, often at prolonged gaps in between each issues. Of late, there has been a brief revival in the comics interests with the publication of 'Comics Classics' - reprinted popular stories of yesteryear. Lion Comics continues to penetrate beyond its niche audience, but always is pulled down, by its irregular publishing schedule. The current issue of Lion Comics, is their biggest venture yet. A Jumbo Edition carrying one of their lead characters, XIII. It was originally scheduled for 2009, then was pushed to various dates in 2010, and has finally been released in October 2010. The issue is priced at INR 200, marking the costliest edition ever released by the comic publishing house. They have already attained quite an amount of success with their three specials, which were each priced INR 100, in past years. This issue is undoubtedly one of the fattest comic book releases ever in India, and probably the world over (in terms of a complete series in one volume). Featured heroes Some of the more popular comic heroes introduced to Tamil audience were Lucky Luke Chick Bill Iznogoud Tex Willer Steel Claw The Spider Robot Archie Modesty Blaise Character Tamil Name Country Barracuda & Frollo Lawrence - David Bernard Prince Prince Belgian Blueberry_(comics) Tiger French

Bruno Brazil Bruno Brazil Buz Sawyer Charlie Chick Bill Chick Bill Diabolik Diabolik Dr. Kildare Dr. Kildare Flash Gordon Flash Gordon Iznogoud mathi illa mandhri Johnny Hazard Wing Commander Johnny Johnny Nero Johnny Nero Lucky Luke Lucky Luke Mandrake the Magician Mandhiravaathi Mandrak Martin Mystre Marma Manithan Martin Modesty Blaise Modesty Blaise Ric Hochet Reporter Johnny Rip Kirby Rip Kirby Robot Archie Robot Archie Secret Agent X-9 (Phil Corrigan Tex Willer Tex Willer The Cisco Kid The Cisco Kid The Phantom Maayavi The Spider Spider The Steel Claw Irumbukai Maayavi XIII (Thirteen) XIII

French American Belgian Italian American Franco-Belgian ? British Franco-Belgian American Italian British French American British Phil CorriganAmerican Italian American American British British Franco-Belgian

There were also occasional appearances of Batman & Joker, James Bond 007), Judge Dredd, Sexton Blake It must be stressed here that unlike the rest-of-the-world, in India, there is still the dominant view that comics 'are just for kids'. Successfully running a comics publishing house in such social milieu speaks greatly of the determination and the sense-of-purpose of the publishers. Mr.S Vijayan, the editor has a good chemistry with the readers, through his 'Hotline' and 'Comics Time' forewords that appears in every issue of Lion comics. Old issues of Lion and Muthu comics were stacked up in their warehouse at Sivakasi, which used to be a cynosure of eyes for those who visit the place. Reports of theft of comics, and illegal scans of those, have prompted the administrators to disallow access to this Treasure Chest, for all Tamil Comics lovers. Mr. Soundarapandan says that upgrading the ware house into a library is economically not feasible, due to the dwindling population that reads comics. Recently, Mr.Vijayan was interviewed for South India based Kalaignar TV, where he went over his comics passion and the business in general. In the Interview, he also stressed on bringing the Lion Comics official back online by the end of 2009, to keep the readers abreast of the latest happenings.