The Mumbai Comic Con 2011

The most anticipated event this fall for all true comic fans based in Mumbai was the city's very first Comic Con. which was organized in the World Trade Center. Of course yours truly had to be there for this 2 day mega event which was organized very conveniently over a weekend.

I reached Mumbai at around 10:00am and caught up with a another comic collector pal. Together we both headed to the Con. and reached around 10:45am. At the entrance we fell flat of a warm reception when we were told the event was running slightly delayed and we'd have to wait. Bummer! Of course, my pal and I both mentioned we were bloggers for the event and we were immediately ushered in! Good going 'blogger' status!

Upon entry my pal and I split up. It took me roughly 15 mins to cover the entire floor, another 15 to check out booths that I thought were interesting and finally another 15 mins conversing with the entire jing bang. That's it folks, 45 mins and I was done! Of course I did catch the inaugural speech by whathisname and heard some yakity yak by the sponsors but in 45 mins I was pretty much done and dusted with the place.

Now a little more about the booths I covered, comic store biggies Landmark and Crossword were present, Landmark clearly stood out as a winner with its massive discounts on all the graphic novels on display and the polar opposite stood true with Crossword! Lol, their price tags on certain graphic novels were out of this world!

Crosswords sure had a lot of comics but I'm sure nobody even bought a single one!

East or West, Landmark rules the Con!

Flipkart was also present and the people at that booth were incredible in terms of response, promotional work and freebies! Yaaaaay Flipkart! You guys rock! A special mention also goes to Kshiraj Telang who makes these wonderful do it yourself paper toys! They reminded me of Marvels mini mate series. A lot of Indian Indie Comic books were either launched or showcased during this Con. I'll cover those booths sometime later.

Kshiraj Telang's toonoholic!

What I feel I need all deserves special mention in the not so kind light was the Disney booth. Yes they had kiddie stationery and marvel back packs but hey hang on Disney, we are at a bloody Comic Con and not some junior fete! With not a single marvel comic or action figure in sight the booth was the biggest eyesore at the Convention. Beofore I say adieu I'll leave you with some more pics of the entire event so that you get a brief glimpse into the Con!

Swamp Thing by Alan Moore

The day before I was blogging about the Landmark Book Stores big sale event and how you could find the best of the best just for a couple of hundreds. Well today I thought I'd write about what I picked up from Landmark on sale. If you've read my earlier post you'd know by now I'm going to be blogging about my one true passion - reading graphic novels!

Swamp Thing by Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette, John Totleben, Rick Veitch and Tatjana Wood was something I remember hunting for in my local comic book store but alas to no avail. It all started when I chanced to pick up a single issue (the only one available) in which the Swamp Monster heads straight to Gotham City to free his beloved Abby from the Gotham City Police Dept. When the law refuses to let Abby go he changes the city landscape from concrete to 'green'! The issue ended with a cliff hanger. You see Lex Luthor contracted for 10 mins on how to destroy good old Swampy by some shady corporate men and the last page show's Batman staring down in surprise at his city reinvented. I never found issue 53 back then but last year I found the entire series in Landmark for a staggering Rs. 6000+. Definitely could not afford that, so you could imagine my excitement when I found most of Mr. Moore's entire run for a small amount (4 and 6 was not available, trying very hard to get 4 via discount, fingers crossed!).

Right from 'The Anatomy Lesson' to 'Swamp Thing Annual 2: Down Amongst the dead men' to 'The Curse' to 'My Blue Heaven' Mr. Moore spins the most potent tales that will intrigue, horrify and excite you! His run on Swamp Thing was critically acclaimed at the time and I guess this is what led to the new wave of realism in comics at the time. It is surprising that whilst Mr. Moore is famous for his work on 'Watchmen', 'V for Vendetta', 'From Hell' and 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' series very few people have heard of read  his phenomenal run on Swamp Thing. I feel his entire run on Swamp Thing deserves the Absolute treatment or at least a single Omnibus! To match the great writing the artists do a good job capturing the emotions of the people and the Swamp Monster. However what really stands out for me is Tatjana Wood's coloring! The shades of green used in this entire collection are mind blowing!

Would I recommend this graphic novel series? Hell ya! It's def. not for kids and the stories rarely involve any super heroics.

Landmark's most epic book sale till date!

A couple of weeks ago, I happened to walk into Landmark the book store. Boy was I in for the shock of my life! The whole store buzzed and oozed a single word 'SALE', '199', '299' and 'Buy 2 get 1 free'! WTF??? Ok, well so what's the big deal? We've seen similar book sales year after year in Crosswords, Oxfords etc, what makes this sale better? Well folks you are partly right. The books that were put on sale were the same old ones that were out last year and the year before. But if you just happened to glance through all the books carefully you'd know that this time it was no ordinary sale! Why? Graphic novels were on sale for the first time at a shocking Rs. 199 or Rs. 299!!! Yup, you're reading this correct! Graphic Novels have rarely made it to the sale section in any book sale but this time Landmark pulled out all the plugs and tons of them were lying strewn around all on sale! An avid comic collector or reader would go mad with this sight. No longer would we have to count our pennies when we need to buy an Alan Moore's 'Watchmen' or Neil Gaiman's 'The Sandman' series. Why chose between Marvel's 'X-Men' or DC's 'JLA' when you can have both for the price of peanuts? Oh yes sir, this sale was indeed epic. I happened to find Alan Moore's entire run on 'Swamp Thing' for little less that a thousand bucks and spent the entire week devouring stories that were written in the 80s but still hold fresh! My next blog will def. review those stories but I want to thank Landmark from the bottom of my heart for making this Diwali a special one!