Lion comics

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Lion comics (லயன் காமிக்ஸ்) is a Tamil Comic Book published by Prakash Publishers, in south India. Both Lion Comics and its sister-concern Muthu Comics (முத்து காமிக்ஸ்), publish monthly issues in Tamil language. The Editor/publisher of the concern, Vijayan, is based in Sivakasi.

Lion Comics	Muthu Comics
	Image:Muthu comics.jpg

Almost all of the stories published are Tamil translations of primarily European or American comic book characters, including those from the British Comics Publisher of the same name - Lion

Tex Willer is the most popular cowboy hero; Steel Claw and The Spider were the more popular superheros during the comic house's best times

1 Related Publications
2 History
3 Featured Heroes
4 Issues Published
5 Editor's note
6 External links

[edit] Related Publications

Muthu Comics (முத்து காமிக்ஸ்), Thigil Comics (திகில் காமிக்ஸ்), Mini-Lion (மினி லயன்) andJunior-Lion (ஜூனியர் லயன்) are some of the other publications from the same concern. Comics Classics is the current re-printed run of more famous titles published decades earlier, during the so-called Golden Age of Tamil comics

[edit] History

The first issue of Muthu comics was published in 1971 as a monthly (128 pages, Rs. 0.90). It featured The Steel Claw இரும்புக்கை மாயாவி. Although there had been a 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. Lion comics enjoyed a warm welcome from the Tamil audience and with Mullai Thangarajan as the chief-editor, continued to grow steadily over the years.

The first among the Comic House's expansion ventures - a weekly (முத்து காமிக்ஸ் வாரமலர) - was started in the early eighties, which was subsequently withdrawn after a few years. In 1984, in response to the overwhelming success of Muthu Comics, the same group started publishing the Lion Comics (லயன் காமிக்ஸ). The owner of the publishing house had envisioned the Lion Comics wing for his son Vijayan. Vijayan became the Chief-editor of Lion comics when he was seventeen.

Expansion continued with the launch of the Junior-Lion (ஜூனியர் லயன்), Mini-Lion (மினி லயன்) and Thigil comics (திகில் காமிக்ஸ்), all of which were published parallely, 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 தினத்தந்தி (The Daily Telegraph) group of Publishers. Rani comics would grow to become the dominant player in the market for the next ten years or so

Mid-eighties - with the launch of private Television Channels and Satellite / Cable access - mark the beginning of the spiraling decline in the comics readership in the State. Children and youth were increasingly drawn in to the wonderful media of Television.

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

Slowly, most of the local comic publishers perished. Rani Comics bowed out with its 500th issue; Mini, Junior and Thigil comics were also eventually stopped. All that is left now are the Lion and Muthu comics.

Off late, there has been a brief revival in the comics interests with the publication of 'Comics Classics' - reprinted popular stories of yesteryear. The cheap cover art in these issues are a major eyesore

[edit] Featured Heroes

Some of the more popular comic heroes introduced to Tamil audience were

Lucky Lukw	Chick Bill	Iznogood	Texwiller	Steel claw	The Spider	Robot Archie	ModestyBlaise

Character	Tamil Name	Country
Barracuda & Frolly	Lawrence - David (சி.ஐ.டி லாரன்ஸ் - டேவிட்)	?
Bernard Prince	Prince	Belgian
Blueberry	Tiger (கேப்டன டைகர்)	French
Bruno Brazil	Bruno Brazil (ப்ரூனோ ப்ரேஸில்)	French
Buz Sawyer	Charlie	American
Chick Bill	Chick Bill (சிக் பில்)	Belgian
Diabolik	Diabolik	Italian
Dr Kildare	Dr Kildare	?
Flash Gordon	Flash Gordon (பிளாஷ் கார்டன்)	American
Iznogoud	mathi illa mandhri (மதியில்லா மந்திரி)	Franco-Belgian
Johnny Hazard	Wing Commander Johnny	?
Johnny Nero	Johnny Nero	British
Lucky Luke	Lucky Luke (லக்கி lukக்)	Franco-Belgian
Mandrake the Magician	Mandhiravaathi Mandrake (மாண்ட்ரேக்)	American
Martin Mystère	Marma Manithan Martin (மர்ம மனிதன் மார்ட்டின)	Italian
Modesty Blaise	Modesty Blaise (மாடஸ்டி பிளைஸி)	British
Reporter Johnny	Reporter Johnny	French
Rip Kirby	Rip Kirby (	American
Robot Archie	Robot Archie (இரும்பு மனிதன் ஆர்ச்சி)	British
Secret Agent X-9 (Phil Corrigan)	Phil Corrigan	American
Tex Willer	Tex Willer (டெக்ஸ்வில்லர்)	Italian
The Cisco Kid	The Cisco Kid (சிஸ்கோ கிட்)	American
The Phantom	Maayavi (மாயாவி)	American
The Spider	Spider (ஸ்பைடர்)	British
The Steel Claw	Irumbukai Maayavi (இரும்புக்கை மாயாவி)	British
XIII (Thirteen)	XIII	Franco-Belgian

There were occasional appearances of Batman & Joker, James Bond (ஜேம்ஸ் பாண்ட் 007), Judge Dredd, Sexton Blake (செக்ஸ்டன் ப்ளேக்)

[edit] Issues Published

Lion 1 - 195	Muthu 1 - 138	Muthu 139 - 300
Lion 1-195	Muthu 1-138	Muthu 139-300

[edit] Editor's note

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. Vijayan, the editor has a good chemistry with the readers, through his 'Hotline' column that appears in the comics.