Arrrrrr....thanks for this chastisement, Timpa.
Regarding we Indian fans deserving a new series, yes, sure, sure, but how to get a publisher ready to put his finances on the line for that new series?

pcs informed:

Now this is balderdash, if ever I heard one. Till yesterday, I had that reprinted no. 18 with me, and I can say with 200% surety, it certainly wasn't printed more than 20 years ago, as this Diamond representative seems to be suggesting to pcs. the copy i purchased was very fresh, as if recently printed, there was that distinctive 'fresh smell' you get from any recently printed book, one look and anyone could have said that the book is recently printed, and mind you, on the cover, the new price of Rs. 50 was not pasted through a price sticker, as diamond always does when trying to sell old stock at inflated prices. that new price of Rs. 50 was properly PRINTED on the cover. i am absolutely sure, that reprinted issue was released very recently.

timpa, i don't know if there's any hope of pcs chancing upon these newly reprinted digests at ranchi, but you being at kolkata, just keep your eyes open for these next time you visit any big bookshop with well-stocked kid's section. i am telling you, these are recently printed, by diamond, no two ways about it.

I don't think they are saying the fact,as IF b/w also released in '90s,we would already collect a few,BUT NONE OF VERY DEDICATED Indian Phans ever got/heard about those!! I think they have published the "raw" b/w strips which they got from KFS and printed in original form i.e. without the local inking!

T

NO DOUBT OVER IT!! Betweem,I never saw old/torned books are selling in Wheelers @any RS,so it's certainly NEW releases!! as I already said in my above post,THEY ARE SIMPLY HIDING SOMETHING!!

T

To addition of "fresh book from RS",few months back I bought one old DC-P #81 @20(PRINTED) from Sealdah(one of the central RS of Kolkata) and that copy was allmost mint,I think from unsold stocks(btwn,this is the 1ST TIME EVER i got 14/15-year-old unsold copy from this RS where I'm going since 2000!!)

T

Diamond's reply:

Dear Sir, As we have limited old stock, we have printed the cover with a new MRP and repair the comics to make them available for our readers, Thanks and Regards

pcs

You know... As much as I trust Sherlock to be an honest man, I'm actually starting to wonder if this comic really exists? Seems like a very strange story if it does exist.

Wait... Are you serious?! Is this the key to the mystery? Diamond took something like 10 year old dusty mags, dusted 'em off, removed the cover and rebound the books, and sold them as brand new??

Yeesh... kinda' cheap. :\

"how" ? if they convinced that a decent profit is possible,then only!! and for that,tapping the ol' publisher(s) are easier,AND it'll be kinda dream-comes-true IF ToI re-start Phantom/Mandrake (+ some few other heroes) under the banner: INDRAJAL COMICS!! but chances are like 1 in 1000!!

T

Don't always belive what you read,my dear friend!! do you really expect DC officials(or any other publisher) will reveal original reason on a mere mail-queary??nope... but thing IS like they are now re-printing old stuffs and selling them under the label of "old stock",just to avoid a conflict with KFS...

Between, Sherlok & pc,do you have noticed HOW Diamond using Phantom/Mandrake's pics on the COVERS of their recent comic magazines like CW,COMIC PITARA etc(just to lure more attention)??

T

This is an outrage, Predabot. Why would I start telling lies about Diamond here, without any rhyme or reason? The newly reprinted comics very much exist, Diamond's responses to PCS' queries prove each & every word I've told here, I bought it myself, it remained with me for 3-4 days, and now, I believe, it's still with my cousin.




Actually, that sounds like a very good explanation of Diamond calling these reprints "reprints of old stock with new price."


Yes, I've noticed it many times, seeing ghost or magician on a cover makes me smile.

Just one more thing, Predabot. Don't you think it's kind of sad that we find it hard to believe other men until & unless they show us some photographic proof backing their statement (which, in this case, I am unable to provide)? [/quote]

Timpa, once in a while, miracles do happen.

[/quote] Now, now Sherlock, please don't be offended. I am a bit of a layman science-fan, and something of a sceptic in general, so that's why I was hesitant to believe that this comic really exists. In science, everything is always expected to be challenged, and proven many times over, until it can be seen as something of a truth.

Don't take it as any sort of personal slant towards you at all, I know you're a good guy.

I didn't really think you were lying Sherlock, but it is possible to make an honest simple mistake, since you only had the comic for a few days. That was my earlier theory, that you had confused it with an old comic.

The story here seems to be fairly complicated however, so some confusion is bound to come over the people who are studying it from afar, such as I.

Now, the comic does appear to exist, Diamond said so in that e-mail. However the plot is thickening, because the comic appears to be quite rare, very few Phans seems to have picked them up, and Diamond themselves are claiming that it's composed out of a mix of old stock and new covers.

I think the best to do now, is simply to wait for more information, before we make any further assumptions on the matter.

So... is this digest actually any good? Is the reproduction on the strips good? The print? Do tell, lads.

Honest to God, predabot, I was never offended, not even for a pico-second. (hey, that’s rather scientific, don’t you think? ) And what you say about the spirit of scientific enquiry is absolutely correct.




Thanka a million, predabot, for your kind words, which, more than proving my goodness, prove your magnanimity.




About this recently reprinted digest no. 18, it’s cover page quality, interior page quality and print quality is as good as it was about 20 years ago, only difference is, originally, interior art was in colour, now it’s b/w.
A bit more info about diamond’s digest as such, predabot. They are very good books for any reader looking to read falk/barry combo stories in full colour, in Hindi/English. A lot many readers would say that indrajal’s presentation was somehow better, and yes, there was something special about indrajaals,(actually for me, personally, indrajaals ‘uniqueness’ has got a lot to do with the thrill a young kid, still unable to read, felt when his dad, while returning from office, religiously brought a new comics every week), but diamond’s falk/barry stories are a lot less edited version. Indrajaal, at times, used to do a lot of editing of seemingly repetitive frames. Diamond did it a lot less, and that’s why I appreciate diamond’s presentation better. Now it’s difficult for me to explain to you what I mean, again, my constraint in putting a few pictures here is glaring, but if any Indian fan can help you here, try comparing the indrajaal’s and diamond’s presentation of falk’s superthrilling story ‘the vultures’,(D114), the indrajaals version is soooooooooooooo heavily edited, I almost felt foolish when I read the completely unedited diamond’s version a few years later.
Similarly, diamond’s colouring, most of the times, is miles ahead of indrajaal. Again, if you could’ve compared indrajaals and diamonds version of another falk/barry combo, “the reef” (D88) you could have easily appreciated the better colouring of diamond. That’s why, I feel diamond did a much, much better job of bringing some of the best falk stories, in an almost unedited form, to Indian fans.
Now follow this link, and read carefully what I am about to write below.

http://deepwoods.orgfree.com/diamond.htm

First of all, on that page, click the link to the cover scan of digest number 18. That’s the cover of no. 18 published years ago. You can very clearly see, right below the diamond comics logo, top left corner, is the price mentioned, Rs. 15. Now, mentally, simply substitute figure 15 with 50, and you have got the cover of recently reprinted no. 18 that I purchased about 10 days. As for stories it contains, that page mentions diamond’s titles. So diamond’s “rouge elephant” is D99, diamond’s “ex-convicts” is "the crime school D97", and diamond’s “the dictator” is "the satchel D96." note one more thing, carefully look at all the cover scans available on that page. You can see that till about digest 10, price if Rs. 12, from 11 onwards, price is Rs. 15,, and 24 onwards, it’s priced Rs. 20, but no. 43 is again Rs. 15, because by that time, diamond has decreased the page count by half.
Hope all this adds to your info about diamond comics phantom digests.