A comic book a day keeps those tears away! Comics have always been and always will be a great source of entertainment to both young and old. The much sought after video tends to generate boredom after prolonged exposure. The video, which is the present day's version of moving pictures, may entertain up to a point only and once you reach that habit forming stage, the interest level drops.

However, comics will always continue to entertain. The magic is often in the skill of the artist. The ideas expressed by those subtle expressions of the characters in a comic book is something a video will never succeed in conveying.

Comics are well accepted by almost everyone of any age group. He who had not read comics in his childhood, has certainly missed a valuable part in his education. A comic a day was a must for all school-goers in the late sixties.

During my school days, there were kiosks all over the city selling comics. Every newsstand sold the latest releases of the more popular cartoon characters.

The cartoon characters of yesterday, which brought joy to many of us in our childhood can be discussed even today in almost any congregation, since it is very rare to find someone who has not heard of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Bugs Bunny and company.

Very rarely has anyone who has been a kid in the sixties or seventies missed out getting acquainted with these wonderful cartoon characters.

Uncle Scrooge, or Scrooge McDuck, was the richest duck in the world.

His swimming pool is filled with currency notes, and he needs a "swim" each and every day just to maintain his mood.

Apart from the daily assurance of the safety of his money, his varying moods drive him often to his trusted friend Gyro Gearloose, Gyro the genius, was an inventor.

Other ducks are in awe that Gyro has more degrees than a thermometer!

The carrot-eating mischievous Bugs was always up to some trick with the intention of annoying his peer, the bald headed Elmer Fudd. Elmer always had a gun handy to shoot Bugs.

His policy was to shoot on sight, but he acted with restraint almost always. He wanted a good excuse to fire.

Whenever he found that excuse, he fired ... and missed!

Tom and Jerry were arch rivals where Tom's quest to catch Jerry the mouse always resulted in total failure. Oh! What risks these cats would take to catch a mouse. What torture and humiliation these cats undergo when there is a mouse in sight!

Sylvester, Toms cousin, unconfirmed of course, had a bird as his target ... Tweety! Tweety bird successfully dodges "puddy-tat" Tom, and in the process even gets Tom reprimanded by the lady of the house.

Strangely enough there had never been a cat in Mickey Mouse's life. No one pursued him. He just got involved in small interesting incidents with other characters and never faced any real danger at all quite unlike Jerry and Tweety. The stories which involved Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Minnie Mouse, Uncle Scrooge always were void of any dangerous situations, enabling them to live happily ever after until the next comic book gets printed.

LOL! Memories of that highly anti-social character Wile E Coyote ... He hated visitors. On the door of his cave were several signs designed to discourage visitors. Some of the signs read "no entry," "do not disturb," "I am NOT in," ... there was even an arrow fixed to his door, pointing in the direction away from his door, on to which a sign was attached saying "I went that way!"

Some lesser known characters were Casper the friendly ghost, The Ghostly Trio, Spooky the "tuff" little ghost, and HotStuff the tough little devil. Casper, being a good guy , always had a happy ending to his stories, whereas, hotstuff, spooky and the ghostly trio always ended up losers at the end of each tale, just like Tom, Sylvester, and Wile E Coyote.

The Ghostly Trio and Spooky had some common interests. They were always on the lookout for abandoned houses to haunt. When they find one, they move in and wait. They wait for unsuspecting temporary lodgers whom they could scare! It is so hilarious when they always end up scaring one another due to poor co-ordination in their strategies!

How can we ever forget that spinach powered sailor whose elegant and unusually slim girl friend Olive Oyl, who faces danger with every step she takes either forward or backwards, appropriately enough a reason to expend that spinach powered energy of her boyfriend Popeye!

There were many more of these cartoon characters at that time which actually generated much interest even amongst adults. Any day I would gladly settle for a comic book featuring these characters than watch a video of them! Each frame in a comic strip generates a special kind of interest which a video fails to do, probably because of the continuity in a video which creates a "drag" effect.

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