Comic time
Well, comics provide light entertainment to one and all. Though one cannot call them intellectual treats, they give you an enjoyable enough time pass. Comics are the synonyms of light-hearted humour and at times, they save you from the clutches of utter boredom. But too much of comic- reading (especially, if you have just started school) might cause your English to go awry since comics are by no means famous for their impeccable English. But warnings apart, if you do not look upon comics as your English teachers or IQ level boosters, there’s no serious harm in passing your leisure, immersed in a comic book. Seriously, some of them can be great fun sometimes. I am now going to talk about some of my favourite comics.
Well, the first one would be the Chacha Chaudhary series, seeing as those were the first comics I ever read. A piece of advice, though. The Hindi version of these comics is the best. I don’t think one would find the English version as much enjoyable. Well, these books depict chacha’s world, where he lives peacefully (and sometimes, not so much peacefully) with his wife and Sabu (Sabu is a man from Jupiter, who has come down to earth and now lives with Chacha Chaudhary. He has incredible strength, and his anger is great enough to make volcanoes erupt, as we are constantly reminded. A very powerful person, and a great, staunch friend of Chacha Chaudhary, well that’s Sabu for you.). There are other characters who keep popping in and out, but these three are the main. Chacha Chaudhary is very very smart and intelligent and managed to get out of all scrapes, unharmed and intact. In fact, Chacha Chaudhary’s brain works faster than the computer, another fact that we are constantly reminded of, in the comics. Well, the scrapes that Sabu gets into and the way Chacha always rescues him, are really hilarious to read. One advantage of comics is that they are illustrated throughout, and so we get to actually see the scenes we are reading about. The illustrations are very good, and many times, bring forth a laugh. Believe me, the books are real fun.
Now, to come to Archie. I know this for a fact that the Archie comics are immensely popular. (At least, it seems so, given the enormous price of the books.). Well, I can’t tell you much about this one, given that I don’t get to read them nowadays, and don’t seem to remember what I have read, but still, they were fun and I wish I could read more of them, but I can’t see them being printed in newspapers any more. They used to feature in the English newspapers. It was thus that I chanced to read them. What I do seem to remember is that, Archie studies in Riverdale high school and he has a girlfriend by the name of Veronica, who is miss richie-rich. I vaguely remember Archie having one more girlfriend, but for details, you will have to read the comic yourselves. And there are Archie’s friends too to add to the fun. Jughead is one of them. All in all, Archie’s world is pretty fun and he and his friends are very lovable though Veronica does irritate one with her haughtiness at being immensely rich, and her great show-offs. The books speak of incidents and tell tales which are common in the lives of all teenagers. So teenagers identify easily with the characters. That is the main reason behind their popularity, I guess. The illustrations are superb, and I am sure all love reading them.
Well, the last one I am going to talk about the Asterix series. Believe me when I say that the Asterix comics are really funny and at times, you won’t be able to stop yourself laughing so hard that you will have to clutch your sides and who knows, you might even roll on the floor, laughing hard. The illustrations are simply amazing and Asterix’s world consists of a horde of amazingly funny characters. You simply have to read the Asterix comics. You have no idea, what you will miss if you do not read them. Do try and read them, ok. Then I am sure you will agree with me. Again, the comics cost a fortune, but I am sure libraries stock them. I will not elaborate on the books here, because you will have to read them to know how good they are, no words can describe the irrepressible humour of the books. On thing I would like to say though is, the names of almost all the characters are really suited to their natures and dispositions.
(‘Bringing up father’ and ‘Henry’ are two other good ones which are regularly featured in the newspapers, though they are basically comic strips (that is to say that, they are very short) and are not full-fledged comics, I guess. But you can make your own comic books of these by cutting out the strips and pasting them in scrap-nooks. Come to think of it, you can do the same with the Archie comics too.)
So that is it about the comics I love. If you know any other good ones, please let me know. After all, no one in their right minds would pass up an opportunity to laugh out loud. So please be sure to share details of your favourite comics with me and with everyone else also. So, cheers.
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