Flex Mentallo

Sunrise over, the pilgrim tourists head off for an early breakfast. For a brief while the shore lies empty but for the crashing of the surf and the cries of the gulls. Then from the south, fisherwomen appear walking up the shore from nearby villages, with their baskets, heading for market.

I recall an old woman, paddling uncertainly in the surf, her back to the horizon. The seventh wave arrived, always here by far the most powerful, which fishermen wait for to get their heavy boats ashore. It picked her up, in an instant scooting her 50 yards up the beach . Astonished, she looked behind her, but the thin skim of water had receded into the sand. She raised her arms ecstatically to Heaven.

Hindu pilgrims from all over India have come to worship at the temple of Jagannath, Lord of the Universe. Many of them have never seen the ocean.

It is only just 4.00 a.m. But I am not alone.

I watch the tribal fishermen haul their boats ashore through the heavy surf.

It is January 1982. I am thirty years of age, and I stand on Puri beach, watching the self same sunrise.

The Bay of Bengal at sunrise.

Pilgrimage India is overwhelming. No matter where one goes, the very soil is permeated with history, ritual and myth. The scene depicted here could have taken place this year, or at any time in the past thousand years...

What colors!

Nice. There was also a nice copy of issue 2 in last night's CC auction. I love Animal 2... Hey books! That's an awesome owner you have there!

Fixed that for you.

Very pretty! Ken +1 Group shot? cant wait I need to do it! I alphabetized most of my Baker raws ... but the slabs are scattered. Gotta round 'em up! A likely story.

Very pretty! Ken +1 Group shot? cant wait

The most recent in February 2014 was attended by Mark Waid and David Lloyd.

So much so that recently a comic con was established in New Delhi and has become hugely popular.

In the period between 1960 and 1990 a typical comic would have 500,000 copies printed, and they were distributed all over the sub-continent (the population of India almost matches that of North America, South America and Europe combined). Gaming and cable TV hit the Indian comic industry very hard, but it has bounced back.

Always enjoy this thread. Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge and insight. For further reading... Thanks BOOT! I might have known that if anyone on the boards would know about Indian comics it might be you! I can remember walking into a musty bookshop in Bombay - probably 1979 on my first visit to India. There were enormous piles of Indian comics everywhere, in mouldering floor to ceiling stacks. As you show, they are predominantly based on religious themed adventure stories.

What's your point? Skulls Skulls Skulls and more Skulls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's a tough one.

What's your point?