Out of the different Indian comic magazines like the Raj Comics and Diamond Comics, the Manoj Comics was once one of the leading comic book houses in India. The stories of these comics were mainly about prince and kings, queens, dragons and ghosts.
Publications of Manoj Comics
The themes of Manoj Comics primarily revolved around adventure, horror, supernatural, etc. But most of these stories had some kind of underlying moral values to them. Some of the major series published by the Manoj Comics were:
Bhoot-Pret Tantra-Mantra
Bhoot-Pret Tantra-Mantra Jadoo-Tona
Commando
Dark Tales
Dracula
Jaadui-Vichitra Lok Kathayein
Thrill Action Adventure
Some of the recurring characters in these series were Ram- Rahim, Crookbond, Hawaldar, Bahadur, Sagar- Salim, Colonel Karna, Inspector Manoj, Amar- Akbar, Ajgar, Aakrosh, Sikander etc. The two most popular characters that featured in Manoj Comics are Chatur Chaudhary and Crookbond. Chatur Chaudhary was inspired from the famous character of Chacha Chaudhary from Diamond Comics and Crookbond was created as a funny Indian version of James Bond, who had several hilarious misadventures during his missions.
Decline of Manoj Comics
Manoj Comics had gained much popularity amongst Hindi comic book readers, but the eventual shift in trend of comics caused their gradual decline. With changing times, the preference of youngsters to read popular western comics, like DC, Marvel, Aspen, and Image Comics became more prevalent and the Manoj Comics was compelled to shut down and close its operations. Manoj Comics was the last significant Indian comics publishing house that was shut down before the end of the slump period in the Indian comics industry.
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