Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Happy New Year - Last Phantom (অপেরায় সন্ত্রাস)

*** Happy New Year - 2015 ***

Another New Year is approaching - bringing back so many old memories - making me nostalgic. I remember when I was in nineth or tenth grade, one of my close friends came to our home on January 1st afternoon, to exchange 'New Year' greeting card. But soon I found out he did not bring any card, rather bought a new Phantom comics for me!! It was so unexpected that I almost cried out in joy, and gave him a big, tight hug! That is definitely the best New Year gift I've ever received, and probably the very first spontaneous hug in my life.

Time is a treacherous thing as it never allows us to go back to the old days, the paste tastes. We can only try to keep alive the fragrance of those golden memories through our kids. Anyways, let's not spoil this festive seasonal mood, rather cheer to welcome new year. Wish You All a Very Happy, Prosperous New Year... 


On this auspicious occasion let's enjoy the very last Phantom story written by Lee Falk. I made another humble attempt to translate it in 'Bengali' language. The original story was in Black and white - one of the enthusiastic Phantom fans, Celso Nunes (Nickname: 'Perth'from São Paulo, Brazil) did an excellent job to make it a  beautiful, colored version.



The first phantom story (1936) created by Lee Falk was "The Singh Brotherhood" and his last Daily & Sunday strip stories (1999) were "Terror at the Opera" and "The Kidnappers" respectively. These two stories were actually finished by his wife (Elizabeth Falk) by taking dictations from Falk, after he was hospitalized due to serious health condition. It is said that while Falk was in hospital, he whipped off his oxygen mask to dictate these story-lines.
Green countries have regular Phantom publications, while Blue ones print the
dailies/Sundays in newspapers.
[Source: Wikipedia]

~ ~ ~ *** ~ ~ ~ 
New year brings new promises, new responsibilities, more and more unknown challenges. I hope everyone is doing well. Whatever point we are currently at in life, whether mundane or not, there will surely be something that will make us all grow, till we are alive. 


Love life and life will love you back. Love people and they will love you back.” 
                                   --- Arthur Rubinstein (American classical pianist)


শেষ বেতাল by লী ফক 
(Size: 16.2 MB)





6 comments:

  1. ইংরেজি নতুন বছ রের উপহার খুব ভাল লাগ ল । আর আপনার বাংলা অনুবাড তো দুর্দান্ত । অনেক ধন্যবাদ আর নতুন বছ রের শুভেছছা রইল ।

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    1. Thank You! Thank You! Lot of wishes to You and Your family too --- Happy New Year.

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  2. Wow. First, I thrilled with the beautiful fall story you told us about your childhood.. And I'm also happy to see this beautiful story of Falk, now translated into your language. I am proud to have been I - the author of it colors, and I hope you like it. I also wish you happiness and success to all the friends in India. [Perh]

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    1. Happy New Year Celso, and many thanks for your great effort to make the B&W comic-strips to such nice, colored version. Lee Falk's story always come with a different sentiment. I did not have your email address, otherwise I would have thanked you personally.

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  3. Superb job,dada! will read soon...
    Falk was a master even in his last days albeit few mix-up with the old names(like Joonka for Junakar, Shabana for Shambaad(that duke,remember?) etc) but the art was pathetic after Barry retired suddenly,that went from '94 till '05....those art destroyed the half-fun of reading,no fault of Falk though....

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    1. Thanks HojO - I did enjoy your phantom translation - may be I got this urge from you!
      Happy New Year!

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