This posting is for Saleem in response to his request.

Panitheevin Dhevathikal was relased on 01 May 1978. Issue number was 74. Art looks like Al Williamson's work.

Story line : A handwritten copy of a story written by Ambrose Glyde(who died in 1912) from a Museum in USA. The writer claims that he met a race of people ruled by gods(Dhevadhaikal) when his ships sinks near an uninhibited island in Antarctic sea. The suspect is Prof Jonathan who has actually opposed for the book to be displayed in the exhibition. Though he opposed that the story is untrue not worhty of featuring in the exhition, he knows that the story is true. He was mote interested in knowing about the maching which featured in the story. This maching generates electricity using the rocks and sand quarried in the cold Antarctic climate. Prof Jonathan is interested in mastering the technology for his commercial gains. With the help of the book he searches and finds the island in the book. Philip Corrigan who was entruested with the job of finding the book is closely on his heels with the grand daughter(Theresa Glyde) of Ambrose Glyde. They all manage to reach the island but Prof Jonathan does not live to get the secret of the machine as the whole island sinks beneath sea when he activates machine as the earth becomes too weak because of years of excavation. Corrigan and Theresa managed to escape from the island before it is destroyed. Typical science fiction like Jules Verne etc, but made interesting with the elements of theft, murder and conspiracy all thrown in good measures.

Here is the front and back cover of this issue.

This story was published in Mekala comics in Jul 95 under the title Maaya Vimanam. Here is the cover of this issue.

But there is a huge variation in the presentation of this story, apart from the quality of translation.

Looks like Mekala has done some heavy editing. The first page of Mekala was infact page number 7 in Muthu. Take a look at both these pages below(First one is Mekala's first page and the second one is page 7 from Muthu).

The first few pages of Muthu were compressed by Mekala in this first page.

Take a look at the first two pages of Muthu.

End, however is same in both the issues. As usual muthu has printed almost the entire story in two colors except the last page. Take a look at the last page of this issue and the equivalent in Mekala.

This issue was followed by Mugamoodi Kalvarkal(Phantom). Ad featured for this issue is here.

All the sample scans in this posting were provided by Dr Sathish, Kovai. A big thanks Doctor!!!

Before signing off, I would like to welcome the new kid on the block. Mr Viswa has started his blog about Tamil comics. Link is given below.

http://tamilcomicsulagam.blogspot.com/

Welcome Viswa. It is encouraging to see many bloggers writing about Tamil comics. Sadly the same enthu is not shown by the publishers :-(

You can expect a write-up about Mekala comics from him soon. I understand he is already working on this.

Well, thats all for now dear readers. As usual post your comments below my signature or send mail to muthufan"at"ahoo.com.

Happy reading.

Muthufan