Tulsi Comics was an Indian comics publisher in the late 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, and was a division of Tulsi Pocket Books - founded by Indian writer and author Ved Prakash Sharma.[1]
Backed by Tulsi Pocket Books, a popular publishers of Hindi novels in India, and backed by an established and vast customer base of the novels, Tulsi comics shut down in 2004, but after creating some of India's most famous and cherished superheroes.[2]
Another reason for Tulsi Comics failure was that they produced story arcs in a minimum of 2–3 parts, and they never usually gave a complete story in a single issue. Since most of the comic readers in India are children who had limited pocket money, this practice ultimately backfired, and it lost popularity among its reader base.[citation needed] Chief among these was a huge story arc of Jambu spanning several comics lasting for more than a year.
Though this whole series was among the best Tulsi has ever offered creatively,[citation needed] this long continuing series, along with introducing a lot of new characters like Yosho who was blessing of God sun (formerly advertised as Osho), Yoga, Baaz and Mr. India led to its death. The new characters were just not as exciting and older characters were multi-part stories.[citation needed]
Tulsi comics character "Jambu" was their most successful character, created by a Ved Prakash Sharma, followed by Angara and Tausi.
Tulsi Comics were published monthly. The number of comics published every month varied from 6 to 10 (sometimes 1 or 2 digest are also published as special issues.)
Angara, Tausi and Jambu were the three main heroes of this publication.
Some of the famous comics are Jambu aur Angara ka Yudh,[3] Jambu aur Tausi, Mar Gaya Jambu,[4] and Jambu ke Bete.[5]
The Head Office of the Tulsi Pocket Books is -
Angara, a man made of animal body parts,[7] was created by Dr Kunal. Angara's rhino skin made him bullet-proof, and his brain from the fox gave him extraordinary intelligence, eyes was made up of vulture's eyes, he has the power taken from elephant, heart of the lion, and body of gorilla which made him look like a human. He has special commando training taken from experts and he knows the language of every animal. Dr Kunal helped him to achieve all these qualities which makes him a Super hero.
He was born to save animals and became known as a saviour of wild life. He was a Prime Minister of Angara land (or Angara Dweep). When Angara land was under the control of the American army, animal life was almost finished. The Americans wanted to plant an army base in Angara land but Dr Kunal, a great lover and a saviour of animals, tried to reason with the Americans to no avail. The US army killed almost all the wild life in Angara land. Dr Kunal, who was also a surgeon, decided to create a powerful creature to fight the Americans' powerful army and that's how Angara was born.
Members of the Angara land ministry include:
List of Angara Comics in chronological order (from beginning to latest)
In this storyline, Jambu gets stranded on a planet. He becomes their ruler by killing the native race's King by beating him in a duel. Later stories explored his improving relations with native race, rebuilding their society and saving them from attacks. Slowly, he discovers his doppelganger by the name of "Shanichar". He also finds out that in previous life he was tortured and killed by him and so when he was created, Shanichar's image and powers were in the sub-conscious mind of the professor whose brain he carries now.
Both of them had the final showdown with Jambu killing him with the planet's water (which has acidic properties and only the protection against it is a special element from the native planet). Instead of finishing the story arc, they continued the series by introducing "Sarkata". He finds the head who tells him that his body has liquid which can cure all diseases and grant immortality. He also tells a fake story to gain Jambu's sympathy.
The quest begins to find his whole body as the liquid can only be extracted if the whole body is brought together. After a lot of struggle he finally brings whole of his body together and brings him back to India in order to extract the Miracle Liquid called "Amrit". However, it backfires as he refuses to give anything and reveals his real name as "Sarkanda".
One of the well known comics of Jambu series is मर गया जम्बू in which two other superhero's of Tulsi comics: Angara and Tausi killed Jambu. It was a digest comics with 60 pages.
जम्बू के बेटे was the next comics after मर गया जम्बू, in which two sons of jambu takes the revenge of Jambu's death.