Muthu Comics, first published in 1971, and its younger sibling Lion Comics, launched in 1984, brought Tex Willer, Lucky Luke and the Steel Claw to Tamil readers. Both are published by Prakash Publishers of Sivakasi.
The first issue of Muthu Comics appeared in 1971 as a 128-page monthly priced at 90 paise, featuring the British hero The Steel Claw, rendered in Tamil as Irumbukkai Mayavi. Tamil comics publishers had existed since the early 1960s, but Muthu's entry is regarded as the beginning of the Golden Age of Tamil comics. Under M. Soundrapandian the imprint grew steadily through the decade.
The formula was translation with flair. Almost all the stories were Tamil versions of European and occasionally American series, including titles from the British publisher Lion. The Italian cowboy Tex Willer, the Belgian gunslinger Lucky Luke and the French western hero Blueberry became the imprint's most popular cowboys, while the Steel Claw and The Spider ruled its superhero pages.
In 1984 the family opened a second front. Lion Comics was created by Soundrapandian's son Vijayan, who became its chief editor at seventeen and would eventually run the whole house. The same year the rival Rani Comics arrived from the Dina Thanthi newspaper group, and for the next decade it would be the market's dominant player.
The golden years brought a full stable. Junior Lion, Mini Lion and Thigil Comics ran in parallel as monthlies, and festivals like Diwali and Pongal brought bigger, costlier digest specials. Comics stands in Tamil Nadu, a state whose reading culture ran through tea stalls and lending libraries, had never been busier.
Television nearly killed it all. The spread of satellite and cable TV from the mid 1980s pulled children and young readers away, and the hard years brought art shortages, missing issues and vanishing distribution. Rani Comics bowed out with its 500th issue, the smaller imprints closed, and their characters were folded into the two survivors, Lion and Muthu.
Then came the renaissance. From 2012 the imprint returned to regular monthly issues, appeared at major book fairs and at Comic Con in Bengaluru, and began selling through eBay India. A 456-page special celebrated 40 years of Muthu Comics, and in 2015 the imprint's 350th book introduced The Smurfs to Tamil readers at the Erode Book Fair.
The revival kept breaking its own records. An oversized Jumbo edition of the spy saga XIII arrived in October 2010 at 200 rupees, then the costliest release in the house's history, and in April 2015 a 596-page Blueberry omnibus priced at 1,000 rupees became the most expensive book in Tamil comics history. Half a century on, the pulp machine of Sivakasi is still running.
Compiled from published archives and public records.
