This review is of the two latest issues from Indian publisher Shakti Comics numbered 10 and 11 respectively. Both of these came out during the last four months. Both issues contain one Phantom story each.
No. 10 contains the daily story "The Lake Lady" and no. 11 contains another daily story "The Return of General Bababu", both done by Lee Falk and Sy Barry.
No. 10 has a cover done by Abhishek Biswas based on "The Lake Lady story". While the cover looks quite nice, the portrayal of the lake lady in the cover very much differs from what's in the story. The colour work on the cover is also quite nice.
The story "The Lake Lady" is coloured by a new colourist for Shakti called Santosh Adsul. His colour work is kind of similar to the previous colourist used by Shakti. However, the colour is not sub per as most of the story looks quite darkened. From the phantoms costume to skin tone, the background, etc all seems to be a bit darkened.
It is kind of similar to some of the Indrajal comics colours, but it doesn't make sense for Shakti to repeat that kind of thing in the present time.
The issue also has two pages of information about the various writers and artists working in the strip. It is indeed a very welcome move from Shakti. However, it is isn't complete as it leaves out the recent artist names.
No. 11 features a cover done by Abhishek Biswas based on "The Return of General Bababu" story. The cover it quite nice with a nice iconic presentation of the Phantom with Fraka on his shoulder. The character of Bababu looks quite well, also the scary looking lionness that attacks him. The colour work is also done quite well.
The story "The Return of General Bababu" is again coloured by Santosh Adsul. Unfortunately his colour work has not much improved in my opinion. The colour still kind of look overused as some of the details found in the original black and white art becomes kind of invisible. While some panels are really nicely coloured, most of it doesn't look that good. The colour of the phantom's trucks still hasn't changed.
The issue also features an introduction to Bababu at the beginning of the story. It is indeed a nice step taken by them to kind of provide a recap of previous stories. At the end page a synopsis and some information about the story is also featured.
Both these issues provide some information about the phantom on the back cover, which was last seen in the second issue. However, they still have some spelling and punctuation errors there.
Shakti continues to deliver nice products with good paper quality and covers. But the presentation of the stories, which is pretty much the main thing for the comic, still isn't very pleasant. Hopefully Shakti improves their colours and continues to bring out great products, as it would be a great combo. Wishing them the best for their next ventures.
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