Yesterday while browsing through my Diamond Comics collection in my almirah of books (I love to call it my library) for taking out “Pinki” comics for my daughter I came across my collection of “Daboo” comics. I have a few of them and they are my prized possession. I took out one comic and read it last night. A lot of memories came with that. So I think it is proper to share them with you with a little background of “Daboo”.
Daboo was created by cartoonist Pran. Unlike his other comic characters (Chacha Choudhary, Billoo, Pinki, Raman, Shrimatiji, Channi Chachi, Soni & Sampat, Ankur, Paltoo, Pikloo, Miku, Chiku, Dipu and other short-lived comic characters for Lot Pot in its early phase who are all humour-based characters, primarily targeted for children or middle-class housewives, Dabbo was an adventurous strip. Apart from him Jab is the only other adventurous comic strip of Pran.
It was first character created by Pran in the late sixties for Hindi newspaper Daily Milap. It is also different in that sense from other characters of Pran as they were created primarily for comics or magazines.
The strips of Daboo tell us the stories of adventure of Daboo who is a teen-age boy along-with his constant companion Professor Adhikari. Together they face mysteries and solve them. The stories are bizarre, eerie, weird and sometimes have a supernatural element in it. So in one story they face man-eating trees and in another story a man who is hypnotized by a bad alien lady from another planet to who wants to kidnap Professor Adhikari!
The artwork like other earlier stories of Pran has dark shade and presents a gloomy scenario which is perfect for such stories. Stories remind me of same kind of stories by Satyajit Rai the great film-maker of Bengal who also happened to be a prolific story-teller for children. Though primarily targeted for teen-agers but considering the fact that they were created as newspaper strip even some adults like me still find them interesting. A perfect bed-time read.
I came across Daboo (and Jab as well) when they used to publish as comic strips in ‘Parag’ a Hindi magazine for children and teen-agers. My adolescent mind was very much impressed by the stories and became of fan of Daboo and I still am his fan. It is my second-most favourite character of Pran only after ‘Billoo’. Subsequently, adventures of Daboo were published as comic albums by Diamond Comics, few of which I have in my collection. But still my heart yearns of those Parag issues carrying his stories as strips. In Parag the stories used to be serialized and it was really a wonderful feeling to wait for the next issue of Parag for reading the next instalment of continuing story of Daboo. Jaane kahan gaye who din.
Post-script:- In an advertisement published in Diamond Comics regarding publication of first comic album of Daboo I read that Daboo also used to be published in South India. If any reader of this article any more information on this he is requested to share it with me and other readers. I am also not aware strips of Daboo in Dainik Milap I have not seen them. Any reader who has information whether it was a daily strip or a weekly strip, used to be published in the main paper or in any supplement and whether it was B/W or colour is also requested to share this.
