March 18, 2009

Penguin India 'Garth' Reprints Delayed

It looks like the Penguin India reprinting of the entire 'Garth' series (for which Peter O'Donnell wrote from 1953-1966) is being delayed. The original news release on the Penguin India site, in 2008, said:

"The third major reissue in our retro revival series will be the Complete Garth in a collectible 5-volume hardback graphic novel box set. Garth is a character well known to most Indians through newspaper strips and a brief run as comic books from Indrajal comics. Though there have been a couple of annuals and two dedicated volumes, never before has Garth ever been collected. So for the first time ever fans can get all 16,000 strips covering 165 stories in 3,000-plus pages."

However, the micro-website for the Retro Revival series (which recently reprinted the entire Modesty Blaise series, as well as all the Madeleine Brent novels) seems to be down right now, so looks like we have to wait for more news...

You can view a Garth strip here.

So far the artwork for the Retro Revival series has been stunning, so hopefully we can expect the Garth reprints to be just as good!




9 comments:

Steve said...

Wow - those Retro Revival covers do look great. Do you have any of the books and if so did you have to purchase them through Penguin India?

Modesty Blaise said...

I did buy the boxed set, and got a friend in India to send it (very lucky that I know someone there!) as there doesn't seem to be any equivalent of Amazon for India. Having said that, someone on the MB list did find a vendor who would ship internationally, I can send you there email address privately.

Just so you know, the 'boxed set' I received is not actually boxed, which is too bad, I was really looking forward to that. (It was a set of books bubble wrapped together). So not sure what happened there, whether it was a mistake or whether the set doesn't come in an actual box.

But they are still lovely! :)

Steve said...

I didn't even think of the possibility of a boxed set. That would be a great edition to my modest collection.

I have only one actual collectors item now. A signed first edition hard copy version of Pieces of Modesty, published by Mysterious Press (number 79 of 250). It is red and came in it's own red box. A boxed set of one, so to speak.

Modesty Blaise said...

Ooh, I am envious!

BTW I am still trying to solve the mystery of whether or not Souvenir Press is going to reprint Pieces of Modesty (the only one in the series it hasn't yet reprinted). SP never originally published it, so I don't know if that means they don't have reprint rights, but seems odd they would re-acquire the UK paperback reprint rights to the series without getting that too...?

If they did, it would be wonderful if they released a boxed set!

Blue Tyson said...

So you have to know someone in India to buy those then?

Modesty Blaise said...

I did, for the MB series, but as I mentioned it didn't actually come as the boxed set, which it was supposed to. As for Garth, still no word on whether they're going ahead with the reprints or not - I guess these are tough times in publishing. Which is it you are after?

Unknown said...

Hi!

I am absolutely desperate to get the set of modesty blaise books reprinted by penguin india for my Dad. My father and I are huge fans, but I don't know anyone in India who would ship this to me - if anyone could help me with this I would be eternally grateful!

Justine, UK

Modesty Blaise said...

Hi Justine. I still don't know of any Indian booksellers who ship internationally, but I am looking into it...

Modesty Blaise said...

This site says they ship internationally. I didn't see the boxed set in their catalogue, but you could always contact them to see if they can get it...
http://www.pustak.co.in/pustak/books/index