Cover of Target Magazine1988 Annual Issue (June)
It's a copy that a cousin brother of mine owns. Years ago, I discovered this wonderful magazine only thanks to him. I was too young, about seven, when I first laid my hand on it. I never owned a single copy, my cousin used to do the buying. By the time I decided it was time for me to buy my first copy, the publishers had called quit on the magazine. Yes I did buy a copy of Teens Today. But never again.
On the cover image above, one can see Granny, Gardhab Das, Detective Moochwala with his Pooch and many other characters that made this magazine special .
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Related post:
Cherry Blossom ad featuring Gavaskar from this magazine
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Update:
Apr 23, 2014
Target was my favouritest magazine. I was really pissed off with the Living Media guys when they shut it down and came up with Teens Today. Initially my brother would bring home the copies and later I did my bit. But unfortunately none of my copies survive today. Lending them out to friends has its risks.
ReplyDeleteCould you do us Target lovers a favour? Scan the entire thing and put it up someplace where we can access it.
To get these shots of the magazine, I had to sneak into my cousin's house with a camera while he was not in town.
ReplyDeleteI have been tying to convince him to let me scan and upload it. He didn’t think it was a big deal that he has a copy!
Finally I do have his approval… but the only problem now is that the magazine is back in our hometown.
But, someday I will scan it up for all Target lovers.
good
Deleteplease do - I had given my entire collection of target magazines for binding and someone flicked the lot
ReplyDeleteParents of some sold off entire collections to raddiwalla. What a loss!
ReplyDeletedr_janusx2,
will try..but it will take time.
i subscried to the magazine when the first issue came out and remained a reader for a long time ..abs loved detective moochwala and the first page of cartoons ...pls upload a copy , i have lost all of mine
ReplyDeleteAnony,
ReplyDeleteI think first page of cartoons was Ajit Ninan's 'Ajit's World'.
Will certainly try to upload the copy.
please please scan and put the target annual up! i've been looking for old issues but could never find them! by the way, i run a Comix Discussion Board of iNdIa (CDBi), a forum for Indian comic fans and artits.
ReplyDeleteHere is the link--
http://www.number21pix.in/cdbi/index.php
please check it out and contribute.
^^
ReplyDeleteWill try.
and even though you have that community link at a dozen other blogs...that link is expired.
Hi! today all of a sudden i remembered how i realllly love TARGET. The stories in them were brilliant, the illustrations were par excellance and the over all quality was brilliant - i wish someone would come up with a magazine like that again - i have a few issues but they were all some of the last few... then comes this terrible magazine called Teens Today which has absolutely no soul - will go search the streets of my city for older issues.
ReplyDeleteblotter,
ReplyDeleteTeens Today really was soulless. Hope you find some old issues.
I have so many fond memories of TARGET! I still remember the cover of the first TARGET issue dad had bought for me from the newsstand. I remember crying when dad cut out a section from one of the pages - it was the subscription form! I didn't know what subscription meant!
ReplyDeleteI thanked my father for the subscription that continued for many years!
Deepanjan, thanks for sharing those wonderful memories! I was just too young when the first issue came out. I later discovered the joys of this magazine thanks to an older cousin of mine.
ReplyDeleteConsidering the fact that it was bought long ago in Kashmir, just before our families had to move out, it's quite a miracle that this particular magazine issue is still around.
I used to love reading target, though the comic snippets copied from 'mad' comics, but credited to an Indian artist really annoyed me
ReplyDeleteYeah but who knew then!
ReplyDeleteI particularly remember a funny strip in an issue in which the snippet was themed on misadventures of a blood thirsty Dracula. The poor guy ends up getting Aids. That surely was 'Mad'.
Hi! I'm Amol from Mumbai. In my childhood days, since I was introduced to TARGET IN 1990, I was hooked to it and subscribed it everytime till the last issue in 1995. Today I have preserved about 45 issues of TARGET. I would like to share them with you. What should I do ?
ReplyDeleteHi Amol!
DeleteAm in Mumbai too.. My sister is a big fan and if hope to gift her as many target editions as I can.
I am willing to scan and make them available online for the fans out there.
Hi Amol,
ReplyDeletethanks for generously offering to share your collection. You must have noticed a lot of people are eagerly waiting to get their hands on old issues. You can scan them up and email them to me. You can find my email here.
Hi Amol, I and all the old readers of Target will we thankfull to you for your great offer of sharing old issues with us. If you don't have facility or time to scan all copies I may help yo, Please email your address to me I'll try to send someone to collect magazines from you and I promise to return all the issues in the same coditions back to you as soon as I scan them and upload for others.
ReplyDeleteThanks
Hello Dr. Soni. Since somehow your profile is not enabled (your name appears in black without any hyperlink), Please send your email address to amolghadi@gmail.com so that I would be able to send you my POSTAL address.
ReplyDeleteHi! It was so good seeing so many Target lovers here. Target was SO much more than just another magazine! Brings back fond memories of Ajit Ninan's drawings and Vatsala Kaul's write ups. I would read it cover to cover and re-read them months later! Thanks to my cousin who was a target enthusiast, I got hooked to Target. I remember being heartbroken when Teens Today began and what a foolish piece of journalism that was! They left out everything that made target so good and put in glossy pages with worthless stuff.
ReplyDeleteLong summer holidays, nimub paani and Target. Heaven :)
Thanks for sharing your memories, Chandni.
ReplyDeleteLong winters, Kehwa and Target. Heaven :)
Hey, Vinayak, I waited for so long for Dr. Soni to contact me using my email address but he hasn't yet. The problem with me is that I don't have time or access to a scanner. Dr. Soni's help would have been great as he too was from Mumbai and he had displayed the enthusiasm to scan all the copies for us. Do you have his e-mail address ? Or anybody's who is a Target-Enthusiast AND FROM MUMBAI and willing to scan the copies?
ReplyDeleteFunny World
ReplyDeleteGardhab Das
Tegrat
Ghost Squad
And my month was made.
Ofc there were other stuff too, but I don't remember now. Have to check my worn out closet in the garage. Last time I was about to take out my car, saw a Enid Blyton Famous Five (Five Go Down TO The Sea)lying under it, guess it may have a few Targets too. Hope it does!!!
I remember Tegrat! The name was a Palindrome of T A R G E T. And I hope you find some.
ReplyDeleteHi, I am Yashodhara Datar, I stay in Mumbai and I happen to have the time and a scanner, now the question is would you trust me with your collection?
ReplyDeletemy email id is yashodhara.datar@gmail.com I stay in Dadar and I am volunteering because a friend of mine is getting married and Target was her favourite. I want to give them as a wedding gift.
It would be realy great if you contacted me.
Wow! My brother used to subscribe this, and his article even publiched during one o the contests. I still use the term 'Gardabhdas' for fool :)Would love to see the old issues. Our's gone to raddiwala as well!
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, even I hated Teens Today. It was not even 1% of what TARGET was!
I had all the target magazines. My mom sold it all to raddiwala for 120 rupee @2Rs a kilo. The collection included almost all tinkles and amar chitra katha comics.
ReplyDeleteThat was 20 years ago. I still can't get over it :(
I had every issue from the first till 1994 circa. When I returned home from abroad ten years ago, I found them missing! (Again mum guilty) I felt that I had lost my childhood. (sob)
ReplyDeleteFrom Suraj Formerly Bombay, now Cochin.
hi,
ReplyDeletecan someone please sell me at least one target magazine? it was my brother's favourite and i want to gift it to him on his birthday.
please let me know if u can! I would hugely appreciate it!
sal
I too have lovely memories of reading Target when I was a kid! I've been looking for a copy everywhere and by sheer luck I found one for sale in ebay for 150 bucks! So happy I got it! I'll scan and make it available for all Target fans soon! :)
ReplyDeleteWOW. Any luck with the scans. I am in Kolkata and am willing to help with scanning or making arrangements. I am serious about having a digital copies available.
ReplyDeleteHello Vinayak,
ReplyDeleteThis is my first comment here though we interact by mail & fb. Actually even till date i a yet to encounter a Diary like Target Diary, i had a few Diaries till they stopped printing them , alas i dont have with me anymore , but the quality and content, graphics can be compared to none. Infact after a lot of search for a quality diary here , i ended up with India Today's companion Diary, again a living media product.
Hi! This is Amol (see above) here again. Finally I made contact with Yashodhara (see above) and then I found a fellow Targetter on Facebook, Ayan Sarbadhikari who too has a really good collection of Targets. We both have about 153 issues when combined together starting with April 1983 till the last issue of September 1995. We will just be about to start scanning our respective collections and then upload it for all the Target-fans out there. We are just looking for all those individuals who have their respective collections and can complement our collection. i.e. Fill in the blanks for us...ie. scan only those issues which I and Ayan don't have.
ReplyDeleteAnybody interested can contact me on Facebook at:
https://www.facebook.com/AmolGhdgnkr
Hello Amol !
DeleteCan you give a proper link to your FB account, or your email ID? The fb link is a bit confusing as there are several "Amol Ghadigaonkar" profiles. I have this target annual 88 and a Funny world collection, painstakingly snapped on camera,since i dont have a scanner; and a Moochwala collection scan I got on the net. If you contact me at pathomitra@gmail.com,you can get those. I really miss those Targets of my childhood sacrified,like many others, to the raddiwala :-(
This blog is really great,Vinayak !!! I have been a long time lurker,and have bookmarked this since long, but it took Target to make me comment for the first time !
Hi Amol,
ReplyDeleteI am also a Mumbaikar - I live in Borivali. I have a Canon scanner (CanoScan LiDE 100) so I can scan copies of Target for you. I would be happy to utilise my free time for this project.
I was an avid reader of Target when it first came out in 1980 (I was 9 years old then) and continued to buy it till 1983-84. Most of my issues of Target were borrowed by friends and never returned, and the rest went to the raddiwala.
Let me know if you need my assistance. My email ID is: ashish.khandeparkar@gmail.com
Hi,
ReplyDeleteThere MUST be some kind of formal archive. India Today (or Living Media or whoever) must know. One could hunt at all the used-book stores in the city,
and might find some issues. But that's besides the point.
What would really be heaven, is if we could persuade them to re-print all the
back issues, one by one, and get them in the newsstands (or more
realistically, to interested subscribers only, even if at a premium),
starting from 1980 through 1995. And re-print them as they are, Ads and all,
just as they are in the old issues. Campa Cola, Melody Toffees, and yes,
Cherry Blossom, and whatever else. Hmmm, they probably might run into legal
issues with the brands / companies that have survived. The companies that
have gone bust are okay i suppose; there won't be anyone to complain. The
ones that are there would run into interesting (maybe even funny) contractual
situations with the faces that endorse them (e.g. celebrity A of the '80s on Ad of product X - would it breach the contract to run that Ad now?)
But, getting back to the archive, some solution might be worked to everyone's
satisfaction, if an archive could be made available via electronic means. Of
course, it should be in a way so we could print them, in their original size
and colour for maximum reading satisfaction and nostalgia!!!
And we're all willing to pay an extra premium, they should know.
Best Regards to all.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI have April 1988 (titled 'Laugh Away') Target magazine, and for those of you who have fond memories of Misha as well, I have the February 1990 one.
I have a HP Scanner that is pretty good. Like the person who has suggested above, we can all use our copies and try to make it into PDFs that can be downloaded and printed.
So glad to see so many ardent fans of Target!
I'll comment here again, once I have the PDFs ready. YAY!
My grandmother got a subscription for Target from 1983 to 89. At the end of each year she got them bound. The volumes are still there..gathering dust in the attic somewhere at her place in Delhi.
ReplyDeleteAnd sorry for the 90s kids, but Target went totally downhill from January 1991 when they abruptly killed off all the old favorite characters (Moochhwala, Granny's Gupshup, Bubblegum's Page et al), revamped the magazine layout and brought in Tegrat..who wasn't a patch on Moochhwala!
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI never comment on blogs... but yes like unknown (12.03.2013) ... the love for target comics made me comment on the blog.. I first laid my hands on Target when I was in my 3rd Grade.. LiKe all of us here .. my cousin passed on the old issues to me for reading... they were so much fun... On my 9th Birthday i got a subscription as a present from my parents... and then on till the last issue when media today shut it down :(.. I had painstakingly collected and preseved them.. till we had to move to our new house... they were sold to the raddiwala in my abeyance... how i cried .. please put it up for somewhere as download.. I really really wish to have atleast one issue.. Thanks!!
This was one awesome magazine!
ReplyDeleteHi All,
ReplyDeleteI FINALLY made a PDF copy of Target 1988 (April) issue. It's about 40 MB. If anybody would like to have it, let me know. Better still, if there's a way to share it here in this page, I don't mind sending it across so that everybody can download.
Let me know!
Rama
Hi Rama,
DeleteThat is really great news! You can upload it to https://drive.google.com/ and share the link here. Thanks!
That's great news! Yes, please upload to google drive and share! Thank you so much! :)
ReplyDeleteSalima
Okay, here goes:
ReplyDeletehttps://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0JnrXsaP2QFaHlKUW5OUlBZQXc/edit?usp=sharing
This is the link for getting the mag. Please let me know if there's any problem with the link. This is the first time I'm using Google Drive.
Best,
Rama
Thanks you Rama! This is just beautiful. I will be updating the post with the link and sharing it around.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Vinayak
This is AWESOME, Ram. Thank you so much!!!
ReplyDeleteCheers!
Salima
Wonderful. Yes, please pass it around to everyone... and my pleasure :)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Ra for this! I hope many others follow your lead soon :D
ReplyDeleteAwesone.. Would like to know if other issues r available online. Thx for all the hard work with scanning and uploading.
ReplyDeleteHi ! I've commented here 2 years ago as "ünknown", and was pleased to see people here still talking about Target. I've uploaded some special collections -- Funny World and target Annual 88 of mine and Detective Moochwala collection I got from the net, to Google Drive. Got the idea from Rama & Vinayak's comments. Here goes ..
ReplyDeletehttps://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwFvWijLv0pVcTJ0eGtjLVpMTFk/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwFvWijLv0pVOWtXMmFpc21fSGs/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwFvWijLv0pVWmswejlfNUxhZXc/view?usp=sharing
The files are in cbr format, you'll need to read it using any cbr reader you'll get from the net. It's just a special rar format, you can rename it to rar and unpack it to get the images, for conversion if required.
Happy reading,
SM
Hi would you still have the scanned copies somewhere? can you repost the google drive links?! thanks :-)
DeleteHi everyone,
ReplyDeleteIt's a treasure finding so many Target lovers! It was indeed the best children's magazine I grew up with. Inspired from that I'm currently working on a social enterprise project which attempts to connect children globally through a publication.
Since we all unanimously agree that Target was a magazine with a soul could you tell me a bit on what was the most special aspect of the magazine that made you feel so attached to it?
Would really appreciate your opinions. I'll try to incorporate that life and soul in my publication project.
Thank you very much for 1988 edition. Please keep posted if you have more
ReplyDeleteDear Amol, I am a publisher based out of Guwahati and doing some researh to bring out an ezine for kids. Target brings fond memories to me as well and I am trying to see if some work can be done along those lines. I used to have a hall full of collections, that included Target but well, things happened. Would you trust me with your Target copies for some time so I can scan and return them to you? I will also make them available on our website for the public...Thanks a lot, Bhaskar Dutta-Baruah
ReplyDeleteHi Guys,
ReplyDeleteJust stumbled upon this blog while trying to search for our beloved mag...the immediate cause being that I now have a kid and am trying to introduce him to the little joys we've known as kids.
A big thanks to Ram for the effort :-)
While I gather that Amol and Ayan here happen to have a huge collection of the mag, I am unable to get further clues as to what happened to the trail....Let us know if any help is required.
P.S. Am from Mumbai and own a scanner, so guess I meet Amol's criteria
Katha.org seems to have published 4 collections of stories from Target - https://books.google.co.in/books?id=Z9e7H10qRGUC&pg=PA98&lpg=PA98&dq=target+%22children%27s+magazine%22&source=bl&ots=CEm-SefaxC&sig=-aYO61rlYP7Nkgl9nn3mA_KzvDs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwijqL-igrfMAhVHno4KHYpNBzgQ6AEIQTAG#v=onepage&q=target%20%22children%27s%20magazine%22&f=false
ReplyDeletebut they are not easily available.
Such a Sweet nostalgia after reading all these comments... I must surely be dreaming... Never ever thought or imagined that I would come across this Magazine ever again... Thankyou all...you all made my day.... Regards ET-Sid
ReplyDeleteReally great. Thanks for uploading. Wish I had my stash of Targets. I used to subscribe for years, but everything lost with multiple house and city moves :(
ReplyDeleteI feel lucky to have still preserved some 40 issues of this Target Magazine (Treasure trove) - The Magazine like no other and nothing will ever come closer to it, what a beautiful piece of nostalgia and so much of yesteryear memories associated with it... I was so fond of this magazine....
ReplyDeleteThose golden days...
Sid
Likeghostwriter at gmail dot com.
Target ! wow !! what a sweet nostalgia.. ! but I am glad to own about a 50 odd copies of the same still.. a true treasure trove my friends...
ReplyDeletehi ! I'm the guy who uploaded the target annual 88 originally. can i get your email address so we can get some scans done if feasible. you can drop me a line , my email is pathomitra "at" g mail dot com
DeleteTarget meant childhood and growing up and dreaming big and reading and learning so much at a time when the world wide web was pure scifi. Target was my best friend.
ReplyDeleteI managed to buy 23 Target magazines in Quikr last year. My aim is to get them all scanned and uploaded before I bind them up as a volume. I'll do this as soon as I can manage.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see so many Target fans everywhere!
Hello,
ReplyDeletemanaged to stumble upon this blog after searching with the old book shops and then an online hunt for Target, am so glad to find people who remember Target and am waiting with fingers crossed for scans, please upload
Hi everyone,
ReplyDeleteI was a big fan of Target magazine like all of you guys and I'm trying to put the digital version of it. I have lost all my copies when my parents moved houses. I want to digitise this old gem of magazine and put it online for anyone to read. Does anyone have anyone's contact from Living Media or Amena Jayal or Vatsala Kaul who I can contact to get the copies from?
If you guys have copies, Could you scan them and send it to me?