By Maharani Lamsal

    KATHMANDU, July 29 (Xinhua) -- In the early 20th century, two America-based actors managed to capture public imagination though at first appearance, they had nothing star-like about them.

    While one of them, Stan Laurel, was thin as a reed, the other, Oliver Hardy, was fat.

    However, the pairing up of the two created one of the most popular comic characters of Hollywood, the Laurel-Hardy movies, whose success inspired animation cartoons and then comic books.

    Now almost 60 years after the first Laurel and Hardy comic books were published, Nepal, located in another part of the world, has got its own Laurel and Hardy comic book.

    Sher Publications, a Kathmandu-based Nepali publishing house, Tuesday formally launched the first Nepali comic book.

    Titled "Ko bhanda ko kam" (Who is outclassing whom) the comic book in Nepali language is about the funny adventures of two simple men who keep on trying to outdo each other.

    Like the original Laurel-Hardy books, Nepal's new comic heroes are also based on real characters.

    Known by their initials -- MaHa -- Madan Krishna Shrestha and Hari Bamsha Acharya are probably the most popular comic pair in Nepal. They started out as caricature artists on the radio and then graduated into telefilms and serials when television came to Nepal.

    Shrestha, who is the thin Laurel-like partner in the pair, has also acted in nearly a dozen films.

    Today, the pair have performed abroad and are much sought-after in Nepal's parody, pantomime and attire festival Gai Jatra.

    They have also become the face of civic concern, taking part in social service advertisements on television to spread awareness about issues like maintaining unity in diversity and the importance of safe drinking water.

    Abin Shrestha, one of the best known cartoonists of Nepal, is the illustrator of the Nepali comic book while Suresh Kiran is the author.

    The publisher, Sher Publishing Private Ltd, said they would market the book in countries with a large number of Nepali expatriates, like the Middle East.

    The next book is scheduled to come out four months later.

    The two comedians were upbeat about the new book.

    "The MaHa comics are a part of Nepal's unique identity, like gundruk, bhatmas and mashaura (Nepali food)," a delighted Shrestha said during the book launch.

    They are Nepal's first fully indigenous comic strip characters to make it in book form.

    The Kathmandu-based weekly, the Nepali Times, earlier used to run a comic strip with Nepali characters. However, its popularity was limited since it was in English.

    In the past, the U.S. Embassy in Nepal had assisted in the publication of four educational comics.

    However, they were concerned more with spreading awareness about prevailing issues like the constituent assembly election and the abolition of social discriminations to build a new Nepal and seemed not mean to cause laughter.

    During the insurgency, the UNICEF had also published cartoon strips. They were intended to caution Nepali children against the danger of playing with strange objects found on roads which were actually crude bombs or land mines.

    Shrestha, who along with Acharya had taken part in the pro-democracy movement in 2006 that brought an end to the government headed by former King Gyanendra, hopes the new comic book would bring a smile on the lips of Nepalis who suffered heavily during the 10-year civil war.