Mandrake the Magician: Sundays Vol.1: The Hidden Kingdom of Murderers

Four-and-a-half years after the promised date readers finally have the first volume of 'Mandrake the Magician' in hand. Was it worth the wait?Here is a brief run-down of this volume:'THE HIDDEN LAND OF MURDERERS A mind-boggling tale set in an unidentifiable country, a haven for crooks, with Mandrake assisted by Rheeta, a woman who occasionally changes into a panther thanks to Mandrake. Hypnotism is the least of the astonishing range of powers demonstrated by the magician in this tale, including turning a murderer into a pillar of stone, making Pierce invisible, and conjuring up a wedding dress for Rheeta out of thin air. Falk claimed that he himself had drawn the earliest daily strips; the art in the first five or six Sunday strips is so poor, with wooden faces and static poses, that you wonder if Falk was tempted to repeat that experiment before Davis assumed the art chores.LAND OF THE FAKIRS The action moves "east to India", fakirs, Indian rope trick and all. Mandrake demonstrates more sorcery; no hypnotism can explain away an actual flying carpet. Falk's well of inspiration evidently running dry at some point, the tale abruptly ends in a moralistic retelling of the story of Midas and his golden touch.This arc features the worst reproduction in the whole book, seemingly uncorrected scans of yellowing tear-sheets. The contrast is marked, since 'The Hidden Land of Murderers' ends on Page 38 and 'Land of the Fakirs' starts on Page 39.LAND OF THE LITTLE PEOPLE Mandrake and Lothar proceed "north" of India. Soviet Central Asia? Afghanistan? Tibet? It really doesn't matter because their true destination is a Never-Never Land inhabited by doll-sized folk in mediaeval costumes. Mandrake demonstrates more wizardry, shrinking himself and Lothar, conjuring up a basket of food, dressing the commoner Derina in regal robes...The ending is reminiscent of the preceding tale. Where Sultan Jehol Khan refused to let Princess Jana marry Jorga because he is a "commoner" without gold, the King of the Little People refuses to let Prince Dano marry Derina because she is a "commoner" (not of royal blood).THE CIRCUS PEOPLE Mandrake returns to civilization -- and to some of the best art in this book. There is more magic on display, including telekinetically stowing luggage on a train, and turning a jumping black panther in mid-leap. Again, there is an abrupt happy ending with the performers -- monkeys included -- pairing off.THE CHAMBER INTO THE X DIMENSION Falk and Davis shift abruptly into 'Flash Gordon' territory. Metal people. Plant people. Crystal people. And, of course, Flesh people...PRINCE PAULO THE TYRANT Somewhere "in the North Country" Mandrake and Lothar hit upon Dementor, another Ruritanian nation, ruled by Paulo, who is as eccentric as he is tyrannical. The usual happy ending is curiously unsatisfactory this time, with Paulo, a murderer several times over left to a happy life in the countryside.Did King Features slip it into the contract that ever Sunday story must finish with at least one wedding? Because that is what happens.Otherwise, what you get in this book are six disjointed tales. None of Mandrake's villains gallery is mentioned leave alone shown, and the sole supporting character is Lothar. And you half-wish the last-named weren't there either because every appearance is cringe-worthy testimony to the casual, all-pervasive racism that persisted even as late as the 1930s. Lothar speaks a broken, pidgin English, is dressed in skimpy briefs as if to suggest that he is still a child unworthy of trousers, is "broken hearted" over Mandrake's refusal to acknowledge him (Page 143), always addresses Mandrake as "Master", and looks every bit the defiant child when Mandrake scolds him for the damage he has caused (Page 86).The art is quite good, very much in the Alex Raymond school. Here is the problem -- the Library of American Comics has already published all of Raymond's credited work, on 'Secret Agent X-9', 'Flash Gordon and Jungle Jim', and 'Rip Kirby', so why would you not seek out the original rather than the follower?Had this book come out ten years ago, fans might have hailed it as a watershed event. But nothing and nobody exists in a vacuum, not Falk and Davis in the 1930s, not Titan today. Compared to the brilliance of the Caniff-Foster-Raymond trinity neither the plots nor the pencils seem anything special. Compared to the excellence of, say, the ongoing 'Prince Valiant' collection from Fantagraphics the production values don't match up to the best.If you're a fan of Falk's work in general and of 'Mandrake the Magician' in particular, buy the book.If you're interested in the Golden Age of adventure strips, consider buying the book.If you're new to comics, please borrow it from an obliging friend or arrange for an inter-library loan before you buy because there are better offerings in the market.Three-and-a-half stars if Amazon permitted half stars, four stars because it doesn't.

This book had been pushed back so many times I became convinced it would never arrive but we finally have it. Although I’ve been aware of the character for most of my life this is my first actual experience reading the stories of Mandrake the Magician. I’ve been more aware of the Mandrake homages including Zatara, Zatanna, The Wizard, Zor and many others. Apparently the public has (or had) a huge appetite for men or women in traditional stage magician suits with undefined but clearly powerful magic abilities.In some ways Mandrake the magician reminds me of Superman (who arrived 4 years later) in that his powers are somewhat nebulous but awesome in scope. I could list out the magic he exhibits but generally he’s capable of doing whatever the plot needs him to be able to do; transmutation, levitation, invisibility, you name it. On the other hand he can be incapacitated with an unexpected attack. He also cannot cast spells when his hands are bound or he is incapable of speaking. Later in the book it’s implied that a lot of the magic that Mandrake performs is just hypnosis although it’s hard to imagine how travelling miles on a magic carpet could be performed through hypnosis. I get the impression we are seeing the feeling out process of Falk in these early years.Mandrake does not appear to have any job or goal in life besides wandering around getting into adventures with his massively strong servant, Lothar. Although Lothar refers to Mandrake as “Master” they clearly have a close friendship and I don’t remember Mandrake ever showing a lack of respect towards Lothar. There is a certain inhumanness to Mandrake as he remains immaculately groomed, dressed in a hot black suit with top hat and cape. Real characterization was rare in the 1930’s but Mandrake seems particularly remote but in some ways I guess that IS Mandrakes characterization. He does occasionally remove his top hat so I guess he is capable of being mildly flustered.Mandrake the Magician began his comic career in 1934 so the stories here start nearly a year after his introduction. The volume is exclusively the Sunday comics from 1935 to 1937, all in color. The book is clearly smaller than the original newspaper comics but that’s fine. I’ve had books that were published at original size and they were enormous. There is a nice 10 page introduction to Mandrake as well as a couple of pages on Lee Falk and two on Philip Davis.The series survived 80 years so it clearly had a tremendous fan base and what we’re seeing here are the awkward baby steps; common for comics just starting out, particularly ones from way back in the 1930’s. We have some Tarzan similar stories and then a science fiction and a story where he just tags along with a circus. Lee Falk seemed to be trying to figure out what genre he was writing but note that he was just 24 in 1935 and this was his first comic creation. The art improves very quickly particularly when Phil Davis takes over but this ain’t Alex Raymond or Milton Caniff. I wasn’t blown away by these early comics and at 157 pages it’s not a tremendous volume of material. There are no further volumes scheduled on Amazon but I assume Titan is planning on reprinting more since it’s listed as Volume 1. I also hope we get the dailies at some point.

This is a tough book to review. Physically, the book is a 9" x 12", 160 page, laminated hardcover. Only 135 of these pages are devoted to the strip proper so the buyer is getting about 2 1/2 years worth of Sunday strips.The reproduction isn't outstanding. The amount of restoration done does not seem all that extensive. One does wonder about the source material the publishers were working from, though. The first story arc looks particularly crude but improvement is fairly steady as the series progresses. The final story looks as good as IDW's Terry and the Pirates or Kitchen Sink's Flash Gordon but perhaps that is damning with faint praise. Nothing in this book looks as good as Fantagraphics' Prince Valiant or Hermes' Buck Rogers.The stories themselves have a similar upward progression; story (and art) improve as book progresses. The first story is fairly juvenile in its silliness but the last two have substantial imaginative content. The biggest difficulty a reader has is that there seems to be few limits on what Mandrake can do. This is a problem for all magician-heroes. When a writer deals with this issue successfully the results can be, well, magical. If he fails, the reader will likely be unsatisfied.The amount of strips for the asking price is a little on the low side. The book is something of a minimum effort. Despite that, I can recommend the book as a comic strip fan's first Mandrake series. I've been through a number of Prince Valiant, Flash Gordon, and Terry and the Pirates collections but I don't regret not holding out for a "definitive" collection that might never come. I was pleased enough to want to buy Titan's upcoming Mandrake dailies companion series and I hope to see further Sunday volumes as well.

Arguably the first superhero (but then who isn't), Mandrake is a magician whose stage presence masks the fact that he can also use his magic powers to fight crime. In this collection of the full page Sunday stories he takes on a number of mystical forces in a sometimes eerie and uncanny way, such as when he manifests flames. There are a large number of exciting and memorable images here and the stories are well written and coherent.But. Anyone who was a kid in the 80s is likely to remember Defenders of the Earth and Mandrake's friend Lothar, prince of an African nation and the world's strongest man. Lothar is present and correct, but some might find his portrayal difficult. His speech is slightly simplistic and he wanders around in a loincloth and fez. It isn't the worst representation of an African in this era but it wouldn't be acceptable today.With this aside, this is a handsome package. A big hardback with good reproductions of the original strips. I'd like to see more and how the strip develops.

Whilst good I think I like the daily stories better. The need to tell a story in less frames seems to make it better and more impelling to see the next instalment.

A great read. Enjoyed it thoroughly.

Mandrake the Magician continued his magic well into the year 2013 and since then we are revisiting the old adventures.From the early 1930s to the year 2013, Mandrake continued a magical spell AND we must acknowledge the extraordinary popularity of Mandrake, Narda, Lothar and Hojo.The sinister machinations of COBRA who is actually the leader of OCTON provided thrill and entertainment to multiple generations - from 1930s till 2013 and thereafter.This collection has some problems, nodoubt.The reproductions are somewhat aged and blurred and it is understandable.The source material is probably not of the highest quality and so some of the art was Hazy.However the story line is good and clearly reflects the dynamism of the 1930s when America was slowly emerging as a cultural superpower.These comics reflect a bygone era, the era of my Grandfather.I sincerely value this collection and thank the publishers for making a difficult choice by reproducing " antique" art of Mandrake comics which in a way transports us back to the world of 1930s when John Wayne was a rising star and India was still not a sovereign nation.Like Phantom, Mandrake was also created by Lee Falk and both these characters gained immense popularity in India even before 1947.After introduction of the Indrajal Comics in the mid 1960s , Mandrake became very popular in India and even now there are real magicians in India who go by the name of ' Mandrake'-cashing on in the popularity of the Magician. Indrajal comics ceased publication from April 1990 and since then there was a major vaccum as the pocket sized Diamond comics didnot do justice to the legend of Mandrake.Now we are having the opportunity to read the old adventures of Mandrake, thanks to this publication.I am looking forward to enjoy these comics in the coming years.THANKS AMAZON FOR THE SPECTACULAR COMICS

Excellent book, well worth the price and the L-O-N-G wait for it to be published. Hopefully, the second volume won't take so long.