Mandrake the Magician: Dailies Vol. 1: The Cobra

It’s curious that Titan would choose to lead with the Mandrake the Magician Sunday comics and only now return to the dailies. The Sunday comics started in 1936 while the dailies began in 1934 and in my opinion the dailies are superior. Although the Sunday comics have nice color images they have only the barest of plots. I’m not going to say the plots in the dailies would win awards, they are standard for the era, but they’re a lot more fleshed out than the Sunday comics.The original Mandrake was a horrifying character. He turned a man into a rat, turned nine men into sticks, changed people’s heads to stone and at one point began to tear an entire kingdom to the ground until it’s king acquiesced. He even managed to raise from the dead an Egyptian who had been dead over 7000 years. The villain of the first story, Cobra, is set up as a terrifying foe but Mandrake seems far scarier. On the other hand Mandrake can be knocked cold if you sneak up behind him.Lee Falk offers up no backstory for Mandrake or how he came to possess such awesome powers. We have no idea how he came to hook up with his African servant Lothar or what the nature of their relationship is. The only evidence we see that Mandrake didn't spring from thin air is his friend Inspector Danny Sayers who claims Mandrake has helped him on cases in the past. Sometimes it doesn’t even feel as if Mandrake is human. He seems more like a Gandalf type character who appears human but is actually some kind of extra dimensional being (BTW: Mandrake predated Gandalf by about 3 years). Mandrake and Lothar simply wander around, stumbling into adventures.I’m glad to see Titan reprinting some of these great classic comics and the introduction features eight pages introducing the reader to Mandrake and a little info on Lee Falk. This is the third comic collection I’ve bought from IDW including Tarzan and Flash Gordon and in my opinion Falk is the best writer among the three. I gave up on Flash Gordon because the writing was so bad. One of the first thing I noticed when I opened the book was that the quality of the paper seemed a little below what I’m used to in these comic reprints. They look a bit off white and I’m no paper expert but they don’t seem to be of the quality the publishers like Fantagraphics and IDW are using. Maybe somebody will correct me. I definitely liked what I saw enough to pick up volume 2.

back to your chld hood days of imagination and a great collectable.

Amazon is asking me if this book meet my expectations. Oh did it ever. You see, while I was born in Colorado, I my early childhood was in Istanbul, which is about 6000 miles away, and about 40 years. There were Turkish translation of Mandrake, which was my favorite comic book--including "Red Kit"(Lucky Luke--Italian), "Phantom (also by Lee Falk), and "Texas & Tommiks--possible Italian, too--Italians were apparently big into American Western stories.)But Mandrake float high above all. Someone ought to make a movie of him. Hello, Amazon Studios?So I live in the States now, and hardly anyone knows of Mandrake (or Sledge Hammer,--can you believe it?--trust me, I know what I'm talking about. :)Lee Falk was a genius extraordinaire, and this book meets and exceeds my expectations.

I have several volumes of later Mandrake, and I enjoyed the stories in this volume the most. Mandrake does "real magic" much of the time in them, not just hypnotic gestures. Oddly his name is misspelled twice in the speech balloons early on. I guess they were getting used to this new character.

varies adventure stories. 2 main villians.raciusm and sexism are suprisingly mild.mandrake is a littleOP.

This book is mainly of value for the stylish mid 1930s artwork although the panel size is small and contrast is not consistently good. The stories are mundane but typical of the times. Although the character Bolthar is given prominence at times and treated with respect in the dialogue the depictions of his face are offensive in some panels. No doubt an innovative strip in its day.

perfect

Somehow Mandrake has never gotten the popularity and love of his fellow King Features Stars the Phantom and Flash Gordon have recieved. But thanks to the folks at Hermes Press and Titan Comics that is starting to change. And if you want to discover just who Mandrake is there, is no better place to start then this his very first appearances collected in this beautiful Hard Cover volume. It contains Two Years of strips beginning on June 11th 1934 and ending on July 18th 1936. Six complete story-lines are collected three to page in crisp Black & White. The book is printed on quality paper in the Landscape format (Wider then Tall).Also included in this Deluxe volume are two introductions. One from Lee Falk's friend Bob Griffin and one from Rick Norwood Comic Strip Aficionado and Editor/Publisher of The Comics Revue. Also included in the back of this volume is an index to the first 31 years of comic strrips (that being the 31 year run of artist Phil Davis).Mandrake The Magician was created by college student Leon Gross. Gross age 22 changed his name to Lee Falk and initially pretended he was a World Traveler who had studied the Mystic Arts. Falk who wasn't a bad artist completed the first two weeks worth of strips. When King Features bought the strip he quickly recruited more polished commercial artist Phil Davis who stayed on the strip until his death in 1965. It is fun to be able to see Lee Falks inaugural art and then Phil Davis' style. Phil Davis style is in the same style as Alex Raymond (Flahs Gordon).who he admired. The strip is very sexy for it's era and features beautiful women in various states of undress often.This made this strip popul;ar with both young boys and their fathers. In fact the introduction gives a few examles of where the strip was edited. Fortunately none of these are edited.Unlike The Phantom which Lee Falk would create two years later Mandrake does not get an Origin or any real explanation, Mandrake and his Faithful African Servant Lothar just burst out in new adventures from the beginning fully formed. The Magic itself isn't even really defined, Sometimes we are told that they are just illusions, but often we lead to believe these things are real.THE COBRA is the first adventure and is probably the worst structured story as events seemed to be created mere days ahead of time with no sense of a cohesive direction. As you read this volume you will witness Lee Falk's story telling ability rapidly mature.These first six stories stories cross the Globe and all feature a beautiful woman and an Evil Villain. The villain this time would be his Arch Nemesis the hooded man called the Cobra. The Cobra would become his greatest foe.The second story THE HAWK takes place in Alexandria (gateway To Egypt). We meet the Hunchback Villain The Hawk and the Beautiful Princess Narda. Narda would appear once more in a later story collected here then two years later would emerge as a full time regular cast member starting in 1936. Narda and Mandrake would then have a 50 year Engagement until 1996, when they married.Journeying in Carpathian Mountains in the story THE MONSTER OF TANOV PASS Mandrake and Lothar encounter a Mad Scientist , his mistreated Beautiful ward and a hulking behemoth.SAKI THE CLAY CAMEL is the name given to the Lord of The Arabian Underworld. Saki can impersonate anyone and steal everything. When he steals their valuables he replaces it with his calling card a small toy clay camel. Hence his name. Best of all the sexy Princess Narda makes a return, Plus we meet the Bumbling Inspector Duffy who attempts to help Mandrake and Lothar.THE WEREWOLF is my favorite of those collected here. That is because of both the title's subject matter and the lovely Lora. Lora is twice chased out into the Winter Snow wearing only her undergarments,nylons, garters and high heels.THE RETURN OF SAKI THE CLAY CAMEL features the return of both the chameleon like villain Sali and bumbling Inspector Duffy. Since Narda is not in this story, we meet a different young lady. While many of the earlier strips feature some gags and humor, this one is almost all humor with only a few panels of action and thrills added. Very much a departure of the Norm.This book gets my Highest Recommendation.

Classic Mandrake stories, nice printing in crisp black and white, good quality paper, excellent binding. My only disappointment is with the small dimensions (width and height) which cannot do justice to the 4 panel daily strips. Instead of fitting 3 strips per page they could have put only two with wider format. Nevertheless a must buy for any passionate lover of this great magician.

Excellene collection of Mandrake stories. Must have for all Mandrake fans. Some of ther very first Mandrake stories introfucing arch nemesis cobra and clay camel, also Mandrake meets Narda.

It is a good collection but black and white

The printing is very small. The reading is not comfortable

Perfect. Graphic Comic Book.