Sunday, September 29, 2013

#270 - D165_TheMysteriousChief_(09-20-76_to_12-11-76)

Just because I try to post a comic in this blog every week, some people are under the impression that this is my day job. Well I do have a day job, which is not this one, and always takes up a majority of my time, including weekends at times. So there may be instances, which will be on the rise for the near future, when I will not be able to post comic strips every week.

This story that I am posting today, is also based on someone's real day job and his perceived one - Hojo's. His day job was not being Mandrake's chef extra-ordinaire. It was something else. For regular subscribers like me, in those days, it did come as a surprise, when the revelation happened. See the story "The Thieves" posted a few weeks ago in this blog for a panel that shows a bit of contradiction.








The strips are courtesy my Australian friend, Donald Ladhams, who has been very active trying to get us daily strips from Australian newspapers. Paulo Marques, who is not an unfamiliar Mandrake fan extracted them from the PDFs and created the cbz file. I blew up the strips' size and tried a few edits. There are about 5 or 6 strips which have black smudges and one strip that got very white (Guess that is why they call it Black and White). Otherwise the strips are fine.

If there is a way anyone can clean these using PS, it is most welcome. Till then enjoy these strips.

Download RS version here

Download MF version here

Enjoy,

Venkit

Saturday, September 14, 2013

#269 - S028_TheSantaClausPirate_(09-03-1944_to_12-03-1944)

While at work with the next story in the Kraken series, I received this story from the one and only Magnus Magnusson. This is a story, which is already available with a lot of us, albeit Black and White. Who can pass up a color version of a Mandrake story?




















Download RS version here:

Download MF version here:

Magnus had scanned this and I just cropped off the unnecessary portions and sharpened the dialogues. So enjoy the story and offer your thanks to Magnus Magnusson.

Please visit Lothar's blog to download the B/W version.

Enjoy,

Venkit

Friday, September 6, 2013

#268 - S156_TheKraken_(11-23-1986_to_07-12-1987)

Well this was the first episode in the Kraken series. There are many  mixed versions available  in the Net of this story, but here I am posting the complete story with all panels in Black and White. This story was reprinted in IJC as the first story in V25N14 & V25N15 in 1988 called "The Undersea Killer Monster".

Usually, I put the first panel as the tease picture, but this time I am deviating and the reason is quite obvious.











What could be more wonderful than seeing Narda reclining in all her splendor!

Download RS Version here

Download MF Version here

I also had a full color "complete" version of this. But when I compared that with the above version, I did see that the panels were not complete. I am putting out the above panel in the color version for your enjoyment. Hee, hee. Now you get to see Narda in color, in the same pose!














Of course it goes without saying that a major part of the color strips in this collection came from Magnus Magnusson.

Download Color Strip here:

Enjoy,

Venkit

Sunday, September 1, 2013

#267 - S164_DangersInTheJungle_(07-01-90_to_12-16-90)

Well, all adventures have to come to an end and this was the last story in the Kraken series. As the name suggests, this story takes place in the jungle and that too in the locality of Lothar's former tribe.











The color strips are courtesy, Magnus Magnusson, one of the greatest Mandrake fans ever. All I did was complete the story in English, replacing the Swedish strips.

Download RS version here

Download MF version here

Enjoy and shower your thanks on Magnus