#306 - Happy Vishu to everyone. Sharing my digital collection of Mandrake Comics Strips

I had been planning this post for a while, but unfortunately some others beat me to it. But it does not matter. I am not in this to compete against anyone.

April 14 has a lot of meaning for me. It is the New Year according to the Malayalam calendar being used in the state of Kerala. It was also on that day in 2012, that I started to post in this blog with Balaji's permission.

Today,on this auspicious day, I present my collection of Mandrake The Magician comic strips, both Daily and Sundays.

The first strip in the first Daily:

The last strip in the interrupted last Daily strip:

Download the Daily strips from here.


The first strip in the first Sunday strip:

The last strip of the last Sunday strip:

Download the Sunday strips here.

It would be a dereliction of my duties if I did not express my thanks to the following people who worked hard along with me to search and get all these strips. The names are in no particular order:

Balaji - who started this blog as a homage to Lee Falk and his amazing creation - Mandrake the Magician.
Ajay - who posted a quite a few of the Sunday strips in his blog.
Allen Lane - who provided me with a whole lot of Sunday strips including the one in which Narda becomes the most beautiful woman in the Galaxy.
Comic Crazee - who provided us with quite a few wonderful drawings and was the first person to provide us with all 3 stories of the Mandrake wedding.
Tom Williams - who provided me with the first seven strips in the Daily Strip saga.
Magnus Magnusson - who provided me with all those beautiful color Sunday strips.
Paulo Marques - who paid and gained access to strips starting from Daily Strip 203 to 220. Balaji and I joined him in downloading the daily newspaper (approx 60MB) and then worked on bringing out those strips in story form.
Myron & Richard Hy - who provided quite a few daily strips to this blog in 2007 & 2008.
Mapanare - a new friend who has been instrumental in providing me with many of the later year daily strips. He runs a prolific blog in Spanish where he concentrates more on ... (who else?).
Donald Ladhams - who despite his advancing age and ill-health traveled to the Library and sent me strips from the microfilm archives of one of Australia's leading dailies.
Emile - One of the greatest living authorities on both of Lee Falk's characters. He also has a wonderful database of Indrajal Comics. Emile has been instrumental in providing me with Phantom and Tarzan strips in addition to Mandrake.
Carlos - more famously known as Lothar, who is singlehandedly responsible for most of the daily strips. (and that too at exceptional quality!)

When I started posting, we did not have more than 60 of the Sunday strips online. In these 4 years, it has been my good fortune to work with a whole lot of friends and get all Sunday strips though in varying colors and resolution.

If I have by oversight missed anyone, I profusely apologize.

Enjoy.

Venkit

#300 - Happy 81 years, Mandrake !! How do I go about it? Probably by saying a huge THANKS to all contributors

This incidentally is the 300th post in this blog. When Balaji started this blog on June 26, 2007, this was one of the very few blogs entirely devoted to the first ever Superhero in comics history - Mandrake the Magician. Incidentally this month is 81 years since the first strip of Mandrake appeared in newspapers. Here is a tribute to that from ComicsAlliance. Enjoy.

When I started substituting for Balaji, one fine Vishu day in 2012, there was less than one third of all Mandrake Sunday strips available on the Net. Due to contributions from Magnus Magnusson, Steve Cottle, Tom Williams, Richard Hy, Paulo Marques, we now have been able to get to a point that we have less than 5 Sunday strips to post before we have all the Mandrake Sunday strips available for everyone to enjoy. And here is one of those remaining strips for your enjoyment. The story is called "The Devil's Stage Coach" and it ran for 24 Sundays from October 01, 2000 thru March 11, 2001. The first panel looked like this:

The color strips are courtesy Magnus Magnusson. Download the story here and shower your thanks on Magnus.

With all the activity on the Sunday strips, the Daily strips till proved elusive. The main reason being that we were not able to get full strips from American newspapers of the late seventies thru the nineties. Paulo, Balaji and I were able to get most of the strips from D203 thru D226 from a paid archive. All strips after D226 were posted by Lothar in his wonderful blog.

That still left a few classic daily strips and a whole lot of strips from the seventies thru the nineties. I have been able to download most of the classic daily strips. I also have a whole lot of strips from the seventies. It was when I almost hit the end of the road, with strips from the 80s & 90s, that a knight in shining armor appeared from Down Under. Despite his health issues including a surgery, Donald Ladhams was able to get me all strips that were available in his local library from microfilm. This amounted to nearly 95% of the daily strips from D160 thru D202. I also have some very good Spanish scans from Lothar's friend Teo, from my E-mule days. Recently Paulo introduced me to a Spanish Mandrake fan, who goes by the name of Mapanare, who is doing yeoman service with his posting of Mandrake strips in both English and Spanish. I have been honored to present a couple of strips from him earlier. We are working together to compare strips and bring out some strips as a joint venture. I am presenting here two classic strips from Mapanare.

Download story here.

Download story here.






A general complaint from bloggers is that people flock to the blogs to download stuff, but can't find time to pen just a few lines thanking the efforts of all involved. When you download these stories and enjoy, please do give some thought to all those contributors who have selflessly worked to bring forth these for your enjoyment. And please remember that this is not their day jobs. They are finding time out of their schedule to bring us these strips. Keep that in mind while "demanding" strips of your choice.

Happy 81st Mandrake.

Venkit

#298 - A Mandrake Sunday comic that discusses hacking of computers in cars!!

Today one of the greatest fears of any intelligence agency in the world is whether the on-board computers in aircraft can be hacked by terrorist groups leading to mass-murder of innocents. In this Mandrake story that appeared just under a year after Lee Falk's death, the just departed Harold "Fred" Fredericks scripted and drew this story, where the on-board computers in cars are hacked.

Not sure where I got these scans from, but thanks are due to the original scanner. These were small scans (so I am sure that these were not from Magnus) and I blew them up and cropped them a bit.

Today is incidentally my birthday and I take this opportunity to thank all of the friends who have taken their time to wish me on my Facebook page.

Download the story over here.

Enjoy,

Venkit

#295 - Rest In Peace Mr. Harold "Fred" Fredericks Jr. (August 9, 1929 - March 10, 2015)

Fred Fredricks passed away on March 10, 2015. I was rather surprised to see a lack of real flow of sadness on his demise or articles of appreciation of his longevity at continuing a comic strip. More than 55 years of drawing Mandrake!! That is older than the age of many of his fans!

I am presenting here a Sunday strip conceived and drawn by this artist about 15 years ago. The last panel in the story is a true "AWWWW" moment. All romantic and mushy!

As usual, I have to thank Magnus Magnusson for the color strips.

Download the story here and enjoy.

Venkit

#294 - S181 TheTrickStealer (02-06-00 to 05-28-00)

Not sure if this has been posted before. Because I have been having the color strips for a while. There was one strip missing.

I have to thank Magnus Magnusson for the color strips. Download the story here.

Enjoy,

Venkit

#292 - S179 The Invisible Person (08-08-99 to 10-10-99)

I bring you a Mandrake Sunday strip here. This was one of the 4 or 5 Daily strips which were tweaked in the 90s to come forth as Sunday strips. I have already presented some others in this very blog.

This one is S179 The Invisible Person and the first panel starts off like this:

This also came as a daily strip called D184 Little Man (11-14-83 to 03-03-84). The first panel looked like this : (Thanks to my friend Don Ladhams for this one)

For those of you who also follow the history of Mandrake comics in India, this came as Vol 22 No 29 in Indrajal Comics during the week of July 21 - 27 1985 as "The Invisible Thief". I had shared this comic in Prabhat's wonderful blog Indrajal Online. The first panel in that was almost the same as the Daily strip.

It is just 8 more to hit 300 in this blog. I am hoping that Balaji is getting ready with some kind of bumper post for that landmark.

So please download the Sunday strip here.

Enjoy,

Venkitachalam 

#288 - S178 TheBullies (04-18-99 to 08-01-99)

After the story called "The Speedy" which ran for 33 Sundays from 16 Feb 1997 thru 28 Sep 1997, there were 4 stories that were rehashes of already published Daily Strip Stories and I think this was one of them. I had posted S176 & S177 earlier in this blog.

Download the story from here and enjoy.

Venkitachalam

#287 - S174 Dr.Holton'sReputation (08-25-96 to 02-09-97)

Well, this is the continuation of the story in my previous post. Once there is a solution to a complex problem people just forget about the problem and the panic it caused and try to evaluate the actions and the activists with new moral glasses. Two things come immediately to my mind. The first is the evaluation of the actions under the team led by Sri. KPS Gill who broke the back of the Khalistani revolt in the late 80s and early 90s. The second of course is the on-going second guessing by the Obama administration of the actions of the Bush administration following the the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack. Just two examples of ungrateful nations trying to put a moral facade after the problem has been sorted out by others who were prepared to wade into territories that many of us would not dare venture into. We would only twiddle our thumbs and wish the problem away, much like most of the world is wishing away the Boko Haram & ISIL issues.

Similarly once the problem of the Swarm was over, the moral police turned on Dr. Holton  and the way the problem was identified. When his senility itself came into question, Mandrake and Magnon had to intervene and come to his rescue.

Thanks to the one and only Magnus Magnusson for the color strips.

Download and enjoy the story here.

Venkitachalam

#286 - S173_TheSwarm_(01-14-96_to_08-18-96)

I am presenting here a Sunday strip story of some extra-terrestrial swarm of animals that eat anyone or anything in their path.

Check out Mr.Bill Clinton who appears as himself in panel number 30. Download the story here.

While on this subject, this story is similar to another Sunday strip story S114 which appeared in 1971 called the Space Pack, which was posted earlier in this blog itself.

As you can see I had to resort to various sources to get the complete story. I have to thank Magnus Magnusson for the color strips.

Enjoy,
Venkit

Oh and one other thing, I also had the good fortune to gain the acquaintance of a Spanish Mandrake fan who goes under the name of fereugeen, who has been in his own unique and excellent way been providing daily and Sunday strips. Do go and have a look at this forum - http://lamansion-crg.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=51811&hl=mandrake.

He also has a blog - http://fereugeen-mandrake.blogspot.com/.

#282 - S007_TheTreasureHunt_(09-05-1937_to_03-20-1938)

Balaji had posted the version of this story as published in Feature Book 49, published by David McKay publications, in this blog quite a while ago. Many if not all of us have that version, which unfortunately was incomplete.

I was able to get a Hi-Resolution color version in Spanish from Teo, a Mandrake fan from Spain. I was also able to download the complete English version, though in Low resolution from AWW. Magnus Magnusson was magnanimous to provide me with a complete version of this story in English and in color. But unfortunately, it looked like the textual material had been translated from Swedish. I also had a Hi-res incomplete Black & White version of this story.

I sent all these to my friend, the well known and talented blogger TPH, who runs a wonderful blog where he showcases his talent converting Black and White strips into color. And for the last 29 weeks he has been posting a strip every Sunday, by using his PS skills to insert the English text into the colored Spanish strips. Click on his name in the above line and you will be transported to his magical blog, where you can enjoy his talent.

You can download the full story here and shower your thanks on Teo and TPH.

Enjoy,

Venkitachalam

UPDATE: Looks like the link reflected an older version instead of the correct version. I have updated it. Please download again.

#281 - Yet another Vishu and another twist on the meeting between Mandrake & Lothar

This is the third Vishu after I started helping out Balaji to keep the stories about the acknowledged first super hero in comics, coming in this blog.

Here is a picture of the Vishu Kani of last year from my home.

 

Happy Vishu to all visitors to the Blog.

Now on to the matter at hand. Most of us still fondly remember the story of the first meeting of Mandrake and Lothar.

Mandrake meets Lothar - Classical version:
A dreaded killer is on the run after murdering quite a few people including Mandrake's friend. Mandrake goes in search of the killer and meets this young strong man, who mistakes Mandrake for the killer. After the misunderstandings are worked out, both Mandrake and Lothar work together and bring the fugitive to justice.

Here is the first panel of that story S101:


Download the story from here.
(Thanks to Magnus for the color strips)

Another take on the meeting of Mandrake and Lothar:
In the daily story - D214_TheEarsOfTheEarth_(07-19-93_to_11-27-93).cbr - Lee Falk and Fredericks fumble on the first ever meeting of Mandrake and Lothar.  This story was published earlier in this very blog. (Thanks to Paulo for extracting images from newspaper PDF files)


Continuing from where the second version left off:
Now in this black and white Sunday strip that ran for nearly a year - S172_RevolutionInLotherton_(01-29_95_to_01-07-96) - we have a story that continues from where it left off in the above daily strip. For those of us who grew up on the classical tale, this one was a big let down.

Here is the first panel of this story:

Enjoy the story.

Venkit

#280 - S020 - The Flame Pearls Pt.7: Land of the Giants And D158 - The Cobra and the Cube

Balaji's blog (well it is this one) and Lothar's blog (http://mandrakearchive.blogspot.com/) were two blogs which were solely dedicated to the first super hero in comics history - Mandrake The Magician. Many of us got a taste of the early Mandrake stories from these blogs.

Unfortunately, Lothar's blog has run into some technical problems and no new posts are possible in that blog.

So with Lothar's permission, I have offered to post any of his strips in this blog till Lothar can post on his own. So here are two of the Mandrake strips that Lothar has edited, which are being posted in this blog. The links are available in the Comments portion of his blog also.

Download Lothar's original link from here.


Lothar had also earlier posted a link to D158 - The Cobra And The Cube in his blog, in the comments column.

Some of you may have downloaded these already.

Thanks, Lothar for these two strips and the 232 others that you have been meticulously collecting and editing for our enjoyment.

Most Important:
Lothar has posted a gist of his problem on his blog in the comments. If any of you can help him fix the issue, please do get in contact with him at his blog or his email - cazito@ig.com.br.

Enjoy,
Venkit

#279 - S171_TheGalacticBirthdayAdventure_(01-02-94_to_01-22-95)

When we hear the term "Talking Heads", the first image we get in our minds is about these bloviating know-alls that come on TV and talk about almost everything under the Sun.

But in the Mandrake stories, we encounter a different group of talking heads - wise men with extra-ordinary powers. And when they join forces with Mandrake and friends in battling extra-terrestrial terrorists all in the middle of Nardraka's 10th birthday celebrations, it will be some story.

Download the story from here.

Enjoy,

Venkit

#278 - Happy Valentine's Day & Enjoy the Mandrake Narda Wedding Sunday strip

We in India grew up on a staple diet of Mandrake, Narda and Lothar living in Xanadu. We never had any idea about how Mandrake and Narda met each other. Or even that Lothar started off being Mandrake's servant.

So where and how did Mandrake meet Narda? Balaji and I had posted that story in this blog nearly 3 years ago. It all happens in the second Mandrake daily strip - D002_TheHawk(MandrakeMeetsNarda)_(11-26-34_to_02-23-35). Here are the 2 panels where Mandrake and Narda meet and introduce themselves.

But in the realm of the Sunday strips, we do not see Narda till we reach the 28th Sunday strip - S028_TheSantaClausPirate_(09-03-1944_to_12-03-1944).

It is not until D0225 that we learn that Mandrake and Narda take the decision to marry. If you see that, it is much later than Mr. Falk's other character Kit Walker decided to marry Diana. In D0225, it is actually Theron (Mandrake's father) who brings up the subject of marriage. See panel below:

There were 3 weddings for Mandrake and Narda. D0225 covers the wedding in Cockaigne, Narda's home country. D0226 covers the wedding in the College of Magic, in front of Theron. D0225 and D0226 were posted by Balaji and Paulo in this blog on another Valentine's Day.

After an adventure called "Jake and Co" in D0227, Mandrake and Narda have their third wedding at Xanadu in D0228. D0228 can be downloaded from Lothar's wonderful Mandrake blog.

In 1997-1998, came a Sunday story - S176_MandrakeMarriesNarda).

Download the Sunday story from here

Enjoy,

Venkit.

BTW, we are just 11 strips away from a complete set of Mandrake Sunday strips, albeit in varied forms and sizes.

#277 - S170_TheBeeThief_(08-29-93_to_12-26-93)

I am posting the above story, which reminded me of at least 2 previous Mandrake stories.

Download the story over here.

Enjoy,

Venkit

P.S. My next post will be on Feb 14, Valentine's Day. What better story than the Sunday Mandrake Wedding strip?

#276 - A belated Happy New Year

Unfortunately, I had to spend the period between Christmas and New Year in a hospital. I am now back at home and shall try to start posting .

I am posting S169_TheBikersOfGhostTown_(01-31-93_to_08-22-93, which is a rehash of a few other Phantom and Mandrake stories.

I am enclosing only the MF Link. So please download the story from here.

Thanks,
Venkit

#275 - S168_ThePrisonBreak_(08-09-92_to_01-24-93)

This is an interesting story of a jailbreak and hostage situation involving school kids. Part of it is in color (thanks Magnus Magnusson) and part of it in B/W.

I am providing only the MF link. So download this comic from here. The RS links are not very popular.

Thanks once again to Magnus, for the color strips.

Venkit

P.S. I am working on the 60 week Sunday story of Mandrake's marriage to Narda, which I am planning to have as the first post of 2014.

#273 - S167_Capt.CC'sCrazyCircus_(04-26-92_to_08-02-92)

Like the name suggests this is one crazy circus and one small story. Not sure if this has been posted in any blog before. If yes, I crave forgiveness.

Download MF version here

Download RS version here

I have to thank Magnus Magnusson for the strips.

Enjoy,

Venkit

#272 - S165_TheSnarffOfKarff_(12-23-90_to_10-13-91)

This was the first strip after the various adventures on the ship SS Kraken. American pop culture loves one thing - make any Republican President look like a fool. Falk & Fred do that to the elder Bush in this story.

Sunday is Deepavali. Here is a good write-up on Deepavali in one of the most liberal blogs in America - The Huffington Post. 

HAPPY DEEPAVALI TO ONE AND ALL !

Download RS version here

Download MF version here

The Color strips are courtesy Magnus Magnusson.

Enjoy,

Venkit

#271 - All the Kraken episodes - A Navarathti & Vijayadashami presentation

The word Navarathri literally means nine nights in Sanskrit, nava meaning nine and rathri meaning nights. During these nine nights and ten days, various forms of the Goddess Devi are worshiped. The tenth day is commonly referred to as Vijayadashami. Navarathri is a very important and major festival and is celebrated with great zeal by Hindus all over the world.

In the Indian state of Kerala (where I hail from), the last two days of Navarathri - Ashtami (eighth), Navami (ninth), and VijayaDashami are celebrated as Saraswathi Pooja in which books are worshiped. (Saraswathi is the Goddess of learning.). The books are placed for Pooja on the Ashtami day in own houses, traditional nursery schools, or in temples. On VijayaDashami day, the books are ceremoniously taken out for reading and writing after worshiping Saraswathi. That day is considered auspicious for initiating the children into writing and reading, which is called Vidyarambham (start of education). Tens of thousands of children are initiated into the world of letters on this day in Kerala.

The area where I am in the USA does not have a lot of Hindus and we would have to go to Fremont or Sunnyvale to celebrate Navarathri. So I felt that I could celebrate Navarathri by putting all the 09 strips related to the Kraken series in one mega post.

HAPPY NAVARATHRI AND HAPPY VIJAYADASHAMI TO ALL

Let us start right at the beginning - S156_TheKraken_(11-23-1986_to_07-12-1987). Mandrake, Narda, Lothar and Karma just plan on having lunch with Capt.Jon, an explorer friend of Mandrake and the owner of the yacht the "Kraken". An ordinary lunch turns into a journey extra-ordinaire.

Download MF version here.                                  Download RS version here

In the second story - S157_TheFloatingIsland_(07-19-87_to_03-27-88) - the group comes upon an island pulled by trained Orcas! They also encounter a ship of dead people who turn into no-so-dead pirates. Never understood why these two very diverse stories are clubbed together.

Download MF version                                          Download RS version

In the third story - S158_TheYoungPrince_(04-03-88_to_06-12-88) - we see a ten and a half year old kid smitten by Narda. Who wouldn't be, if the first sight one sees via the binoculars, is a bikini-clad Narda!! How Narda and the team make it back to the ship is what this story is all about.

Download MF version                                             Download RS version

In the fourth story - S159_TabooIsle_(06-19-88_to_11-06-88) - Mandrake and Lothar investigate and then escape from an island that has a family of Rocs.

Download MF version                                                   Download RS version


In the fifth story - S160_SingingRocks_(11-13-88_to_04-02-89) -we see the team handle a group of thieves who use mannequins of mermaids to lure sailors.

Download MF version                                                      Download RS version


In the sixth story - S161_TheSportOfMagicians_(04-09-89_to_08-27-89) - we see the girls being harassed by some bullies and also how the bullies got beaten by our heroes, first by illusion and then by sheer muscle.

Download MF version                                                         Download RS version

In the seventh story - S162_TheDolphins_(09-03-89_to_01-14-90) - the team and the readers get a lecture on ecology and saving the environment.

Download MF version                                                           Download RS version


In the eighth story - S163_IsleDesFleursEtMorte_(01-21-90_to_06-24-90) - Mandrake and the girls get caught in an island with flowers that cause people to lose consciousness. Lothar then rescues all of them. Check out the way he lifts all the 3 of them.

Download MF version                                                              Download RS version


In the ninth story - S164_DangersInTheJungle_(07-01-90_to_12-16-90) - the team has adventures in Africa, somewhere near to Lothar's tribe. We also have Lothar being chased by his dead uncle's widows much to Karma's consternation.We along with the team, breathe a sigh of relief, when we see the team back on the ship.

Download MF version                                                                 Download RS version


Thanks to Magnus Magnusson, for the color strips.

Enjoy.