250 - Mandrake and gang play spoilsport on what could be a feminist's dream island!!

This is my first post in my second year of substituting for Balaji in this blog. In the mega blog related to the Flame Pearls, we had posted this strip collected from various sources. Here I have the full strip in color (well except one).

Download the RS version here

Download the MF version here
















My trusted Win 7 computer crashed and I had to buy a Win 8 computer. I have spent the last two days getting most of my programs re-installed. I have yet  to get back my settings for programs.

So please let me know if you encounter any issues.

Enjoy,

Venkit

On a statistical note, this is actually the 250th post in this blog. Don't know what happened with the numbering. So I have corrected the numbering starting from this post.

208. Wow! A year has flown by and another Vishu comes in.

Today marks a year after I started substituting for Balaji and keeping this blog alive with quite a few unseen Mandrake Sunday and Daily strips.

Hopefully I have been able to keep you guys entertained.

We have come around to yet another Vishu. The New Year day for many parts of South and South East Asia. A holiday where you stuff yourself and then lounge yourself in bed or near a pool if you can afford a house with one.

What if an ill-mannered lout lands his helicopter near by and wants to buy your house? If it were my present condo, I would take up his offer without a blink. But what if the house was Xanadu and the people sitting near the pool were ...

Download RS version here

Download MF link here






Who can tell this tale better than me? Lee Falk of course !! So I leave it to him to tell the tale in his own inimitable style. I have to thank Magnus Magnusson for the color strips. I was able to hunt for replacements for the non-English strips.

Wishing you all a very Happy and Prosperous Vishu!!!

Enjoy,

Venkit

207 - S025_GloriaGolden_(11-14-43_to_01-23-44)

Here is the second one in the 2 most elusive Sunday strips of Mandrake. I had earlier shared a darker version of this strip. Here is a cleaner version.

This also started off with one color strip from Magnus Magnusson. I have been able to get all the other strips.

This is a very short story - just 11 strips.

Download RS version here

Download MF version here

Enjoy,

Venkit

206 - The Cloud City (03-07-43_to_11-07-43

I am presenting here a better version of one of the 2 most elusive Classic Lee Falk Mandrake Sundays. I had earlier presented a version I had got from some microfilm copies. Next week I will be back with the other one.

In fact I have to thank Magnus Magnusson for the color strip in this bunch. The rest of his strips were in Swedish. It goaded me to embark on a search for the other strips. I was successful and here is the story completely available for you to enjoy in English. It is just fate that I have not been able to find the B&W strip to replace the color strip. The last page is almost like the last page of the first Mandrake daily strip. The last panel in the page could be the first panel in the next story.

No more talk.

Downloaded Rapidshare link

Download MediaFire link

Enjoy,

Venkitachalam

#205 - Celebration of Paulo's contribution

I had posted all of Paulo's contributions, to our search for all Mandrake strips, in this blog over the last one year.

While a whole lot of you had downloaded them, some have written to me that they had not been able to download the strips. So as a matter of courtesy to all those who had not been able to download them, I am dedicating this post to all of Paulo's contributions.

The saga started with S022 - Pacifica.

Then came a slew of Daily strips from 203 culminating in 226. And here they all are in ascending order :

D203 - The Gift from 8
D206- The Other Side of Nowhere
D207 - Return of the Clay Camel...and Others
D208 - The Terrorists
D209 - Dr. Loqo's Secret Formula
D210 - The Mirror Mystery
D211 - The Book of Criminals
D212 - Narda's Dream
D213 - The Doppelganger
D214 - The Ears of the Earth
D215 - Mandrake's Sunday Walk
D216 - The Diamond Trader
D217 - The Secret Place
D218 - The Monster Thief
D219 - General Buffo - Druglord
D220 - Pursuit of the Cobra
D222 - Clay Camel and the Ganglords
D224 - Scary Aliens
D225 - Mandrake's Wedding at Cockaigne
D226 - Mandrake's Wedding at the College of Magic

Enjoy all these gems in one place and shower all your thanks on Paulo.
All strips after D226 can be enjoyed in Lothar's great Mandrake blog.

Will start with a new bunch of strips starting next week.

Till then,
Venkit

#204 - D218_TheMonsterThief_(01-09-95_to_03-25-95).cbr

We have seen a few stories from Lee Falk involving Mandrake that involve the ego of the villain and how that leads to the capture of the villain. This is a similar story that involves a villain called Foxy. You might be reminded of yet another old and great villain who also carried a 4 letter name.

Read on and express your thanks to Paulo.

Download Mediafire link here

Download Rapidshare Link here

Enjoy,

Venkit

#203 - D217_TheSecretPlace_(08-22-94_to_01-07-95).cbr

Almost a prophetic version of what dilemma the UN Security Council is today  facing related to the nuclear dreams of some nations. Of course, it goes without saying that the real UN does not have the services of Mandrake.

This is again a contribution of Paulo. All credits and thanks are due to him

Download the story here and enjoy.

Venkitachalam

202 - S016_TheFlamePearls-III_TheThreeCows_(08-18-40_to_10-06-40)

You will recall that a year ago Balaji had posted a mega post, in which all the 8 stories of the Flame Pearl series was posted. The stories had been collected from various sources and so you had color strips, B/W strips, clear strips and faded strips.

The first two stories in color have been posted by Lothar in his magnificent Mandrake archives blog. I am posting the third story here in color. Lothar has a Hi-Res B/W version of this strip in his blog.

For those of you who are familiar with Big Little Books (BLB), the full Flame Pearls story appeared in one of those books. The picture in the cover came from one of the panels in this story.

Download the story here and enjoy

Venkitachalam