#259 - S157_The Floating Island_(07-19-87_to_03-27-88)

I am presenting here the second part of the Kraken series called "The Floating Island". Not sure if it should have been split into 2 stories. For IJC lovers, this was published in 2 parts Vol 25 Nos 44 & 45 in 1988.

The colored strips are all courtesy Magnus Magnusson.The B/W strips were got by me from various sources, as evidenced by their different shapes and resolutions.

Download RS version here:

Download MF version here:

Enjoy,

Venkitachalam

258 - D163_TheEvilTwin_(02-16-76_to_06-19-76)

This is yet another Mandrake newspaper strip sent to me by my Australian friend Donald Ladhams, with another familiar Mandrake fan Paulo Marques, helping me with extracting and editing of the strips. There were a few missing strips and Paulo was able to get those.  I just increased the size of the individual files. We have not done extensive edits. So you will be still seeing some dark lines and black spots. 

There is a Tempo Books version of this story available on the Net and it was posted by Balaji, owner of this blog, quite a while ago.

You will notice that this is one of the very few story telling sessions in Xanadu, where Narda does not wear a bikini. To make up for that, Jill wears one.
For IJC lovers, this story came as 294 - The Satan's Man in 1978

Download RS version

Download MF version

All gratitude to be expressed to Don and Paulo.

Enjoy,

Venkit

#257 - S158_TheYoungPrince_(04-03-88_to_06-12-88)

There have been some stories of Mandrake that appeared as a series. One of the first and long series was the Flame Pearl Series, which ran from 04-21-1940 thru 04-12-1942, nearly for two years. With help of some friends, the whole series was presented in this blog a while ago.

A shorter series ran from 04-11-1948 thru 11-04-1948. There were just 3 stories and it was the City Of Jewels.

Another series which captured the imagination later down the years and was similar to "The Flame Pearls" in that the adventures all happen during the course of journey on a ship, was "The Kraken".

The following were the stories in this series :

S156_TheKraken_(11-23-1986_to_07-12-1987)
S157_TheFloatingIsland_(07-19-87_to_03-27-88)
S158_TheYoungPrince_(04-03-88_to_06-12-88)
S159_TabooIsle_(06-19-88_to_11-06-88)
S160_SingingRocks_(11-13-88_to_04-02-89)
S161_TheSportOfMagicians_(04-09-89_to_08-27-89)
S162_TheDolphins_(09-03-89_to_01-14-90)
S163_IsleDesFleursEtMorte_(01-21-90_to_06-24-90)
S164_DangersInTheJungle_(07-01-90_to_12-16-90)

 I have been able to get all strips for all these stories except the last 2 strips in S157. If any reader has these strips, please send them across to me. The first story is available in many forms on the Net. I do not have the second story complete as I mentioned earlier. So hear is the third story.

Download RS version here

Download MF version here

For IJC lovers, this story was the first part of the first story in "The Dreaded Island" (IJC Vol 26 No 21) published in  1989.

Enjoy,

#256 - D162_TheFrameUp_(11-17-75_to_02-14-76

This is yet another daily strip that, that I hope, has never been presented before completely in English. For Indrajal Comics fans This was printed as No 290 in 1977 as "The Trickster", with quite a few edits. 

This was again sent to me by my Australian friend Donald Ladhams, with another familiar Mandrake fan Paulo Marques, helping me with extracting and editing of the strips. I just increased the size of the individual files. We have not done extensive edits. So you will be still seeing some dark lines and black spots. 

Download RS version from here

Download MF version from here


Enjoy the story,

Venkit

#255 - Mandrake Sunday strips - S122 & S123

These are two short Mandrake stories sometimes treated as one story. Since I follow the numbering system followed by Deepwoods.org and Lothar, I am posting these as  separate stories. For Indrajal Comics fans, S122 and S123 were combined as one story - IJC_236-1975_Mandrake_TheToweringColossus.

Download RS version of S122_Fun With Mandrake_(08-12-73 to 10-21-73).cbr here.

Download MF version of S122_Fun With Mandrake_(08-12-73 to 10-21-73).cbr here.

Download RS version of S123_TheBankRobbery_(10-28-1973_to_02-03-1974).cbr here.

Download MF version of S123_TheBankRobbery_(10-28-1973_to_02-03-1974).cbr here.

The color strips are courtesy Magnus Magnusson. So all thanks are owed to him.

Not sure if these strips were posted earlier in any blog. If they were, I crave forgiveness.

Enjoy,

Venkit

#254 - D161_Super Shark_(08-18-75_to_11-15-75)

This is yet another daily strip that has never been presented before completely in English. For Indrajal Comics fans This was printed as No 274 in 1977 as "The Haunted Beach", with a few edits.

 







This was also sent to me by my Australian friend Donald Ladhams. Another familiar Mandrake fan Paulo Marques, helped me with editing and was also instrumental in getting some missing strips. I just increased the size of the individual files. We have not done extensive edits. So you will be still seeing some dark lines and black spots. 

Download RS version from here

Download MF version from here


Enjoy the story,

Venkit

253 - S151_TheEvilStar_(09-11-83_to_01-29-84)

An incomplete version of this story is available on the Net. But now the story is complete.

The color strips are of course courtesy Magnus Magnusson, one of the greatest collectors of Mandrake strips. I was able to replace the non-English strips albeit B&W.

Download RS strip from here.

Download MF strip from here.

Enjoy,

Venkit

252 - D160_TheThieves_(01-20-75_to_08-16-75)

I am posting here a daily strip that has never been presented before completely in English. I had earlier presented D158 & 159 in this blog, which was printed as one story by Indrajal Comics in 1976 as No 253 (The Nightmares). Indrajal Comics subsequently printed D161 & D164 in 1977 before coming around to this story.

But they did not print the full story. The first part of the story is very important, as it casts some doubt on the subsequent revelation of the person behind the robot in Inter-Intel. Part of this story came as No.286 (The Magic Mantle)  in Indrajal Comics in 1977.

Now to the pertinent scenes.Here is the 9th panel in the story:

What we see here is Mandrake and the robot speaking with one another and Mandrake even lighting a cigar for the Chief!

Now take a look at the very next panel in the story:

Here we see Hojo, Narda and Karma under the watchful eyes of the thieves. Take a look at Hojo's hands. They are tied behind his back!

A very interesting story indeed! This story was sent to me by my Australian friend Donald Ladhams. The whole story was taken from microfilm of one of Australia's leading newspapers. They were sent to me as small PDFs and JPGs of the full sheet containing various comic strips. So I increased the size to 250% and then snipped the Mandrake strip using SnipIt. I saved the strip as JPG and then did minimal edits. I have not done extensive edits. So you will be still seeing some dark lines and black spots. Another familiar Mandrake fan Paulo Marques, helped me with editing and was also instrumental in getting one missing strip.

Enjoy the story.

Download MF version here

Download RS version here

Venkitachalam