Mandrake the Magician
Adapted from a comic book character
Shop for comics featuring this character.
Mandrake the Magician is a syndicated newspaper comic strip, created by Lee Falk before he created The Phantom. Mandrake began publication on June 11, 1934. Phil Davis soon took over as the strip's illustrator, while Falk continued to script. The strip was distributed by King Features Syndicate. Mandrake, along with the Phantom Magician in Mel Graff's The Adventures of Patsy, is regarded as the first superhero of comics by comics historians such as Don Markstein, who wrote, "Some people say Mandrake the Magician, who started in 1934, was comics' first superhero." Davis worked on the strip until his death in 1964, when Falk recruited artist Fred Fredericks. With Falk's death in 1999, Fredericks became both writer and artist. The Sunday-newspaper Mandrake strip ended December 29, 2002.
Adaptations (2)
Mandrake the Magician has been adapted into 2 films (1939).
Mandrake the Magician1939 · film · 215 min · dir. Norman Deming, Sam Nelson · IMDb ↗IMDb6.2Columbia's 7th serial (between Flying G-Men and Overland With Kit Carson)was based on the King Features newspaper comic strip created by Lee Falk and Phil Davis, Mandrake the Magician, the world's foremost exponent of mind over matter, although most of us who read the strip over the years were never really certain whether Mandrake was really a magician, or just had even more ability to cloud men's minds than the Shadow. The serial does allow Mandrake to discard his tie and tails when he isn't performing professionally, but out of his top hat and cloak, he is mainly a fist-slugging detective in this serial. Mandrake and Luthor are working the cruise lines and meet Professor Hudson who has developed a radium energy machine, which is much coveted by "The Wasp", who sends his hordes of henchmen in waves to steal the invention, and they blow up a radio station, a power plant and a dam pdq just to show they mean business. Mandrake, after 11 chapters, finally catches up to "The Wasp" in chapter 12, "The Reward of Trachery", and discovers the villain is actually a scientist who has posed as a close friend of Hudson's. Mandrake is reunited with Hudson's daughter Betty, while Luthor, as usual, is saddled with putting up the props.
Mandrake? · film · 100 min · dir. Harry Falk · IMDb ↗IMDb7.1Mandrake, a famous magician, and his assistant Lothar come to the aid of an amusement-park owner who is being blackmailed by a madman who is killing the park's customers until he gets his money.
