MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN HC VOL 05 THE COMPLETE NEWSPAPER DAILIES (1941-1943) (28 Oct Release)

Mandrake the Magician began as a daily strip on June 11¸ 1934¸ and whether Lee Falk knew it as a sophomore at the University of Illinois¸ he was making history. The daily strip ended after a 79-year run¸ and the Sunday strip¸ which started in 1935¸ ran for 68 years. Any fan of comic strips is almost certainly familiar with Falk’s other creation¸ The Phantom¸ which started in 1936 and continues to this day. The strips presented in this series of reprints feature two staple characters in addition to the master magician: Lothar and Princess Narda (princess of the mythical European kingdom Cockaigne). Lothar appears within the first few days (June 14¸ 1934)¸ and Narda is introduced in Mandrake’s second adventure. Narda is similar to Flash Gordon’s Dale Arden: beautiful¸ constantly in need of rescue¸ and the love interest of our hero. A Prince of the Seven Nations of Africa¸ Lothar is Mandrake’s devoted servant¸ friend and companion. He is¸ “the strongest man in the world¸” and decked out in a fez¸ shorts¸ and a leopard shirt. Comics historian Don Markstein commented that¸ “Some people say Mandrake the Magician...was comics’ first superhero¸” and we at Hermes Press couldn’t agree more. Volume five presents: “The Mystery of the Striped Orchid¸” 4/7/1941 - 6/21/1941; “The Great Grando¸” 6/23/1941 - 11/8/194; “Lothar The Champ¸” 11/10/1941 - 7/11/194; “The Rumor Factory¸” 7/13/1942 - 9/12/194; and “Baron Kord¸” 9/14/1942 - 4/10/1943.