Mandrake Cover Project #4 :The League of "8" special

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Friends,in this NEW post,I'm presenting some great covers of "The League of 8" stories were published in Indrajal Comics!

The first ever introduction with Mandrake Co. with this deadly ancient and secret crime-gang was way back in 1965 in the story "The treacherous gang" as No.77,when Narda accidentally discovered the existence of this Medieval gang in modern days..during her research in History!!

Next,it was amazing tale "The Trail of 8" (IJC No.144)" followed by "Dr.Dell and 8 (D136;1968)"- a very late publication in IJC as the 'Giant Octopus (No.226;1976) n republished in Vol.23 No.10'.....
But,his crime gang was much more deadly & wold-wide than Mandrake and Chief could imagined. They made their return once again in "The Bribe (D141)" published in IJC as 'False Will' (No.163).
[One "8" story,'The test of magician' was published as 2-part back-up story with Phantom ,No.327 n 328;1979]

Since then,with regular intervals, Mandrake/Lothar had fought against "8" and Octon -the mysterious leader,destroyed each time a more 'arm ' among their world-wide eight arms!!

The LAST '8' appeared in IJC as "The claws of Treasury(Vol.25 No.30 & 31; 1988)"....

P.S.- The LAST Mandrake Daily published in IJC was D202(secret invention; Vol.27 No.4) and the very next one,D203 was another splendid adventure on this crime-gang,"The gift of 8"..which we majority missed!! :-(
Wait!!.... it was NOT the end,one can witnessed the climax of these thriller series only in D211(The Book of Criminals;1992) & D217(Secret Place;1994) ,in later one,Octon was revealed and HE WAS NONE OTHER THAN...guess???.....COBRA aka Lucifer!!..the evil bro of Mandrake!!!
Thus,with that strip, this legendary secret crime-gang was apparently finished,though Falk was initiated to telling another tale on "8" ,but couldn't complete due to his illness followed by his death in March,1999......Later,it was completed by Fredricks with a complete different angle.It was the LAST Falk-Mandrake Daily: D231(The secret Mission) .
You can d/l it from HERE!!

Merry Christmas!

Here is my heartiest Wish for Merry Christmas to ALL Visitors & friends !!

Enjoy this EVE with your family and dear ones! :-))

And,Keep visiting ....

DARA - The Indian 007 Bond [PART - II]

 As promised, I am back with the reviews of the remaining 6 stories of Dara-Indrajals published in 1989-90 period. In the earlier post, I have described the introductory comic(The Enemy Agent:Vol.25 No.43) with the adventure it followed!
 Now, the next release was The Hundred Islands (Vol.26 No.16) where Dara had to solve a ghastly sabotage plan!! An out-and-out thriller, in my opinion. :-)

Then came the most famous adventure of this Indian Bond series - The Drug Barons (Vol.26 No.26). It's about a secret cultivation of Poppy trees in Terai region and murder of an IW detective, Atul!! He was found dead, apparently killed by the tigers...but was it really?? Thus, Dara had to take the charge of this maddening mystery and then...it's better to not reveal anymore & keep the thrill for those fans who yet to read this tale! ;-) Here, again the art-work, besides the thrilling story, was amazing! Specially those pictures depicting deep woods, where "even at noon, sun's rays cant penetrate", were really perfect!

Next issue was The Veiled Secret (Vol.26 No.34). It's my least favorite tale of this series...a conspiracy story which was not that appealing..anyway, still worth checking out!

Rather, it's The Lurking Conspirators (Vol.26No.40), which was a real thriller involving the international terrorists and.. their leader was an NRI beauty, Ms.Ann! :o

Then Dara appeared in Sparks of Treason (Vol.27 No. 3; 1990) released in the final year of Indrajal Comics, dealt with the Kashmiri terrorists. Overall, it was a nice tale, still bit simpler(and the obvious reason was to avoid any political controversy!)

Now, finally came the LAST issue of this series, as well as the LAST Indrajal Comics - The Jaws of Treachery (Vol.27 No.8;16-30 April,1990). 

I always become nostalgic whenever thinking about this particular issue! No,it's NOT about the storyline, although a kidnapping tale of the foreign officials in a secret fort in the desert and how Dara managed to rescue them is a complete thriller, this issue is special for me 'cos this was my last 'then current' Indrajal purchase - bought within a week of the release on 23 April,1990! In the next month, our Magazine-seller guy came with this bad news that ToI had cancelled Indrajal Comics. :(

 Anyway,so that's it!! There are only 8 Dara-Indrajals in total. This was a brief series that successfully left it's positive impact on the '80s Indrajal readers!! :-)

PS - A nice blog-post on Dara is available in Comic-Diwane.

Comic #4 :Phantom S032:The Female Phantom:1952

Sunday Special!!

After a long time,here again I'm going to present a FULL Version of a vintage Phantom strip:The Female Phantom (S032 :1952) .

Apart from the fact that,it's a unique story where a female member of Phantom-generation ,Juli, was took the charge (of Phantom-line) for a while,another speciality of this particular strip is that,it NEVER appeared in IJC,all though S031 & S033 were very much published under that banner! (In S033,Diana tried Juli's out-fit and causing trouble,after heard the story from our Phantom....that story was published in IJC twice,No.307 and Vol.25 No.12 ).

I never realised it(S032) was missed in IJC,though have this strip from a long time!!That's really encourage me to make THIS SPECIAL STRIP on-line....otherwise,am very much happy what our Big B's (MTM/CW/ICC/AA) are doing right now!!

So,it's just an extra treat from for ALL Phans .... also special thanks to Stefen for this vintage!!

Phans,Enjoy this strip......and if like it,may leave your feed-back! :-))

Download S032

Mandrake Cover Project#3 : Central Galaxy and Magnon special

Magnon! ....it said,he is the mightiest friend of Mandrake -the Magician!!
He's the ruler of million planets of Central Galaxy and lives, with his beautiful wife Carola and daughter Nardraka , in the planet Magna -- which is 30,000 light-years away from our Earth!!
Mandrake and Magnon first ever met through the famous Galactic Beauty Contest,where eventually Narda was the winner!! Though that story(a 1955 strip) never appeared in Indrajal,except a couple of recapitulations in later stories...
Now friends,have a look on those Indrajal-Mandrake featured his adventures in Magnon's Central Galaxy !
[Introductory story was Ratmen of Rhodencia(No.200) and last was effectively Magnon's Glorious Reign (Vol.23 No.47/48),all though that No.200 was repeated as Vol.24 No.45]

Fascinating Mysteries that baffled even Mandrake !!

In his rather unusual and fascinating life,Mandrake had faced many weird-yet-scary adventures,creatures etc. But there are only a few mysteries that baffled this legendary magician !

In this post,I'm going to discuss three such adventures! :-)
Firstly,mystery of The Headless Figure.

It was originally a 1986 strip (D193; The Case of the Headless Man) and published in Indrajal Comics as The Headless Figure (Vol.24 No.29/30 -2 parts: 1987).

It's when Narda accidentally introduced with those 'figures',during her visit to dentist,and then after being released from that clinic,she apparently experienced some unbelievable things!!Initially everyone assumed that it was nothing but a dizziness result of that anesthetic gas used for her dental-treatment!
But,Narda by went herself at that place to prove her point,that it was indeed some headless figure that later changed in a beautiful-lady and then a smiling-young-man,that she observed and not dreamt! Due her sudden exists (from Xanadu),Mandrake was worried and during their wire-less conversation ,Narda's voice was suddenly disappeared!!!....there was NO response from her side.....suddenly Narda was missing!!!...what happened to this beautiful princess???

From this point,this story takes a very interesting turn, ended up producing much more twists those were quite unbelievable and hence quite gripping!
Precisely,it's about a mysterious midget-couple :Colonel n Mrs.Pee-Wee!!!!

Some friends have been quarried about in which strips Narda has a major role and this's one of those ,not comparing though,with that FAMOUS 'Narad and Cats' [Originally D146;1971,published in IJC as Vol.23 No.46 ;'The Strange Banquet';1986] where the situation was more fascinating and completely associated with her!!..
However,back to the Headless Figure,the MOST interesting point is,Falk left the story at the position where a 'return' could be possible (like he did every time with "8" or 'Cobra' )!
Story finished at the point when 'that mysterious couple' had a narrow-escape from the state-police (without their loot though) after many weird-tricks ,then chief declared "We warned other states,we'll never see them again here".

But then Mandrake was NOT sure,he thought otherwise as he said "I wonder"!

It's like he was NOT sure,whether that tricky couple will give-up their baffling crime-acts so easily,without even totally successful in the first venture (despite their escape)????
I don no whether that Midget-couple ever returned in any Daily/Sunday after this....
However ,in story D195 ,which was titled "Return of the Tinnies" (IJC Vol.25 No.7 ;Innocent Victims;1988) which might gives the impression of a return of those same characters from D193.
But it's NOT the case!!

In this tale, ,Narda again had to face a weird-most situation when a mysterious tiny-couple (about 4 inch height!!) forced her to find their source-of-life,after appeared some in some couple of nights,in her apartment (ohh ... it was really a tough time for our lovely princess,who had to face some freaking couples within very short-period! )!
Anyway,throughout the story,Mandrake only thought Narda had nothin' but a sweet dream until the end,when Narda returned at her apartment after mysteriously disappeared from a theater, being forced to accompany that tiny couple ,in search of their living-source hidden in a secret place!!

At the end,Mandrake ,being the king of illusion, himself was puzzled..."were they really exist??"

Mandrake Cover Project #2 :'Aleena the Enchantress' IN Mandrake-Indrajals

UPDATE: A *NEW* Poll has been added at this Blog! Visitors may cast their votes,and yes,multiple-voting option is enbaled!! :-)

Now, Aleena!!!

While posting covers of Original-n-Repeat versions of Mandrake-IJCs,how can I stay away from posting Aleena's beautiful covers published in the same???

Thus,here I present some Indrajal-covers of her!
Wanna bit more closer with her?? Then you can visit here!!
By the way,there are total FOUR covers are available of this 'Glamorous Enchantress' who first appeared in Mandrake's life way back in '50s!!!!

Have a look guys,,,,those are quite eye-candy! Ain't?? ;-))

Mandrake Cover Project #1 : Mandrake-Indrajal Covers (BOTH Original-n-Repeat Versions ) : Part-I

From now on,I'm planning to post as many as Mandrake-Indrajal covers..
And,with some special covers, here's the begining of Mandrake Cover Project (MCP)!!
It's well-known fact that,many of the early Mandrake-Indrajals were re-published in the later issues(Vol.No. series,specifically).There are 18 such issues from 1968 -1975 which were republished between the 1985 -1988 periods.
In this post,I present 1st part covers of those Original-n-Repeat versions.
Have a look!!
P.S.- Cover illustrations were remain fabulous in BOTH versions! :-))
And,I don't have the scan of R.V. cover of No.146 (Mandrake and Cobra).Thus omitted in this part.If someone kindly send that cover in between,will post in the next part...

Enjoy!!!!