Sunday, October 28, 2007

KraKen:One of those ALL-TIME-GREAT Mandrake's Adventure-Series

Hi all Mandrake fans,here I'm with a very interesting series of this magician!
In all Mandrake strips, sometimes we experienced adventure-series in several parts,where Mandrake & Co. went through lot of weird n scary events. A common example's M/L journey to Moxley U .....
But then, what I felt , the BEST adventure was the KRAKEN SERIES published in 9 parts from 1986 - 1990 (S156 -S164).It was also the LONGEST adventure-series of this Magician! .......
The story began in a fine afternoon when Mandrake & his group (incld. Lothar,Narda and Karma) met Capt. John in his yacht 'Kraken' .....it was about a legendary sea-monster which can swallow giant whales and squids,can destroy a 200-ton ship within a few moments & lots more ! Mandrake n John went under-the-sea to find out it's existence ,they met several deadly things and finally see that Sea-Monster!overall,it was reallllly exciting !!

It was appeared in Indrajal Comics (IJC) in 1988 as Underwater Sea-Monster (S156;Vol.25 No.14-n-15) .However,the adventure didn't finished at that point,rather it was just a beginning of several horrific-n-weird encounters.....such as the mysterious family of the Floating Island or those merciless pirates (S157) [published in IJC as Ambushed at sea (Vol.25 No.44-n-45)].After that,though mandrake team got break for a little while and having a nice time,it was NOT the end !
Rather it was Narda who'd faced a strange-yet-dangerous condition when the 10-n-half-year old Prince Babool proposed her for marrying him(S158;Young Prince)! That time Mandrake saved her with his hypnotic tricks.......then it was the time for ANOTHER most exciting turn...... the Return of Roc ,where Lothar-n-Mandrake discovered the existence of legendary giant-bird Roc....It was said,Roc can carry an elephant,this time it carried the Lothar to her nest on the Taboo Isle....just to feed her babies !(S159; IJC:Dreaded Island ;Vol.26 No.21-n-22).
However, we(i.e. most Indian Mandrake fans) able to read ONLY the first 5 parts (up to Mystery of the singing rocks- S160 ;Vol.26 No.36) ,'cos after that Indrajal Comics suddenly cancelled their series in APR'90 .So we missed all of the rest four adventures .

Do anybody ever read ALL 9 parts ???

**Here is the COMPLETE LIST of this spine-chilling n dreaded series:Kraken!
S156 The Kraken (23 Nov 1986-12 Jul 1987)
S157 The Floating Island (19 Jul 1987-27 Mar 1988)
S158 The Young Prince (3 Apr 1988-12Jun 1988)
S159 Taboo Isle (19 Jun 1988-6 Nov 1988)
S160 Singing Rocks (13 Nov 1988-2 Apr 1989)

S161 The Sport of Magicians (9 Apr 1989-27 Aug 1989)
S162 The Dolphins (3 Sep 1989-14 Jan 1990)
S163 Isle of Flowers & Death (21 Jan 1990-24 Jun 1990)
S164 Dangers in the Jungle (1 Jul 1990-16 Dec 1990)

Hope one day,we can see those apparently lost strips (may b in MTM blog! :-)))



8 comments:

TPH said...

Excellent info. Great free flowing writing style. Hope to see all parts someday soon at ...you know where.

pattu said...

Sagnik bhai,

I strongly suggest that you register for a PhD in IjCs and its impact on society or something like that. I say this because you have a unique way of looking at different IJCs. It give a good feeliing. I was going to ask to start posting again. Glad you did so. May I request you to be a little more frequent and also once in while post a comic.
Thanks
--GS

Anonymous said...

Yes,you have to be more frequent.
Its a fantastic post and I didn't even know that the story con'd after that last issue.Great information.

HojO said...

@TPH:
Thnx for those kind words! :-)

Hope to see all parts someday soon at ...you know where

NO, even 'he' don have! :-((

Keep coming......

HojO said...

#GS:

I'm now lookin' for Ph.D.....but that's in Chemistry only! ;-))

But yes,I love..mean LOVE to discuss on Indrajals!....it's among the few things (like Cricket) I strongly feel connect. :-))

HojO said...

#Chandan:
I didn't even know that the story con'd after that last issue

Even I'd that idea few months ago....until I found the gr8 mandrake site....Xanaduhttp://pjb.hopto.org/
Where one can get every detailed idea abt Mandrake his strips....

Yup....I'll try my best to be more frequent here!

pattu said...

Dear Sagnik bhai,

I reorganised my blog profile and tried my hand at posting a sunday strip (the one that just got completed)
http://grouchy-comics.blogspot.com/

Thanks
--GS

Indrajal Comics Club said...

bhayya, pagal ho kya????
itna re-search karoge to naukri se nikal denge,, -)

u people (u, tph and cw) are enclyopedia of indrajals...

i wanna meet u guys....

lets meet somewhere...