Mandrake the Magician:Still Kicking! :-))

May be all most all fans aware of the Aman's On-line Mandrake-Site. Here you can find achieves of Mandrake dailies from 2000 onwards.There's another site did publish Mandrake's current Dailies -InsideMangic - which currently inaccessible for some reason unknown. :-/

Between,in these days only Mandrake's Daily strips are publish by KFS (scripted-n-illustrated by Fred Fredricks - the famous Mandrake-strip-Illustrator from last four decades!).

[At the Left-side you can see one panel of the On-going Mandrake Daily:D254:Captain Smash]

It's since March'1999 ,after Lee Falk passed away,he took the complete charge of Mandrake-strips.I'm NOT comparing his work with the great Falk's creation (neither am dared to!) ,but one thing must have to admit..... Fredrick's doing a nice job indeed,specially after so many years of continuous work-loads!If the fans of this fabulous magician have noticed carefully,it's very prominent that current Mandrake strips are NO LESS in any means (if we can ignore the slow-pace of stories and occasional lapse of art-work)......and the best part is,he keep originality by re-telling some fantastic Falk-Davis early Mandrake strips (late '30s to '60s) and then set-up a new direction based on those!!Thus the basic charms never lost neither readers felt otherwise!

A few such examples are like The Walking Man (D244 ;2003) which was originally based on a very early Mandrake Sunday strip:Chamber into the X Dimension(S005;1937)

[The COLORED PICS is from the 1936 strip while B/W strips are from 2003.It's just fact that,today I felt immensely nostalgic when read the BOTH strips again and just wanna share it! ]

Then we can see the strip:Blizzard of Crime (D249;2005) was based on another ol' strip of 1961:Mystery of the Bikini Girl (D110). There are few more examples in which early stories were re-told before had a new direction/angle.

Overall,we can say,even after His creator left us more than 8 years ago,Mandrake, the greatest Magician on earth,still alive and kicking proudly and keeps amazed the world with his fascinating tricks!

Hat's off to you!!! .....:-))

P.S.- Here I present a few current Mandrake strips (2006 & 2007) .....examples of some fabulous art-works,courtesy great Fredricks !!

A Meeting with the Masters of Disguise!

A subho Deepavali release!

Masters of Disguise!!......Yes,let's meet with Clay Camel and Aryan ,two fascinating-yet-deadly MoD s!!

While,former one,whose original name is Saki,always leaves a 'clay camel' as his sign,the later AND more modern MoD leaves a metallic sign of the first letter of his name i.e. "A" !

BOTH believes in easy money and for that they can go to any extent,can do any dreaded stuff!.....BUT the key factor lies in their art-of-thieve....as they are the GREATEST ARTISTS of disguise/chaddabesh!! Within a few moments they can become a police officer from milk-man or from a young lady to a old man!! As a result,they are the most toughest criminals to nab and always puzzle the whole world with their unthinkable stuffs and amazing series-of-disguises!....although,they never believe in using guns/arms at first place OR killing!Cool thieves,huh!

But,bottom point is they simply love risks...... ain't??

P.S.- Our great Bollywood-flick Dhoom2(2006) supposed to be based on Clay Camel stories--- that amazing thief who eventually was the one-of-those MOST deadly enemies of Mandrake -the magician...... here Aryan was with more global fame ;-))



Now,just check another couple of pics provided & HAVE some FUN as this blog-author offers you ALL!

Again,have a nice time! :-))

Here's an another few pics of Clay Camel(imaginative) and Aryan's gals!Hottie they are....ENJOY ;-))

(Dialogues are added for the sake of fun ONLY)

Some Mysterious Editing!

It's very known fact that ,whenever comic-publication houses decided to publish some newspaper-strips,they had done some editing/inking job to fit with their fixed format. But,sometimes they did some weird stuffs ! Among them,most common was some dressing-up of skimpy-dressed female characters....to suit with respective cultures/tastes etc. It was specially very common practice in most Asian comic-publications & that's most probably to avoid unnecessary controversies! Still ,it's quite understandable .....

But,then some editing were beyond ALL explanations n even though some fans tried to reasoning with it,those are hard to believe!!
One famous example is how ToI edited a Shaikh and present him as a European billionaire! Also,the name has to be changed accordingly & it was Count-Petro from Ali-Petro!!!

It was Indrajal Comics No.340 (Curse of Gold;1979) and Originally a Falk/Frederricks sunday strips (S138;Mandrake and Ali-Petro;1978).

Some fan tried to justify that 'editing' & according to them,then India had a very good political relation with UAE ...so it was quite play-safe act by ToI guys! Well,it's a good try but no....that was NOT the reason for sure!I'm saying it with a certain surity,because just after 3/4 years,there was another strip (Prince Nasdaq;S148;1982) which was published in IJC as The Avaricious Prince (Vol.20 No.32;1983) in which that Sikh,Nasdaq, retained with his original identity!

Now,if we give a quick-look to BOTH stories,while the former Shaikh was only a typical representation of his stubborn-n-dictator ancestors ,the later one,Nasdaq ,was quite nasty !! It was mentioned that he'd 51 wives and looking for the 52nd ,so that he can spend one-week with each n every wives,annually! ;-) That nasty prince even tried to set a deal for Narda n Karma and was rightly kicked by Mandrake for that ,after being a 'victim' of some fascinating hypnotic tricks ! It follows some further dangerous n scary encounters that ONLY exposed the darker side of a Shaikh-kingdom!

Anyway,I don't think that was any decent representation of Shaikhs,hence doesn't help either UAE-INDIA relation....still it was published in original format!!

Ohh well...some things are always remain mysterious!!!...;-)

Falk-Mandrake v/s King-Mandrake!

Initially,i.e. before our Mandrake-blog(MTM),I'd a terrible misconception that, ALL THOSE early Mandrake comics published in IJC(initial 6/7 in precise) were Falk/Davis creations...and as I never liked either art-work or script of those comics,I simply decide to ignore anything before Fredrick's era!!It's only after MTM showcased several early Mandrake strips,I realised that Phil Davis was as good as Fredrick's....and ALL those early Mandrake comics published in IJC are King Mandrake! those were created by a group of script-writer/artists and WORTHLESS by all means....be it scripts OR those crappy art-works!
[Above you can see some covers of King-Mandrake in Indrajals and below the First Falk-Mandrake in the same!]

For Lee Falk-Mandrake,I like those strips from very beginning i.e. from 1934 onwards (even I very much follower of the current Mandrake-strips created by Fredricks himself..& believe me,those are still very much maintained the charm of original strips,if we can ignore some loop-holes!! ) and loved many strips very much n re-read those !!....for an example, The Octopus Gang(D022)/Mandrake in Love(D016) ,which are ,like any great Falk-Fred Mandrake (from 1965 onwards), gripping from very beginning!

For an interesting info,very few fans may realised that ,though Mandrake appeared in Indrajal from No.46--a King-M, the FIRST Falk/Davis Mandrake published very lately,as No.75 --- The Disturber! and it's the D123 actually!!Then, except Indrajal No.83 and No.128,ALL were Falk-Mandrake..thankfully!!
Now between Phil Davis and Fred Fredricks,no doubt,I've a special soft-corner for the later illustrator and the reason is obvious.....in his (Fred's) era only,we have seen many excellent stories with terrific art-work!Very common examples are ,introduction of fabulous Xanadu and the amazing description of it's entrance never bored me,even though it'd mentioned hundred times in this magician's strips! :-)) AND another is,a famous one ,"8" or "League of 8" that world-wide dreaded crime-gang which appeared in strips (& in Mandrake's life as well) many times since it accidentally discovered by Narda in 1965!Remember Octon ?? Wonder ,who'll forget him!! Also, Inter-Intel,that secret-crime-bureau,and those mysterious entrances really amaze me all the time!! Do u remember that description," Somewhere in a hidden part of the city..." ,It's simply mind-blowing!! Ain't??
However,all these praise are NOT meant that Phil Davis was any less as in his time as well we got several thrillers including that amazing 8-part Flame Pearl series ..... And after all,he was the ORIGINAL artist of Mandrake-strips (if those few Falk's early-art-works are not taking in account ;-))

Can You Imagine IT ??

Hi all, this time I am back very quickly!And with a craziest thought having from last 3/4 years!!

Any guess?? No,it's NOT possible to guess,I think....
It's about a Return,a Re-live of our passion,our nostalgia.......
Indrajal Comics!!

After having some debate,and specially after read some other Phantom/Mandrake/Flash Gordon publications,I'm now sure for one thing...... Indrajal Comics was/is/will remain the BEST among all other sources of these heroes! And it's NOT about only the cover-story,but all those fun-filled cartoons,like Henry aka Gundhar,Chimpoo,Little king n many more,later Timpa introduced as a side-story and regularly featured in 1988-89.Just before the cancellation,they introduced Agent 000 - a single-page funny detective comics with Tinkle's Quiz. Beside these,IJC helped readers knowledge/interests immensely by Ripleys,Capri's strange-yet-exciting info on various creatures, History of World etc........ even solely those Poppins/Gems /Gold spot/various ads those remind you those lost era that only can be cherished!I never mind if original comics finished within 23/24 pages and rest pages filled with those time-less gems! :-))
Tell me, is/was there any OTHER comic-publication that serves in this way?? Indrajal was really unique!!
Moreover,IJC had published probably the BEST part of these 3 heroes with the series of hamara super-heroes like Bahadur and lately Dara.

Personally,I'm so crazy about this series that, I wish whenever Indrajal will be re-lived (if so...),they should start with it's latest format of 36-page,the same banner style and MORE OVER from the Vol. No. they left.....
You might know,the LAST IJC was a Dara one, published as Vol.27 No.8 on 15 April,1990. So,next should be Vol 27 No.9 and from 1st May of some of the upcoming years!! :))

I know,It's a complete crazy idea....feel free to call me mad or so.....BUT fact is, people who know me personally,will NOT be surprised by this ;-) as this is just the way I think,I dream,I talk OR in short I do everything!
So,here's the probable display of my dream n appeal to any Indian Publication house (BEST ToI itself) to re-start it...

Bring BACK Indrajal Comics !!!!