A Month of Mandrake Celebrations Starts Today!

As many in our DailyINK community know, Fred Fredericks, the longtime artist and writer of the MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN daily-only comic strip, has announced his retirement. The comic strip went into reprints earlier this month, serving up some great Mandrake stories from the archives.

We know that many members of the DailyINK community want a way to celebrate this legendary strip and character. We are thrilled to announce that today kicks off our month-long Mandrake celebration with a poll to decide the DailyINK community’s favorite Mandrake villain!

As Mandrake fans know, Mandrake has had his share of grief over the years with some of the worst practitioners of black magic. Mandrake’s abilities have been put to the test hundreds of times, but fortunately, at least up until now anyway, his powers have always proved mightier than his enemies. His most memorable villains are listed below.

ALEENA –(first seen in the daily story Aleena the Enchantress 28 April to 20 December 1980)

She was educated at the College of Magic in the same class as Mandrake and Derek, but misuses her abilities for ill-gotten gains and especially tries to destroy Narda and seduce Mandrake.

CLAY CAMEL– (first seen in the daily story Saki 17 June to 2 November 1935)

An extremely clever crook with the ability to change his features like modeling clay, instantly disguising himself in any way. Leaves a tiny clay camel as a calling card at the scene of his crimes.

THE COBRA/ LUCIPHOR– (first seen in the daily story The Cobra 11 June- 24 November 1934)

Mandrake’s first and most dangerous opponent, over the years he has built up an international secret crime organization known as the order of “8”.

DEREK– (first seen in the daily story Derek from 27 December 1948 to 23 April 1949)

Mandrake’s twin brother, also a master magician, but fortunately less gifted. Uses his powers for crime instead of stopping crime. They stop short of destroying each other, after all, blood is thicker than water.

We’ll announce the DailyINK community’s choice for “Favorite Mandrake Villain” in a blog post next Monday. And, if you have a suggestion for another Mandrake bad guy you think belongs here, write it in the comments below.

Vote right here:

And be sure to check back all month long with more Mandrake polls, special historical posts, and other fun surprises. And don’t forget to follow along on the DailyINK Facebook page and Twitter page as well.