Our Month of Mandrake Celebration Continues! Fan Poll #3!
Last week we ran a poll to decide the DailyINK community’s choice for “Favorite Mandrake Friend or Ally.” We’re excited to announce that the winner, with over 60% of the vote, was Lothar. You can read more about Lothar’s history in this blog post.
Today, in our Mandrake Fan Poll #3, we turn our attention to the storylines behind MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN. For our poll, The Archivist has chosen his favorites for the DailyINK community to vote on. We also encourage you to write in any other storylines you loved in the comments below.
Baron Kord (14 Sep 42-10 Apr 43)
Evil, bemonocled Baron Kord has his own island, where Mandrake, Narda and Lothar are tricked into visiting. There he reveals his plot to force Narda to marry him, and cast Mandrake into his concentration camp among his brainwashed slaves, known as “Kordies”.
Baron Kord induces Mandrake and Lothar into drinking drugged water.
The Amazing Ray (25 April to 30 July 1949)
A mad scientist develops a ray that shrinks people down to microscopic level, and uses it to help a gang of crooks escape jail. Narda and Lothar get shrunk too, and must deal with now impossibly gigantic items like a bread crumb the size of a hill, or a strand of hair that looks like a felled redwood.
Even in the micro world, Lothar has a fight on his hands.
The New Neighbors (23 January- 21 April 1956)
A seemingly normal nuclear family moves into a suburban neighborhood, but looks can be deceiving. When the parents address the kids as “Master,” and they shoot out of the chimney like rockets at midnight, they’re probably not going to be much like Ozzie and Harriet. It turns out they were Martian explorers gathering information for a travelogue.
The folks next door have a few secrets.
The Thief (13 June to 3 September 1960)
Narda is suddenly waken by a very unusual burglar: a renegade actor from the distant future who uses a time travel belt. He’s pursued by a police officer, chasing him around. The crook has a goal in mind to meet his idol William Shakespeare and actually play the lead in the opening night performance of Hamlet!
The perils of time traveling.
The Sign of 8 (16 Aug 65 – 5 Feb 66)
An early story with Fred Fredricks’ art, this one not only introduced Mandrake’s mountain hideaway, Xanadu, but also revealed the origins of the international crime organization, The League of 8. Narda innocently stumbles on to their story, which goes back many centuries and lives on, now as a technically sophisticated gang that kidnaps her. This is a real action packed story, and the foundation for many re-occurring clashes.
A memorable villain was “8’s” Quizzer. Defeated in the first story, he would be back.
Vote right here:
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We’ll announce the DailyINK community’s choice for “Favorite Mandrake Storyline” in a blog post next Monday. And be sure to check back often for 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.