Behind Death's Door

Behind Death's Door
Italian text
Start date:	August 20, 1984
End date:	February 2, 1985
# of strips:	144 (24 weeks)
Writer:	Lee Falk
Artist:	Fred Fredericks
Preceded by:	"The Frightful School Day"
Followed by:	"The Supercomputer"

"Behind Death's Door" is the 187th Mandrake daily story. The story was written by Lee Falk and drawn by Fred Fredericks.

Plot Summary

A mysterious villian is after Mandrake's life. After years behind the silver mask a surgeon have restored the face of Luciphor. Now he wants to kill Mandrake, so that he would be the heir of Theron. And inherit the title grandmaster of the College of Magic, and then the caves with diamonds and emeralds and the Crystal Cube.

Appearances

Recurring characters

• Mandrake
• Lothar
• Narda
• Karma, at Xanadu only.
• Hojo, at Xanadu only.
• Theron
• Luciphor
• Ud
• The Police Chief

One-time characters

Locations

• Xanadu
• Grey Street, in NY

Behind the scenes

Title

• The story title is lifted from the plot.

Mandrake Lore

• Theron is 308 years old.
• Theron was 276 years old when Mandrake was born.
• Theron was about 260 years old when he married a romany woman, she bore Theron a son and named him Luciphor. One day she rode off, leaving Luciphor with Theron.
• Beautiful Eleanora, daughter of the Duke, ruler of the nation, came to college as a student. She proposed marriage to Theron, but sadly died giving birth to twins.
• In the time of war with foreign invaders Mandrake was sent away with Basil, a student at CM, until the trouble was over.
• Basil the Magician, worked at CM and took care of Mandrake until he died.
• Luciphor left CM after trying to stealing from the treasure room at CM and kill Mandrake.

Reprints

This story has been published in the following publications:

Brazil

• "As Cinco Portas da Morte", Mandrake Especial #18 (1988)

Finland

• "Kuoleman ovet", Mustanaamio #10 (1990)

India

• "The Evil Genius", Indrajal Comics Vol. 22 No. 50 and Vol. 22 No. 51 (1985)
• "Marana arai", Rani Comics #179 (1991)
• "The Revenge of Cobra" Diamond Comics Digest - Mandrake #2 (1991)
• "The Revenge of Cobra" Diamond Comics Digest - Mandrake #49 (1997)
• "The Revenge of Cobra" Diamond Comics Digest - Mandrake #85 (2000)

Italy

• "Il fratellastro di Mandrake", Mandrake - New Comics Now #171 (1986)

Spain

• "El Cobra Golpea de Nuevo", Mandrake #40 (2000)

Sweden

• "Dödens dörrar", Fantomen #24 (1989)

Yugoslavia

• "Škola magije", Mandrak magazin #2 (1989)