Bull's Presstjänst

Bulls Presstjänst (or Bulls Press) is a Swedish comics syndicate, and the current holder of the Swedish rights to license publishing of Mandrake the Magician (as well as several other characters including The Phantom, Popeye, Moomin, The Smurfs, Beetle Bailey, Modesty Blaise and Flash Gordon, among others)

History

In USA the Norwegian broker and shipowner Cornelius Bull (1878-1931) developed an interest in comic strips and other features. In 1929 he met the Norwegian journalist and businessman Bjarne Steinsvik (Kristiansen). Together and with Cornelius Bull's nephew, Einar Wyller, they founded "Cornelius Bulls Presstjänst" in Halden (Norway). The business idea was sales to the press and publishers of text, images and advertising material, as well as to conduct other business compatible with this. Same year, in October, the headquarters were transferred to Stockholm (Sweden). At the establishment in Stockholm, the staff consisted of: Cornelius and Laura Vilhelmina (née Norris) Bull, Bjarne Steinsvik (Kristiansen), Gunhild Strömer (secretary), Einar and Ruth Wyller, and Bengt Sjökvist. In January, 1931, the company changed its name to "Bull's Presstjänst".

Comics

As the representative of the Hearst Group's KFS in Scandinavia, the Baltic States, Poland and Czechoslovakia "Bull's Presstjänst" started to sell comics.

Mandrake the Magician

In 1937 the Mandrake Sundays started in the weekly magazines: "Świat Przygód" (Poland as Alex, król magików) followed by the weekly magazines "Tempo" (Denmark as Dragos) and "Apu" (Finland as Taika-Jim) in 1938.

In 1940 the weekly magazine "Allers Familj-Journal" (Sweden as Mandrake, den mystiske hjälperen) started printing Mandrake dailies, reformated to fit a page. Next followed "Spøk og Spenning" (Norway as Mandrake, den mystiske hjelperen) in 1941, with translated daily pages from "Allers Familj-Journal". About the same time also "Apu" and "Tempo" printed daily strips. "Allers Familj-Journal" returned to printing Sundays in 1942, when the Swedish newspaper "Nya Dagligt Allehanda" started printing the dailies.

It seems like "Allers Familj-Journal", "Apu" and "Tempo" in the beginning had exclusive rights to the Mandrake title (Mandrake, Taika-Jim and Dragos). Since when Mandrake in addition started as regular daily strip in the newspapers, he appared with an other name. Like in "Expressen" (Sweden, 1944) as Mandraken and in "Nationaltidende" (Denmark, 1946) as Dragemanden. In Finland the Mandrake dailies appared under two different titles: Mandrake(n) Taikuri and (Salaperäinen) Mr. Jack.

Something similar can be seen for Lee Falk's other strip, "The Phantom", in Sweden. It started as Fantomen in the weekly magazine "Vecko-Revyn" in 1940, printing pages with dailies. In 1942, "Vecko-Revyn" start printing the Sundays, while the newspaper "Svenska Dagbladet" start to print the dailies. But in "Svenska Dagbladet" the Phantom was not named Fantomen, but Dragos - den mystiske mannen. Same name as Mandrake in the Danish "Tempo" magazine, and with similar sub-title as Mandrake from the Swedish ""Allers Familj-Journal" magazine.

In Denmark Mandrake changed the the name and title in the newspapers to Dragos in 1948, same as in the weekly "Tempo" magazine. But when entering the comic books "Fantom-hefte" (1952) and "Skipper Skræk" (1959) he was named Mandrake. In Finland he appared as Maaron in the comic book "Kippari Kalle" (1952) and later Mandrake in the comic book Sarjakuvalehti [1959). Unlike the situation early 1940s it seems like the new name for Mandrake in the comic books in Denmark and Finland was due to the translation. Comparing panels from both comic books and newspapers/magazines the translation and lettering is different. Indicating that the comic book version was made by other than the staff at Bulls.

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Sources

• SeriWikin: Bulls Press
• Bulls: The story behind Bulls