Spotlight on Analysis - Mandrake the Magician

Figures

Mandrake is a series about Mandrake, a stage magician and hypnotist, in his diverse adventures in a wide variety of environments. In his first adventures Mandrake was described as having real magic powers. They slowly disappeared or were converted to more (quasi) scientific ability, such as telepathy or abilities achieved with the help of the Crystal Cube. The hypnotic ability was dominant between 1940 and 1960. Then, especially with the help of the Cosmic Cube, his other abilities increased again.

The other main character in the series is Mandrake's longtime fiancée and now wife, Princess Narda. She abdicated from the tiny European kingdom Cockaigne. Her, first villainous, brother Prince Segrid also belonging to the family. The servant and later partner Lothar, Prince of a small African kingdom, has assisted Mandrake in almost every adventure. A dense recurrent figure is police Chief Bradley, whose name almost never mentioned. Another character who first appeared in the 50s is the magician Theron, master of the College of Magic in Tibet where Mandrake was schooled in his youth. Eventually we learn that Theron is Mandrake's real father. In the family is also Mandrake’s unscrupulous twin brother Derek and their baby sister Lenore, who is an adventurer and explorer. Since the 1980s the family also counts Mandrake's oldest arch-villain and half brother, the Cobra.

Relatively few of the opponents returning in the ongoing strips, with the exception of the Cobra and the global gangster league 8 - that like an octopus has eight arms that Mandrake insist on chopping off one after the other. Today, more than eight arms cut off, and the reader has found out who the Octon, the mysterious leader of the organization is - without getting too much surprised.

Mentioned should also be opponent figures like the sporadic culprits the Clay Camel and his daughter the Brass Monkey, both disguise artists, and the Mole.

The household in the lonely castle-like manor Xanadu is also a Japanese chef Hojo and Lothar’s girlfriend Princess Karma. Both are extensions from the 70s. The global police force Inter-Intel with its mysterious chief, acting through a robot (= Hojo) is also late additions. An old friend is Emperor Magnon of the central galaxy, which contributed greatly to the science-fiction element in the stories, which has come to dominate the strips in recent decades.

In the daily and Sunday strips a different personal gallery occurs. As an example, appears Narda not in the Sunday strips until the late 1940's and Magnon occurs almost exclusively in the Sunday pages. The Cobra and the Clay Camel occurs only in the daily strips during Davis' era but also in the Sunday strips in the era of Fredericks. Overall the daily and Sunday strips mixed more under the Fredericks' era.

Visitors from other planets are rather frequent guests in the series and usually look quite exotic out if they do not look like earth people. Underwater civilizations as lost mysterious civilizations in the forgotten corners of the world are also common. Invaders from the Mirror World, about the world that lies on the other side mirrors has been an original and exciting in some daily stories since 1944. Giants and little people also appears sometimes, but more rarely such a thing as supernatural beings. The Crystal Cube in recent years has had to pay for the attempt to explain Mandrake's more magical ability in so called scientific terms.

The most frequent opponents of Mandrake and his friends have been quite ordinary thieves and bandits, like robbers or scammers of all kinds who tried to cheat people in different ways. Both Davis and Fredericks has also made an effort to draw villains, so that there should be any doubt about the person's character.

Motif

An analysis of the motives in Mandrake the Magician should include an analysis of Lee Falk's second creation, the Phantom. This does not fit in this context, but it should be noted that there are many direct parallels between Falk’s two characters and their universe.

During Mandrake’s first few years the magic is consideration, but soon Falk wrote in an element of explanation in the series. Every fantastic action, especially in the daily strips are to be explained so that the reader gains an understanding of what really happened. This gives rise to two very different types of main motif of the same course of action in the stories.

Note

This article is based on a text by Magnus Magnusson from 2003.

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