France Soir
France Soir (Translation: "France Evening") was a national French daily newspaper which was founded in 1944 for reaching a circulation of 1.5 million during the fifties and early sixties, at the time the best national selling number in its domain. The newspaper director was Paul Winkler from 1976 to his death in 1982.
With a first daily strip on October 12, 1962 and among several French and American comics, "Mandrake the Magician" was published at various periods. No French titles were given to the stories and every daily strip received a specific number. In a second run, "Mandrake the Magician" was published in 2001 (at least) with a new presentation - two dailies each day - and a new strip numbering order. All the strips were distributed by the "Opera Mundi" Agency.
After having declined rapidly under various owners during the nineties, the newspaper was re-launched as a populist tabloid in 2006, with a smaller size and a more modern look, before to be finally stopped at the end of 2011.
Published stories
Daily stories
This list is incomplete - you can help MandrakeWiki by expanding it.
| Original story title | Starting specific number | Ending specific number | Comment (FS = France Soir) |
|---|---|---|---|
| "?" | 1 | ? | first strip: October 12, 1962 |
| ...... / ...... | ? | ? | |
| "Goliath" | ? | ? | (published in FS in 1963) |
| ...... / ...... | ? | ? | |
| "The Team" | ? | 977 | |
| "The Odd Fellow" | 978 | 1067 | |
| "The Sign of 8" | 1068 | 1217 | |
| "The Witches" | 1218 | 1312 | |
| "The UFO" | 1313 | 1406 | |
| "The Trail of 8" | 1407 | 1508 | |
| "The Return of Evil" | 1509 | 1628 | |
| "The Secret Weapon Caper" | 1629 | 1722 | |
| "The Mysterious Bureau" | 1723 | 1818 | |
| "Dr Dell and 8" | 1819 | 1920 | |
| "The Gold Crisis" | 1921 | 2010 | |
| "The Evil Ones" | 2011 | 2100 | (published in FS in 1969) |
| "Battle of Xanadu" | 2101 | 2189 | (published in FS in 1969) |
| "The Connoisseur" | 2190 | 2284 | First strip missing |
| "The Bribe" | 2285 | 2392 | |
| "The Cobra Strikes (The College of Magic)" | 2393 | 2487 | (published in FS in 1970) |
| "Karma's Adventure" | 2488 | 2607 | (published in FS in 1970/1971) |
| "Hojo's Tale" | 2608 | ? | (published in FS in 1971) |
| ...... / ...... | ? | ? | |
| "Narda and the Cats" | ? | ? | (ending in FS January 15, 1972) |
| ...... / ...... | ? | ? |
Samples
strip numbered 1316, from the daily story "The UFO"
(in second run) strips numbered 459 and 460, from the dail story "General Buffo - Druglord" / France Soir January 15, 2001
