The Book of Criminals
| The Book of Criminals | |
| |
| Start date: | April 20th, 1992 |
|---|---|
| End date: | December 5th, 1992 |
| # of strips: | 198 (33 weeks) |
| Writer: | Lee Falk |
| Artist: | Fred Fredericks |
| Preceded by: | "The Mirror Mystery" |
| Followed by: | "Narda's Dream" |
"The Book of Criminals" is the 211th Mandrake daily story. The story was written by Lee Falk and drawn by Fred Fredericks.
Plot Summary
The Police Chief phone Mandrake, asking if Mandrake could help the famous writer Mr. Somers with his new book on unusual criminals. Mandrake invited Mr. Somer telling him about the five ganglords "Fatts", "Big Louie", "Crazy Mort", "Gunner" and "Big Red". Then Mandrake guided him through the Rogue's Gallery telling the stories of the Mole, The Clay Camel, The Time Traveller, Octon and Luciphor. When leaving Xanadu Mr. Somers was kidnapped by Luciphor, who want to know what Mandrake had told him. Luciphor removed all memory from Mr. Somers mind and let him go. With help of hypnotic kinetic shock and telepathic projection Mandrake manage to bring back Mr. Somer's memory at the hospital.
While at the Police Chief's office - suddenly a sleeping gas. Five minutes later Mandrake has disappeared, kidnapped by the Cobra. In captivity the Cobra told Mandrake that he had started a new career, to take over all crime gangs in America as he had done with gang of 8. Then a mental battle between Mandrake and his half-brother. Mandrake almost thought he had won the battle but Luciphor manage to escape once more.
Appearances
Recurring characters
One-time characters
- Mr. Somers, a famous writer.
Behind the scenes
Title
- The title for the story is lifted from the plot.
The rogues' gallery
- Fatts, Big Louie, Crazy Mory, Gunner, Big Red, ganglord jailed due to Mandrake (from the Sunday story: Mandrake's Hate Club)
- The Mole, telling the story of Mandrake's citizen's arrest after the Mole's break-in at Fort Knox
- The Clay Camel, telling that he stole the Rosser diamond and the Raja's great ruby
- T, a time traveler crook, from 50.000 years in the future
- Octon, mostly from the daily story: Return of the Clay Camel...and Others
- The Cobra, short about his as Mandrake's half brother and their childhood at the College of Magic (no mention of Derek or Leonore)
Mandrake Lore
- Theron is 410 years old.
- The King brought his daugther, princess Eleanora, to the College of Magic so that she would be safe during the war.
- She proposed to Theron, who was then 375 years old, and they married.
- In due time Mandrake was born.
- At Xanadu, Mandrake and Lothar have their bedrooms facing each other in a hallway. Hojo has his bedroom not far from them.
- In this story, there are some animals outside of Xanadu, a mountain goat, a dromedary, an emu, and a giraffe.
Reprints
This story has been published in the following publications:
India
- "Some Unusual Criminals", Diamond Comics Digest - Mandrake #17, #18, #19 and #20 (1994)
- "Some Unusual Criminals", Diamond Comics Digest - Mandrake #66 (1998) missing first part
Italy
- "Luciphor, detto Cobra o Octon", Mandrake - New Comics Now #367 (1997)