Mandrake the Magician: Sundays Vol.1: The Hidden Kingdom of Murderers Hardcover – January 1, 2012

Boy did this volume take a LOOONGGGGGG time to come out! Was it worth the wait? YES. I saw some of these strips reprinted in black and white in the old Vintage Funnies (Thanks again Alan Light!) and recall those strips BUT here they are in good old Sunday size AND in color! To me the reproduction and coloring looks great but I am not as fussy or concerned with that as others are. The stories are fun and read a bit like some of the old Tarzan strips, little people abound, princesses and kings, circus action and of course the Hidden Kingdom of Murderers!A bit different than Falks Phantom strips but still very good. The text pages give us a bio of the writers and artist and the strip itself. I would have liked a bit more but this was a good start.This is my first reading of a Titan book and this company does the job right, like Hermes and LAC. I will be back for more Mandrake even if it takes YEARS. I have already ordered a Flash Gordon reprint from them.

Like an elephant's pregnancy, this baby was a long time coming. Now that's it's finally arrived, the wait is forgotten because we're so delighted with the final result which is the first two years of Mandrake Sunday pages. The writer-artist team of Lee Falk and Phil Davis comprised one of the most talented collaborations of comics' golden age. Davis' Sunday pages are a bit stiff at first, owing from his years in advertising most likely. However like the master draftsman that he truly was, he hit his stride very quickly, and his dramatic layouts compliment Falk's storylines; himself drawing heavily on a theatrical background. Falk knew how to immediately capture and hold an audience.Mandrake was unlike anyone in comics. He wasn't Pat Ryan, or Captain Easy. but a sophisticated, mystical, well educated; stylish, world traveling bon vivant who was at ease in the courts of Europe and Asia. Readers wouldn't see anyone quite like him until Rip Kirby some 15 years later. Somewhat like The Shadow, Mandrake employed hypnotism, illusion and suggestion. Brain over brawn. As he turns one attacker's mind against himself, he sardonically reminds him that "No one touches me"; though his man servant Lothar is nearby for any rough stuff. It's wonderful material.Though I'm weary and frankly bored with the river of current comic book films, I'm intrigued at how well Mandrake's would adapt to the big screen. Once again, Falk's theatrical background. Perhaps one of today's talented young filmmakers reading this will enjoy this wonderful volumn as much as I do and explore my suggestion.

I ordered this in November of 2011, and it arrived in March of 2016, well worth the wait of 4 1/2 years. Titan puts a respectable binding on a book that is of a size easily handled, including the Sunday comics from the first two years they were published. I may disagree with the other reviewer who "wasn't blown away" by Mandrake, but I agree these early strips don't really show Mandrake's humanity very well (although the last adventure, in the provocatively named land of "Dementor," does give us a chance to see him slowly losing his temper with the cruel capriciousness of the ruler, Paulo).I hope Titan will continue to publish these strips, unavailable as printed works for so very many years, and as they continue, we will better understand Mandrake, and his relationship with Lothar and the other continuing characters, yet to be included. Please, Titan, don't make us wait 5 years for the next one. Maybe someone will also publish the dailies (IDW, where are you when we need you?), but I fear that we haven't seen them yet partly because of the racial implications of Lothar's character and partly because of the difficulty of assembling them completely after so many years. C'mon, you guys. This character is FAR too important to the history of comics for this scattershot treatment!

Four-and-a-half years after the promised date readers finally have the first volume of 'Mandrake the Magician' in hand. Was it worth the wait?Here is a brief run-down of this volume:'THE HIDDEN LAND OF MURDERERS A mind-boggling tale set in an unidentifiable country, a haven for crooks, with Mandrake assisted by Rheeta, a woman who occasionally changes into a panther thanks to Mandrake. Hypnotism is the least of the astonishing range of powers demonstrated by the magician in this tale, including turning a murderer into a pillar of stone, making Pierce invisible, and conjuring up a wedding dress for Rheeta out of thin air. Falk claimed that he himself had drawn the earliest daily strips; the art in the first five or six Sunday strips is so poor, with wooden faces and static poses, that you wonder if Falk was tempted to repeat that experiment before Davis assumed the art chores.LAND OF THE FAKIRS The action moves "east to India", fakirs, Indian rope trick and all. Mandrake demonstrates more sorcery; no hypnotism can explain away an actual flying carpet. Falk's well of inspiration evidently running dry at some point, the tale abruptly ends in a moralistic retelling of the story of Midas and his golden touch.This arc features the worst reproduction in the whole book, seemingly uncorrected scans of yellowing tear-sheets. The contrast is marked, since 'The Hidden Land of Murderers' ends on Page 38 and 'Land of the Fakirs' starts on Page 39.LAND OF THE LITTLE PEOPLE Mandrake and Lothar proceed "north" of India. Soviet Central Asia? Afghanistan? Tibet? It really doesn't matter because their true destination is a Never-Never Land inhabited by doll-sized folk in mediaeval costumes. Mandrake demonstrates more wizardry, shrinking himself and Lothar, conjuring up a basket of food, dressing the commoner Derina in regal robes...The ending is reminiscent of the preceding tale. Where Sultan Jehol Khan refused to let Princess Jana marry Jorga because he is a "commoner" without gold, the King of the Little People refuses to let Prince Dano marry Derina because she is a "commoner" (not of royal blood).THE CIRCUS PEOPLE Mandrake returns to civilization -- and to some of the best art in this book. There is more magic on display, including telekinetically stowing luggage on a train, and turning a jumping black panther in mid-leap. Again, there is an abrupt happy ending with the performers -- monkeys included -- pairing off.THE CHAMBER INTO THE X DIMENSION Falk and Davis shift abruptly into 'Flash Gordon' territory. Metal people. Plant people. Crystal people. And, of course, Flesh people...PRINCE PAULO THE TYRANT Somewhere "in the North Country" Mandrake and Lothar hit upon Dementor, another Ruritanian nation, ruled by Paulo, who is as eccentric as he is tyrannical. The usual happy ending is curiously unsatisfactory this time, with Paulo, a murderer several times over left to a happy life in the countryside.Did King Features slip it into the contract that ever Sunday story must finish with at least one wedding? Because that is what happens.Otherwise, what you get in this book are six disjointed tales. None of Mandrake's villains gallery is mentioned leave alone shown, and the sole supporting character is Lothar. And you half-wish the last-named weren't there either because every appearance is cringe-worthy testimony to the casual, all-pervasive racism that persisted even as late as the 1930s. Lothar speaks a broken, pidgin English, is dressed in skimpy briefs as if to suggest that he is still a child unworthy of trousers, is "broken hearted" over Mandrake's refusal to acknowledge him (Page 143), always addresses Mandrake as "Master", and looks every bit the defiant child when Mandrake scolds him for the damage he has caused (Page 86).The art is quite good, very much in the Alex Raymond school. Here is the problem -- the Library of American Comics has already published all of Raymond's credited work, on 'Secret Agent X-9', 'Flash Gordon and Jungle Jim', and 'Rip Kirby', so why would you not seek out the original rather than the follower?Had this book come out ten years ago, fans might have hailed it as a watershed event. But nothing and nobody exists in a vacuum, not Falk and Davis in the 1930s, not Titan today. Compared to the brilliance of the Caniff-Foster-Raymond trinity neither the plots nor the pencils seem anything special. Compared to the excellence of, say, the ongoing 'Prince Valiant' collection from Fantagraphics the production values don't match up to the best.If you're a fan of Falk's work in general and of 'Mandrake the Magician' in particular, buy the book.If you're interested in the Golden Age of adventure strips, consider buying the book.If you're new to comics, please borrow it from an obliging friend or arrange for an inter-library loan before you buy because there are better offerings in the market.Three-and-a-half stars if Amazon permitted half stars, four stars because it doesn't.