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 the beginning Mandrake was described as having real magic powers. This slowly disappeared, or were converted to more (quasi-) scientific ability, such as telepathy or abilities achieved with the help of the Crystal Cube. Mandrake's hypnotic ability was dominant between 1940 and 1960. Then his other abilities increased again, especially with the help of the Crystal Cube.

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 in New York, whose name almost never mentioned. Another character who first appeared in the 50s is the magician Theron, grand 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 sister Lenore, who is an explorer and adventurer. Since the 1980s the family also counts Mandrake's oldest arch-villain and half brother, Luciphor aka 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, Narda appears 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 in the era of Fredericks also in the Sunday strips. 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 has an exotic look, if they do not look like earth people. Underwater civilizations and 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 world in the daily stories since 1944. Giants and little people also appears sometimes, while such a thing as supernatural beings more rarely. The Crystal Cube in recent years has had to pay for the attempt to explain Mandrake's magical ability in more 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 event, 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 events in the stories.

The first is when a fantastic event or incomprehensible events appears to have a natural explanation, usually in the form of one or villain yanking unsuspecting people and unexplained event are involved.

This is very common in the years 1940 - 1950 where Mandrake meet villains disguised as Medusa, werewolves, etc., and his task is to uncover and expose them using his sharp magical skills. The paradox arises from the illusion reveals the illusion. Ie Mandrake illusion reveals the opponent's illusion. Overall, the illusion is a central motif in the stories of Mandrake.

The other main motif is when a fantastic event proves to be an equally fantastic explanation, usually in the form of a science-fiction element of any kind. As for example when Mandrake meets alien astronauts on vacation on Earth or has come quite a long way to conquer our planet in the silence. In these stories, it becomes more a question of disclosure than an explanation and Mandrake are often as surprised as the reader (for not to mention Narda and Lothar).

In the Sunday stories the fantasy angle are common, and it is not uncommon for Mandrake to find himselves in a situation that have a non-natural explanation. Even in these stories the explanation of the mysterious events is important.

One can say that in the Sunday strips, mainly in 1940, there is a certain fairy tale atmosphere. Where Mandrake through long travels around the Earth, meets strange places that enhances the mood of folk tales or fairy tales. The story of the Flame Pearls is perhaps the best example of this.

Another story from 1940 years portrays a visit to the Kingdom of Marvel, a fantasy country where a technology civilization in conflict with an agar civilization.

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Note

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

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