Baron Kord

Baron Kord
Start date:	September 14th, 1942
End date:	April 10th, 1943
# of strips:	180 (30 weeks)
Writer:	Lee Falk
Artist:	Phil Davis
Preceded by:	"The Rumor Factory"
Followed by:	"The Witch of Kaloon"

"Baron Kord" is the 28th Mandrake daily story. The story was written by Lee Falk and drawn by Phil Davis.

Plot Summary

Narda meets Baron Kord, a mysterious stranger who falls in love with her at first sight. Baron Kord invites Narda and Mandrake to a costume ball, to be given in Narda's honor. Mandrake doesn't want to go, byt Narda insists. Soon are our friends on a strange island, where Baron Kord's workers are enslaved, drugged so that they appear as zombies. The Kordies are midless, lifeless and move only to work and obey. In secretly Baron Kord has made a large stock of his Kordie drug and plans to conquer the world by adding the drug into the water supply. In city after city, nation after nation, until he is the suprime master of millions without the will to resist him.

Appearances

Recurring characters

• Mandrake
• Lothar
• Narda

One-time characters

• Baron Kord
• Trina, sister of Baron Kord.
• Rugg, a kordie.

Locations

• New York
• West Indies
  • Kord Key, an island.

Behind the scenes

• The title for the story is taken from the plot.
• Mandrake is very jealous and angry at the beginning of this story.
• A Cordie is a term for an army cadet from the Royal Military College Duntroon in Canberra, Australia. An explanation of the origin of the term is: John R. Hall in The Real John Kerr (Sydney, 1978), pp. 70-71, explains how some administrators sent to New Guinea in 1945 by the Australian Minister for Transport and Territories, Eddie Ward, in order to set in train new policy initiatives, were disparagingly referred to by the 'old guard' as "Wardie's Kordies". Hall explains the term Kordies: The second word was taken from Korda, a sinister, slimey and manipulative character in the Women's Weekly cartoon "Mandrake the Magician".

Reprints

This story has been published in the following publications:

Australia

• "The Kordies", Mandrake the Magician #2 and #3 (1990)

Brazil

• "O Estranho Barão Kord", Mandrake #115 (1966)

France

• "Tyrans à la barre", Spécial Mandrake #88 & Spécial Mandrake #89 (1971)

Italy

• "L'isola degli uomini spenti" & "Tiranni alla sbarra", Super Albo #34 & #36 (1963)
• "L’isola degli uomini spenti", Mandrake - New Comics Now #182 (1986)
• "L'isola degli uomini spenti", Mandrake 22 (Comic Art) (1993)

New Zealand

• "Baron Kord", Mandrake the Magician #91, #92, #93, #94 and #95 (1955)

Spain

• "Diabolica conjura", Mandrake #15 (1992)

USA

• "no title", The Official Mandrake #3, – #4 and The Official Mandrake Limited #1 (1989)