The Evil Twin

The Evil Twin
Start date:	February 16th, 1976
End date:	June 19th, 1976
# of strips:	108 (18 weeks)
Writer:	Lee Falk
Artist:	Fred Fredericks
Preceded by:	"The Frame-Up"
Followed by:	"Narda and the Sheik"

"The Evil Twin" is the 163rd Mandrake daily story. The story was written by Lee Falk and drawn by Fred Fredericks.

Plot Summary

A quiet evening at Xanadu Mandrake tell his friends the story of his twin brother:

Their father was a traveling stage magician and their mother died when they were small. It was hard for their father to raise them so he had to entrust his baby girl, Lenore, to a foster home and brought the twins to the College of Magic in Tibet.

Their father left the ten years old boys with Theron, planning to return later - but he was ill and the boys neves saw him again.

During the seven years the twins were at the College they learned the magical skills and became experts. But Derek easily got borded, discovered girls early and often skipped the teaching. One night when Mandrake had his turn with the Crystal Cube Luciphor tried to steal it and almost killed Mandrake. Derek saved Mandrakes life and Luciphor fled the College, but Luciphor's evil left its mark on Derek. After graduation Mandrake and Derek stayed together a short time, but Derek misused his powers on silly tricks and cheating at gambling. They had a terrible fight and split up afterwards.

Derek got into bad company and he started his criminal career, in the beginning he was just showing off. He tried to earn a honest living for a while but soon he began a career in crime.

One day Theron call Mandrake through the Crystal Cube, telling him that Derek misused his powers. Through the Cube Theron lerned Mandrake how to take away Derek's powers, - like water from a sponge.

Mandrake found Derek at his estate at the coast and tried to talk to him. After a terrible fight Mandrake managed to take away Derek's magical powers.

Now five years later, somewhere, Derek keeps trying, hoping to get back his power...

Appearances

Recurring characters

• Mandrake
• Lothar
• Narda
• Hojo
• Derek
• Theron

One-time characters

• Jill, Derek's girlfriend

Locations

• Xanadu
• New York
• College of Magic

Objects

• The Crystal Cube

Behind the scenes

Title

• The title for the story is lifted from the plot.

Note

• The first dialogue in this story, Narda: "You phoned your brother Derek"...., refers to a phone call in the previous story (strips of January 16-17, 1976). Presumably the sequence with the phone call gave Lee Falk the idea and inspiration to write this narrative story of Derek.

Easter Eggs

• Derek, reading a comic book with Mr. Walker on the cover.

• 

  29 Sep, 1976

Reprints

This story has been published in the following publications:

Brazil

• "O irmão de Mandrake", Almanaque do Mandrake #6 (1981)
• "Derek... O Outro Lado", Mandrake Especial #26 (1989)

Finland

• "Kaksosten kamppailu", Mustanaamio #24 (1987)

France

• "Les pouvoirs de Derek", Spécial Mandrake #13 (1978)
• "Le frère jumeau", Janus Stark #130 and #131 (1989)

India

• "Satan's Man", Indrajal Comics #294 (1978) Note: some pictures of Jill are cencored
• "விபரீத வித்தை", Muthu Comics #95 (1980)

Italy

• "Testa di gigante", Mandrake Selezione #10 (1978)

Portugal

• "O Irmão de Mandrake", Mundo de Aventuras #177 (1977)

Spain

• "Los dos Hermanos", Mandrake - Merlin el Mago #9 and #10 (1981)

Sweden

• "Tvillingarnas kamp", Fantomen #11 (1987)

Turkey

• "İkiz Kardeşim Derek", Mandrake #108 #109 #110 (1976)
• "İkiz Kardeşim Derek", Mandrake Albüm #36 & #37
• "İkiz Kardeşim Derek", Mandrake #39 #40 #41
• "İkiz Kardeşim Derek", Mandrake Süper Albüm #11 #12
• "İkiz Kardeşim Derek", Mandrake Süper Albüm #50 #51
• "İkiz Kardeşim Derek", Mandrake Süper Albüm #33

USA

• "The Evil Twin", The Menomonee Falls Gazette from #220 to #223 (1976) (note: the four first weeks only)
• "no title" Tempo Books - Mandrake the Magician (1979)

Yugoslavia

• "Đavolov šegrt", Super EKS Almanah #1 (1979)