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. This story exists in two variants, one made to span four newspaper columns, the other to span five.

The difference between the column variants is that they were scaled to fit four or five columns. On the twelfth of October, the strips change their aspect ratio, and the four-column variant becomes taller than before. For the five-column variant this week the panels in the strips have been pulled apart and both sides have had extra ink applied to make each panel (and the strip) wider. From the following week (week of October 19) the five-column the variant is similar to the four-column variant, but is cropped in the lower part to make it lower in height.

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".

Signifiant covers

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Reprints

This story has been published in the following publications:

Australia

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

Brazil

• "Na ilha do mistério", Gibi #606, 608, 609, 611, 614, 615, 617, 618, 620, 621, 623, 624, 626, 627, 629, 630, 632, 633, 635, 636, 638, 639, 641, 642, 644, 645, 647, 648, 650, 651, 653, 650, 654, 656, 657, 659, 660, 662, 663, 665, 666, 668, 669, 671, 672, 674, 675, 677, 678, 680, 681, 683, 684, 686, 687, 689, 690, 692, 693, 695 (1943)
• "O Estranho Barão Kord", Mandrake #115 (1966)
• "Vivos-Mortos!", Mandrake, o Mágico #10 (1971)
• "O Barão Kord", Mandrake #2 (2014)

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)
• "L’isola degli uomini spenti", Club dei Trenta #39 (200?)

New Zealand

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

Spain

• "Diabolica conjura", Los Clásicos Americanos de El Boletín - Mandrake #15 (1992)

USA

• "no title", The Official Mandrake #3, – #4 and The Official Mandrake Limited #1 (1989)
  • "Island of the Kordies", The Classic Mandrake Series (second series)/ "Two Thrills for Mandrake" (Pacific Comics Club) (2016)