Australian Women's Weekly

The Australian Women's Weekly is an Australian monthly women's magazine published by ACP Magazines, a division of PBL Media based in Sydney. Audited circulation in 2009 exceeded 500,000 copies monthly, making it the largest magazine in Australia.

History

The magazine was started in 1933 by Frank Packer as a weekly publication. In 1982, publication frequency was reduced from weekly to monthly. "Weekly" was retained in the name for reasons of familiarity and the fact that Women's Monthly just sounded "unseemly". The final weekly edition was dated December 15, 1982, followed by the first monthly edition dated January, 1983.

The magazine is usually 240 pages long and printed on glossy paper trimmed to A4 page size. It typically contains feature articles about the modern Australian woman. For many years, it included a lift-out TV guide.

It became responsible for introducing Mandrake to Australian audiences, when it unveiled their new comic strip character on December 1, 1934. Mandrake quickly became one of the Weekly's most popular features - a feat no doubt helped by the magazine's policy of replacing any mentions of American place names and idioms with their Australian equivalents, thus persuading readers that Mandrake was, in fact, an Australian character.

Mandrake's peak of popularity coincided with World War Two. When the Weekly was forced to reduce its page count as a wartime paper rationing measure, Mandrake was dropped from the magazine for a week - before readers' protests prompted the Weekly to bring him back in the next issue!

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  Australian Women's Weekly vol. II #26

Daily

Original story title	Start	End	Comments
"The Cobra"	#1/12-1934	#18/5-1935
"The Hawk (Mandrake Meets Narda)"	#25/5-1934	#20/7-1935
"The Monster of Tanov Pass"	#27/7-1935	#12/10-1935
"Saki, the Clay Camel"	#19/10-1935	#21/3-1936
"The Werewolf"	#28/3-1936	#8/8-1936
"The Return of the Clay Camel"	#15/8-1936	#23/1-1937
"The Slave Traders of Tygandi"	#30/1-1937	#3/7-1937
"Mandrake in the Lost World"	#10/7-1937	#18/12-1937
"In the Cobra's Grip"	#25/12-1937	#11/6-1938
"Mandrake in America"	#18/06-1938	#26/11-1938
"Mandrake in Hollywood"	#26/11-1938	#11/2-1939
"Sonny the Child Movie Star"	#11/2-1938	#1/4-1939
"Mandrake and the Haunted House"	#1/4-1939	#3/6-1939
"Blozz the Champion"	#3/6-1939	#18/8-1939
"Mandrake in Love"	#18/8-1939	#25/11-1939
"Visitors from Space"	#25/11-1939	#10/2-1940
"The Deep South"	#10/2-1940	#1/6-1940
"Mandrake in Cockaigne"	#1/6-1940	#19/10-1940
"Mandrake in North Africa"	#19/10-1940	#5/4-1941
"The Mountain Bandits"	#5/4-1941	#17/5-1941
"The Museum Mystery"	#17/5-1941	#11710-1941
"The Octopus Ring"	#18/10-1941	#19/9-1942
"Dr Griff's Invention"	#26/9-1942	#27/2-1943
"The Mystery of the Striped Orchid"	#6/3-1943	#5/5-1943
"The Great Grando"	#12/6-1943	#11/12-1943
"Lothar the Champ"	#18/12-1943	#25/11-1944
"The Rumor Factory"	#25/11-1944	#25/11-1944	only first strip
"Baron Kord"	#25/11-1944	#29/9-1945

Consolidated Press, publishers of the Weekly, produced two large black & white Mandrake the Magician comic books. Numbering up to 72 pages, these two comics were published between 1938-1941. Later in the 40s Consolidated Press printed three more issues of Mandrake the Magician.

Sundays

Original story title	Start	End	Comments
"Prince Paulo the Tyrant"	#6/10-1945	#26/01-1946
"The Treasure Hunt"	#2/02-1946	#6/07-1946
"The Lunar Trip"	#13/07-1946	#14/12-1946
"The Haunted Range"	#21/12-1946	#15/02-1947
"The Ghost Bear of Glass Mountain"	#22/02-1947	#24/05-1947