The Spaceship to Venus

The Spaceship to Venus
Start date:	May 27, 1951
End date:	October 28, 1951
# of strips:	23 (23 weeks)
Writer:	Lee Falk
Artist:	Phil Davis
Preceded by:	"Mystery of the Vanishing Homes"
Followed by:	"The Caribbean Mystery"

"The Spaceship to Venus" is the 50th Mandrake Sunday story. The story was written by Lee Falk and drawn by Phil Davis.

Plot Summary

Mandrake, Narda and Lothar are on vacation in a deserted countryside when they finds a strange metal object. When Mandrake and Lothar examines the inside the strange object shoots up into the air, and into a huge space ship and next to a zoo at the planet Venus. At Earth the police thinks Narda, when she told that Mandrake and Lothar have been kidnapped by an alian space ship, invents a crazy alibi on record for murder. Soon she is on trail in connection with the disapperance of Mandrake and Lothar. The jury decided that she was guilty with the murder of Mandrake and Lothar and the judge sentence her to death. Can Mandrake save her, a hundred millions miles from Earth ?

Appearances

Recurring characters

• Mandrake
• Lothar
• Narda

One-time characters

• An astronomer
• A farmer
• A policeman
• A psychiatrist
• A lawyer
• Venusians, looking like plant men
• A judge

Locations

• US
  • An observatory
  • A prison hospital
• Venus, the planet

Behind the scenes

• At the deepwoods.org index the title for this story is "The Spaceship to Venus", which is lifted from the plot.

Signifiant covers

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  Brazil

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  Brazil

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  France

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  Italy

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  Italy

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  Italy

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  New Zealand

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  New Zealand

Reprints

This story has been published in the following publications:

Argentina

• "??", Mandrake el Mago #67 (1965)

Brazil

• "no title", Novo Gibi #1791 (1952)
• "Aventura em Venus", Mandrake #120 (1966)

Finland

• "Kasvikansa", Wanhat Sarjat #15 (1987)

France

• "Aventure sur la planète Vénus", Mandrake #6 (1962)
• "Les Vénusiens", Le Journal de Mickey #954-#959 (1970)
• "Aventure sur la planète Vénus", Mandrake #446 (1979)
• "no title", Mandrake le Magicien #5 (1984)

Italy

• "Avventura sul pianeta Venere", Albo Azzurro #1 (1952)
• "Avventura sul pianeta Venere", Mandrake #5 (1962)
• "Avventura sul pianeta Venere", I Classici dell'Avventura #45 (1963)
• "Avventura sul pianeta Venere", Mandrake #22 (1967)
• "Avventura sul pianeta Venere", Mandrake #91 (1979)
• "Avventura sul pianeta Venere", Mandrake - New Comics Now #170 (1986)
• "Avventura sul pianeta Venere", Mandrake #4 (1994)

New Zealand

• "The Spaceship to Venus", Mandrake the Magician #54 and Mandrake the Magician #55 (1953)

Norway

• "Romskipet", Fantomet #19 (1997)

Portugal

• "Os Homens Plantas", Selecções BD #8 & Selecções BD #9 (1999)

Spain

• "Astronave a Venus", Mandrake el Mago: Sundays pages 1949–1953 (Dolmen Editorial) (2019)

Sweden

• "Rymdskeppet", Fantomen #19 (1997)

USA

• "The Spaceship to Venus", Mandrake Sundays #5 (1989)