Spécial Mandrake (Mondes Mystérieux)
Mandrake Spécial was the title of two French comic series dedicated to "Mandrake".
Issue overview
The first series was based on the Italian series Mandrake Super Albo and was published in France by Les Editions des Remparts, a French comics editor based in Lyon, but it was in fact translated and printed in Italy by Fratelli Spada. It was also occasionally distributed in Quebec, Canada by Presses Selection Limitée in Montreal.
99 issues were published from 1963 to 1972, in a larger format than the regular Mandrake series, and was monthly for most of its run.
Unsold copies were later glued together with a new outer cover and sold as "albums" under two different series : firstly, there were 16 albums, containing issues # 5 to 46, followed by 21 other albums, containing issues # 47 to 97. However, in some of these albums, the inside regular issues have been retaken in an erratic order when not simply missing...
The issues featured dailies and Sundays, from Phil Davis to Fred Fredericks, and occasionally other back-up comics.
Regular series
| 1963 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ||||||||
| 1964 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 1965 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 1966 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 |
| 1967 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 |
| 1968 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 |
| 1969 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | |
| 1970 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | |
| 1971 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 93 | 94 | 95 | |||
| 1972 | 96 | 97 | 98 | |||||||||
| 1973 | 99 | |||||||||||
Albums (initial running)
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
Albums (new running)
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
Second series
Mandrake Spécial Nouvelle Série #2 to #5 have the same covers and format as the Italian I Quaderni del Fumetto series, but with other Mandrake stories. Strangly enough, it seems that # 6 never was printed. #7 to #22 are identical with #4 to #19 from the Italian Mandrake Selezione series.
One find various back-up stories with; Agent X9, Big Ben Bolt, Captain Kate, Cino e Franco, Cisci Kid, Flash Gordon and Rip Kirby.
After the last issue (#22) the series (from #7) was collected into Album Mandrake Spécial with "new" covers.
Albums
See also
