The Atalan Deep

The Atalan Deep

Start date:	June 24th, 1945
End date:	November 4th, 1945
# of strips:	20 (20 weeks)
Writer:	Lee Falk
Artist:	Phil Davis
Preceded by:	"Kingdom of the Wind"
Followed by:	"The Twins of Karana"

"The Attalan Deep" is the 31st Mandrake Sunday story. The story was written by Lee Falk and drawn by Phil Davis.

Plot Summary

Argus sails over the Atalan deep, then suddenly, before the eyes of our friends, a fishing boat vanishes in a weired light. Investigating the mystery our friends ending up in a dome at the sea bottom.

Appearances

Recurring characters

One-time characters

Blaine
Alina, Queen of Atalan.
Toltec (/Toltex), a man in Atalan.

Locations

South Pacific
- The Atalan Deep
- Atalan, a city ten miles under the surface of the sea.

Vehicles

S.S.Argus, Blaine's yacht.

Behind the scenes

The title for this story is taken from the strip of June 17 and 24, 1945 (Next Week: The Atalan Deep / Beginning: The Atalan Deep).
Alina, named after Lee Falk's mother or his stepsister Ailine (Aileen/Arleen).
It is interesting to see how Queen Alina's dress has been drawn throughout history. She first appears in week nine wearing an outfit resembling a tight-fitting swimsuit with a halter neck and some loosely hanging shoulder straps. A transparent long dress is attached to the suit, and she wears a crown on her head. In the picture of her the following week, the outfit is almost identical, but now the swimsuit is drawn more like a two-piece bikini. The week after that, the outfit is similar to when she was first depicted. In the last week of the story, the loosely hanging shoulder straps have disappeared from her outfit.