1001 Roman

1001 Roman is an Turkish magazine that published Mandrake from 1939 to the 1946.

History

In 1939 Tahsin Demiray's Türkiye Yayınevi, one of the leading pulishers of popular magazines in Turkey, launched the weekly 1001 Roman, Turkey's first comics magazine modeled on the European comics format. Mandrake the Magician soon joined the roster of comic strips serialized in this hugely popular magazine, beginning with #18 (dated Nov. 6th, 1939), as 'Mandrake - Sihirbazlar Kralı (Mandrake - The King of the Magicians), a byline which would stuck with the character so much in Turkey that when, decades later, a weekly Mandrake comics would be launched in 1974, the logo on the first pages would once again utilize it.

The first two Mandrake adventures serialized in 1001 Roman were from American Sunday newspaper serials, reprinted in b&w here, but most of the subsequent adventures originated from daily strips. Between ## 87-108, Mandrake was published in the back covers and hence in color. With # 197, after the end of the adventure where Mandrake faces his arch-nemesis Cobra for the second time (in terms of the strip's original run in US newspapers), 1001 Roman started re-running earlier adventures previously serialized in Ateş, beginning with Mandrake's first-ever adventure where he meets Cobra for the first time. So, the readers of 1001 Roman were presented with Mandrake's first encounter with Cobra after they were presented with the second encounter... It should also be noted that 1001 Roman, in the same manner as Ates had done six years ago, presented Mandrake's first-ever adventure in an abridged form, omitting several panels, but the panels omitted in 1001 Roman were not same as those in Ateş, so 1001 Roman had not simply reprinted Ateş's edition; in anycase, the Turkish translation and the lettering were also different.

1001 Roman halted serializing Mandrake in 1945 after re-running three of the four adventures previously serialized in Ateş. After about a year of hiatus, one more Mandrake adventure was serialized in 1946, ending with the cessation of the publication of the weekly with #350. The final Mandrake adventure serialized in 1001 Roman was a daily strip continuity, originally run in US newspapers in 1938, where Mandrake visits Hollywood, but the Turkish editors began to serialize this continuity half-way through its first sub-plot and ended half-way through its second sub-plot at a convenient point when Mandrake teaches a spoiled child star some manners, before the kid gets kidnapped which was actually the main plot point of the narrative.

Mandrake stories

• "Cüceler Ülkesinde" ("Land of the Little People"), starts in #18-1939 and ends in #36-1940.
• "Gelecekte Bir Seyahat" ("Chamber into the X Dimension"), starts in #37-1940 and ends in #54-1940.
• "untitled" ("The Museum Mystery"), starts in #55-1940 and ends in #75-1940.
• "Sirkte Yangın" ("The Circus People"), starts in #76-1940 and ends in #95-1941.
• "Atmaca Yarış Atı" ("Mandrake in America"), starts in #96-1941 and ends in #110-1941. Note: only the 2nd subplot.
• "untitled" ("Mandrake in Love"), starts in #111-1941 and ends in #132-1942.
• "Meçhul Dünyalarda" ("Mandrake in the Lost World"), starts in #133-1942 and ends in #166-1942.
• "Kobra'ya Karşı" ("In the Cobra's Grip"), starts in #167-1942 and ends in #196-1943.
• "Esrarengiz Adam" ("The Cobra"), starts in #197-1943 and ends in #246-1944.
• "Dar Geçit" ("The Monster of Tanov Pass"), starts in #247-1944 and ends in #274-1944.
• "Gizli Oyun Yeri" ("The Hawk (Mandrake Meets Narda)"), starts in #275 and ends in #296.
• "untitled" ("Mandrake in Hollywood"), starts in #342-1946 and ends in #350-1946. Note: only the 2nd subplot from 3-22 to 4-20 1938.

Between 1940-46, Türkiye Yayınevi also published monthly 1001 Roman special issues, and Mandrake were featured in several of them.