Tale of Aleena

Tale of Aleena

Start date:	September 10, 1973
End date:	January 19, 1974
# of strips:	114 (19 weeks)
Writer:	Lee Falk
Artist:	Fred Fredericks
Preceded by:	"The Incredible Thief"
Followed by:	"Super-Elec"

"Tale of Aleena" is the 155th Mandrake daily story. The story was written by Lee Falk and drawn by Fred Fredericks.

Plot Summary

One day Karma is alone on Xanadu strange things begin to happen - a pen starts to write by itself.

Mandrake comes home and reads what the pen has written all by itself: "Mandrake, Contact me at once. Urgent. Aleena." Mandrake told Karma that Aleena had been one of the few girls studying at the "College of Magic," and that he and Aleena had been friends and classmates. When they were seventeen, they became lovers; Mandrake described it as puppy love.

Mandrake tried to locate her mentally but failed. He used his Crystal Cube to contact Theron, hoping he knew Aleena's whereabouts. Theron was not fond of Aleena, describing her as a frivolous and vain woman who had misused her powers, mainly to attract husbands. She had been married and divorced six times, and Theron warned Mandrake that she was likely looking for her seventh husband, the true love of her youth whom she had never forgotten - Mandrake.

Aleena contacted Mandrake with a mental vision, claiming she was dying, and enchanted him to follow a mental beam leading to her house. Upon his arrival, Mandrake discovered that Aleena was indeed dying, but from boredom.

Aleena was accompanied by Set, a man disfigured by a lion who now served her and obeyed her every command. She recounted how, many years ago, Set had been jealous of a lion tamer who admired her. In an attempt to win her attention, Set had entered the lion's cage but was attacked and disfigured. Since then, Set had followed her as a loyal servant.

She also spoke of her first husband, Gurn. Although they had been together, she had grown bored and one day threw her necklace into a burning house. To prove his love, Gurn rushed into the house to retrieve it, suffering severe burns. Aleena married him mostly out of pity and spent a fortune on plastic surgery to restore his looks. After his recovery, he left her for the blonde singer Kimberly.

Her second husband was Pablo, a bullfighter whom she described as brave but foolish. Her third husband was Georgeous Cyril, a wrestling champion who quit wrestling but not overeating. Her fourth husband was a deep-sea diver, but she said she couldn't swim. Her fifth husband was a rich banker who went bankrupt, and her sixth husband was King Rupert, who lost his crown. Her last five husbands remained with her and Set, bewitched to serve her.

Aleena lit an incense stick infused with an elixir given to her by a former admirer, a Welsh warlock. Mandrake inhaled the magical smoke and became enchanted by Aleena. She then revealed that her real goal was not Mandrake himself, but something he possessed - the Crystal Cube.

Back on Xanadu, Lothar and Hojo managed to break Aleena's spell and recover the crystal cube from her clutches. Aleena and her enslaved men disappeared without a trace, leaving behind only a fiery message on the wall: "We will meet again, Aleena."

Appearances

Recurring characters

Mandrake
Lothar
Narda
Karma
Hojo, at Xanadu only.
Aleena
Theron
Luciphor, mention only.

One-time characters

Jet, Aleena's pet panther.
Sath, Aleena's boyfriend.
Gurn, Aleena's first husbond.
Kimberly, a blond singer and Gurn's new girlfriend.
Pablo, bullfighter and Aleena's second husbond.
Gorgeous Cyril, wrestling champion and Aleena's third husbond.
King Rupert, Aleena's sixth husbond.

Locations

Objects

The Crystal Cube

Behind the scenes

Title

The story title is taken from the strip of September 25, 1973 (Tomorrow: "Tale of Aleena").

Mandrake Lore

9-3355 are the phone number to Mandrake's study.
Theron is about 305 years old, and said that he has had fifteen wives during his 250 first years.
Theron had over twenty children, three of whom are now alive.
Theron's father lived to be 408 years old.

Real Life References

Kimberly, named after Kimberly Farr who played Narda in the musical "Mandrake the Magician and the Enchantress"?
- The name is also used in a daily Phantom story from 1984, "The Kimberly Diamonds".