The Mysterious Prince

The Mysterious Prince

Start date:	July 2nd, 1945
End date:	October 13th, 1945
# of strips:	90 (15 weeks)
Writer:	Lee Falk
Artist:	Phil Davis
Preceded by:	"The Old Ones"
Followed by:	"The Sleeping Beauty"

"The Mysterious Prince" is the 36th Mandrake daily story. The story was written by Lee Falk and drawn by Phil Davis. This story exists in two variants, one made to span four newspaper columns, the other to span five. The five-column variant is cropped in the lower part.

Plot Summary

Mandrake and Narda visiting the wealthy Mrs. Van Stoff. Then she receives a strange guest, the mysterious Prince Zombaga.

Appearances

Recurring characters

One-time characters

Mrs Van Stoff,
Billings, Mrs Van Stoff's butler.
Prince Zombaga, a robot radio-controlled by Steigler..
Count Steigler, Prince Zombaga's ambassador.
Caesar, Steigler's servant.

Locations

New York (?)
- A jewelry store on Main Street.
The Van Stoff's estate.
An old mill.
Steigler's sumptuous crystal apartment.

Behind the scenes

The title for the story taken from the strip of June 30 and July 2, 1945 (Next Week = The Mysterious Prince & Beginning: The Mysterious Prince).
Strangly Steigler's hide-out "The old mill" and the "sumptuous crystal apartment" is the same hide-out ! ?
In an attempt to charm Narda Prince Zombaga reading a poem from Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam:
- XII
  - A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
  - A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread--and Thou
  - Beside me singing in the Wilderness--
  - Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!
- Prince Zombaga:
  - Ah, Love,
  - A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread and Thou
  - and this were Paradise enow!