The Transparent Hypnotist

Mandrake the Magician

by Terry O’Brien

A true stereotype: Tall, dark-haired and mustachioed, wearing a black tuxedo and tails, top hat and cloak. He is the very image of a stage magician, but he is a whole lot more.

Mandrake the Magician was the creation of Lee Falk, who is also well known as the creator of The Phantom. Falk originally wrote and drew the series, but eventually hired artist Phil Davis to draw the series, which he did until his death in 1964, while Lee continued to write the series. At that time, artist Fred Fredericks took over the artwork. After Falk’s death in 1999, Fredericks also became the writer. This engendered a strong sense of continuity throughout the series, part of its lasting appeal.

Mandrake is one of the longest-running dramatic comic strips in existence, being in continuous publication since its first publication back in 1934, five years before Superman. As such, he can be called the first proto-superhero. He has all the right credentials: superpowers (not just limited to stage magic and hypnosis, he has psychic powers including telepathy and telepathic domination), a costume (the stage magician uniform of tuxedo and tails) and even an origin story (as a child, we was taken to a mystic school deep in the Himalayas, where he trained to become a master of magic.) He also has his share of re-occurring nemeses including such characters as spoiled temptress and sorceress Aleena the Enchantress; Derek, Mandrake’s unethical twin brother; and finally, “The Cobra”, Mandrake’s dark and evil half-brother, who appeared in the very first Mandrake story.

Mandrake was a ground-breaker in another way. His assistant, Lothar, was one of the first black sidekick characters, especially known for being treated as a serious character in his own right and not stereotypically as would be expected in the racist mid 1930’s. Lothar was actually an African prince who left his people to travel at Mandrake’s side. As such, he supplied the muscle to match Mandrake’s magic.

Mandrake’s greatest power is his ability to hypnotize just about anyone with a glance and a gesture and induce hypnotic illusions. “Mandrake gestures hypnotically” is almost a cliche for the comic strip, but it does describe what he does. He also possessed psychic powers of telepathy through his mystic training and possession of the magical Crystal Cube that amplifies his mental abilities.

He may be the first proto-superhero, but he is hardly a groundbreaker in his field. The trope of the Westerner traveling and training in the arts of the Mystic East was established long before then. Nor was he the first heroic magician of the pulp era. Chandu the Magician, a rival magician from the radio and movie serials, first appeared in 1932, two years before Mandrake. (Chandu, by the way, has been described by Stan Lee as the pattern for the character of Doctor Strange.)

And Mandrake may soon appear on the big screen: a Mandrake movie is currently in production.

For more information on Mandrake, see the Wikipedia entry at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandrake_the_magician.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 28th, 2008 at 5:36 am and is filed under Esoteric Saturday. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.