Posted in: Comics, Heritage Sponsored, Vintage Paper | Tagged: David McCay Publications, golden age, Mandrake the Magician

Mandrake the Magician's Mystic Arts in Magic Comics, Up for Auction

Published Mon, 28 Mar 2022 11:32:10 -0500

by Mark Seifert

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I know a few serious vintage comic book collectors who are also serious about vintage magic memorabilia, and it's easy to understand why. Magicians are essentially superheroes. They've got strange powers, a cape, a costume and sometimes even an alter ego of sorts. Longtime comic book magician Zatara debuted alongside Superman in Action Comics #1, and his often weird, otherworldly adventures and sometimes flashy powers seem formative upon today's most famous master of the mystic arts, Dr. Strange. But Zatara himself was clearly inspired by iconic comic strip magician, Mandrake. There's a nice early group of Magic Comics featuring Mandrake the Magician up for auction at the 2022 March 27-28 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122213 from Heritage Auctions.

Magic Comics featuring Mandrake the Magician (David McKay Publications, 1941).

There's a surprising lack of clarity surrounding the creation of Mandrake the Magician. Mandrake Wiki has an excellent overview of how the story behind the creation of the character changed over the years. Lee Falk's anecdote about the origin of the name is interesting regardless:

The name "Mandrake" was inspired by a poem written by the famous 17th-century poet, John Donne: "Goe, and catche a falling starre … Get with child a mandrake root." Falk learned that mandrake was a herb (Mandragora officianarum), commonly used in ancient (and modern) naturopathy. He thought it was an interesting yet simple word which admitted of just one pronunciation, the perfect name for his comic strip magician.

Essentially, mandrake root has the ability to cause hallucinations and delirium and has had a centuries-long association with magic, witchcraft and the supernatural.

However events played out for the development of Mandrake the Magician circa 1930-1934, the Mandrake syndicated comic strip was launched beginning on June 11, 1934, and quickly became a success. The character entered comic books in Magic Comics, a compilation of newspaper comic strips published by David McKay Published from 1939 to 1949, and Mandrake was featured on the covers of #8 through #24 — often very memorably. An underappreciated character in the context of comics history, there's an early group of Magic Comics featuring Mandrake the Magician up for auction at the 2022 March 27-28 Sunday & Monday Comic Books Select Auction #122213 from Heritage Auctions.