Lee Falk's creation of the newspaper strips THE PHANTOM and MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN were (and still are) popular -- strike that -- very popular not only in the U.S. but around the world. Both were reprinted in comic books and collections in numerous languages and were a reflection of the appeal that the characters had, as well as the stories that included everything from adventure, mystery, fantasy, science-fiction, the supernatural, crime and more.
Shown today is an example of a MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN comic book that had a run in India. It was published by Indrajal Comics, an imprint of The Times of India, Bennet, Coleman & Co that began in March 1964. The first 24 issues featured Falk's THE PHANTOM. Mandrake first appeared in issue #46.
During its 805-issue run (that lasted until April 1990), Indrajal used many comic strip characters from the King Features Syndicate including Flash Gordon, Rip Kirby and Buzz Sawyer. Sometimes revisions and outright censoring was made to better coincide with Indian society and enable some of the stories more understandable to readers.
"The Witches" was the title of Indrajal Comics #121 with a cover date of 1 November 1970 and is the 130th story of the Mandrake dailies. It was written by Lee Falk and drawn by Fred Fredericks. Frank Thorne and Bob Fujitani ghosted for Fredericks for two weeks during its original run.
| Cover art by Govind Brahmania (aka B. Govind). |