MANDRAKE IN 1001 ROMAN (1939-46)

In 1939, shortly before the outbreak of the 2nd World War, Tahsin Demiray's Türkiye Yayınevi, one of the leading pulishers of popular magazines in Turkey, launched the weekly 1001 Roman, Turkey's first comics magazine modeled on the European comics format (see this earlier post on a general coverage of this magazine). Mandrake the Magician soon joined the roster of comic strips serialized in this hugely popular magazine, beginning with no. 18 (dated Nov. 6th, 1939), as 'Mandrake - Sihirbazlar Kralı [Mandrake - The King of the Magicians]', a byline which would stuck with the character so much in Turkey that when, decades later, a weekly Mandrake comics would be launched in 1974, the logo on the first pages would once again utilize it.
The first two Mandrake adventures serialized in 1001 Roman were from American Sunday newspaper serials, reprinted in b&w here, but most of the subsequent adventures originated from daily strips. Between no.'s 87-108, Mandrake was published in the back covers and hence in color. With no. 197, after the end of the adventure where Mandrake faces his arch-nemesis Cobra for the second time (in terms of the strip's original run in US newspapers), 1001 Roman started re-running earlier adventures previously serialized in Ateş, beginning with Mandrake's first-ever adventure where he meets Cobra for the first time. So, the readers of 1001 Roman were presented with Mandrake's first encounter with Cobra after they were presented with the second encounter... It should also be noted that 1001 Roman, in the same manner as Ateş had done six years ago, presented Mandrake's first-ever adventure in an abridged form, omitting several panels, but the panels omitted in 1001 Roman were not same as those in Ateş, so 1001 Roman had not simply reprinted Ateş's edition; in anycase, the Turkish translation and the lettering were also different:
1001 Roman halted serializing Mandrake in 1945 after re-running three of the four adventures previously serialized in Ateş. After about a year of hiatus, one more Mandrake adventure was serialized in 1946, ending with the cessation of the publication of the weekly with no. 350. The final Mandrake adventure serialized in 1001 Roman was a daily strip continuity, originally run in US newspapers in 1938, where Mandrake visits Hollywood, but the Turkish editors began to serialize this continuity half-way through its first sub-plot and ended half-way through its second sub-plot at a convenient point when Mandrake teaches a spoiled child star some manners, before the kid gets kidnapped which was actually the main plot point of the narrative.
Here is a complete list of Mandrake adventures serialized in this Turkish comics weekly with the no.'s in 1001 Roman (and the years these issues were published), Turkish title [and translation], the conventional code referring to the sequence of American Sunday/daily strips (and the years they were originally ran in the US newspapers):
#18-36 (1939-40) Cüceler Ülkesinde [In the Land of the Midgets] s3 (1935-36)
#37-54 (1940) Gelecekte Bir Seyahat [A Voyage in the Future] s5 (1936-37)
#55-75 (1940) untitled d21 (1940)
#76-95 (1940-41) Sirkte Yangın [Fire at the Circus] s4 (1936)
#96-110 (1941) "Atmaca" Yarış Atı ["Hawk" the Race Horse] d10/2nd subplot (1937-38)
#111-132 (1941-1942) untitled d15 (1938)
#133-166 (1942) Meçhul Dünyalarda [In Unknown Worlds] d8 (1936-37)
#167-196 (1942-43) Kobra'ya Karşı [Against the Cobra] d9 (1937)
#197-246 (1943-44) Esrarengiz Adam [The Mysterious Man] d1 (1934)
#247-274 (1944) Dar Geçit [The Narrow Pass] d3 (1935)
#275-296 (1944-45) Gizli Oyun Yeri [The Secret Game Place] d2 (1934-35)
#342-350 (1946) untitled d11/only from 3-22 to 4-20 (1938)
Between 1940-46, Türkiye Yayınevi also published monthly 1001 Roman "special issues", and Mandrake were featured in several of them, but that will be covered in the next post in this blog.