Tuesday, August 9, 2011

MANDRAKE IN 1001 ROMAN SPECIAL ISSUES (1940-46)


Between 1940-46, Türkiye Yayınevi published monthly "special issues" of 1001 Roman alongside the weekly comics magazine of the same title. Unlike the tabloid-format weekly magazine, these issues were smaller in size and each issue headlined a complete adventure of one comics character. Mandrake was featured in eight of these monthly issues, beginning with no. 1 (Jan. 1940). The Mandrake adventure in no. 1 is called 'Hindistanda [In India]' and was originally serialized in American Sunday newspapers in 1935 (it was the 2nd Mandrake adventure ran in the Sunday comics format), but the Turkish edition is slightly abridged.
The first three issues of the "special issue" series included a shorter, second comics story of a different character alonside the main featured character and Mandrake was featured in this way in no. 2 (Feb. 1940), which was a Lone Ranger issue, as well. Titled as 'Haydutlar kralına karşı [Against the King of the Bandits]', this filler comics is the first-ever Mandrake adventure originally ran in the Sunday newspapers, but the mere five-pages long Turkish edition reprints its conclusion only (thanks to Marko Davidovic for leading me to this blog post for comparison).
Below is a list of the remaining Mandrake issues from the 1001 Roman special issues:
#10 (Oct. 1940): 'Tekinsiz Evin Esrarı [The Mystery of the Uncanny House]', originally daily strip continuity #13 (1938); slightly abridged
#16 (Apr. 1941): 'Merihli İnsanlar [Martian People]', originally daily strip continuity #16 (1938); slightly abridged

#23 (Nov. 1941 [on-print date: Nov. "1940", a typo): 'Zehirli Kılıç [The Poisened Sword]', originally daily strip continuity #14 (1938); slightly abridged
#29 (May. 1942): 'Sudan Şahı [The Shah of Sudan]', originally daily strip continuity #7 (1936); starts half-way through the original adventure and the rest still slightly abridged
#69 (Sept. 1945): untitled, originally Sunday continuity #8 (1938); starts half-way through the original adventure

#75 (Mar. 1946*): untitled, originally Sunday continuity #13 (1940)
* last issue of the series

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