Mandrake The Magician#5
May, 1967
King Comics
Cover: Fred Fredericks
Script: Uncredited
Pencils/Inks: Ray Bailey
Mandrake takes a page from The Phantom in this story and puts his skills to work battling pirates!
I'm not exactly sure how a post-hypnotic suggestion could give a pirate telepathy, but I love that Mandrake sees the message like a home movie!
On an historical note: Henry Morgan WAS a pirate. However, he was also frequently a privateer, a sort of legal pirate, licensed to take enemy ships and towns in a time of war. Morgan was taken to England to be tried for his piracies and was instead knighted and appointed as the governor of Jamaica. So, the idea that he "failed" is pretty laughable.
Sadly, Sir Henry never quite adapted to civilized life. He became bored and depressed as Governor and turned to drinking. I have always found it painfully ironic that a man who drank himself to death has a brand of rum named after him. Tasty, tasty rum.
On a biological note, Moby Dick was a sperm whale. Sperm whales have teeth, not baleen.
This is what a good comic should do: spark the imagination~! It is often best when things are irrational, or left unexplained. It forces the reader to fill in the gap~ and co-create/participate with the story/characters. Certain scenes, like the underwater cave, remind me of Verne's Captain Nemo~! I love how Mandrake jests about going fishing the next day~!
ReplyDeleteLysdexicus: despite my historical and biological caveats, I would rate this tale as being pure, Silver Age Gold.
ReplyDeleteAlso worth noting is that Lee Falk himself had a holiday home on Cape Cod!
ReplyDeleteJermayn: That's cool, I did not know that. I wonder if that had any bearing on this story?
ReplyDelete