Number 1739: Warning! Werewolves!

Mandrake the Magician, who seemingly never appeared anywhere without his stage get-up, slicked-back hair, fancy mustache, cape, tuxedo with tails, and top hat, was a popular syndicated newspaper strip. He was also reprinted in comic books from the dawn of comics until a certain point in the fifties, when his appearances became more sporadic. This issue of Harvey Comic Hits (#53, 1951), reprints two Mandrake continuities, and after it Mandrake wasn’t much seen in comic books for a long time. Maybe his top hat was just old hat. I didn’t think of the character that way in the fifties, when I read his adventures daily (along with the Phantom and Flash Gordon, among others) in the Seattle newspaper my parents subscribed to. I always liked the guy, even though I thought his gimmick of wiggling his fingers to cause hallucinations was stretching things.

And this tale of werewolfery pulls out the stops when stretching credulity. Where are the cops when all the loping lycanthropes are menacing innocent folk? And you may also notice the plot is as old as Mandrake’s tux. It appeared in dozens of Western movies...you know, when the bad guy was trying to get all the townspeople to sell out because there was something on their land he wanted...? You remember, don’t you? It makes this story all the more familiar. Written by Lee Falk, and drawn by Phil Davis.

I showed the other story from this Harvey issue back in 2012: Click on the thumbnail:

Posted in: Pappy Comics