"But, what's Mandrake's shtick?"

He's a hypnotist, trained (along with his evil twin) in Nepal or some such place. He's an entertainer with a magic show that consists of illusions (his hypnotism allows him full mind control, limited forms of telepathic projections and the ability to create powerful illusions that are experienced by a lot of people simultaneously.)

He lives at a luxurious mountain retreat called Xanadu with his lover Narda, his assistant, the african prince Lothar and  an asian man-servant (with a lot of other regular supporting characters). He fights crime.

Peter Eliasson wrote:
"The Phantom was HUGE i Sweden when I grew up in the seventies. Fortyeight pages of comics every two weeks in glorious black and white. Mmmm."

Same in the 80s really. A lot of other good stuff in that comic as well... Blueberry, Mandrake, some Flash Gordon and more.

Have to admit though that it took me a while as a kid to learn to appreciate the b/w bit. At early age I did some colouring exercises in some Phantom comics which I regretted when I grew a bit older and started collecting a lot of yearly runs of that title.

More Peter:
"Spider-Man didn't reach public conciousness here until the movie."

Um, I think that's stretching it a bit. I think most of my non-comic reading friends have had a grasp of the character way before the movie, which I also think is true of the Hulk (especially given the success of the TV show over here).

Mikael wrote:
"Then it turned to color,"

And after having complained about it being b/w when I was really young, it was ironically at this point I just dropped the Phantom entirely. Just couldn't make the shift to the colour stuff.

Granted, even at the most average of times I have a dirty mind, but my first thought upon seeing this image was, "Hey, he's giving the chief a great view!"

I need more coffee.

Lee Falks gave us two awesome characters with Mandrake & The Phantom.

Mandrake may be a bit out of fashion today, but his adventures were fun.

Flash Gordon, both by Alex Raymond & by Dan Barry, always was a favorite of mine.

Liked a lot his adventures on the now destroyed suplementary planet of the solar system in the past (now the asteroid belt), on Mars and in Altlantis.

On Mongo too of course. :)

Great stuff. Excellent stories and art.

Alex Raymond is the master, but Dan Barry was a worthy successor.

http://www.moonstonebooks.com/Mandrake.asp

Now, I've never actually seen this comic, so I don't know if it has come out or is coming out...but I certainly dig the new art.