How many Golden Age heroes were imitating Falk's Mandrake?
Aug 3, 2014 21:59:59 GMT -5
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Post by lorendiac on Aug 3, 2014 21:59:59 GMT -5
Hello. I recently posted this request for help on a CBR forum. Thus far, it has gotten no response on there. Shaxper suggested I might have better fortune on here. (Before today, I don't think I was aware that this site existed.) So let's see what happens!
"Mandrake the Magician" debuted in the mid-1930s as a comic strip character created by Lee Falk, beginning a very long run in the funny pages. (Falk also created another very successful character -- Kit Walker, aka "The Phantom.") I've read a few Mandrake storylines. As I understand it, his primary superpower is a truly incredible hypnotic ability. He is also a professional stage magician, and looks the part, normally sporting a top hat, a tuxedo, and a clipped mustache, and radiates an air of dignity.
I've read assertions that Mandrake's success seems to have inspired a whole wave of similar-looking "magician heroes" in the Golden Age. One obvious suspect is John Zatara, the guy who did "backwards magic" by chanting his sentences in reverse. He debuted in "Action Comics #1," wearing tuxedo, top hat, and clipped mustache, and making his living with a magic act.
And I know that Quality had Tor, the Magic Master, who also wore a tuxedo and a mustache (as well as a bright red cape) -- but only when he was fighting crime. Unlike Mandrake and Zatara, Tor had a secret identity as a press photographer; the whole "dress up like a stage magician" routine was just protective camouflage instead of being "his normal working clothes." (Even his mustache was phony!)
Quality also had Margo the Magician, who might reasonably be described as a proto-Zatanna in that she was a "second-generation" stage magician who suddenly found she had also inherited an authentic mystical superpower. The power was presented as incredible hypnotic ability, a la Mandrake, but Margo was an attractive young woman who, in her debut story, was just now discovering she had inherited that ability from her father, "The Great Presto," who himself was very much in the Mandrake mold. Professional stage magician . . . tux and top hat . . . mustache . . . and of course Margo had been working as the beautiful female assistant for a long time in his traveling act . . . but Presto had kept his power secret all these years, and Margo only saw him use it for the first time right before he died.
(Unlike Zatanna a generation later, however, Margo did not become a hit. After her first story was wrapped up, Quality never did anything with her again. Nor did DC in later decades.)
So those are three examples of characters who were clearly "following in Mandrake's footsteps" to some degree. My question is: How many other magician-heroes were there in the Golden Age, from any publisher? I don't just mean "any heroes with real spellcasting ability," such as Dr. Fate and The Spectre. I mean "heroes who either did a 'stage magic' act as a way to pay the bills (such as Zatara), or at least went to a fair amount of trouble to look like stereotypical stage magicians whenever they were acting in their heroic crimefighting roles! (Such as Tor.)"
Suggestions?
"Mandrake the Magician" debuted in the mid-1930s as a comic strip character created by Lee Falk, beginning a very long run in the funny pages. (Falk also created another very successful character -- Kit Walker, aka "The Phantom.") I've read a few Mandrake storylines. As I understand it, his primary superpower is a truly incredible hypnotic ability. He is also a professional stage magician, and looks the part, normally sporting a top hat, a tuxedo, and a clipped mustache, and radiates an air of dignity.
I've read assertions that Mandrake's success seems to have inspired a whole wave of similar-looking "magician heroes" in the Golden Age. One obvious suspect is John Zatara, the guy who did "backwards magic" by chanting his sentences in reverse. He debuted in "Action Comics #1," wearing tuxedo, top hat, and clipped mustache, and making his living with a magic act.
And I know that Quality had Tor, the Magic Master, who also wore a tuxedo and a mustache (as well as a bright red cape) -- but only when he was fighting crime. Unlike Mandrake and Zatara, Tor had a secret identity as a press photographer; the whole "dress up like a stage magician" routine was just protective camouflage instead of being "his normal working clothes." (Even his mustache was phony!)
Quality also had Margo the Magician, who might reasonably be described as a proto-Zatanna in that she was a "second-generation" stage magician who suddenly found she had also inherited an authentic mystical superpower. The power was presented as incredible hypnotic ability, a la Mandrake, but Margo was an attractive young woman who, in her debut story, was just now discovering she had inherited that ability from her father, "The Great Presto," who himself was very much in the Mandrake mold. Professional stage magician . . . tux and top hat . . . mustache . . . and of course Margo had been working as the beautiful female assistant for a long time in his traveling act . . . but Presto had kept his power secret all these years, and Margo only saw him use it for the first time right before he died.
(Unlike Zatanna a generation later, however, Margo did not become a hit. After her first story was wrapped up, Quality never did anything with her again. Nor did DC in later decades.)
So those are three examples of characters who were clearly "following in Mandrake's footsteps" to some degree. My question is: How many other magician-heroes were there in the Golden Age, from any publisher? I don't just mean "any heroes with real spellcasting ability," such as Dr. Fate and The Spectre. I mean "heroes who either did a 'stage magic' act as a way to pay the bills (such as Zatara), or at least went to a fair amount of trouble to look like stereotypical stage magicians whenever they were acting in their heroic crimefighting roles! (Such as Tor.)"
Suggestions?
