The problem with international editions until the 70’s or 80’s (depending on which country you grew up in) is that sometimes the art is modified and other times it’s totally butchered, not to mention the translations (but that’s a problem to this day). We will come back to all of these topics at some point in the future this being Disco Friday and all, but I will leave you with a question … How do you make a regular-sized 20+ page comic from a bunch of strips?
Bleeding Cool gave us some pretty good news yesterday, a new comic featuring Mandrake will be published in September by Dynamite: King’s Watch. A crossover with The Phantom and Flash Gordon, too (I swear I didn’t know anything about this when I wrote my post yesterday). And written by Jeff Parker. Does it get better than that? Yes, but only if the preview pages are repeated in classic symmetrical fashion the likes of which we have not seen since Watchmen and if there’s something we like more than Mandrake comics, it’s Mandrake comics remixed. I am guessing it will be corrected at some point, so here it is, the preview as it originally appeared:
So, Mandrake in films … I will leave out the boring details (yes, there’s the serial, the pilot made in 1954 and the TV movie from 1979), to focus on the important stuff, so grab on to your top hats because here we go!!!
From Federico Fellini’s Intervista, Mastroianni playing Mandrake:
From Vittorio De Sicca’s segment of Le Streghe (with Clint Eastwood!):
The daydreaming scene, which takes about 1 minute, includes other characters like The Phantom, Sadik, Batman, Diabolik and Flash Gordon … The inspiration for Defenders of the Earth? Most likely! (Yes, I just mentioned crossovers again, what do you want from me?)
And, last but not least, the Turkish Mandrake Killing’e Karşı, which features:
A likable enough Mandrake (Jean DuJardin’s father?):
Classic Killing:
Killing in disguise as a chauffeur:
Lothar Abdullah in full minstrel show make-up (let it to the Turks to make it so easy to link Mandrake and Jurgens):
The best thing is that the movie is fully subtitled (quality is so-so, but if you need more than that, maybe this is not the perfect movie for you) and available (for now, but I guess with lost Turkish movies, this means forever) at youtube, so enjoy without moderation:
Update: Seems I spoke too fast and the movie has been removed … Hope someone else was able to enjoy it, but I am sure there are other ways to find it.
So I finally checked, and to answer my own question, yes Fantomas vs Batman does exist (or did at some point). I had to dig in my DVD collection to find Onar Films’ release of Kizil Tug Gengiz Han, which includes the Turkish Fantastic Cinema Guide booklet.
I will admit to not having watched the movie yet, but I was really interested in the booklet. It was writen by Bill Barounis, the genius behind Onar Films. I didn’t get to meet him in person, but we exchanged a few emails about his obsession: Turkish cinema. He wanted to recover and release as many unknown or long-thought disappeared Turkish movies as possible. He got to release a few with his own money, out of his love for those movies. Then, a couple of years ago, he passed away.
I would like to share with all of you the pages of the guide dedicated to superhero films in his memory (there are other sections about Horror, Fantasy, Karate, Historical, Western, Science Fiction and a General, let me know if there’s anyone interested and I might scan the rest).
We miss you, Bill!
And, of course, I would be a piece of shit if I didn’t include this:
, the 
