Mandrake's Bon Voyage

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Mandrake's Bon Voyage
Start date: April 21th, 2013
End date: November 24th, 2013
# of strips: 32
Writer: Tony DePaul
Artist: Terry Beatty
Original colorist: Terry Beatty
Preceded by: "Revenge in Rhodia"
Followed by: "Death Stalks
the 5th Phantom"

"Mandrake's Bon Voyage" is the 178th Phantom Sunday story. The story was written by Tony DePaul and drawn by Terry Beatty.

Plot synopsis

Mandrake and Narda invite the Phantom and Diana for a masquerade cruise vacation. The Phantom suspects (correctly) that there is a hidden motivation for that invitation. Mandrake admits that the cruise ship has a significant portion of Cockaigne's treasury in its cargo, going to the US for safekeeping. He asks The Phantom for help in protecting the ship's captain against any potential robbers.

The Phantom and Mandrake go on the cruise with Diana and Narda. One of the robbers aboard, a redhead girl with the code name "Cinderella", puts on her costume and attends a dance on the ship, where she meets with her two other partners, one brunette and one blond girl, the "evil stepsisters".

Mandrake and The Phantom spend time at the pool with their wives, but at that moment the robbers take command of the cruise ship, forcing the captain to change the ship's destination to a remote island.

Mandrake has brought along a GPS device and notices that the ship has changed course. Together with The Phantom they visit the ship's bridge to speak with the captain. The captain is not there and the first mate refuses to change the course again. Mandrake using a hypnotic illusion of a large iceberg, convinces the first mate to change the ship's course. When the three robbers arrive at the ship's bridge, the Phantom takes the redhead's gun and Mandrake makes the other two robbers believe that they are floating in the air.

When they think that all again is well, the redhead in the cell says to Mandrake and the Phantom that her boss was going to kill them with or without the gold. Later, the Phantom realises, and shares with Mandrake, that it was never about the gold, the target was the person who would try to protect the gold.

Mandrake and the Phantom take the redhead with an empty gun and go to the remote island in a little boat. The Phantom goes without his sidearm because the boss would be expecting any prisoners to be unarmed. While in transit, the Phantom tells Mandrake and the girl that he believes that someone that knows Mandrake very well is behind all this.

When they arrive at the island they discover that Luciphor, Mandrake's brother, was behind the plot. When every is reunited the redhead sees that the Phantom and Mandrake are her best chance at survival.

Mandrake and the Phantom discover that Luciphor is himself a prisoner of someone who goes by the name "Mind Switch". Mind Switch has Luciphor under his control with a bomb in a neck brace which Luciphor is wearing. Mind Switch released Luciphor and shows that there really is a bomb in the neck brace, which he appears to control by telekinesis. Mind Switch reveals that he is after the Crystal Cubes, powerful artifacts that are featured in various Mandrake stories.

Mind Switch tells Luciphor to put a similar explosive neck brace on Mandrake but when Luciphor goes closer the Phantom takes the gun from the redhead and shots the neck brace away. Mandrake hides a tree in front of Mind Switch who runs into it with enough force to knock himself out.

Appearances

Recurring characters

One-time characters

  • Unnamed older Bandar called Grandfather
  • Two younger adult Bandar
  • Captain L.K. Stanley
  • Unnamed redhead criminal (member of "The Team"), sometimes in "Cinderella" costume
  • Two accomplicces (members of "The Team") in "Evil Stepsister" costumes
  • Unnamed costume guesser
  • Mind Switch
  • Theron, Mandrake's and Luciphor's father (mentioned)

Locations

Tribes

Organizations

  • Inter-Intel
  • Incognito Cruise Lines
  • "The Team", a criminal gang, also known as "The Shore Patrol" when in costume

Vehicles

  • A Cruise Ship from "Incognito Cruise Lines"

Items

  • The Phantom's M1911s
  • The gold reserves of Cockaigne
  • The Crystal Cubes (powerful items from various Mandrake stories)

Old Jungle Sayings

  • Phantom moves faster than lightning - repeated later in the story.


Behind the scenes

  • This is the first appearance of Mandrake's arch enemy Luciphor in a Phantom story.
  • A character who appears in the masquerade in this story later makes a cameo appearance in a "Rex Morgan, M.D." story from 2017 by Terry Beatty.
  • Mandrake suggests some names for the that the unnamed costume guesser, including "Phantom", "Ghost who Walks", and "Guardian of the Eastern Dark". The costume guesser, seeing the names, says "Pfft! No way. I never even heard of these!".

Refers to

Reprints

This story has been published in the following publications:

Australia

Brazil

Greece

  • "Η Κρουαζιέρα Του Μαντρέϊκ" (romanized as "I Krouaziera Tou Mantreik"), Blek #20 (2021)

India

Jamaica

Kenya

Mexico

  • El Informador March 22, 2015 – July 19, 2015 - without the first fourteen weeks

Norway

The Philippines

El Salvador

Sweden

Turkey

USA

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