Created by Lee Falk, creator of The Phantom. Falk was fascinated with magicians from an early age, and sketched out the character himself. As a result, Mandrake looks a lot like Falk himself. He also had a passion for the theater, and wrote a play starring Mandrake, which his widow directed after he passed away.
Artist Phil Davis helped Falk develop the strip, and once they sold it to King Features Syndicate, Davis was the artist from 1934 until 1964, when he passed away.
