Daily Archives: September 6, 2012
Know Thy History: Mandrake The Magician
If you ask anyone who the first comic superhero was, most people would reply “Superman.” That is not a wrong answer. Superman heralds the beginning of the comic book Golden Age, where his very success spawned a whole host of imitators, some (like Captain Marvel) phenomenally successful, some (like the Red Bee) not so much.
But some comic historians are not so content with the answer. Some ask themselves, “Hey, aren’t magicians basically superheroes?” No. Of course not. But let’s humor this train of thought and say for a second, “OK, magicians are superheroes.”
This leads some to speculate that the first comic superhero may have been The Phantom Magician, a recurring character in Mel Graff’s The Adventures of Patsy. The Phantom Magician is more or less lost to the ages, though. However, today’s Know Thy History subject is still appearing in newspapers, albeit with incredibly shaky artwork and storylines that will make your brain explode. I’m talking about Lee Falk’s Mandrake the Magician, the first superhero according to the always reliable Ask Yahoo.
Some sort of Homestuck vidya game is probably coming to a console near you
Though he still has 28 days to go, apparently Andrew Hussie has raised the $700K needed (and more!) to fund a Homestuck video game through Kickstarter. To put that in perspective, that’s roughly the cost of Will.I.Am’s DeLorean. That’s right: Andrew Hussie raised some Black Eyed Peas money.
I imagine a video game adaptation can be pulled off pretty nicely. The Homestuck comic is structured like a hybrid adventure/The Sims style game already. You can probably expect Hussie to bring his oddball humor, his simple yet easily fan-arted character designs, and his love for overly long chatlogs to the proceedings.
Which brings to mind the most pertinent question: wither the Problem Sleuth video game? Sorta wanna play that ridiculous Final Fantasy boss battle at the end.
It won’t be the first webcomic turned into a video game, by the way. Let’s not forget the Penny Arcade game, nor that infamous Blade Kitten game that apparently killed Krome Studios.
(h/t ComicsAlliance)
