Mann, Roy :: MANDRAKE the MAGICIAN

MANDRAKE PIN UP

Artist: Phil & Martha Davis (All)

0 Comments - 3,431 Views - 1 Like

Additional Images:

PENCIL WORK

PHIL & MARTHA at WORK

A SUNDAY PAGE

Phil Davis

LEON MANDRAKE (the ispiration)

THE ARTIST

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Artwork Details

Title:	MANDRAKE PIN UP
Artist:	Phil & Martha Davis (All)
Media Type:	Pen and Ink
Art Type:	Pin Up
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	3,431
Likes on CAF:	1 2
Comments:	0
Added to Site:	4/6/2015
Comic Art Archive:

Description

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY of LEE FALK, the man who created MANDRAKE (1934) and THE PHANTOM (1937).
ARTISTS

Martha Davis
Martha Grocott was born in 1908 in Saint Louis, Missouri. Her father was Willis H Grocott and his mother was Ada McPherson Grocott. Martha was the head fashion artist in Vandervoort's art department when she married Phil Davis (Nov. 05 1934). They found their home in Clayton, Mo.

Early during WW2 Martha gave up her career as fashion artist to assist her husbond in preparing Mandrake drawings. Martha Davis had a great influence on women's costumes, those of Narda in particular.

"And now," says Phil, "she's just as good as I am! After the war, she didn't want to leave Mandrake - so now we work together, and each of us can do any part of the job, or finish the work of the other one."

Martha Davis enjoyed her work on the strip so much she stayed on after the War.

In 1963 Phil Davis suffered a heart attack and died of a second heart attack atSt John's Mercy on December 16, 1964.

Martha Davis continued the pencil art for the ongoing dailies and Sundays, with the ink done by a local St. Louis artist. About that time Mandrake appeared in 253 newspapers and magazines, including 40 outside the US.

Her last strip was to been seen in 1965, July 5 for the dailies and July 20 for the Sundays.

Phil Davis (cartoonist)
Philip Davis (March 4, 1906 � 16 December 1964), better known as Phil Davis, was an American artist who illustrated Mandrake the Magician, written by Lee Falk. Davis was born in St. Louis, Missouri.

Growing up with one sister and one brother, Davis became interested in drawing when he was six years old. "I had a mania for parades," he recalled. "I drew every parade I could see. My family neither encouraged nor discouraged me. They just accepted my dark fate.

While attending Washington University in St. Louis, Davis had a part-time job as a draftsman with the technical department of the local telephone company. By 1928, he was working in the art department of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He left the newspaper to do magazine illustrations and advertising art.

In 1933, Davis met St. Louis advertising agency executive Lee Falk, and the two began their collaboration on Mandrake the Magician. Falk asked Davis to do a dozen panels on spec. Davis did so, and in 1934 Falk went to New York and pitched the concept to King Features Syndicate. The strip was launched June 11, 1934 with Davis illustrating and Falk scripting. One of Davis' assistants was Ray Moore, who later became the first artist on Falk's other comic strip, The Phantom, also distributed by King Features.

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About the Owner

	Roy Mann
Joined:	September 2008
Last Login:	August 2025
Country:	ITALY
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