Over the course of a long weekend in the '90s, I once watched Lawrence Olivier's movie version of Hamlet, followed by Mel Gibson's, followed by Kenneth Branagh's. Then I read First Comics' Classics Illustrated version. As truncated as it was (to fit 44 comc book pages), I think I liked that version best. I came to be a fan of Tom Mandrake during his tenure on Grimjack, but I have never read a project of his before or since I like as much as the version of Hamlet he did with Steven Grant. I just finished rereading it and I think I have finally put my finger on why I feel that way: it is the coloring. No colorist is credited, and it looks hand-painted to me, so I assume he did the coloring himself. But it's not just the coloring; the layouts are phenominal, too. Even in scenes that are largely "talking heads" the layouts are quite interesting. The word balloons help to draw the reader's eye where it needs to go, so letterer Gary Fields derseves some of the credit as well. It really is a nearly flawless example of the comic book art.
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SHAZAM!: THE NEW BEGINNING:
I had almost forgotten about this series, until I just happened to spot the 30th anniversary edition (2017) on my shelf. This fopuor-issue limited series spun out of the Legends mini-series, but is actually a sequel to it. It was intended to have been the lead-in to a new ongoing series, which never came about for reasons best explained by Roy Thomas in his introduction to the collection. I do recall that John Byrne pitched a new Captain Marvel series, but this one was chosen instead. It was DC's decision to go with a grittier, more realistic feel, and Thomas agreed with them. Mandrake did a great job on the art, however I didn't care for it at the time. I was one of those who was against the "realistic" approach, but it was exactly what DC wanted. Captain Marvel's portrayal in the new Justice League series was spot on, and that's the team I would have preferred to see handle a reboot series. The reason I tend to forget this false start is because of Jerry Ordway's excellent Power of Shazam! series from a few years later, which relegated "The New Beginning" out of continuity. the collection ends with a four-part story from Action Comics Weekly #623-626 introducing Captain Nazi.
THE SPECTRE:
The Spectre series Tom Mandrake did with John Ostrander was discussed in its entirety in 2020's "Wrath of the Spectre" discussion.
(For the record, I never read their Firestorm.)
CREEPS:
In 2001, Mandrake did Creeps for Image with Dan Mishkin. Here's a summary of the first issue:
"When an employee of the biotech company Genesys pleads guilty to charges of embezzlement, his sentencing hearing is disrupted by a band of stangly powered Creeps. The Creeps have reason to believe that Genesys is guilty of crimes far worse than financial misdeeds, and they kidnap the defendant for questioning. But their interrogation triggers a genetic time bomb that turns the man into a monstrosity. and then the doctor who's allowed them to use an an inner city hospital as their home is brutally murdered... by a mysterious man from Genesys."
As described on the editorial page, although the original germ of an idea for this story was Mishkin's, the series is a true collaboration. Of the nine "Creeps" who appear in the first issue (with more to come), only one of them came from the writer; the rest were contributed by Mandrake. Unfortunately, this series didn't do well enough (for them) to continue. For one thing, it came out in the midst of Mandrakes much more luctrative Spectre series.
CAPTAIN KRONOS: VAMPIRE HUNTER:
Tom Mandrake did this series with Dan Abnett for Titan Comics in 2017. I read it a few years ago but I didn't remember much of it. It inspired me to watch the movie, but I didn't remember much of that, either. So last night I watched the movie and today I read the comic book. Both are actually quite good, the comic book moreso than the movie. The movie is the "origin" but the comic is easy enough to follow on its own. Here's the set-up:
"Eastern Europe, mid 17th Century.
"When career soldier, Captain Kronos, returns home from his last tour of duty to find his family slaughtered by a pack of rampaging vampires, he swears a blood oath not to rest until he has driven a stake through the rotting heart of the last stinking vampire on the face of the Earth. Now Kronos and his trusty assistants Grost and Carla stalk the land in pursuit of vampir evil, his name striking fear into the hearts of the undead and the unjust alike. Offering no mercy and no quarter, Kronos brings only death to the bloodsucking plague that blights the lands of Eastern Europe."
That's all you need to know. Now you're good to go. I can get behind that premise. There are no "good" vampires, vampires don't "sparkle" or any of that (although Grost does point out at one point that there are as many different types of vampires as there are breeds of dogs). The particular vampires in this story are immune to most traditional attacks; the one thing that definitely works is decapitation, but there are too many for that to be effective. Too bad Abnett and Mandrake didn't do more of these.
RETURN TO BATMAN:
In 2007, Mandrake returned to Batman, this time with frequent collaborator John Ostrander. The story appeared in Batman #659-662 and featured a murder mystery introducing a serial killer called "Grotesk." (NOTE: Gregory Lauren provided the ciover art for this storyline; the cover above is from Mandrake's first run on Batman.) this is the kind of story that really does read better in a single sitting. Thematically, Grotesk's motivations are quite similar to Ostrander's own Jaggert (from Grimjack #79-81, which, coincidentally, I read earlier today), although the stories themselves are entirely different.