Fred Fredericks, born Harold Fredericks Jr. on August 9, 1929, is best remembered as the artist who took over the *Mandrake the Magician* newspaper strip in June 1965, following the death of original artist Phil Davis. Working with creator Lee Falk, Fredericks helped steer the strip away from its earlier science-fiction and fantasy trappings, grounding Mandrake as a more reality-based secret agent who frequently assisted police with unsolvable cases. After Falk’s death in 1999, Fredericks also wrote the strip’s scripts until its Sunday page concluded in December 2002. He retired in 2013, and the daily strip entered reprints.
Four Color #1349 (1962)
Beyond *Mandrake*, Fredericks inked *The Phantom* Sunday pages from 1995 to 2000, penciled by George Olesen, and wrote the long-running Scholastic Magazine strip *Rebel* from 1964 into the early 1990s. His comic book work spanned both Marvel and DC, including titles such as *The Punisher War Journal*, *Nth Man: the Ultimate Ninja*, *Daredevil*, *Quasar*, and *G.I. Joe*, as well as licensed comics for *Nancy*, *The Twilight Zone*, *Mighty Mouse*, and *The Munsters*. Fredericks died on March 10, 2015, leaving a legacy as a steady hand who modernized a classic strip and contributed to a wide range of genre comics.
