[3] Mandrake grew up as a fan of Marvel Comics of the 1960s, as well as painters of the Brandywine School, particularly Maxfield Parrish and Howard Pyle.

"[5] For Marvel Comics, Mandrake provided finished art over layouts by Sal Buscema on the New Mutants title.

[12] In 2001, he worked with writer Dan Mishkin on the short lived series Creeps and in 2006 on the children's book The Forest King: Woodlark's Shadow.

[14] Mandrake drew the DC Retroactive: Batman - The '70s one-shot (Sept. 2011)[15] and a revival of Marv Wolfman's Night Force series (May–Nov.

Mandrake is married to fellow comic book artist Jan Duursema, whom he met while both were students at The Kubert School.