The Phantom

The Phantom is an American adventure comic strip created by Lee Falk, also creator of Mandrake the Magician. A popular feature adapted into many media, including television, film and video games, it stars a costumed crimefighter operating from the fictional African country Bangalla.

 

The Phantom is the 21st in a line of crimefighters that originated in 1536, when the father of British sailor Christopher Walker was killed during a pirate attack. Swearing an oath on the skull of his father's murderer to fight evil, Christopher started the legacy of the Phantom that would be passed from father to son, leaving people to give the mysterious figure nicknames such as "The Ghost Who Walks", "The Man Who Cannot Die" and "Guardian of the Eastern Dark", believing him to be immortal.

 

Unlike many fictional costumed heroes, the Phantom does not have any superpowers, and relies on his strength, intelligence, and fearsome reputation of being an immortal ghost to defeat his foes. The 21st Phantom is married to Diana Palmer, whom he met while studying in the United States; they have two children, Kit and Heloise. Like all previous Phantoms, he lives in the ancient Skull Cave, and has a trained wolf, Devil, and a horse named Hero.

 

The series began with a daily newspaper strip on February 17, 1936, followed by a color Sunday strip on May 28, 1939; both are still running as of 2014. At the peak of its popularity, the strip was read by over 100 million people each day.

 

Lee Falk continued work on The Phantom until his death in 1999. Today the comic strip is produced by writer Tony DePaul and artists Paul Ryan (Monday-Saturday) and Terry Beatty (Sunday). Previous artists on the newspaper strip include Ray Moore, Wilson McCoy, Bill Lignante, Sy Barry, George Olesen, Keith Williams, Fred Fredericks, Graham Nolan and Eduardo Barreto.

 

New Phantom stories are published in comic books in different parts of the world, among them by Dynamite Entertainment in the United States, Egmont in Sweden, Norway and Finland (not anymore), and Frew Publications in Australia.

 

The Phantom was the first fictional hero to wear the skintight costume that has now become a hallmark of comic book superheroes, and was also the first shown wearing a mask with no visible pupils, another superhero standard

Creation

 

After the success of his Mandrake the Magician, the King Features newspaper syndicate asked Falk to develop a new feature. His first attempt was a strip about King Arthur and his knights, which Falk both wrote and drew.[6] However, King Features turned this down, and Falk developed the idea of The Phantom, a mysterious, costumed crimefighter. He planned the first few months of the story and drew the first two weeks as a sample.

 

Inspired by his lifelong fascination with myths and legends, such as those of King Arthur and El Cid, as well as modern fictional characters as Zorro, Tarzan, and The Jungle Book's Mowgli, Falk envisioned the Phantom's alter ego as rich playboy Jimmy Wells, fighting crime by night as the mysterious Phantom. Partway through his first story, The Singh Brotherhood, before revealing Wells was the Phantom, Falk changed the setting to jungle and made the Phantom a seemingly immortal mythic figure.[7] Deciding there were already too many characters called the Phantom (including the Phantom Detective and the Phantom of the Opera), Falk had thought of calling his hero "The Gray Ghost" (which later became the name of a Batman character, a fact alluded to in the first episode of Phantom 2040).[citation needed] However, Falk could not find a name he liked better and finally settled on the Phantom.

 

In the A&E American cable TV documentary The Phantom: Comic Strip Crusader, Falk explained Greek busts inspired the idea of the not showing the Phantom's pupils when he was wearing his mask. He (incorrectly) believed that Ancient Greek busts displayed no pupils (they would have been painted on originally, which over time faded) which he felt gave them an inhuman, awe-inspiring appearance. In an interview published in Comic Book Marketplace in 2005,[10] Falk said the Phantom's skin-tight costume was inspired by Robin Hood, who was shown wearing tights in films and on stage.

 

Newspaper strips

 

 

 

 

 

The first Phantom Sunday strip (May 28, 1939). Art by Ray Moore.

The Phantom started as a daily strip on February 17, 1936, with the story "The Singh Brotherhood", written by Falk and drawn first by him, for two weeks, followed by Ray Moore, who was an assistant to artist Phil Davis on Falk's Mandrake the Magician strip. A Sunday Phantom strip was added May 28, 1939.[12]

 

During World War II, Falk joined the Office of War Information, where he became chief of his radio foreign language division. Moore also served in the war, during which he left the strip to his assistant Wilson McCoy. On Moore's return, he worked on the strip on and off until 1949, when McCoy succeeded him.[13] During McCoy's tenure, the strip appeared in thousands of newspapers worldwide, and The Phantom strip was smuggled by boats into the Nazi-occupied Norway during World War II. The word "Phantom" was also used as a password for the Norwegian Resistance, leading the character to receive iconic status in the country.

 

McCoy died suddenly in 1961. Carmine Infantino and Bill Lignante (who would later draw several Phantom stories directly for comic books) filled in before a successor was found in Sy Barry. During Barry's early years, he and Falk modernized the strip, and laid the foundation for what is considered the modern look of the Phantom. Barry's tenure would see Bengalla turned into a democracy, with the character of President Lamanda Luaga being introduced. Barry would continue working on the strip for over 30 years before retiring in 1994, having drawn around 11,000 Phantom strips in total.

 

Barry's longtime assistant George Olesen remained on the strip as penciller, with Keith Williams joining as inker for the daily strip. The Sunday strip was inked by Eric Doescher until Fred Fredericks became the regular inker in 1995.

 

Falk continued to script Phantom (and Mandrake) until his death on March 13, 1999. His last daily and Sunday strip stories, "Terror at the Opera" and "The Kidnappers", respectively, were finished by his wife, Elizabeth Falk, after the hospitalized Falk had literally torn off his oxygen mask to dictate the adventures.[17] After Falk's passing, King Features Syndicate began to cooperate with European comic publisher Egmont, publisher of the Swedish Fantomen magazine, which now went from only publishing Phantom stories in licenced comic books to providing the stories for the newspaper strip as well, by adapting their own Phantom comic book stories into the comic strip format. Fantomen writers Tony De Paul and Claes Reimerthi alternated as writers of the newspaper strip after Falk died, with De Paul handling the daily strips and Reimerthi being responsible for the Sunday strips. De Paul would later assume duties as the sole writer of the strip. Some stories have been adapted from comic magazine stories originally published in Fantomen.

 

 

 

 

 

Phantom daily strip from 2005. Art by Paul Ryan.

In 2000, Olesen and Fredericks retired from the Sunday strip which was then taken over by respected comic book artist Graham Nolan, who had previously drawn three covers for issues of Fantomen. A few years later, Olesen and Williams left the daily strip after Olesen decided to retire and artist Paul Ryan, who had worked on the Fantomen comic stories and had been a fan of the character since childhood, took over the daily strip in early 2005. Ryan succeeded Nolan as artist on the Sunday strip in 2007.[18] On Sunday July 31, 2011, Eduardo Barreto became the Phantom Sunday page artist. Barreto died after only a few months of working on the strip however, and Ryan temporarily took over the Sunday page duties again starting with the January 15, 2012 edition, which carried a memoriam for Barreto. The following week's strip was also handled by Ryan, before Terry Beatty became Barreto's permanent replacement.

 

The Phantom is one of few adventure comic strips still published today.

Mythos

 

Over the course of more than seventy years' worth of stories, the back story "legend" of the Phantom grew to become an integral part of the series. The legend of the "Ghost Who Walks" made the character stand out from the innumerable costumed heroes who have battled crime throughout the 20th century, and helped maintain his appeal through to the present day.

 

Much of the underlying, continuing plots and themes of the series focus on the continuing legend of the Phantom. The series regularly quotes the "old jungle sayings" surrounding the myth of the Phantom.[33] Perhaps the most well-known of these is the tradition that anyone who sees the Phantom's true face without his mask will certainly "die a terrible death".

 

Not all stories were set in present time, but included earlier generations. While the costumes looked the same, the weaponry varied with the age, such as revolvers and pirate flintlocks.

 

The Phantom is feared by criminals over the entire world and knows how to use his frightening image against them.

 

The series regularly quotes the "old jungle sayings

 

The Phantom's face means death (Old Jungle saying) The Phantom The Phantom Comic 1930s

Phantom moves silently as fog (Old Jungle saying) The Phantom The Phantom Comic 1930s

Phantom has eyes and ears everywhere... (Old Jungle saying) The Phantom The Phantom Comic 1930s

I am known by many names... The Phantom The Phantom Comic 1930s

The Phantom only warns once... (Old Jungle saying) The Phantom The Phantom Comic 1930s

When Phantom moves, time stands still... (Old Jungle saying) The Phantom The Phantom Comic 1930s

Angry Phantom is fearful to behold (Old Jungle saying) The Phantom The Phantom Comic 1930s

Phantom rough with roughnecks... (Old Jungle saying) The Phantom The Phantom Comic 1930s

Never point a gun at the Phantom (Old Jungle saying) The Phantom The Phantom Comic 1930s

The Ghost Who Walks will never die.... The Phantom The Phantom Comic 1930s

Phantom quick like lightning...(Old Jungle saying) The Phantom The Phantom Comic 1930s

The Phantom has the strength of ten tigers (Old Jungle saying) The Phantom The Phantom Comic 1930s

Phantom moves faster than eyes can see (Old Jungle saying) The Phantom The Phantom Comic 1930s

The cold voice of the angry Phantom can freeze blood (Old Jungle saying) The Phantom The Phantom Comic 1930s

Call the Phantom anywhere and he will hear (Old Jungle saying) The Phantom The Phantom Comic 1930s

In Phantom country, it is said that a woman clad in jewels may walk without fear (Old Jungle saying) The Phantom The Phantom Comic 1930s

 

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Courtesy of Chatwick University Archives, 1960

 

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