LEGENDARY HEROES #27

THE PHANTOM

The Phantom was a newspaper comic strip created by Lee Falk who also created "Mandrake the Magician".  The strip was syndicated by King Features and debuted on February 17, 1936.  Falk drew the first two weeks of comics, then Ray Moore took over the duties.  Moore was an assistant to Phil Davis on the Mandrake strip.  A Sunday page was added to newspapers on May 28, 1939.  During Moore's WWII service his assistant Wilson McCoy took over.  When Moore returned from the war he resumed his job of illustrating The Phantom until 1949 at which point McCoy took over permanently.  Following McCoy's death in 1961 noted comic book artist Carmine Infantino drew the strip until Sy Barry was chosen as a successor.  Barry would draw the strip until 1994 at which time Barry's assistant George Olesen took over.  Lee Falk scripted the stories until his death on March 13, 1999 and his wife Elizabeth finished the adventures Lee had been working on.  King Features then stepped in with a series of artists and writers, some from Europe, who kept the strip going.

The origin of the Phantom is one of the most innovative stories ever created for comic strips.  The story begins with a young sailor named Christopher Walker who had been a cabin boy on Columbus' ship the Santa Maria when it sailed to the Americas.  Walker's son, Christopher Jr., is born in 1516 in Portsmouth.  Chris Jr. becomes a cabin boy on his father's ship in 1526 and ten years later, at the age of 20, joins his father on what is to be his final voyage.  The ship is attacked by pirates and Christopher's father is murdered.  As the sole survivor, young Christopher is washed ashore onto the beach of the African nation of Bangalla where he is found by pygmies of the Bandar tribe and nursed back to health.  He vows to seek revenge and destroy "piracy, greed, cruelty, and injustice in all their forms."  The Bandars show Christopher a cave which resembles a human skull and he enhances the image by carving out the features.  The Skull Cave becomes his home and he adopts a costume based on a demon god and becomes known as The Phantom.  When he dies his son takes over as the Phantom, and when he dies his son takes over, and so on and so on, so that through the centuries it appears that The Phantom never dies and is immortal.  The natives call him "The Ghost Who Walks".

All of the previous Phantoms are buried inside the Skull Cave.  The fictional country of Bangalla was originally called Bengali and situated between Asia and India, but for whatever reasons Lee Falk changed the name and moved it to Africa.  Though most of the Phantoms have been male, there was a woman who took up the role.  Julie Walker, twin sister of the 17th Phantom, donned the costume when her brother was injured and defeated a band of pirates.  The current Phantom is the 21st and was born Kit Walker.  His mother was Maud Thorne McPatrick who had previously worked as Rita Hayworth's stunt double.  Kit was sent to America at age 12 to get a formal education and lived with his Aunt Lucy and Uncle Jasper.  There he meets his future wife Diana Palmer.  Kit returns to Bangalla to take over the role of Phantom upon hearing that his father is dying of a knife wound.  His first task is to find his father's killer Rama Singh.  Kit Walker as the 21st Phantom has two animals who assist him - a wolf named Devil and a white horse named Hero.  In 1978 Kit married Diana Palmer who was working for the United Nations and they had two children, Kit and Heloise.

Some of the Phantom stories are told in flashback of previous Phantoms.  Kit wears a purple costume and black mask that conceals his pupils.  Falk got the idea of pupil-less eyes from ancient sculptures.  Falk originally envisioned a gray costume and considered calling his creation "The Gray Ghost" but when the Sunday strip debuted in color in 1939 the costume looked purple.  It was later explained in the 1960s that the Phantom colored the outfit by using purple jungle berries.  A signature of the Phantom are his two rings.  One has a pattern of four crossed sabres, the other is that of a skull which leaves a skull imprint upon his enemies when he strikes them.  The skull ring was given to the first Phantom and was said to have been worn by Emperor Nero of the Roman Empire, and that the ring was made from the nails that hung Jesus on the cross.  The Phantom always uses weapons that are period-appropriate for the time setting and the current Phantom sports two 1911 .45 automatics that hang in holsters from a gun belt that has a skull buckle.  The Phantom's most enduring enemies are the Singh Brotherhood which Rama Singh belonged to.  Falk changed the name in the 1970s to Sengh because he found that Singh is a common name in India and he didn't want to offend Indian readers.  Another criminal organization are the Sky Band, a group of all-female air pirates.

The novelty of the comic storyline, a hero who is succeeded by male offspring and never appears to die, was so unique that it had immediate appeal universally.  In Sweden the comic was known as Fantomen and the first issue of a comic book was published in October 1950, and was so popular that the comic title has resulted in 1600 numbered issues!  In 1986 Sweden opened a theme park called "Fantomenland" (Phantom Land) where tourists could visit the Skull Cave and interact with actors dressed as The Phantom.  Lee Falk inaugurated the park which closed in April 2020.  In Australia the Australian Woman's Mirror, a popular periodical, began publishing the strip in 1936.  An Australian comic book began on a bi-weekly basis in 1948 and celebrated 60 years of uninterrupted publishing.  The Phantom was so popular in Australia that in 1973 an art gallery in Brisbane had an exhibit of Phantom inspired art.  Phantom began appearing in The New Zealand Herald in the 1950s as well as the Illustrated Weekly of India.  In India the comic is published in the languages of English, Bengali, and Hindi.  The Phantom began appearing in newspapers of Italy on September 13, 1936, and in 1939 began producing their own original stories.  This was during World War II and I'm assuming that continuity from the States and King Features was unavailable and the strip's popularity was such that Italy created their own stories.  The Phantom was carried in papers from Germany and Brazil to Yugoslavia, South Africa, Ireland, and Turkey.

Whitman published 6 Big Little Books from 1936-1947.  "The Phantom", "Sign of the Skull", "Desert Justice", "Return of the Phantom", "Phantom and the Sky Pirates", and "Phantom and the Girl of Mystery".  Through the 1940s Phantom comic strips were reprinted in comic books, first in Ace Comics by David McKay Publications.  Then Harvey Comics published a title through the 1950s, followed by Gold Key Comics in 1962, King Comics in 1966, and Charlton Comics in 1969 (with early art provided by Jim Aparo).  The Charlton line ran until 1977 and produced 73 issues.  DC Comics published The Phantom from 1988-1990, first as a miniseries then a separate title.  Marvel Comics followed with their own Phantom miniseries and subsequent publishers have continued to the present day.  In 1943 Columbia released a 15-chapter serial starring Tom Tyler as The Phantom and Jeanne Bates as Diana Palmer.  Tom Tyler in costume bore a striking resemblance to the comic strip hero and the serial was a success.  Avon paperbacks published 15 novels based on Lee Falk's stories between 1972 and 1975 with covers painted by George Wilson.  An unaired color pilot was made for TV in 1961 starring Roger Creed in the title role along with Lon Chaney, Jr. and Paulette Goddard as the villains.  Actress Marilyn Manning was cast in the role of Diana Palmer but wasn't part of the pilot.  None of the networks were interested in the project and it wasn't seen by the public until a nostalgia convention in 2008.

In 1996 Paramount released a feature film starring Billy Zane as The Phantom, Kristy Swanson as Diana Palmer, and Catherine Zeta-Jones as Sala the aviatrix leader of the Sky Band.  Zane was a huge fan of the strip after being introduced to it while in Australia filming the movie "Dead Calm".  He lobbied for the part for years and ended up getting it.  After securing the role Zane pumped iron for a year-and-a-half in order to fill the costume, refusing to wear an outfit with molded muscles.  The film was not a theatrical success but it helped Zane to secure his role in "Titanic".  The movie was filmed on location in Australia, Thailand and Los Angeles.  But VHS and DVD sales of the movie were good and in 2008 there were rumors of a sequel being planned, which as yet has not been realized.

The popularity of the strip is best exemplified by a story from WWII.  Soldiers used to receive packages from home and many of these contained comic books.  The soldiers stationed in Papua New Guinea shared these comics with the tribes and natives of the area and The Phantom was the most popular.  The Papuan people who could read English would share the stories with others.  The Phantom became so popular with the natives that his image is painted on ceremonial shields alongside other tribal art.