The Phantom
Encyclopedia
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 Bengalla.
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 to fight evil on the skull of his father's murderer, 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 supernatural powers of any kind, but relies on his strength, intellect and fearsome reputation of being an immortal ghost
to defeat his opponents. The 21st Phantom is married to Diana Palmer, whom he met as a child while studying in the United States, and the couple has two children together, Kit and Heloise. Like all previous Phantoms, he lives in the ancient Skull Cave
, and also has a trained wolf, Devil, and the horse 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 . 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 Eduardo Barreto
(Sunday). Previous artists on the newspaper strip include Ray Moore
, Wilson McCoy
, Bill Lignante
, Sy Barry
, George Olesen
, Keith Williams, Fred Fredericks
, and Graham Nolan
.
New Phantom stories are also published in comic book
s in different parts of the world, among them by Dynamite Entertainment
in USA, Egmont in Sweden, Norway and Finland, and Frew Publications
in Australia.
The Phantom was the first fictional hero to wear the skintight costume that has become a hallmark of comic book superhero
es, and the first depicted wearing a mask with no visible pupils, another superhero standard.
and his knights, which he both wrote and drew. When King Features turned him down, Falk developed what would become The Phantom, about a mysterious, costumed crimefighter. He planned out the first few months of the story and drew the first two weeks of a sample strip.
Inspired by his lifelong fascination with such myths and legends as those about El Cid
and King Arthur, and such modern fictional characters as Zorro
, Tarzan
, and The Jungle Book
s Mowgli
, Falk originally envisioned the Phantom's alias as rich playboy Jimmy Wells, fighting crime by night as the mysterious Phantom. Never actually having revealed that Wells was the Phantom, partway through his first story, The Singh Brotherhood, Falk moved the Phantom to the jungle and turned him into a seemingly immortal mythic figure. He had tinkered with the idea of calling his hero The Gray Ghost (which later became the name of a Batman
character, and was alluded in first episode of Phantom 2040
) after thinking there were already too many Phantoms in fiction, such as The Phantom Detective
and The Phantom of the Opera
. Ultimately, he could not devise a name he liked better than the Phantom.
In the A&E
American cable TV documentary
The Phantom: Comic Strip Crusader, Falk revealed that Greek
busts
inspired the idea of the Phantom's pupils not showing when wearing his mask. The Greek busts had no pupils, which Falk felt gave them an inhuman, awe-inspiring look. In an interview published in Comic Book Marketplace in 2005, Falk also told that the Phantom's skin-tight costume was inspired by the legendary figure of Robin Hood
, who often wore tights in film and stage adaptations.
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.
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. 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. 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.
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. On Sunday July 31, 2011, Eduardo Barreto
became the Phantom Sunday page artist.
The Phantom is one of few adventure comic strips still published today.
, there is a myth featuring The Ghost Who Walks, a powerful and indestructible guardian of the innocent and fighter of all types of injustice. Because he seems to have existed for generations, many believe him to be immortal. In reality, the Phantom is a Legacy Hero
, descended from 20 previous generations of crime-fighters who all adopt the same persona. When a new Phantom takes the task from his dying father, he swears the Oath of the Skull: "I swear to devote my life to the destruction of piracy, greed, cruelty, and injustice, in all their forms, and my sons and their sons shall follow me". The first Phantom married Christina, the daughter of a Scandinavia
n sea captain, Eric the Rover. The second Phantom married Marabella, the granddaughter of Christopher Columbus
.
(The comic sometimes runs flashback
adventures of previous Phantoms written by various authors who sometimes confuse Phantom history. Current stories have Marabella as the daughter of Columbus and marrying the first Phantom. As Columbus died in 1506 while, according to the new history, Marabella first meets the Phantom in 1544, this results in another inconsistency, requiring her to be at least 38 years old despite being depicted as in her early 20s. Inconsistencies in storylines and histories are not corrected as a mark of respect to authors, but Falk's original history takes precedence.)
The Phantom of the present is the 21st in the line. Unlike most costumed heroes, he has no superhuman
powers, relying only on his wits, physical strength, skill with his weapons, and fearsome reputation to fight crime. His real name is Kit Walker. References to "Mr. Walker" are in the strip often accompanied by a footnote saying "For 'The Ghost Who Walks'", although some versions of the Phantom's history suggest that Walker was actually the original surname of the man who became the first Phantom.
A signature of the character is his two rings. One has a pattern formed like four crossing sabres, "The Good Mark", that he leaves on visitors whom he befriends, placing the person under his protection. The other, "The Evil Mark" or "Skull Mark" has a skull shape, which leaves a scar of the corresponding shape on the enemies he punches with it. He wears the Good mark on his left hand because it is closer to the heart, and the Evil Mark on his right hand. The Skull Ring was given to the first Phantom by Paracelsus
. The original owner of the Skull Ring was Emperor Nero of the Roman empire
and it would later be revealed that the ring had been made from the nails that hung Jesus
to the cross
. The Good Mark ring was made after the sixth Phantom founded the Jungle Patrol.
His base is in the Deep Woods of Bengali (originally "Bengalla", or "Bangalla
" and renamed Denkali in the Indian edition), a fictional country
initially said to be set in Asia, near India, but depicted as in Africa during and after the 1960s. The Phantom's base is the fabled Skull Cave
, where all previous Phantoms are buried. For a period of time, he also lived with his family in a tree house built by the Rope People — a tribe he had assisted. The Phantom has an Isle of Eden in which he has trained animals that are natural enemies to live in harmony, a Mesa
in America called Walker's Table and a castle in the Old World
.
The Phantom is the commander of Bangalla's world-famous Jungle Patrol, who never know his name but answer consistently to his orders. Due to a betrayal leading to the death of the 14th Phantom, the identity of the commander has been kept hidden from members of the patrol ever since. The Phantom uses several ways to stay in contact. These include radio and a safe with a false bottom. On a few rare occasions the Phantom has also visited the patrol wearing his patrol uniform. The sixth Phantom originally formed the Jungle Patrol with the help of former pirate Redbeard
and his men back in 1664.
Another character who has aided the modern-day Phantom is Guran
, chief of the local pygmy
tribe, who are the only tribe to know his true nature. Guran is the Phantom's best friend since childhood, and a supporter of his cause.
The Phantom has two helpers, a mountain wolf called Devil, and a horse named Hero. He also has a trained falcon named Fraka. From 1962 on, The Phantom raised an orphan named Rex King, who was later on revealed to be the prince of the kingdom of Baronkhan. He also has two dolphins named Solomon and Nefertiti, and numerous other animals kept on the island of Eden.
In 1978, he married his sweetheart since his days in American college, Diana Palmer, who works at the United Nations
. Guran, his best friend since boyhood, was best man. The guests present at the wedding included President Luaga of Bengalla, President Goranda of Ivory-Lana, and Mandrake the Magician
(the Phantom would later be a guest at Mandrake's wedding when he married in 1997).
A year later, twins were born to the Palmer-Walkers; Kit and Heloise.
The Phantom's family have always played a significant role in the series. His romance with Diana Palmer was an ongoing part of the story from the beginning, and many later stories revolved around the Phantom becoming involved in adventures as a result of young charges including his children.
When the Phantom leaves the jungle, he frequently dresses in a fedora
, a trench coat
, and sunglasses. The Phantom usually does not allow his unmasked or undisguised face to be seen except by close friends or members of his family. Even readers of the comic have never been shown the Phantom's unmasked face clearly.
. His father, also named Christopher Walker, had been a seaman since he was a young boy, and was the cabin boy on Christopher Columbus
's ship Santa María
when he sailed to the Americas
. Christopher Jr. became a shipboy on his father's ship in 1526, of which Christopher Sr. was Captain
.
In 1536, when Christopher was 20 years old, he was a part of what was supposed to be his father's last voyage. On February 17, the ship was attacked by pirates of the Singh Brotherhood
in a bay on the coast of Bengalla. The last thing Christopher saw before he fell unconscious and into the sea was his father being murdered by the leader of the pirates. Both ships exploded, making Christopher the sole survivor of the attack. Christopher was washed ashore on a Bengalla beach, seemingly half dead. He was found by pygmies of the Bandar tribe, who nursed him and took care of him.
Some time later, Christopher took a walk on the same beach, and found a dead body there, whom he recognized as the pirate who killed his father. He allowed the vultures flying around the body to eat its meat, took up the skull of the killer, raised it above his head, and swore an oath:
"I swear to devote my life to the destruction of piracy, greed, cruelty, and injustice, in all their forms! My sons and their sons shall follow me."
After learning the language of the Bandar tribe, Christopher learned that the majority of their people were slaves of the Wasaka, a tribe consisting of what the Bandars called "giants". Immediately, Christopher walked into the village of the Wasaka, and asked them to set the Bandars free. He was taken prisoner and laid before the Demon God of the Wasaka, Uzuki, who was supposed to decide his destiny. Christopher was tied up and laid on an altar made of stone, where vultures surrounded him. Christopher was quickly saved by a group of Bandar before the vultures or the Wasaka could do him any real harm. They managed to escape from the village of the Wasaka unharmed.
Christopher later learned of a Bandar prophecy that featured a man coming from the ocean to save them from their slavery. He made a costume inspired by the look of the Demon God of the Wasaka and went to the Wasaka village again, this time with a small army of Bandar armed with their newly-discovered poisoned arrows, which were capable of killing a man in a few seconds. The Wasaka, shocked at seeing what many of them thought was their Demon God come alive, were fought down, and the Bandars were finally set free after centuries in slavery. This resulted in a dedicated friendship between Christopher and the Bandars, which would be continued in the generations to come after them.
The Bandars showed Christopher to a cave, which resembled a human skull in appearance. Christopher later carved the features out to enhance this. This Skull Cave
became his home.
Wearing the costume based on the Demon God, Christopher became the first of what would later be known as the Phantom. When he died, his son took over for him; when the second Phantom died, his son took over. So it would go on through the centuries, causing people to believe that the Phantom was immortal. These people gave him nicknames including "The Ghost Who Walks" and "The Man Who Cannot Die".
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. 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 21st Phantom's birth name is Kit Walker, as was the name of many of the Phantoms before him. Kit was born in the Skull Cave
, and spent his first years in the jungle of Bengalla. His mother, Maud Thorne McPatrick, who had previously worked as Rita Hayworth
's stunt double, was born in Mississippi, where Kit went to study when he was 12 years old, living with his aunt Lucy and uncle Jasper in the fictional town of Clarksville.
Here he met his wife-to-be, Diana Palmer. Kit was an extremely talented sportsman and was predicted to become the world champion of many different events (even knocking out the world heavyweight boxing champion in a sparring match when the champion visited Clarksville). Despite the opportunity to choose practically any career he wanted, Kit faithfully returned to Bengalla to take over the role of the Phantom when he received word from Guran that his father was dying from a knife-wound.
One of Kit's first missions as the Phantom was to find his father's killer, Rama Singh, who had betrayed and murdered the 20th Phantom by first helping him to blow up a fleet of ships owned by the Singh Brotherhood, only to then stab him in the back, stealing his special gunbelt in the process. The 21st Phantom eventually found him and reclaimed the belt at the island of Gullique, but before he could avenge his father and bring the killer to jail, the desperate Rama blew up his lair, killing himself and his henchmen in the process.
and a purple skintight bodysuit. He also carries period-appropriate sidearms
, currently two M1911 pistols, in a special belt with a skull-like buckle. Falk has insisted that the Phantom only uses his guns to shoot out the guns of his opponents, a fact that writer Peter David
was unaware of when he wrote DC Comics
' 1988 four-issue Phantom miniseries
, in which he had the Phantom shoot to wound his enemies.
While there had been masked crime fighters like the costumed Zorro
or the business-suited The Clock
, the Phantom was the first fictional character to wear the skintight costume and eyes with no visible pupils that has become a trademark of superheroes. Creator Lee Falk had originally envisioned a grey costume and even considered naming his creation "The Gray Ghost". It was not until the Phantom Sunday strip
debuted in 1939 that the costume was shown to be purple. Falk, however, continued to refer to the costume as gray in the text of the strip on several occasions afterward, but finally accepted the purple color. In a Sunday strip story published in the 1960s it was shown that the first Phantom chose the costume based on the appearance of a jungle idol, and colored the cloth with purple jungle berries.
As part of a modernization of the character in Moonstone Books' series The Phantom: Ghost Who Walks, the Phantom began wearing a costume made of kevlar
.
The Phantom's costume is colored blue in Scandinavia, red in Italy, Turkey, and formerly in Brazil.
, which have been active for centuries and were responsible for the pirate attack that resulted in the death of Christopher Standish's father and the beginning of the Phantom legacy. In Egmont's Phantom comics, the brotherhood has evolved from merely being pirates into a modern company called Singh Corporations, led by Sandal Singh, who is the daughter of former leader Dogai Singh and also the current President of Bengalla.
Another major threat against the Phantom and his country was Kigali Lubanga, the President of Bengalla for several years. Other recurring villainous characters are General Bababu, The Python, Manuel Ortega, Ali Gutalee, Goldhand, Bail, HIM and - in the movie - Xander Drax. The Phantom has also fought numerous crime-organizations such as the Sky Band, the Vultures, Hydra and The Flame.
In the United States the Phantom has been published by a variety of publishers over the years. Through the 1940s, strips were reprinted in Ace Comics
published by David McKay Publications
. In the 1950s, Harvey Comics
published the Phantom. In 1962, Gold Key Comics
took over, followed by King Comics
in 1966 and Charlton Comics
in 1969. This lasted until 1977, with a total number of 73 issues being published. Some of the main Phantom artists during these years were Bill Lignante
, Don Newton
, Jim Aparo
and Pat Boyette.
DC Comics
published a Phantom comic book from 1988 to 1990. The initial mini-series (dated May-Aug. 1988) was written by Peter David
and drawn by Joe Orlando
and Dennis Janke. The subsequent series, written by Mark Verheiden
and drawn by Luke McDonnell, lasted 13 issues (March 1989 - March 1990). It depicted the Phantom fighting such issues as racism, toxic dumping, hunger, and modern-day piracy
. According to Verheiden, the series ended because of licencing issues as much as dropping sales. The final panels of issue 13 saw the Phantom marrying Diana.
In 1987, Marvel Comics
did a four-issue miniseries
based on the Defenders of the Earth
TV series, written by Stan Lee
. Another three-issue Marvel miniseries, The Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks (Feb.-April 1995) followed. Written and drawn by Dave DeVries and Glenn Lumsden, it featured the 22nd Phantom, with an updated, high-tech costume. Marvel later released a four-part miniseries (May-Aug. 1995), pencilled by Spider-Man
co-creator Steve Ditko
, based on the Phantom 2040
TV series. One issue featured a pin-up by the original two Spider-Man signature artists, Ditko and John Romita, Sr.
The gadgets used by Marvel's 22nd Phantom were slightly reminiscent of those in Phantom 2040, only less advanced. For instance, while the 2040 Phantom had a talking artificial intelligence
built into one of his wristbands, the 22nd's wristband contained a sophisticated, but clearly present-day, palmtop computer.
Moonstone Books
published Phantom graphic novels beginning in 2002. Five books, written by Tom DeFalco
, Ben Raab
, and Ron Goulart
, were published. In 2003, Moonstone debuted a Phantom comic-book series written by Raab, Rafael Nieves, and Chuck Dixon
, and drawn by artists including Pat Quinn
, Jerry DeCaire
, Nick Derington, Rich Burchett, and EricJ. After 11 issues, Mike Bullock
took over scripting, with Gabriel Rearte and Carlos Magno creating the artwork before Silvestre Szilagyi became the regular artist in 2007. Bullock's stories often feature topical issues based on real-life African conflicts. In a 2007 three-part story arc called "Invisible Children", the Phantom fought a fictional warlord called "Him", loosely based on Joseph Kony
.
In 2006, Moonstone published a retcon of the Phantom's origin, called Legacy, by Raab and Quinn. That same year, the company published a hybrid comic book and prose book it called "wide-vision", premiering the format with the Phantom story "Law of the Jungle". Moonstone also released the first American Phantom annual
. A second annual teamed the Phantom up with Mandrake the Magician.
In 2009, Moonstone re-launched the series as The Phantom: Ghost Who Walks, starting with issue 0, a retelling of the origin of the first Phantom. The goal of this launch was to make the comic darker, grittier and more realistic, like the stories of Lee Falk and Ray Moore from the 1930s. It also updated the character of the Phantom by giving him more modern day accessories, and introduced many supporting characters and villains. The Phantom frequently fights reality based enemies in the series, such as modern day terrorists, organ-smugglers and Somalian
pirates.
2009 would see Moonstone Books launch the 21 issue maxi-series Phantom Generations, with each of the twenty one Phantoms spotlighted in their own story, crafted by different creative teams including writers such as Ben Raab, Tom DeFalco, Tony Bedard, Will Murray and Mike Bullock. Artists on the project include Pat Quinn, Alex Saviuk, Don Hudson
, Scott Brooks
and Zeu.
Moonstone also published "Phantom Action", a story written by Mike Bullock that saw the Phantom meeting Captain Action
, a five-issue miniseries in black and white called "The Phantom Double Shot: KGB Noir", and a two-part miniseries called "The Phantom: Unmasked".
Dynamite Entertainment
debuted the monthly comic book series The Last Phantom
in August 2010, to strong sales. The book is written by Scott Beatty
and drawn by Eduardo Ferigato, with covers painted by Alex Ross
. Featuring the 22nd Phantom, the series tells the story about how Kit Walker, now a philanthropist and head of the Walkabout Foundation, has forsaken his family's legacy, and shows his journey to become the Phantom again, set in motion when his family is murdered.
ly Phantom comic book published in Sweden as Fantomen, in Norway as Fantomet, and in Finland as Mustanaamio ("[the] Black-Mask").
The first issue of Fantomen was cover-dated October 1950. Over 1600 issues have been published. Because of limited printers in the 1950s the Phantom's costume was printed in dark blue and has stayed that color in Scandinavia ever since.
The first story created originally for the Swedish Fantomen magazine was published as early as 1963, and today the total number of Fantomen stories is over 900. The average length of a Fantomen story is 30+ pages (compared to 20-24 pages for most American comics). Among the most prolific artists and writers that have created stories for Fantomen are: Dick Giordano
, Donne Avenell, Heiner Bade, David Bishop
, Georges Bess
, Jaime Vallvé
, Joan Boix, Tony DePaul
, Ulf Granberg, Ben Raab
, Rolf Gohs
, Scott Goodall
, Eirik Ildahl, Kari Leppänen
, Hans Lindahl
, Janne Lundström, Cesar Spadari, Bob McLeod, Jean-Yves Mitton, Lennart Moberg, Claes Reimerthi
, Paul Ryan
, Alex Saviuk
, Graham Nolan
, Romano Felmang
, and Norman Worker
. The artists and writers working on these stories have been nicknamed Team Fantomen. In later years, the team have started to experiment more with the character and his surroundings, by having Singh Brotherhood member Sandal Singh taking over as President of Bengalla, giving the Phantom and Diana marriage problems, and exploring the Phantom-canon more.
Egmont are also well known for their numerous historical Phantom adventures, detailing the lives and deaths of former Phantoms and having them appearing in real historic events, meeting countless historic figures in the process.
has published a fortnightly comic book, The Phantom, since 1948, celebrating 60 years of uninterrupted publication in September 2008. Frew's book mostly contains reprints, from the newspaper strips and from Fantomen (in English translation) and other The Phantom comic books, but has on a few occasions also included original stories, drawn by Australian artists, such as Keith Chatto
. The editor-in-chief is Jim Shepherd. Frew's The Phantom is the longest running comic book series with the character in the world, and is Australia's best selling comic. The Frew comics are also imported and sold in New Zealand. The comics appear in numerous Perth Royal Show
showbags.
took up publication of Phantom comics in English, Hindi
and other Indian languages in 1964. They ceased publication in 1990. This same year, Diamond Comics
started publishing Phantom comics in digest format
, again in many languages including English. This continued until 2000, when Diamond Comics stopped publishing Phantom comics; Egmont Imagination India (formerly Indian Express Egmont Publications) took up publication the same year. They published monthly comics (in English only) until 2002. Since then they have only brought out reprints of their earlier stories with new covers and formats. Rani Comics published Phantom from 1990 till 2005. However, Rani comics were available only in the Tamil language
.
One of India's most reputed publishing houses, ABP Pvt. Ltd., Kolkata
used to publish "The Phantom" in Bengali
, under the name "Aranyadeb" (the lord of the forests) in their magazine "Desh
", their newspapaper, "Anandabazar Patrika
", and later in their children's magazine Anandamela
. Though the comic was discontinued in "Desh", it still appears in the newspaper as well as the children's magazine.
It may be noted that, for the most part, Indrajal Comics, Diamond Comics, and Rani Comics all published reprints of Lee Falk's daily or Sunday strips. Egmont Imagination India printed the Scandinavian work. Euro Books India has launched 15 titles of the Phantom comics in large format along with compilations in 2007.
Brazilian publisher RGE
and German publisher Bastei
also produced original Phantom stories for their comic books. In Brazil the Phantom is known as o Fantasma.
Different Phantom comics are published and have been published in England, Mexico, Israel, Spain, Poland, Russia, Denmark, Hungary, Germany, Turkey, New Zealand, Iceland, South America, France, Thailand, Singapore, Netherlands, Chile, Greece, Yugoslavia, Fiji and Venezuela. In Turkey, where the comic has been very popular for decades, the Phantom is mainly known as "The Red Mask" (Kizil Maske), and published under that title.
. Edited versions of most stories have also been published in the Scandinavian Phantom comics. In the United States, the following Phantom stories have been reprinted, by Nostalgia Press
(NP), Pacific Comics Club (PCC), or Comics Revue
(CR), all written by Lee Falk.
In the October 2009 issue, Comics Revue began reprinting the Sunday story "The Return of the Sky Band" for the first time in color.
Hermes Press will soon start a hardcover archive reprint series of 8 volumes of the US Phantom comics, starting with those published by Gold Key and continuing with the ones published by King Comics and Charlton Comics.
, the book was based on Lee Falk's comic strip story "Childhood of the Phantom", although Falk had no involvement with the novel. It featured a cover drawn by Wilson McCoy.
. Many of the books were translated into foreign languages.
In 2006, the books The Story of the Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks and The Veiled Lady were released as audio books in Norway and Sweden, as part of the celebration of the seventieth anniversary of the character.
To coincide with the 1996 Phantom movie, Avon published The Phantom, based on the Paramount Pictures film. It was written by Rob MacGregor.
released The Phantom Chronicles, a collection of short stories written by authors Mike Bullock
, Ron Fortier
, Jim Alexander, David Michelinie
, Craig Shaw Gardner
, CJ Henderson
, Clay and Susan Griffith, Jim Alexander, Will Murray, Mike Oliveri, Nancy Kilpatrick, Ed Rhoades, David Bishop
, Grant Suave, Trina Robbins
, Richard Dean Starr
, Dan Wickline and Martin Powell.
The book was released in both a softcover and limited hardcover edition, and featured an introduction written by Lee Falk's daughter, Valerie Falk.
The Phantom Chronicles 2 was released in 2010. It features a story where the Phantom teams up with Green Hornet
, written by Harlan Ellison
, and has a foreword written by Diane Falk.
's novel The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana
, the main character describes his childhood experiences of reading The Phantom, as well as other comic strip characters like Flash Gordon
and Mandrake the Magician. The book also features illustrations of the Phantom, drawn by Ray Moore.
in the title role was made in 1943, with Jeanne Bates
as Diana Palmer, Frank Shannon
as her uncle Professor Davidson, and Ace the Wonder Dog
as Devil. The story shows the 21st Phantom's first mission after taking over the mantle of the Ghost Who Walks from his murdered father: to find the Lost City of Zoloz and prevent the evil Dr. Bremmer, played by Kenneth MacDonald
, from building a secret airbase in the jungle.
The Phantom's real name in the serial was Geoffrey Prescott, as the alias of Kit Walker had not been mentioned in the strip at that point. However, he goes by the alias of Mr. Walker after having become the Phantom.
Two episodes loosely adapted Lee Falk's story "The Fire Princess" for the screen, and fit it into the plot of the Phantom's fight against Dr. Bremmer.
The serial was a success, and a sequel, to be called Return of the Phantom, was filmed in 1955 starring John Hart
, but after problems with the rights to the character it was partially re-shot and re-named The Adventures of Captain Africa
.
, the movie was set in the 1930s, and incorporated elements from several of the Phantom's earliest comic-strip adventures. It starred Billy Zane
in the title role, Kristy Swanson
as Diana Palmer, and Catherine Zeta-Jones
as Sala, an aviatrix. It was directed by Simon Wincer
, after director Joe Dante
and producer Michael Douglas
dropped out of the project, and was written by Jeffrey Boam
, who also wrote Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
. Cult-icon Bruce Campbell
was another choice for the role, but Zane, already a huge fan of the comic strip since being introduced to Australian Frew comics on the set of Dead Calm
, ended up getting the part after actively lobbying for it for years. After his casting, he feverishly pumped iron for a year and a half to fill the Phantom's costume, refusing to wear a Batman
-like costume with moulded muscles. He also closely studied panels of the comic to capture the character's body language. Though the film did not become a success in its theatrical release, it was the reason why Zane was cast as Caledon Hockley in another Paramount release, Titanic
, the world's second most commercially successful film, and has sold well on VHS
and DVD
.
The movie was filmed on location in Australia, Thailand, and in Los Angeles, and featured the Phantom in his attempt to stop madman Xander Drax (Treat Williams
) from obtaining a weapon of doom, the legendary "Skulls of Touganda". The story also features the Singh Brotherhood, the all-female clan of air pirates known as the Sky Band, of whom Sala is the leader and a subplot wherein the 21st Phantom recovers his father's gunbelt and avenges his father's murder, inspired by the Lee Falk/Wilson McCoy story "The Belt". The film also has elements taken from the 1936 story "The Singh Brotherhood", the first Phantom story, and its 1937 continuation "The Sky Band".
In 2008, syndicated gossip columnist Liz Smith
claimed that Paramount was putting a sequel into development, with Zane returning to play the title role, due to the good VHS and DVD sales of the first film. The Phantom was released on Blu-ray February 2010 by Lionsgate.
Bruce Sherlock, executive producer and head of Sherlock Symington Productions, said that The Phantom: Legacy would follow the lead of films like The Dark Knight
and Iron Man
, and present a serious treatment of the character. The film will be set in the present day, and revolves around the relationship between the Phantom and his son, and what it means to be the Phantom. Work on the film is expected to begin in 2009. The movie will be filmed in Australia, and producers are in talks with both Australian and international actors to work on the film.
In an interview with Dark Horizons
, Boyle said the film will feature two main antagonists, one taken from the comic and one created for the movie. The Phantom's costume is also expected to be updated for the screen, with Boyle seeking to make it more reality-based. Characters such as Diana Palmer, Kit and Heloise Walker, Colonel Worubu, President Lamanda Luaga, and Guran will also appear. The film is said to be heavily focused on the mythology of the comics, with the origin of the 1st Phantom expected to be devoted a lot of screen time. The Phantom's eyes behind his mask will also be white, unlike what it has been in previous film-versions. Actor Sam Worthington
is considered to play the Phantom, after having worked with Boyle on the film Fink.
Boyle was originally considered to direct the movie, but has confirmed he is only attached as the writer.
as the antagonists and Richard Kiel
as the assassin
"Big Mike" in supporting roles. Called "No Escape", and the pilot saw the Phantom breaking up a slave camp in the jungle.
Made on a limited budget, the pilot features fight scenes and the Phantom terrorizing villains in the jungle. Writer John Carr
originally wrote four episodes, but due to the fact that the pilot was not picked up by a network, the remaining three were never filmed. Actress Marilyn Manning had originally been cast as Diana Palmer, but never appeared in the pilot. Devil, Hero and the Jungle Patrol all appear throughout the course of the story.
The pilot was shown at the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention in 2008 and has also been shown at Comic Con in San Diego.
, which ran from 1986 to 1987, the twenty seventh Phantom, voiced by actor Peter Mark Richman, teams up with fellow King Features adventurers Flash Gordon
, Mandrake the Magician
and Mandrake's bodyguard
and assistant Lothar. The cartoon also featured a daughter, Jedda Walker, who briefly took on the Phantom mantle in an episode where she believed her father to have perished.
Other episodes of the series featured classic Phantom villains like the Sky Band, the Phantom's evil older brother Kurt Walker (created specifically for the show) and a flashback to the days of the first Phantom. The episode "Return of the Sky Band" also featured lengthy flashbacks to the Phantom of Lee Falk's comic strip; the 21st Phantom, showing him and his wife, Diana Palmer, and their encounter with the original Sky Band.
In the original presentation pilot for the series, The Phantom had a son, Kit Walker, and Flash Gordon had a daughter, but this was changed for the final series.
In Defenders of the Earth, The Phantom was able to use supernatural means to give himself increased strength and speed, by saying the incantation:
"By Jungle Law
The Ghost Who Walks
Calls forth the strength of ten tigers"
It is only in this cartoon series that the Phantom has such an ability. In the series, the Phantom also used a special helicopter nicknamed "The Skull Copter", and had an updated Skull Ring that would shoot a laser on to the faces of antagonists, marking them for life.
The complete series has been released on DVD in several editions, the latest in 2010.
Premiering in 1994 to critical acclaim, Phantom 2040
depicts the adventures of the 24th Phantom. Young Kit Walker, living happily with his aunt Heloise (daughter of the 21st Phantom) in the city of Metropia (previously known as New York) in the year 2040, knowing nothing about his family's legacy, when one day, The Phantom's friend Guran turns up to reveal the secret of the Phantom legacy. Kit takes up the mantle of the Phantom, and starts a battle against the evil company Maximum Inc., and their plans to destroy Earth's ecosystem while a select few seal themselves in a controlled environment. He also tries to solve the mystery of the death of his father, the 23rd Phantom.
This animated series lasted two seasons and spawned a large number of merchandise tie-ins, a comic book series and a video game. The Phantom/Kit Walker was voiced by actor Scott Valentine
, Margot Kidder
voiced main antagonist Rebecca Madison, Ron Perlman
played tortured cyborg Graft, Debbie Harry
played Vain Gloria, and Mark Hamill
lent his voice to the character of Dr. Jak.
The first five episodes of the series were edited into a feature length film and released on DVD in 2004, called "Phantom 2040: The Ghost Who Walks". Other episodes of the series were released on VHS
in 1997.
announced he and his son and collaborator Charles Knauf had completed a four-hour TV-movie
script for SCI FI Channel
, later re-named Syfy
, starring the 22nd Phantom. On March 23, 2009, Sci Fi Channel announced that they formally ordered a 4-hour mini-series in two parts, which also served as a backdoor pilot. The mini-series, simply called The Phantom
, was produced by Muse Entertainment and RHI Entertainment
. It premiered in Canada on The Movie Network
in December 2009, as a two-part mini-series, a total of three hours.
Ryan Carnes
stars as the Phantom, with Paolo Barzman directing. The series was shot in New York
, Costa Rica
and Montreal
.
The story sees law student Kit learning that he was adopted, and that he is actually the son of the 21st Phantom and Diana Palmer Walker. He joins the Phantom team in the jungles of Bengalla (in this version, Bengalla is a small island in Indonesia
), and is trained in martial arts and combat, emerging as the next Phantom to battle the Singh Brotherhood and save the only man who can bring peace to the Middle East. The 22nd Phantom wears a modified costume that is highly resistant to bullets, blades and falls, doubles his strength and can make him move faster.
The mini-series aired on Syfy
in June, 2010, and was released on Blu-ray and DVD by Vivendi Entertainment
.
, of Crocodile Dundee
fame, continually parodied the Phantom on his Australian TV-show, The Paul Hogan Show
. He would dress up in the purple Phantom costume, and act out different humorous situations. The Phantom has also been frequently parodied on Scandinavian television, in different humour programs.
In 1984, Australian stand-up comedian Austen Tayshus
released a single Phantom Shuffle in the video of which he appeared in Phantom costume, wearing sunglasses instead of a mask. Many elements of the Phantom myth are parodied, such him being "Mr Walker, the man who cannot drive".
In the Adult Swim
show The Venture Bros.
, the character The Phantom Limb bears a strong visual resemblance to the Phantom, right down to the same purple suit and mask, except that the Phantom Limb's limbs are invisible, making him look like a floating torso. However, The Phantom Limb is a villainous character.
The myth surrounding the Phantom also provided Turkish humorists with a lot of material. The humor magazine Leman has published many comic strips some of which were inspired by the (imaginary) saying "in the jungle, it is rumored that the Phantom has the strength of ten tigers" where Phantom runs into trouble with 11 or more tigers.
The Phantom was parodied in a 2007 episode of Robot Chicken
called Werewolf vs. Unicorn, where he appeared alongside Flash Gordon and Mandrake the Magician. He was voiced by Frank Welker
.
The Phantom is a frequently appearing character in the Finnish comic strip
Fingerpori
by Pertti Jarla. He is often involved in humorous situations such as using his throne as a toilet seat.
created a documentary about the history of the Phantom for television, called The Phantom: Comic strip crusader. Narrated by Peter Graves
, it featured interviews with creator Lee Falk, actors Billy Zane
and Kristy Swanson
, director Simon Wincer
, Frew-editor Jim Shepherd, George Olesen, Keith Williams, and president of the US Phantom fan club Friends of the Phantom, Ed Rhoades. The documentary was released on DVD
in 2006.
To promote the 1996 Paramount Phantom movie, a HBO special called "Making of The Phantom" was made. It featured behind-the-scenes information on the movie and the comic.
An original documentary presentation called History of the Phantom was shown at the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention in September 2008.
season 5, episode 17 "Superhero Hour", it was tested whether the Phantom's skull ring would make an imprint on someone when you punch them while wearing it, as it does in the comic. The result was the myth was "busted", in that hitting a person in the face hard enough to leave a ring imprint on the skin requires more than enough force to crush a human skull.
In the comic it has been revealed that the Phantom's ring has sharp edges and is covered with a permanent ink from plants in the depths of the Bengallan jungle, leaving a permanent scar-like mark. It is, in effect, an instant tattoo
.
, Western Australia in 1989. The Phantom was played by Robert Peron.
Another musical called "Fantomets glade bryllup" ("The Phantom's Happy Wedding") was made in Norway, with actor Knut Husebø as Fantomet and popular Norwegian singer Jahn Teigen
composing the music and playing the antagonist
. This humorous take on the character included the Phantom clashing with Tarzan
. Teigen also had a hit song about the Phantom's relationship with Diana Palmer.
In the 1990s, Toadshow produced a Rock Opera entitled Phantoad of the Opera, about the Phantoad, the Ghost Who Hops, a masked musical genius wanted to appear on Broadway. The show uses elements of many different stories including The Phantom, Phantom of the Opera, Greystoke
, and even The Pirates of Penzance. This rock opera continues to be produced by schools.
A parody called "The Phantum" was written and directed by Zac Gillam and performed in 2002 by UDS with Brendon Fisher playing the lead as "The Ghost who Baulks".
and Defenders of the Earth
. Both were based on the animated series with the same titles. However, in Defenders of the Earth, the Phantom was not the only playable character
, as players were given the choice to control Mandrake the Magician and Flash Gordon as well.
In Phantom 2040, released on Sega Genesis, Game Gear and Super NES
, the Phantom was the only playable character. He had use of a number of his special skills and high-tech gadgets from the Phantom 2040 TV-series. The game had a complex storyline, and featured several different endings, dependent on the choices the player made during the game.
In 2003, a video game made for Game Boy Advance
was announced, called "The Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks". It was developed by 7th Sense, and produced by Microids, and was described as a free-roaming jungle adventure. During the development process, Microids went bankrupt, and the game was never released.
In 2006, a The Phantom Mobile Game became available for cellphones, where the Phantom fought zombies, floating skulls and other magical creatures to find his kidnapped wife, Diana Palmer. It was described as a free-roaming jungle adventure, with a film-like plot.
, where audiences could visit the Skull Cave
, and several other places from the comic, like the Whispering Grove and the headquarters of the Jungle Patrol. Visitors could also meet actors dressed up as the Phantom, and witness short plays featuring the characters of the comic. Fantomenland was inaugurated by Lee Falk in 1986. Fantomenland closed in April 2012 due to the fact that The Phantom is not as well known among children as it used to be.
Adventure (genre)
The adventure genre, in the context of a narrative, is typically applied to works in which the protagonist or other major characters are consistently placed in dangerous situations...
comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
created by Lee Falk
Lee Falk
Lee Falk, born Leon Harrison Gross , was an American writer, theater director, and producer, best known as the creator of the popular comic strip superheroes The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician, who at the height of their popularity attracted over a hundred million readers every day...
, also creator of Mandrake the Magician
Mandrake the Magician
Mandrake the Magician is a syndicated newspaper comic strip, created by Lee Falk , which began June 11, 1934. Phil Davis soon took over as the strip's illustrator, while Falk continued to script. The strip was distributed by King Features Syndicate.Davis worked on the strip until his death in 1964,...
. A popular feature adapted into many media, including television, film and video games, it stars a costumed crimefighter operating from the fictional African country Bengalla.
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 to fight evil on the skull of his father's murderer, 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 supernatural powers of any kind, but relies on his strength, intellect and fearsome reputation of being an immortal ghost
Ghost
In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...
to defeat his opponents. The 21st Phantom is married to Diana Palmer, whom he met as a child while studying in the United States, and the couple has two children together, Kit and Heloise. Like all previous Phantoms, he lives in the ancient Skull Cave
Skull Cave
The Skull Cave is the hideout of The Phantom. The Skull Cave is hidden behind a largewaterfall in the Deep Woods of Bangalla.To find the cave, one must go through the waterfall...
, and also has a trained wolf, Devil, and the horse Hero.
The series began with a daily newspaper strip
Daily strip
A daily strip is a newspaper comic strip format, appearing on weekdays, Monday through Saturday, as contrasted with a Sunday strip, which typically only appears on Sundays....
on February 17, 1936, followed by a color Sunday strip
Sunday strip
A Sunday strip is a newspaper comic strip format, where comic strips are printed in the Sunday newspaper, usually in a special section called the Sunday comics, and virtually always in color. Some readers called these sections the Sunday funnies...
on May 28, 1939; both are still running as of . 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
Tony DePaul
Tony DePaul is the current writer of the Lee Falk created adventure comic strip The Phantom. DePaul has been writing the newspaper strip since Falk died in 1999...
and artists Paul Ryan
Paul Ryan (comics)
Paul Ryan Paul Ryan Paul Ryan ((born 23 September 1949 in Massachusetts) is an American comic book and comic strip artist. Ryan has worked extensively for Marvel Comics and DC Comics on a number of super-hero comics. He currently pencils and inks the daily and Sunday comic strip The Phantom for...
(Monday-Saturday) and Eduardo Barreto
Eduardo Barreto
-References:...
(Sunday). Previous artists on the newspaper strip include Ray Moore
Ray Moore (comics)
Raymond S. Moore, better known as Ray Moore, was the co-creator, together with Lee Falk, and first artist on what would grow to become the world's most popular adventure comic strip, The Phantom, which started in 1936...
, Wilson McCoy
Wilson McCoy
Wilson McCoy was an American illustrator and painter best known as the second artist on the The Phantom comic strip.Wilson McCoy is well known for his unique, naive style of drawing...
, Bill Lignante
Bill Lignante
Bill Lignante is an American illustrator.He was initially known for his work on The Phantom for Gold Key Comics and Charlton Comics and for his 16-year career as an animator for Hanna-Barbera....
, Sy Barry
Sy Barry
Seymour "Sy" Barry is an American comic strip artist, best known for his work on The Phantom comic strip, which he drew for three decades.-Career:...
, George Olesen
George Olesen
George Olesen is best known for his work as a penciller on popular comic strip The Phantom. He worked with the character for around 40 years, although he did not get any official credit for it until penciler Sy Barry retired and Keith Williams took over as the new inker...
, Keith Williams, Fred Fredericks
Fred Fredericks
Fred Fredericks is an American cartoonist, who has drawn the Mandrake the Magician comic strip for over 40 years, taking over for the late Phil Davis...
, and Graham Nolan
Graham Nolan
Graham Nolan is a comic book artist, best known for work for DC Comics on Batman-related titles in the 1990s and his work on The Phantom Sunday strip. He is currently the artist on the syndicated comic Rex Morgan, M.D....
.
New Phantom stories are also published in comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
s in different parts of the world, among them by Dynamite Entertainment
Dynamite Entertainment
Dynamite Entertainment is an American comic book company that primarily publishes licensed franchises of adaptations of other media. These include adaptations of film properties such as Army of Darkness, Terminator and RoboCop, literary properties such as Zorro, Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, Alice in...
in USA, Egmont in Sweden, Norway and Finland, and Frew Publications
Frew Publications
Frew Publications is an Australian comic book publisher, known for its long-running reprint series of Lee Falk's The Phantom. Frew formerly published other comics, including Falk's earlier creation Mandrake the Magician...
in Australia.
The Phantom was the first fictional hero to wear the skintight costume that has become a hallmark of comic book superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
es, and the first depicted wearing a mask with no visible pupils, another superhero standard.
Creation
After the success of his Mandrake the Magician strip, the King Features newspaper syndicate asked Lee Falk to develop a new feature. Falk's first attempt was a strip about King ArthurKing Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
and his knights, which he both wrote and drew. When King Features turned him down, Falk developed what would become The Phantom, about a mysterious, costumed crimefighter. He planned out the first few months of the story and drew the first two weeks of a sample strip.
Inspired by his lifelong fascination with such myths and legends as those about El Cid
El Cid
Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar , known as El Cid Campeador , was a Castilian nobleman, military leader, and diplomat...
and King Arthur, and such modern fictional characters as Zorro
Zorro
Zorro is a fictional character created in 1919 by New York-based pulp writer Johnston McCulley. The character has been featured in numerous books, films, television series, and other media....
, Tarzan
Tarzan
Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...
, and The Jungle Book
The Jungle Book
The Jungle Book is a collection of stories by British Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling. The stories were first published in magazines in 1893–4. The original publications contain illustrations, some by Rudyard's father, John Lockwood Kipling. Kipling was born in India and spent the first six...
s Mowgli
Mowgli
Mowgli is a fictional character from India who originally appeared in Rudyard Kipling's short story "In the Rukh" and then went on to become the most prominent and memorable character in his fantasies, The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book , which also featured stories about other...
, Falk originally envisioned the Phantom's alias as rich playboy Jimmy Wells, fighting crime by night as the mysterious Phantom. Never actually having revealed that Wells was the Phantom, partway through his first story, The Singh Brotherhood, Falk moved the Phantom to the jungle and turned him into a seemingly immortal mythic figure. He had tinkered with the idea of calling his hero The Gray Ghost (which later became the name of a Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
character, and was alluded in first episode of Phantom 2040
Phantom 2040
Phantom 2040 is an American animated science fiction television series loosely based on the comic strip hero The Phantom, created by Lee Falk. The central character of the series is said to be the 24th Phantom...
) after thinking there were already too many Phantoms in fiction, such as The Phantom Detective
The Phantom Detective
The Phantom Detective was the second pulp hero character published, after The Shadow. The first issue was released in February of 1933, a month before Doc Savage, which was released in March of 1933. The title continued to be released until 1953, with a total 170 issues...
and The Phantom of the Opera
The Phantom of the Opera
Le Fantôme de l'Opéra is a novel by French writer Gaston Leroux. It was first published as a serialisation in "Le Gaulois" from September 23, 1909 to January 8, 1910...
. Ultimately, he could not devise a name he liked better than the Phantom.
In the A&E
A&E Network
The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
American cable TV documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
The Phantom: Comic Strip Crusader, Falk revealed that Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
busts
Bust (sculpture)
A bust is a sculpted or cast representation of the upper part of the human figure, depicting a person's head and neck, as well as a variable portion of the chest and shoulders. The piece is normally supported by a plinth. These forms recreate the likeness of an individual...
inspired the idea of the Phantom's pupils not showing when wearing his mask. The Greek busts had no pupils, which Falk felt gave them an inhuman, awe-inspiring look. In an interview published in Comic Book Marketplace in 2005, Falk also told that the Phantom's skin-tight costume was inspired by the legendary figure of Robin Hood
Robin Hood
Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....
, who often wore tights in film and stage adaptations.
Newspaper strips
Ray Moore (comics)
Raymond S. Moore, better known as Ray Moore, was the co-creator, together with Lee Falk, and first artist on what would grow to become the world's most popular adventure comic strip, The Phantom, which started in 1936...
, who was an assistant to artist Phil Davis
Phil Davis (cartoonist)
Philip Davis , better known as Phil Davis, was an American artist who illustrated Mandrake the Magician, written by Lee Falk. Davis was born in St. Louis, Missouri....
on Falk's Mandrake the Magician strip. A Sunday Phantom strip was added May 28, 1939.
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
Wilson McCoy
Wilson McCoy was an American illustrator and painter best known as the second artist on the The Phantom comic strip.Wilson McCoy is well known for his unique, naive style of drawing...
. On Moore's return, he worked on the strip on and off until 1949, when McCoy succeeded him. 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
Carmine Infantino
Carmine Infantino Carmine Infantino Carmine Infantino (born May 24, 1925, in Brooklyn, New York is an American comic book artist and editor who was a major force in the Silver Age of Comic Books...
and Bill Lignante
Bill Lignante
Bill Lignante is an American illustrator.He was initially known for his work on The Phantom for Gold Key Comics and Charlton Comics and for his 16-year career as an animator for Hanna-Barbera....
(who would later draw several Phantom stories directly for comic books) filled in before a successor was found in Sy Barry
Sy Barry
Seymour "Sy" Barry is an American comic strip artist, best known for his work on The Phantom comic strip, which he drew for three decades.-Career:...
. 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
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
, 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
Fred Fredericks
Fred Fredericks is an American cartoonist, who has drawn the Mandrake the Magician comic strip for over 40 years, taking over for the late Phil Davis...
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. After Falk's passing, King Features Syndicate
King Features Syndicate
King Features Syndicate, a print syndication company owned by The Hearst Corporation, distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editorial cartoons, puzzles and games to nearly 5000 newspapers worldwide...
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
Claes Reimerthi
Claes Reimerthi is a Swedish comic writer, having worked with characters such as The Phantom and Bamse. Reimerthi has written more than 100 stories about The Phantom and is a member of Team Fantomen, the Swedish "braintrust" that set the line of what is going to happen to The Phantom.During the...
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.
Graham Nolan
Graham Nolan is a comic book artist, best known for work for DC Comics on Batman-related titles in the 1990s and his work on The Phantom Sunday strip. He is currently the artist on the syndicated comic Rex Morgan, M.D....
, 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
Paul Ryan (comics)
Paul Ryan Paul Ryan Paul Ryan ((born 23 September 1949 in Massachusetts) is an American comic book and comic strip artist. Ryan has worked extensively for Marvel Comics and DC Comics on a number of super-hero comics. He currently pencils and inks the daily and Sunday comic strip The Phantom for...
, 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. On Sunday July 31, 2011, Eduardo Barreto
Eduardo Barreto
-References:...
became the Phantom Sunday page artist.
The Phantom is one of few adventure comic strips still published today.
Fictional character biography
In the jungles of the fictional African country of BangallaBangalla
Bangalla, also known as Bengali and Bangolia, is a fictional African country that features in the Lee Falk created comic series The Phantom. Bangalla is the home of the Phantom, who resides in the Deep Woods of the jungle in the fabled Skull Cave...
, there is a myth featuring The Ghost Who Walks, a powerful and indestructible guardian of the innocent and fighter of all types of injustice. Because he seems to have existed for generations, many believe him to be immortal. In reality, the Phantom is a Legacy Hero
Legacy Hero
A legacy hero is a fictional character, usually a superhero, that is the descendant or relative of an already or previously existing hero who either inherits or adopts the name or attributes of the original....
, descended from 20 previous generations of crime-fighters who all adopt the same persona. When a new Phantom takes the task from his dying father, he swears the Oath of the Skull: "I swear to devote my life to the destruction of piracy, greed, cruelty, and injustice, in all their forms, and my sons and their sons shall follow me". The first Phantom married Christina, the daughter of a Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
n sea captain, Eric the Rover. The second Phantom married Marabella, the granddaughter of Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
.
(The comic sometimes runs flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
adventures of previous Phantoms written by various authors who sometimes confuse Phantom history. Current stories have Marabella as the daughter of Columbus and marrying the first Phantom. As Columbus died in 1506 while, according to the new history, Marabella first meets the Phantom in 1544, this results in another inconsistency, requiring her to be at least 38 years old despite being depicted as in her early 20s. Inconsistencies in storylines and histories are not corrected as a mark of respect to authors, but Falk's original history takes precedence.)
The Phantom of the present is the 21st in the line. Unlike most costumed heroes, he has no superhuman
Superhuman
Superhuman can mean an improved human, for example, by genetic modification, cybernetic implants, or as what humans might evolve into, in the near or distant future...
powers, relying only on his wits, physical strength, skill with his weapons, and fearsome reputation to fight crime. His real name is Kit Walker. References to "Mr. Walker" are in the strip often accompanied by a footnote saying "For 'The Ghost Who Walks'", although some versions of the Phantom's history suggest that Walker was actually the original surname of the man who became the first Phantom.
A signature of the character is his two rings. One has a pattern formed like four crossing sabres, "The Good Mark", that he leaves on visitors whom he befriends, placing the person under his protection. The other, "The Evil Mark" or "Skull Mark" has a skull shape, which leaves a scar of the corresponding shape on the enemies he punches with it. He wears the Good mark on his left hand because it is closer to the heart, and the Evil Mark on his right hand. The Skull Ring was given to the first Phantom by Paracelsus
Paracelsus
Paracelsus was a German-Swiss Renaissance physician, botanist, alchemist, astrologer, and general occultist....
. The original owner of the Skull Ring was Emperor Nero of the Roman empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
and it would later be revealed that the ring had been made from the nails that hung Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
to the cross
Cross
A cross is a geometrical figure consisting of two lines or bars perpendicular to each other, dividing one or two of the lines in half. The lines usually run vertically and horizontally; if they run obliquely, the design is technically termed a saltire, although the arms of a saltire need not meet...
. The Good Mark ring was made after the sixth Phantom founded the Jungle Patrol.
His base is in the Deep Woods of Bengali (originally "Bengalla", or "Bangalla
Bangalla
Bangalla, also known as Bengali and Bangolia, is a fictional African country that features in the Lee Falk created comic series The Phantom. Bangalla is the home of the Phantom, who resides in the Deep Woods of the jungle in the fabled Skull Cave...
" and renamed Denkali in the Indian edition), a fictional country
Fictional country
A fictional country is a country that is made up for fictional stories, and does not exist in real life, or one that people believe in without proof....
initially said to be set in Asia, near India, but depicted as in Africa during and after the 1960s. The Phantom's base is the fabled Skull Cave
Skull Cave
The Skull Cave is the hideout of The Phantom. The Skull Cave is hidden behind a largewaterfall in the Deep Woods of Bangalla.To find the cave, one must go through the waterfall...
, where all previous Phantoms are buried. For a period of time, he also lived with his family in a tree house built by the Rope People — a tribe he had assisted. The Phantom has an Isle of Eden in which he has trained animals that are natural enemies to live in harmony, a Mesa
Mesa
A mesa or table mountain is an elevated area of land with a flat top and sides that are usually steep cliffs. It takes its name from its characteristic table-top shape....
in America called Walker's Table and a castle in the Old World
Old World
The Old World consists of those parts of the world known to classical antiquity and the European Middle Ages. It is used in the context of, and contrast with, the "New World" ....
.
The Phantom is the commander of Bangalla's world-famous Jungle Patrol, who never know his name but answer consistently to his orders. Due to a betrayal leading to the death of the 14th Phantom, the identity of the commander has been kept hidden from members of the patrol ever since. The Phantom uses several ways to stay in contact. These include radio and a safe with a false bottom. On a few rare occasions the Phantom has also visited the patrol wearing his patrol uniform. The sixth Phantom originally formed the Jungle Patrol with the help of former pirate Redbeard
Redbeard
Redbeard is a series of Belgian comic books, originally published in French, created by writer Jean-Michel Charlier and artist Victor Hubinon....
and his men back in 1664.
Another character who has aided the modern-day Phantom is Guran
Guran
Guran is a character from The Phantom comic strip, and is the Phantom's best friend since childhood. According to Lee Falk's novel The Story of the Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks, he is ten years older than Kit Walker, aka the Phantom. The two grew up together in the deep woods of Bangalla, where...
, chief of the local pygmy
Pygmy
Pygmy is a term used for various ethnic groups worldwide whose average height is unusually short; anthropologists define pygmy as any group whose adult men grow to less than 150 cm in average height. A member of a slightly taller group is termed "pygmoid." The best known pygmies are the Aka,...
tribe, who are the only tribe to know his true nature. Guran is the Phantom's best friend since childhood, and a supporter of his cause.
In 1978, he married his sweetheart since his days in American college, Diana Palmer, who works at the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
. Guran, his best friend since boyhood, was best man. The guests present at the wedding included President Luaga of Bengalla, President Goranda of Ivory-Lana, and Mandrake the Magician
Mandrake the Magician
Mandrake the Magician is a syndicated newspaper comic strip, created by Lee Falk , which began June 11, 1934. Phil Davis soon took over as the strip's illustrator, while Falk continued to script. The strip was distributed by King Features Syndicate.Davis worked on the strip until his death in 1964,...
(the Phantom would later be a guest at Mandrake's wedding when he married in 1997).
A year later, twins were born to the Palmer-Walkers; Kit and Heloise.
The Phantom's family have always played a significant role in the series. His romance with Diana Palmer was an ongoing part of the story from the beginning, and many later stories revolved around the Phantom becoming involved in adventures as a result of young charges including his children.
When the Phantom leaves the jungle, he frequently dresses in a fedora
Fedora (hat)
A fedora is a men's felt hat. In reality, "fedora" describes most any men's hat that does not already have another name; quite a few fedoras have famous names of their own including the famous Trilby....
, a trench coat
Trench coat
A trench coat or trenchcoat is a raincoat made of waterproof heavy-duty cotton drill or poplin, wool gabardine, or leather. It generally has a removable insulated lining; and it is usually knee-length.-History:...
, and sunglasses. The Phantom usually does not allow his unmasked or undisguised face to be seen except by close friends or members of his family. Even readers of the comic have never been shown the Phantom's unmasked face clearly.
Origin
The story of the Phantom started with a young sailor named Christopher Walker (sometimes called Christopher Standish in certain versions of the story). Christopher was born in 1516 in PortsmouthPortsmouth
Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...
. His father, also named Christopher Walker, had been a seaman since he was a young boy, and was the cabin boy on Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
's ship Santa María
Santa María (ship)
La Santa María de la Inmaculada Concepción , was the largest of the three ships used by Christopher Columbus in his first voyage. Her master and owner was Juan de la Cosa.-History:...
when he sailed to the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
. Christopher Jr. became a shipboy on his father's ship in 1526, of which Christopher Sr. was Captain
Captain (nautical)
A sea captain is a licensed mariner in ultimate command of the vessel. The captain is responsible for its safe and efficient operation, including cargo operations, navigation, crew management and ensuring that the vessel complies with local and international laws, as well as company and flag...
.
In 1536, when Christopher was 20 years old, he was a part of what was supposed to be his father's last voyage. On February 17, the ship was attacked by pirates of the Singh Brotherhood
Singh Brotherhood
The Singh Brotherhood is a fictional global crime syndicate. They are the best known adversaries of the Lee Falk created superhero The Phantom, and have made many appearances in Phantom comic books and comic strips throughout the years...
in a bay on the coast of Bengalla. The last thing Christopher saw before he fell unconscious and into the sea was his father being murdered by the leader of the pirates. Both ships exploded, making Christopher the sole survivor of the attack. Christopher was washed ashore on a Bengalla beach, seemingly half dead. He was found by pygmies of the Bandar tribe, who nursed him and took care of him.
Some time later, Christopher took a walk on the same beach, and found a dead body there, whom he recognized as the pirate who killed his father. He allowed the vultures flying around the body to eat its meat, took up the skull of the killer, raised it above his head, and swore an oath:
"I swear to devote my life to the destruction of piracy, greed, cruelty, and injustice, in all their forms! My sons and their sons shall follow me."
After learning the language of the Bandar tribe, Christopher learned that the majority of their people were slaves of the Wasaka, a tribe consisting of what the Bandars called "giants". Immediately, Christopher walked into the village of the Wasaka, and asked them to set the Bandars free. He was taken prisoner and laid before the Demon God of the Wasaka, Uzuki, who was supposed to decide his destiny. Christopher was tied up and laid on an altar made of stone, where vultures surrounded him. Christopher was quickly saved by a group of Bandar before the vultures or the Wasaka could do him any real harm. They managed to escape from the village of the Wasaka unharmed.
Christopher later learned of a Bandar prophecy that featured a man coming from the ocean to save them from their slavery. He made a costume inspired by the look of the Demon God of the Wasaka and went to the Wasaka village again, this time with a small army of Bandar armed with their newly-discovered poisoned arrows, which were capable of killing a man in a few seconds. The Wasaka, shocked at seeing what many of them thought was their Demon God come alive, were fought down, and the Bandars were finally set free after centuries in slavery. This resulted in a dedicated friendship between Christopher and the Bandars, which would be continued in the generations to come after them.
The Bandars showed Christopher to a cave, which resembled a human skull in appearance. Christopher later carved the features out to enhance this. This Skull Cave
Skull Cave
The Skull Cave is the hideout of The Phantom. The Skull Cave is hidden behind a largewaterfall in the Deep Woods of Bangalla.To find the cave, one must go through the waterfall...
became his home.
Wearing the costume based on the Demon God, Christopher became the first of what would later be known as the Phantom. When he died, his son took over for him; when the second Phantom died, his son took over. So it would go on through the centuries, causing people to believe that the Phantom was immortal. These people gave him nicknames including "The Ghost Who Walks" and "The Man Who Cannot Die".
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. 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.
Kit Walker, the 21st Phantom
Skull Cave
The Skull Cave is the hideout of The Phantom. The Skull Cave is hidden behind a largewaterfall in the Deep Woods of Bangalla.To find the cave, one must go through the waterfall...
, and spent his first years in the jungle of Bengalla. His mother, Maud Thorne McPatrick, who had previously worked as Rita Hayworth
Rita Hayworth
Rita Hayworth was an American film actress and dancer who attained fame during the 1940s as one of the era's top stars...
's stunt double, was born in Mississippi, where Kit went to study when he was 12 years old, living with his aunt Lucy and uncle Jasper in the fictional town of Clarksville.
Here he met his wife-to-be, Diana Palmer. Kit was an extremely talented sportsman and was predicted to become the world champion of many different events (even knocking out the world heavyweight boxing champion in a sparring match when the champion visited Clarksville). Despite the opportunity to choose practically any career he wanted, Kit faithfully returned to Bengalla to take over the role of the Phantom when he received word from Guran that his father was dying from a knife-wound.
One of Kit's first missions as the Phantom was to find his father's killer, Rama Singh, who had betrayed and murdered the 20th Phantom by first helping him to blow up a fleet of ships owned by the Singh Brotherhood, only to then stab him in the back, stealing his special gunbelt in the process. The 21st Phantom eventually found him and reclaimed the belt at the island of Gullique, but before he could avenge his father and bring the killer to jail, the desperate Rama blew up his lair, killing himself and his henchmen in the process.
Costume and weapons
As part of the official uniform, the Phantom wears a black maskMask
A mask is an article normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance or entertainment. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and practical purposes...
and a purple skintight bodysuit. He also carries period-appropriate sidearms
Side arm
A side arm is a weapon, usually a pistol but can be a dagger, as used in pre-modern times, which is worn on the body in a holster to permit immediate access and use. A side arm is typically required equipment for military personnel and sometimes carried by law enforcement personnel...
, currently two M1911 pistols, in a special belt with a skull-like buckle. Falk has insisted that the Phantom only uses his guns to shoot out the guns of his opponents, a fact that writer Peter David
Peter David
Peter Allen David , often abbreviated PAD, is an American writer of comic books, novels, television, movies and video games...
was unaware of when he wrote DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
' 1988 four-issue Phantom miniseries
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
, in which he had the Phantom shoot to wound his enemies.
While there had been masked crime fighters like the costumed Zorro
Zorro
Zorro is a fictional character created in 1919 by New York-based pulp writer Johnston McCulley. The character has been featured in numerous books, films, television series, and other media....
or the business-suited The Clock
The Clock
The Clock is a fictional masked crime-fighter published during the Golden Age of Comic Books. According to the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, the Clock was the first masked hero to appear in American comic books.-Publication history:...
, the Phantom was the first fictional character to wear the skintight costume and eyes with no visible pupils that has become a trademark of superheroes. Creator Lee Falk had originally envisioned a grey costume and even considered naming his creation "The Gray Ghost". It was not until the Phantom Sunday strip
Sunday strip
A Sunday strip is a newspaper comic strip format, where comic strips are printed in the Sunday newspaper, usually in a special section called the Sunday comics, and virtually always in color. Some readers called these sections the Sunday funnies...
debuted in 1939 that the costume was shown to be purple. Falk, however, continued to refer to the costume as gray in the text of the strip on several occasions afterward, but finally accepted the purple color. In a Sunday strip story published in the 1960s it was shown that the first Phantom chose the costume based on the appearance of a jungle idol, and colored the cloth with purple jungle berries.
As part of a modernization of the character in Moonstone Books' series The Phantom: Ghost Who Walks, the Phantom began wearing a costume made of kevlar
Kevlar
Kevlar is the registered trademark for a para-aramid synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed at DuPont in 1965, this high strength material was first commercially used in the early 1970s as a replacement for steel in racing tires...
.
The Phantom's costume is colored blue in Scandinavia, red in Italy, Turkey, and formerly in Brazil.
Enemies
Given his oath to fight all evil in the world, The Phantom faces a vast array of villains. The most dangerous and lasting enemy of the Phantom is the Singh BrotherhoodSingh Brotherhood
The Singh Brotherhood is a fictional global crime syndicate. They are the best known adversaries of the Lee Falk created superhero The Phantom, and have made many appearances in Phantom comic books and comic strips throughout the years...
, which have been active for centuries and were responsible for the pirate attack that resulted in the death of Christopher Standish's father and the beginning of the Phantom legacy. In Egmont's Phantom comics, the brotherhood has evolved from merely being pirates into a modern company called Singh Corporations, led by Sandal Singh, who is the daughter of former leader Dogai Singh and also the current President of Bengalla.
Another major threat against the Phantom and his country was Kigali Lubanga, the President of Bengalla for several years. Other recurring villainous characters are General Bababu, The Python, Manuel Ortega, Ali Gutalee, Goldhand, Bail, HIM and - in the movie - Xander Drax. The Phantom has also fought numerous crime-organizations such as the Sky Band, the Vultures, Hydra and The Flame.
United States
Ace Comics
Ace Comics was a comic book series published by David McKay Publications between 1937 and 1949 — starting just before the Golden Age era of comics...
published by David McKay Publications
David McKay Publications
David McKay Publications was an American book publisher which also published some of the first comic books, including the long-running titles Ace Comics, King Comics, and Magic Comics; as well as collections of such popular comic strips as Blondie, Dick Tracy, and Mandrake the Magician...
. In the 1950s, Harvey Comics
Harvey Comics
Harvey Comics was an American comic book publisher, founded in New York City by Alfred Harvey in 1941, after buying out the small publisher Brookwood Publications. His brothers Robert B...
published the Phantom. In 1962, Gold Key Comics
Gold Key Comics
Gold Key Comics was an imprint of Western Publishing created for comic books distributed to newsstands. Also known as Whitman Comics, Gold Key operated from 1962 to 1984.-History:...
took over, followed by King Comics
King Comics
King Comics, a short-lived comic book imprint of King Features Syndicate, was an attempt by King Features to publish comics of its own characters, rather than through other publishers. The line ran for approximately a year-and-a-half, with its series cover-dated from August 1966 to December 1967...
in 1966 and Charlton Comics
Charlton Comics
Charlton Comics was an American comic book publishing company that existed from 1946 to 1985, having begun under a different name in 1944. It was based in Derby, Connecticut...
in 1969. This lasted until 1977, with a total number of 73 issues being published. Some of the main Phantom artists during these years were Bill Lignante
Bill Lignante
Bill Lignante is an American illustrator.He was initially known for his work on The Phantom for Gold Key Comics and Charlton Comics and for his 16-year career as an animator for Hanna-Barbera....
, Don Newton
Don Newton
Don Newton was an American comic book artist. During his career, he worked for a number of comic book publishers, including Marvel Comics, DC Comics, and Charlton Comics. He is best known for his work on The Phantom, Aquaman, and Batman...
, Jim Aparo
Jim Aparo
James N. "Jim" Aparo was an American comic book artist best known for his 1960s and 1970s DC Comics work, including on the characters Batman, Aquaman and the Spectre....
and Pat Boyette.
DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
published a Phantom comic book from 1988 to 1990. The initial mini-series (dated May-Aug. 1988) was written by Peter David
Peter David
Peter Allen David , often abbreviated PAD, is an American writer of comic books, novels, television, movies and video games...
and drawn by Joe Orlando
Joe Orlando
Joseph Orlando was a prolific illustrator, writer, editor and cartoonist during a lengthy career spanning six decades...
and Dennis Janke. The subsequent series, written by Mark Verheiden
Mark Verheiden
Mark Verheiden is an American television, movie, and comic book writer. He is a co-executive producer for the television series Falling Skies for DreamWorks Television and the TNT Network.-Career:...
and drawn by Luke McDonnell, lasted 13 issues (March 1989 - March 1990). It depicted the Phantom fighting such issues as racism, toxic dumping, hunger, and modern-day piracy
Piracy
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea. The term can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the perpetrator...
. According to Verheiden, the series ended because of licencing issues as much as dropping sales. The final panels of issue 13 saw the Phantom marrying Diana.
In 1987, Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
did a four-issue miniseries
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
based on the Defenders of the Earth
Defenders of the Earth
Defenders of the Earth is an animated television series produced in 1986, narrated by Corey Burton and featuring characters from three comic strips distributed by King Features Syndicate—Flash Gordon, the Phantom, and Mandrake the Magician—battling the Flash Gordon villain Ming the Merciless in the...
TV series, written by Stan Lee
Stan Lee
Stan Lee is an American comic book writer, editor, actor, producer, publisher, television personality, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics....
. Another three-issue Marvel miniseries, The Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks (Feb.-April 1995) followed. Written and drawn by Dave DeVries and Glenn Lumsden, it featured the 22nd Phantom, with an updated, high-tech costume. Marvel later released a four-part miniseries (May-Aug. 1995), pencilled by Spider-Man
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...
co-creator Steve Ditko
Steve Ditko
Stephen J. "Steve" Ditko is an American comic book artist and writer best known as the artist co-creator, with Stan Lee, of the Marvel Comics heroes Spider-Man and Doctor Strange....
, based on the Phantom 2040
Phantom 2040
Phantom 2040 is an American animated science fiction television series loosely based on the comic strip hero The Phantom, created by Lee Falk. The central character of the series is said to be the 24th Phantom...
TV series. One issue featured a pin-up by the original two Spider-Man signature artists, Ditko and John Romita, Sr.
John Romita, Sr.
John V. Romita, Sr. is an Italian-American comic-book artist best known for his work on Marvel Comics' The Amazing Spider-Man...
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
built into one of his wristbands, the 22nd's wristband contained a sophisticated, but clearly present-day, palmtop computer.
Moonstone Books
Moonstone Books
Moonstone Books is an American comic book, graphic novel, and prose fiction publisher based in Chicago focused on pulp fiction comic books and prose anthologies as well as horror and western tales....
published Phantom graphic novels beginning in 2002. Five books, written by Tom DeFalco
Tom DeFalco
Tom DeFalco is an American comics writer and editor, well known for his association with Marvel Comics and in particular for his work with Spider-Man.-Career:...
, Ben Raab
Ben Raab
Benjamin "Ben" Raab is a comic book writer and editor. He has written stories for Marvel Comics, DC Comics, WildStorm, Moonstone Books, Malibu Comics, Harris Publications and Ludovico Technique LLC.-Biography:...
, and Ron Goulart
Ron Goulart
Ron Goulart is an American popular culture historian and mystery, fantasy and science fiction author.The prolific Goulart wrote many novelizations and other routine work under various pseudonyms: Kenneth Robeson , Con Steffanson , Chad Calhoun, R.T...
, were published. In 2003, Moonstone debuted a Phantom comic-book series written by Raab, Rafael Nieves, and Chuck Dixon
Chuck Dixon
Charles "Chuck" Dixon is an American comic book writer, best known for long runs on Batman titles in the 1990s.-Biography:Dixon grew up in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, area, reading comics of all genres...
, and drawn by artists including Pat Quinn
Pat Quinn
Pat Quinn may refer to:*Pat Quinn , founder of Quinnsworth supermarket chain and other businesses, first person to bring The Rolling Stones to North America*Pat Quinn , copywriter and author from London England...
, Jerry DeCaire
Jerry DeCaire
Jerry DeCaire is a professional illustrator who drafts sequential visuals following a general plot provided by a writer on a free-lance basis. DeCaire's publications for the Marvel Entertainment group include, but are not limited to,: Thor, X-Men, Wolverine, Conan, the Punisher and others...
, Nick Derington, Rich Burchett, and EricJ. After 11 issues, Mike Bullock
Mike Bullock
Mike Bullock is an American author and musician born in Washington, DC. Bullock began writing fiction, non-fiction and poetry in the 1980s. He worked professionally in the music and comic book industries since 1986 and is best known as the creator of comic book series Lions, Tigers and Bears from...
took over scripting, with Gabriel Rearte and Carlos Magno creating the artwork before Silvestre Szilagyi became the regular artist in 2007. Bullock's stories often feature topical issues based on real-life African conflicts. In a 2007 three-part story arc called "Invisible Children", the Phantom fought a fictional warlord called "Him", loosely based on Joseph Kony
Joseph Kony
Joseph Kony is an African terrorist who is the head of the Lord's Resistance Army , a guerrilla group that is engaged in a violent campaign to establish theocratic government based on the Ten Commandments in Uganda...
.
In 2006, Moonstone published a retcon of the Phantom's origin, called Legacy, by Raab and Quinn. That same year, the company published a hybrid comic book and prose book it called "wide-vision", premiering the format with the Phantom story "Law of the Jungle". Moonstone also released the first American Phantom annual
Annual publication
An annual publication, more often called simply an annual, is a book or a magazine, comic book or comic strip published yearly. For example, a weekly or monthly publication may produce an Annual featuring similar materials to the regular publication....
. A second annual teamed the Phantom up with Mandrake the Magician.
In 2009, Moonstone re-launched the series as The Phantom: Ghost Who Walks, starting with issue 0, a retelling of the origin of the first Phantom. The goal of this launch was to make the comic darker, grittier and more realistic, like the stories of Lee Falk and Ray Moore from the 1930s. It also updated the character of the Phantom by giving him more modern day accessories, and introduced many supporting characters and villains. The Phantom frequently fights reality based enemies in the series, such as modern day terrorists, organ-smugglers and Somalian
Somali people
Somalis are an ethnic group located in the Horn of Africa, also known as the Somali Peninsula. The overwhelming majority of Somalis speak the Somali language, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family...
pirates.
2009 would see Moonstone Books launch the 21 issue maxi-series Phantom Generations, with each of the twenty one Phantoms spotlighted in their own story, crafted by different creative teams including writers such as Ben Raab, Tom DeFalco, Tony Bedard, Will Murray and Mike Bullock. Artists on the project include Pat Quinn, Alex Saviuk, Don Hudson
Don Hudson
Donald Edward Hudson is a former American football player and coach in the United States. He served as the head football coach at Macalester College from 1972 to 1975 and at Lincoln University of Missouri from 1976 to 1979, compiling a career college football record of 9–72–2...
, Scott Brooks
Scott Brooks
Scott William Brooks is a retired American professional basketball player from Lathrop, California and is the current head coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder of the NBA...
and Zeu.
Moonstone also published "Phantom Action", a story written by Mike Bullock that saw the Phantom meeting Captain Action
Captain Action
Captain Action was an action figure, from 1966, equipped with a wardrobe of costumes allowing him to become Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, Captain America, Aquaman, the Phantom, The Lone Ranger , Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Sgt. Fury, Steve Canyon, and the Green Hornet. Captain Action was the Ideal...
, a five-issue miniseries in black and white called "The Phantom Double Shot: KGB Noir", and a two-part miniseries called "The Phantom: Unmasked".
Dynamite Entertainment
Dynamite Entertainment
Dynamite Entertainment is an American comic book company that primarily publishes licensed franchises of adaptations of other media. These include adaptations of film properties such as Army of Darkness, Terminator and RoboCop, literary properties such as Zorro, Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, Alice in...
debuted the monthly comic book series The Last Phantom
The Last Phantom
The Last Phantom is a comic book series published by Dynamite Entertainment, inspired by Lee Falk's The Phantom. It is written by Scott Beatty and drawn by Eduardo Ferigato.-Plot:...
in August 2010, to strong sales. The book is written by Scott Beatty
Scott Beatty
Scott Beatty is an American author who has written comic books and encyclopaedias based on DC Comics characters.-Biography:Beatty has worked extensively for the popular comic book publisher DC Comics since the mid '90s...
and drawn by Eduardo Ferigato, with covers painted by Alex Ross
Alex Ross
Nelson Alexander "Alex" Ross is an American comic book painter, illustrator, and plotter. He is praised for his realistic, human depictions of classic comic book characters. Since the 1990s he has done work for Marvel Comics and DC Comics Nelson Alexander "Alex" Ross (born January 22, 1970) is an...
. Featuring the 22nd Phantom, the series tells the story about how Kit Walker, now a philanthropist and head of the Walkabout Foundation, has forsaken his family's legacy, and shows his journey to become the Phantom again, set in motion when his family is murdered.
Scandinavia and Nordic region
Egmont Publications has published original Phantom stories in a fortnightFortnight
The fortnight is a unit of time equal to fourteen days, or two weeks. The word derives from the Old English fēowertyne niht, meaning "fourteen nights"....
ly Phantom comic book published in Sweden as Fantomen, in Norway as Fantomet, and in Finland as Mustanaamio ("[the] Black-Mask").
The first story created originally for the Swedish Fantomen magazine was published as early as 1963, and today the total number of Fantomen stories is over 900. The average length of a Fantomen story is 30+ pages (compared to 20-24 pages for most American comics). Among the most prolific artists and writers that have created stories for Fantomen are: Dick Giordano
Dick Giordano
Richard Joseph "Dick" Giordano was an American comic book artist and editor best known for introducing Charlton Comics' "Action Heroes" stable of superheroes, and serving as executive editor of then–industry leader DC Comics...
, Donne Avenell, Heiner Bade, David Bishop
David Bishop
David Bishop is a screenwriter and author. Born in New Zealand, he was a UK comics editor during the 1990s, running such titles as the Judge Dredd Megazine and 2000 AD, the latter between 1996 and the summer of 2000....
, Georges Bess
Georges Bess
Georges Bess is a comics artist and comic book creator, best known for his collaborations with Alejandro Jodorowsky.-Biography:...
, Jaime Vallvé
Jaime Vallvé
Jaime Vallvé was a Spanish comic strip artist who lived and worked in Denmark during most of his lifetime. He started working with comics when he was in his teens and later studied art in France. Vallvé moved to Denmark in 1960 and, after having been involved in some other comics, made his debut...
, Joan Boix, Tony DePaul
Tony DePaul
Tony DePaul is the current writer of the Lee Falk created adventure comic strip The Phantom. DePaul has been writing the newspaper strip since Falk died in 1999...
, Ulf Granberg, Ben Raab
Ben Raab
Benjamin "Ben" Raab is a comic book writer and editor. He has written stories for Marvel Comics, DC Comics, WildStorm, Moonstone Books, Malibu Comics, Harris Publications and Ludovico Technique LLC.-Biography:...
, Rolf Gohs
Rolf Gohs
Rolf Gohs is a Swedish comic creator. He was born in Estonia but moved to Sweden in 1946.Acclaimed mostly for his artwork, Gohs usually writes his own stories as well...
, Scott Goodall
Scott Goodall
-Career:Goodall created and wrote the character Fishboy and lesser-known characters such as Splash Gorton...
, Eirik Ildahl, Kari Leppänen
Kari Leppänen
Kari Tapio Leppänen is a Finnish comic strip artist who has worked on the Phantom comic since 1979. Leppänens career started in the magazine Sarjis. This was a magazine with only Finnish series. He wrote science fiction under the pseudonym Oskari...
, Hans Lindahl
Hans Lindahl
Hans Lindahl is a Swedish comic book artist, best known for his work on the series The Phantom. His work on the Phantom have been published in countries like Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, England, Australia and Brazil....
, Janne Lundström, Cesar Spadari, Bob McLeod, Jean-Yves Mitton, Lennart Moberg, Claes Reimerthi
Claes Reimerthi
Claes Reimerthi is a Swedish comic writer, having worked with characters such as The Phantom and Bamse. Reimerthi has written more than 100 stories about The Phantom and is a member of Team Fantomen, the Swedish "braintrust" that set the line of what is going to happen to The Phantom.During the...
, Paul Ryan
Paul Ryan (comics)
Paul Ryan Paul Ryan Paul Ryan ((born 23 September 1949 in Massachusetts) is an American comic book and comic strip artist. Ryan has worked extensively for Marvel Comics and DC Comics on a number of super-hero comics. He currently pencils and inks the daily and Sunday comic strip The Phantom for...
, Alex Saviuk
Alex Saviuk
Alex Saviuk is an American comic book artist primarily known for his work on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man.-Biography:Saviuk was born on August 17, 1952 Alex Saviuk (born August 17, 1953) is an American comic book artist primarily known for his work on the Marvel Comics character...
, Graham Nolan
Graham Nolan
Graham Nolan is a comic book artist, best known for work for DC Comics on Batman-related titles in the 1990s and his work on The Phantom Sunday strip. He is currently the artist on the syndicated comic Rex Morgan, M.D....
, Romano Felmang
Romano Felmang
Romano Felmang is an Italian artist best known for his illustrations of American comic strip characters such as The Phantom and Flash Gordon. His first work, in 1962, was a Phantom story titled Kaniska, which was never published in its original form, but which gained him entry to the SPADA...
, and Norman Worker
Norman Worker
Norman Worker was a British comic book writer, best known for his work on comic books featuring Lee Falk's The Phantom.Norman was born in Kent, England, in 1927. When he was 17 years old, he fought in World War II in India...
. The artists and writers working on these stories have been nicknamed Team Fantomen. In later years, the team have started to experiment more with the character and his surroundings, by having Singh Brotherhood member Sandal Singh taking over as President of Bengalla, giving the Phantom and Diana marriage problems, and exploring the Phantom-canon more.
Egmont are also well known for their numerous historical Phantom adventures, detailing the lives and deaths of former Phantoms and having them appearing in real historic events, meeting countless historic figures in the process.
Australia
Another country where the Phantom is popular is Australia, where Frew PublicationsFrew Publications
Frew Publications is an Australian comic book publisher, known for its long-running reprint series of Lee Falk's The Phantom. Frew formerly published other comics, including Falk's earlier creation Mandrake the Magician...
has published a fortnightly comic book, The Phantom, since 1948, celebrating 60 years of uninterrupted publication in September 2008. Frew's book mostly contains reprints, from the newspaper strips and from Fantomen (in English translation) and other The Phantom comic books, but has on a few occasions also included original stories, drawn by Australian artists, such as Keith Chatto
Keith Chatto
Ronald Keith Chatto was an Australian comic book artist and writer. Chatto was the first Australian artist to illustrate a full-length comic episode of The Phantom.-Biography:...
. The editor-in-chief is Jim Shepherd. Frew's The Phantom is the longest running comic book series with the character in the world, and is Australia's best selling comic. The Frew comics are also imported and sold in New Zealand. The comics appear in numerous Perth Royal Show
Perth Royal Show
The Perth Royal Show is an annual show held in Perth, Western Australia at the Claremont Showgrounds. It features informational exhibits, agricultural competitions and display animals, a fairground and rides, and showbags. It has been held for over 100 years and is organised by the Royal...
showbags.
India
The Phantom also has a long publishing history in India. The Phantom first appeared in India in the 1940s via a magazine called The Illustrated Weekly of India, which carried Phantom on Sundays. Indrajal ComicsIndrajal Comics
Indrajal Comics was a series launched by the publisher of The Times of India, Bennet, Coleman & Co in March 1964. The first 32 issues contained Lee Falk's The Phantom stories, but thereafter, the title alternated between various King Features characters, including Lee Falk's Mandrake, Alex...
took up publication of Phantom comics in English, Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
and other Indian languages in 1964. They ceased publication in 1990. This same year, Diamond Comics
Diamond Comics
Diamond Comics Pvt. Ltd. is the largest comic book distributor and publisher in India.-Overview:Diamond Comics is responsible for popular Indian comics characters such as Chacha Chaudhary. Diamond Comics has been publishing many foreign characters comics such as Phantom, Superman, Batman,...
started publishing Phantom comics in digest format
Digest size
Digest size is a magazine size, smaller than a conventional or "journal size" magazine but larger than a standard paperback book, approximately 5½ x 8¼ inches, but can also be 5⅜ x 8⅜ inches and 5½ x 7½ inches. These sizes have evolved from the printing press operation end...
, again in many languages including English. This continued until 2000, when Diamond Comics stopped publishing Phantom comics; Egmont Imagination India (formerly Indian Express Egmont Publications) took up publication the same year. They published monthly comics (in English only) until 2002. Since then they have only brought out reprints of their earlier stories with new covers and formats. Rani Comics published Phantom from 1990 till 2005. However, Rani comics were available only in the Tamil language
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
.
One of India's most reputed publishing houses, ABP Pvt. Ltd., Kolkata
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
used to publish "The Phantom" in Bengali
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
, under the name "Aranyadeb" (the lord of the forests) in their magazine "Desh
Desh magazine
Desh is a Bengali language literary magazine published by Anadabazar Patrika Limited from India. This magazine, which is in publication since 1933, has been edited by editors like Sagarmoy Ghosh in the past. The present editor is Harsha Dutta...
", their newspapaper, "Anandabazar Patrika
Anandabazar Patrika
Anandabazar Patrika is an Indian Bengali language daily newspaper published in Kolkata, New Delhi and Mumbai by the ABP Group. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it has a circulation of 1.28 million copies making it the largest circulation for a single-edition, regional language...
", and later in their children's magazine Anandamela
Anandamela
Anandamela or, Anondamela, or, Anonodomela is a children's periodical in the Bengali language published by ABP Limited from Kolkata, India...
. Though the comic was discontinued in "Desh", it still appears in the newspaper as well as the children's magazine.
It may be noted that, for the most part, Indrajal Comics, Diamond Comics, and Rani Comics all published reprints of Lee Falk's daily or Sunday strips. Egmont Imagination India printed the Scandinavian work. Euro Books India has launched 15 titles of the Phantom comics in large format along with compilations in 2007.
Others
Italian publisher Fratelli Spada in Italy also produced a large number of original Phantom stories for their L'Uomo Mascherato (The Masked Man) series of comic books in the 1960s and 1970s. Among the artists that worked for Fratelli Spada were Raul Buzzelli, Mario Caria, Umberto Sammarini (Usam), Germano Ferri, Senio Pratesi, Angelo R. Todaro, Mario Caria and Felmang. Ferri, Usam, Felmang and Caria have all later worked for the Swedish Fantomen magazine.Brazilian publisher RGE
RGE
RGE may refer to*Racing Green Endurance*Rádio Gravações Especializadas*Rochester Gas and Electric*Roubini Global Economics*Renormalization group equation**Beta-function**Callan–Symanzik equation**Exact renormalization group equation...
and German publisher Bastei
Bastei
The Bastei is a spectacular rock formation towering 194 metres above the Elbe River in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains of Germany. Reaching a height of 305 metres above sea level, the jagged rocks of the Bastei were formed by water erosion over one million years ago...
also produced original Phantom stories for their comic books. In Brazil the Phantom is known as o Fantasma.
Different Phantom comics are published and have been published in England, Mexico, Israel, Spain, Poland, Russia, Denmark, Hungary, Germany, Turkey, New Zealand, Iceland, South America, France, Thailand, Singapore, Netherlands, Chile, Greece, Yugoslavia, Fiji and Venezuela. In Turkey, where the comic has been very popular for decades, the Phantom is mainly known as "The Red Mask" (Kizil Maske), and published under that title.
Reprints
The entire run of the Phantom newspaper strip has been reprinted in Australia by Frew PublicationsFrew Publications
Frew Publications is an Australian comic book publisher, known for its long-running reprint series of Lee Falk's The Phantom. Frew formerly published other comics, including Falk's earlier creation Mandrake the Magician...
. Edited versions of most stories have also been published in the Scandinavian Phantom comics. In the United States, the following Phantom stories have been reprinted, by Nostalgia Press
Woody Gelman
Woodrow Gelman , better known as Woody Gelman, was a publisher, a cartoonist, a novelist and an artist-writer for animation and comic books. As the publisher of Nostalgia Press, he pioneered the reprinting of vintage comic strips in quality hardcovers and trade paperbacks...
(NP), Pacific Comics Club (PCC), or Comics Revue
Comics Revue
Comics Revue is a bi-monthly small press comic book published by Manuscript Press and edited by Rick Norwood. Don Markstein edited the publication from 1984 to 1987 and 1992 to 1996....
(CR), all written by Lee Falk.
- "The Sky Band", Ray Moore, 9 November 1936, CR
- "The Diamond Hunters", Ray Moore, 12 April 1937, PCC
- "Little Tommy", Ray Moore, 20 September 1937, PCC
- "The Prisoner of the Himalayas", Ray Moore, 7 February 1938, NP
- "Adventure in Algiers", Ray Moore, 20 June 1938, CR
- "The Shark's Nest", Ray Moore, 25 July 1938, PCC
- "Fishers of Pearls", Ray Moore, 7 November 1938, CR
- "The Slave Traders", Ray Moore, 30 January 1939, CR
- "The Mysterious Girl", Ray Moore, 8 May 1939, CR
- "The Golden Circle", Ray Moore, 4 September 1939, PCC
- "The Seahorse", Ray Moore, 22 January 1940, PCC
- "The Game of Alvar", Ray Moore, 29 July 1940, PCC
- "Diana Aviatrix", Ray Moore, 16 December 1940, PCC
- "The Phantom's Treasure", Ray Moore, 14 July 1941, PCC
- "The Phantom Goes to War", Ray Moore and Wilson McCoy, 2 February 1942, PCC
- "The Slave Markets of Mucar", Sy Barry, 21 August 1961, CR
In the October 2009 issue, Comics Revue began reprinting the Sunday story "The Return of the Sky Band" for the first time in color.
Hermes Press
Lee Falk's entire run of Phantom adventures up until Sy Barry's final story is set to be reprinted in hardcover books by Hermes Press, starting in 2009. The publisher will issue three volumes of daily strips each year and one volume of Sunday strips collecting five years of the strip, in color. Press proofs will be used as the primary source for these reprints so the strip will look better than when it was originally printed. All of the Sundays will be digitally recolored.Hermes Press will soon start a hardcover archive reprint series of 8 volumes of the US Phantom comics, starting with those published by Gold Key and continuing with the ones published by King Comics and Charlton Comics.
Whitman
The first novel about the Phantom was published in 1944 by Whitman Publishing Company, and was called "The Son of the Phantom". Written by Dale RobertsonDale Robertson
Dayle Lymoine "Dale" Robertson is an American actor best known for his starring roles on television. He played the role of Jim Hardie in the TV series, Tales of Wells Fargo, and the owner of an incomplete railroad line in ABC's The Iron Horse, often appearing as the deceptively thoughtful but...
, the book was based on Lee Falk's comic strip story "Childhood of the Phantom", although Falk had no involvement with the novel. It featured a cover drawn by Wilson McCoy.
Avon
Avon Publications in the United States put out 15 books based on Lee Falk's stories. The series ran from 1972 to 1975, and were written by Falk himself or other writers. The covers were done by George WilsonGeorge Wilson
-Arts and entertainment:* George Wilson , British actor* George Balch Wilson , American composer, Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan* George Washington Wilson , pioneering Scottish photographer...
. Many of the books were translated into foreign languages.
- The Story of the Phantom: The Ghost Who WalksThe Story of the Phantom: The Ghost Who WalksSee also: Phantom novelsThe Story of the Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks is a novel written by Lee Falk in 1973, based on his own comic strip creation The Phantom.-Plot:...
1972, Lee Falk - The Slave Market of Mucar 1972, Basil CopperBasil CopperBasil Copper is a prolific English writer and former journalist and newspaper editor. He became a fulltime writer in 1970.In addition to horror and detective fiction, Copper is perhaps best known for his series of Solar Pons stories continuing the character created as a tribute to Sherlock Holmes...
- The Scorpia Menace 1972, Basil Copper
- The Veiled Lady 1973, Frank S. ShawnRon GoulartRon Goulart is an American popular culture historian and mystery, fantasy and science fiction author.The prolific Goulart wrote many novelizations and other routine work under various pseudonyms: Kenneth Robeson , Con Steffanson , Chad Calhoun, R.T...
- The Golden Circle 1973, Frank S. Shawn
- The Mysterious Ambassador 1973, Lee Falk
- The Mystery of the Sea Horse 1973, Frank S. Shawn
- The Hydra Monster 1973, Frank S. Shawn
- Killer's Town 1973, Lee Falk
- The Goggle-Eyed Pirates 1974, Frank S. Shawn
- The Swamp Rats 1974, Frank S. Shawn
- The Vampires & the Witch 1974, Lee Falk
- The Island of Dogs 1975, Warren Shanahan
- The Assassins 1975, Carson Bingham
- The Curse of the Two-Headed Bull 1975, Lee Falk
In 2006, the books The Story of the Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks and The Veiled Lady were released as audio books in Norway and Sweden, as part of the celebration of the seventieth anniversary of the character.
To coincide with the 1996 Phantom movie, Avon published The Phantom, based on the Paramount Pictures film. It was written by Rob MacGregor.
Moonstone Books
In 2007, Moonstone BooksMoonstone Books
Moonstone Books is an American comic book, graphic novel, and prose fiction publisher based in Chicago focused on pulp fiction comic books and prose anthologies as well as horror and western tales....
released The Phantom Chronicles, a collection of short stories written by authors Mike Bullock
Mike Bullock
Mike Bullock is an American author and musician born in Washington, DC. Bullock began writing fiction, non-fiction and poetry in the 1980s. He worked professionally in the music and comic book industries since 1986 and is best known as the creator of comic book series Lions, Tigers and Bears from...
, Ron Fortier
Ron Fortier
Ron Fortier is an American author, primarily known for his Green Hornet and The Terminator comic books and his revival of the pulp hero, Captain Hazzard. Early in his career he also wrote short stories and co-authored two novels for TSR....
, Jim Alexander, David Michelinie
David Michelinie
-Biography:Some of his earliest work is for DC Comics's House of Secrets and a run on Swamp Thing , following Len Wein and preceding Gerry Conway, illustrated by Nestor Redondo. Michelinie did a run on Aquaman in Adventure Comics which led to the revival of the Sea King's own title in 1977...
, Craig Shaw Gardner
Craig Shaw Gardner
Craig Shaw Gardner is an American author, best known for producing fantasy parodies similar to those of Terry Pratchett.He was also a member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America , a loose-knit group of Heroic Fantasy authors founded in the 1960s, some of whose works were anthologized...
, CJ Henderson
CJ Henderson
Chris "C.J." Henderson is an American writer of horror, hardboiled crime fiction and comic books. His best known work in the hardboiled genre is Jack Hagee detective series and his supernatural detective Teddy London series, as well as many other short stories and novels featuring many characters...
, Clay and Susan Griffith, Jim Alexander, Will Murray, Mike Oliveri, Nancy Kilpatrick, Ed Rhoades, David Bishop
David Bishop
David Bishop is a screenwriter and author. Born in New Zealand, he was a UK comics editor during the 1990s, running such titles as the Judge Dredd Megazine and 2000 AD, the latter between 1996 and the summer of 2000....
, Grant Suave, Trina Robbins
Trina Robbins
Trina Robbins is an American comics artist and writer. She was an early and influential participant in the underground comix movement, and one of the few female artists in underground comix when she started. Both as a cartoonist and historian, Robbins has long been involved in creating outlets for...
, Richard Dean Starr
Richard Dean Starr
*Richard Starr redirects here, not to be confused with Richard StarkeyRichard Dean Starr is an American entrepreneur, editor, and author of fiction and graphic novels whose work has featured characters including Hellboy, Zorro, The Phantom, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, The Avenger, The Green...
, Dan Wickline and Martin Powell.
The book was released in both a softcover and limited hardcover edition, and featured an introduction written by Lee Falk's daughter, Valerie Falk.
The Phantom Chronicles 2 was released in 2010. It features a story where the Phantom teams up with Green Hornet
The Green Hornet
The Green Hornet is an American radio and television masked vigilante created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker, with input from radio director James Jewell, in 1936. Since his radio debut in the 1930s, the Green Hornet has appeared in numerous serialized dramas in a wide variety of media...
, written by Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...
, and has a foreword written by Diane Falk.
Other appearances
In Umberto EcoUmberto Eco
Umberto Eco Knight Grand Cross is an Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic, and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose , an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, biblical analysis, medieval studies and literary theory...
's novel The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana
The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana
The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana is a novel by Italian writer Umberto Eco. It was first published in Italian in 2004, and an English language translation by Geoffrey Brock was published in spring 2005...
, the main character describes his childhood experiences of reading The Phantom, as well as other comic strip characters like Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon is the hero of a science fiction adventure comic strip originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by and created to compete with the already established Buck Rogers adventure strip. Also inspired by these series were comics such as Dash...
and Mandrake the Magician. The book also features illustrations of the Phantom, drawn by Ray Moore.
The Phantom serials
A fifteen-part movie serial starring Tom TylerTom Tyler
Tom Tyler was an American actor in silent and sound motion pictures, best known for his portrayal of superhero Captain Marvel in the acclaimed 1941 movie serial The Adventures of Captain Marvel.-Biography:...
in the title role was made in 1943, with Jeanne Bates
Jeanne Bates
Jeanne Bates was an American radio, film and television actress. She signed a contract with Columbia Pictures in 1942 which began her career in films both in bit parts and larger roles.-Career:...
as Diana Palmer, Frank Shannon
Frank Shannon
Francis Connolly Shannon , better known as Frank Shannon, was an Irish-born actor and writer.A stage actor and silent film pioneer, Shannon made his screen debut in 1913's The Artist's Joke. He later appeared in dozens of films through the mid-1920s, including The Prisoner of Zenda and Monsieur...
as her uncle Professor Davidson, and Ace the Wonder Dog
Ace the Wonder Dog
Ace the Wonder Dog was a German Shepherd that acted in several films and film serials from 1938 to 1946. His first appearance was in the 1938 Lew Landers film...
as Devil. The story shows the 21st Phantom's first mission after taking over the mantle of the Ghost Who Walks from his murdered father: to find the Lost City of Zoloz and prevent the evil Dr. Bremmer, played by Kenneth MacDonald
Kenneth MacDonald (American actor)
Kenneth MacDonald was an American film actor. Born in Portland, Indiana, MacDonald made more than 220 film and television appearances between 1931 and 1970.-Career:...
, from building a secret airbase in the jungle.
The Phantom's real name in the serial was Geoffrey Prescott, as the alias of Kit Walker had not been mentioned in the strip at that point. However, he goes by the alias of Mr. Walker after having become the Phantom.
Two episodes loosely adapted Lee Falk's story "The Fire Princess" for the screen, and fit it into the plot of the Phantom's fight against Dr. Bremmer.
The serial was a success, and a sequel, to be called Return of the Phantom, was filmed in 1955 starring John Hart
John Hart (actor)
John Hart was an American motion picture and television actor, born in Los Angeles, California. In his early career, he appeared mostly in Westerns...
, but after problems with the rights to the character it was partially re-shot and re-named The Adventures of Captain Africa
The Adventures of Captain Africa
The Adventures of Captain Africa is a Columbia serial starring John Hart. It was the third to last serial to be produced by Columbia.-Plot:Trapper Nat Coleman and government agent Ted Arnold come upon a plot to take over an African nation...
.
The Phantom (1996)
The Phantom was also adapted into a live-action movie in 1996. Produced and released by Paramount PicturesParamount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
, the movie was set in the 1930s, and incorporated elements from several of the Phantom's earliest comic-strip adventures. It starred Billy Zane
Billy Zane
William George "Billy" Zane, Jr. is an American actor, producer and director. He is probably best known for his roles as Caledon Hockley in Titanic, The Phantom from The Phantom, John Wheeler in Twin Peaks and Mr...
in the title role, Kristy Swanson
Kristy Swanson
Kristen Nöel "Kristy" Swanson is an American actress best known for playing Buffy in the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer, she also played Catherine "Cathy" Dollanganger in the movie version of the V.C...
as Diana Palmer, and Catherine Zeta-Jones
Catherine Zeta-Jones
Catherine Zeta-Jones, CBE, is a British actress. She began her career on stage at an early age. After starring in a number of United Kingdom and United States television films and small roles in films, she came to prominence with roles in Hollywood movies such as the 1998 action film The Mask of...
as Sala, an aviatrix. It was directed by Simon Wincer
Simon Wincer
Simon Wincer is an Australian film director and film producer. He attended Cranbrook School, Bellevue Hill, Sydney from 1950 to 1961. On leaving school he worked as a stage hand at TV Station Channel 7. By the 1980s he directed over 200 hours of television. In 1986 he directed the made for TV...
, after director Joe Dante
Joe Dante
Joseph "Joe" Dante, Jr. is an American film director and producer of films generally with humorous and science fiction content....
and producer Michael Douglas
Michael Douglas
Michael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the...
dropped out of the project, and was written by Jeffrey Boam
Jeffrey Boam
Jeffrey David Boam was an American screenwriter and film producer. He is known for writing the screenplays for Lethal Weapon 2 and Lethal Weapon 3, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Innerspace, and The Lost Boys. Boam's films had a cumulative gross of over US $1 billion. He was educated at...
, who also wrote Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a 1989 American adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, from a story co-written by executive producer George Lucas. It is the third film in the Indiana Jones franchise. Harrison Ford reprises the title role and Sean Connery plays Indiana's father, Henry...
. Cult-icon Bruce Campbell
Bruce Campbell
Bruce Lorne Campbell is an American film and television actor. As a cult movie actor, Campbell starred as Ashley J. "Ash" Williams in Sam Raimi's Evil Dead series of films and he has starred in many low-budget cult films such as Crimewave, Maniac Cop, Bubba Ho-tep, Escape From L.A. and Sundown:...
was another choice for the role, but Zane, already a huge fan of the comic strip since being introduced to Australian Frew comics on the set of Dead Calm
Dead Calm
Dead Calm is a 1963 novel by Charles F. Williams, which was the basis for the unreleased film The Deep and the later film Dead Calm .- Plot :...
, ended up getting the part after actively lobbying for it for years. After his casting, he feverishly pumped iron for a year and a half to fill the Phantom's costume, refusing to wear a Batman
Batman
Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...
-like costume with moulded muscles. He also closely studied panels of the comic to capture the character's body language. Though the film did not become a success in its theatrical release, it was the reason why Zane was cast as Caledon Hockley in another Paramount release, Titanic
Titanic (1997 film)
Titanic is a 1997 American epic romance and disaster film directed, written, co-produced, and co-edited by James Cameron. A fictionalized account of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, it stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson, Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater and Billy Zane as Rose's fiancé, Cal...
, the world's second most commercially successful film, and has sold well on VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
and DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
.
The movie was filmed on location in Australia, Thailand, and in Los Angeles, and featured the Phantom in his attempt to stop madman Xander Drax (Treat Williams
Treat Williams
Richard Treat Williams is a Screen Actors Guild Award–nominated American actor and children's book author who has appeared on film, stage and television...
) from obtaining a weapon of doom, the legendary "Skulls of Touganda". The story also features the Singh Brotherhood, the all-female clan of air pirates known as the Sky Band, of whom Sala is the leader and a subplot wherein the 21st Phantom recovers his father's gunbelt and avenges his father's murder, inspired by the Lee Falk/Wilson McCoy story "The Belt". The film also has elements taken from the 1936 story "The Singh Brotherhood", the first Phantom story, and its 1937 continuation "The Sky Band".
In 2008, syndicated gossip columnist Liz Smith
Liz Smith (journalist)
Mary Elizabeth "Liz" Smith is an American gossip columnist. She is known as The Grand Dame of Dish.- Early life and career :...
claimed that Paramount was putting a sequel into development, with Zane returning to play the title role, due to the good VHS and DVD sales of the first film. The Phantom was released on Blu-ray February 2010 by Lionsgate.
The Phantom: Legacy
On December 15, 2008, it was announced that Sherlock Symington Productions had secured the rights to the Phantom, and are set to make a film called The Phantom: Legacy (unrelated to the Moonstone Books 2006 graphic novel of the same name and any other screen incarnation of the character). The film is set to have a budget of $130 million, and is written by Tim Boyle.Bruce Sherlock, executive producer and head of Sherlock Symington Productions, said that The Phantom: Legacy would follow the lead of films like The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight (film)
The Dark Knight is a 2008 superhero film directed, produced and co-written by Christopher Nolan. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, the film is part of Nolan's Batman film series and a sequel to 2005's Batman Begins...
and Iron Man
Iron Man (film)
Iron Man is a 2008 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. Directed by Jon Favreau, the film stars Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark, an industrialist and master engineer who builds a powered exoskeleton and becomes the technologically advanced superhero, Iron...
, and present a serious treatment of the character. The film will be set in the present day, and revolves around the relationship between the Phantom and his son, and what it means to be the Phantom. Work on the film is expected to begin in 2009. The movie will be filmed in Australia, and producers are in talks with both Australian and international actors to work on the film.
In an interview with Dark Horizons
Dark Horizons
Dark Horizons is a movie centric website owned and written by Garth Franklin of Sydney, Australia. Dark Horizons is dedicated to news, interviews, rumors, and reviews of upcoming and currently playing films and television projects. The focus initially was almost exclusively related to science...
, Boyle said the film will feature two main antagonists, one taken from the comic and one created for the movie. The Phantom's costume is also expected to be updated for the screen, with Boyle seeking to make it more reality-based. Characters such as Diana Palmer, Kit and Heloise Walker, Colonel Worubu, President Lamanda Luaga, and Guran will also appear. The film is said to be heavily focused on the mythology of the comics, with the origin of the 1st Phantom expected to be devoted a lot of screen time. The Phantom's eyes behind his mask will also be white, unlike what it has been in previous film-versions. Actor Sam Worthington
Sam Worthington
Samuel Henry J. "Sam" Worthington is an English born, Australian actor. After almost a decade of roles in Australian TV shows and films, Worthington gained Hollywood's attention by playing Marcus Wright in Terminator Salvation and the lead role, Jake Sully, in James Cameron's science...
is considered to play the Phantom, after having worked with Boyle on the film Fink.
Boyle was originally considered to direct the movie, but has confirmed he is only attached as the writer.
Cameos
The Phantom made an appearance alongside other King Features characters in the 1972 animated movie Popeye Meets the Man Who Hated Laughter. He also appeared in the animated Beatles movie Yellow Submarine.Unauthorized versions
At least three unauthorized Phantom movies were made in Turkey. Two were made in 1968 and both were titled Kızıl Maske (the Turkish name for the Phantom, translated as "Red Mask"). The Phantom was played by Ismet Erten and Irfan Atasoy. The costume worn by Irfan Atasoy bears little resemblance to the one seen in the comic strip, but the uniforms worn by Ismet Erten and in Kızıl Maske'nin Intikamı (Revenge of the Red Mask), released in 1971, stayed close to the original outfit.1961 pilot
An unaired color Phantom TV-pilot was made in 1961 starring Roger Creed as the Phantom, with Lon Chaney Jr., Paulette GoddardPaulette Goddard
Paulette Goddard was an American film and theatre actress. A former child fashion model and in several Broadway productions as Ziegfeld Girl, she was a major star of the Paramount Studio in the 1940s. She was married to several notable men, including Charlie Chaplin, Burgess Meredith, and Erich...
as the antagonists and Richard Kiel
Richard Kiel
Richard Dawson Kiel is an American actor best known for his role as the steel-toothed Jaws in the James Bond movies The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker as well as the video game Everything or Nothing, and Mr. Larson in Happy Gilmore...
as the assassin
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
"Big Mike" in supporting roles. Called "No Escape", and the pilot saw the Phantom breaking up a slave camp in the jungle.
Made on a limited budget, the pilot features fight scenes and the Phantom terrorizing villains in the jungle. Writer John Carr
John Carr
John Carr was a prolific English architect. He was born in Horbury, near Wakefield, England, the eldest of nine children and the son of a master mason, under whom he trained. He started an independent career in 1748 and continued until shortly before his death. John Carr was Lord Mayor of York in...
originally wrote four episodes, but due to the fact that the pilot was not picked up by a network, the remaining three were never filmed. Actress Marilyn Manning had originally been cast as Diana Palmer, but never appeared in the pilot. Devil, Hero and the Jungle Patrol all appear throughout the course of the story.
The pilot was shown at the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention in 2008 and has also been shown at Comic Con in San Diego.
Defenders of the Earth
In Defenders of the EarthDefenders of the Earth
Defenders of the Earth is an animated television series produced in 1986, narrated by Corey Burton and featuring characters from three comic strips distributed by King Features Syndicate—Flash Gordon, the Phantom, and Mandrake the Magician—battling the Flash Gordon villain Ming the Merciless in the...
, which ran from 1986 to 1987, the twenty seventh Phantom, voiced by actor Peter Mark Richman, teams up with fellow King Features adventurers Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon is the hero of a science fiction adventure comic strip originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by and created to compete with the already established Buck Rogers adventure strip. Also inspired by these series were comics such as Dash...
, Mandrake the Magician
Mandrake the Magician
Mandrake the Magician is a syndicated newspaper comic strip, created by Lee Falk , which began June 11, 1934. Phil Davis soon took over as the strip's illustrator, while Falk continued to script. The strip was distributed by King Features Syndicate.Davis worked on the strip until his death in 1964,...
and Mandrake's bodyguard
Bodyguard
A bodyguard is a type of security operative or government agent who protects a person—usually a famous, wealthy, or politically important figure—from assault, kidnapping, assassination, stalking, loss of confidential information, terrorist attack or other threats.Most important public figures such...
and assistant Lothar. The cartoon also featured a daughter, Jedda Walker, who briefly took on the Phantom mantle in an episode where she believed her father to have perished.
Other episodes of the series featured classic Phantom villains like the Sky Band, the Phantom's evil older brother Kurt Walker (created specifically for the show) and a flashback to the days of the first Phantom. The episode "Return of the Sky Band" also featured lengthy flashbacks to the Phantom of Lee Falk's comic strip; the 21st Phantom, showing him and his wife, Diana Palmer, and their encounter with the original Sky Band.
In the original presentation pilot for the series, The Phantom had a son, Kit Walker, and Flash Gordon had a daughter, but this was changed for the final series.
In Defenders of the Earth, The Phantom was able to use supernatural means to give himself increased strength and speed, by saying the incantation:
"By Jungle Law
The Ghost Who Walks
Calls forth the strength of ten tigers"
It is only in this cartoon series that the Phantom has such an ability. In the series, the Phantom also used a special helicopter nicknamed "The Skull Copter", and had an updated Skull Ring that would shoot a laser on to the faces of antagonists, marking them for life.
The complete series has been released on DVD in several editions, the latest in 2010.
Phantom 2040
Phantom 2040
Phantom 2040 is an American animated science fiction television series loosely based on the comic strip hero The Phantom, created by Lee Falk. The central character of the series is said to be the 24th Phantom...
depicts the adventures of the 24th Phantom. Young Kit Walker, living happily with his aunt Heloise (daughter of the 21st Phantom) in the city of Metropia (previously known as New York) in the year 2040, knowing nothing about his family's legacy, when one day, The Phantom's friend Guran turns up to reveal the secret of the Phantom legacy. Kit takes up the mantle of the Phantom, and starts a battle against the evil company Maximum Inc., and their plans to destroy Earth's ecosystem while a select few seal themselves in a controlled environment. He also tries to solve the mystery of the death of his father, the 23rd Phantom.
This animated series lasted two seasons and spawned a large number of merchandise tie-ins, a comic book series and a video game. The Phantom/Kit Walker was voiced by actor Scott Valentine
Scott Valentine
Scott Eugene Valentine is an American actor.-Life and career:Valentine was born in Saratoga Springs, New York, the son of Beverly Ann and Edward Eugene Valentine. He began to pursue acting one year into his college education, attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York...
, Margot Kidder
Margot Kidder
Margaret Ruth "Margot" Kidder is a Canadian-born American actress. She is perhaps best known for playing Lois Lane in the four Superman movies opposite Christopher Reeve, a role that brought her to widespread recognition....
voiced main antagonist Rebecca Madison, Ron Perlman
Ron Perlman
Ronald N. "Ron" Perlman is an American television, film and voice over actor. He is known for having played Vincent in the TV series Beauty and the Beast , a Deathstroke figure known as Slade in the animated series Teen Titans, Clarence "Clay" Morrow in Sons of Anarchy, the comic book character...
played tortured cyborg Graft, Debbie Harry
Debbie Harry
Deborah Ann "Debbie" Harry is an American singer-songwriter and actress, best known for being the lead singer of the punk rock and new wave band Blondie. She has also had success as a solo artist, and in the mid-1990s she performed and recorded as part of The Jazz Passengers...
played Vain Gloria, and Mark Hamill
Mark Hamill
Mark Richard Hamill is an American actor, voice artist, producer, director, and writer, best known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the original trilogy of Star Wars. More recently, he has received acclaim for his voice work, in such roles as the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series, Firelord...
lent his voice to the character of Dr. Jak.
The first five episodes of the series were edited into a feature length film and released on DVD in 2004, called "Phantom 2040: The Ghost Who Walks". Other episodes of the series were released on VHS
VHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
in 1997.
The Phantom (Syfy)
On July 29, 2008, screenwriter Daniel KnaufDaniel Knauf
Daniel Knauf, sometimes credited under the pseudonyms Wilfred Schmidt and Chris Neal, is an American screenwriter, comic book writer, director and producer best known for his creation of the 2003 HBO series Carnivàle.-Biography:...
announced he and his son and collaborator Charles Knauf had completed a four-hour TV-movie
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
script for SCI FI Channel
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
, later re-named Syfy
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
, starring the 22nd Phantom. On March 23, 2009, Sci Fi Channel announced that they formally ordered a 4-hour mini-series in two parts, which also served as a backdoor pilot. The mini-series, simply called The Phantom
The Phantom (miniseries)
The Phantom is a 2009 miniseries inspired by Lee Falk's comic strip of the same name, and directed by Paolo Barzman. It first aired on The Movie Network and then on Syfy in June 2010...
, was produced by Muse Entertainment and RHI Entertainment
RHI Entertainment
RHI Entertainment , formerly known as Hallmark Entertainment, is an American producer of television movies and miniseries, founded in 1979 by Robert Halmi Jr. and Robert Halmi Sr. as Robert Halmi Incorporated....
. It premiered in Canada on The Movie Network
The Movie Network
The Movie Network is a Canadian English language Category A premium television service, owned by Astral Media. The service is licensed to operate east of the Ontario-Manitoba border, excluding the territories...
in December 2009, as a two-part mini-series, a total of three hours.
Ryan Carnes
Ryan Carnes
Ryan Gregg Carnes is an American actor. He attended Duke University where he was a member of DUMB, the Duke University Marching Band. He is currently working on a collaboration with other musicians and is an accomplished drummer of 15 years.In 2003 Carnes was part of a national campaign for...
stars as the Phantom, with Paolo Barzman directing. The series was shot in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Costa Rica
Costa Rica
Costa Rica , officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a multilingual, multiethnic and multicultural country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea to the east....
and Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
.
The story sees law student Kit learning that he was adopted, and that he is actually the son of the 21st Phantom and Diana Palmer Walker. He joins the Phantom team in the jungles of Bengalla (in this version, Bengalla is a small island in Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
), and is trained in martial arts and combat, emerging as the next Phantom to battle the Singh Brotherhood and save the only man who can bring peace to the Middle East. The 22nd Phantom wears a modified costume that is highly resistant to bullets, blades and falls, doubles his strength and can make him move faster.
The mini-series aired on Syfy
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
in June, 2010, and was released on Blu-ray and DVD by Vivendi Entertainment
Vivendi Entertainment
Vivendi Entertainment is an independent film, television, DVD and digital distribution company operating in the United States and Canada. It is also a distribution partner for independent content providers....
.
Parodies
Paul HoganPaul Hogan
Paul Hogan, AM is an Australian actor best known for his role as Michael "Crocodile" Dundee from the Crocodile Dundee film series, for which he won a Golden Globe award.-Early life and career:...
, of Crocodile Dundee
Crocodile Dundee
"Crocodile" Dundee is a 1986 Australian comedy film set in the Australian Outback and in New York City. It stars Paul Hogan as the weathered Mick Dundee and Linda Kozlowski as Sue Charlton....
fame, continually parodied the Phantom on his Australian TV-show, The Paul Hogan Show
The Paul Hogan Show
The Paul Hogan Show was a popular Australian comedy show which aired on Australian television from 1973 until 1984. It made a star of Paul Hogan who later appeared in Crocodile Dundee. Hogan's friend also appeared in the show, playing Hogan's dim flatmate Strop...
. He would dress up in the purple Phantom costume, and act out different humorous situations. The Phantom has also been frequently parodied on Scandinavian television, in different humour programs.
In 1984, Australian stand-up comedian Austen Tayshus
Austen Tayshus
Austen Tayshus is the stage name of Jewish Australian comedian Alexander Jacob Gutman. He is best known for the comedy single "Australiana", a spoken word piece filled with Australian puns.-Biography:...
released a single Phantom Shuffle in the video of which he appeared in Phantom costume, wearing sunglasses instead of a mask. Many elements of the Phantom myth are parodied, such him being "Mr Walker, the man who cannot drive".
In the Adult Swim
Adult Swim
Adult Swim is an adult-oriented Cable network that shares channel space with Cartoon Network from 9:00 pm until 6:00 am ET/PT in the United States, and broadcasts in countries such as Australia and New Zealand...
show The Venture Bros.
The Venture Bros.
The Venture Bros. is an American animated television series that premiered on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim on February 16, 2003. The series mixes action and comedy together while it chronicles the adventures of the Venture family: well-meaning but incompetent teenagers Hank and Dean Venture; their...
, the character The Phantom Limb bears a strong visual resemblance to the Phantom, right down to the same purple suit and mask, except that the Phantom Limb's limbs are invisible, making him look like a floating torso. However, The Phantom Limb is a villainous character.
The myth surrounding the Phantom also provided Turkish humorists with a lot of material. The humor magazine Leman has published many comic strips some of which were inspired by the (imaginary) saying "in the jungle, it is rumored that the Phantom has the strength of ten tigers" where Phantom runs into trouble with 11 or more tigers.
The Phantom was parodied in a 2007 episode of Robot Chicken
Robot Chicken
Robot Chicken is an American stop motion animated television series created and executive produced by Seth Green and Matthew Senreich along with co-head writers Douglas Goldstein and Tom Root. Green provides many voices for the show...
called Werewolf vs. Unicorn, where he appeared alongside Flash Gordon and Mandrake the Magician. He was voiced by Frank Welker
Frank Welker
Franklin Wendell "Frank" Welker is an American actor who specializes in voice acting and has contributed character voices and other vocal effects to American television and motion pictures.-Acting career:...
.
The Phantom is a frequently appearing character in the Finnish comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
Fingerpori
Fingerpori
Fingerpori is a Finnish comic strip written and drawn by Pertti Jarla. It started in Helsingin Sanomat in February 2007, and currently also appears in Satakunnan kansa, Aamulehti, Karjalainen, Keskisuomalainen, Turun Sanomat and Etelä-Saimaa...
by Pertti Jarla. He is often involved in humorous situations such as using his throne as a toilet seat.
Documentaries
In 1996, the A&E NetworkA&E Network
The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
created a documentary about the history of the Phantom for television, called The Phantom: Comic strip crusader. Narrated by Peter Graves
Peter Graves (actor)
Peter Aurness , known professionally as Peter Graves, was an American film and television actor. He was best known for his starring role in the CBS television series Mission: Impossible from 1967 to 1973...
, it featured interviews with creator Lee Falk, actors Billy Zane
Billy Zane
William George "Billy" Zane, Jr. is an American actor, producer and director. He is probably best known for his roles as Caledon Hockley in Titanic, The Phantom from The Phantom, John Wheeler in Twin Peaks and Mr...
and Kristy Swanson
Kristy Swanson
Kristen Nöel "Kristy" Swanson is an American actress best known for playing Buffy in the 1992 film Buffy the Vampire Slayer, she also played Catherine "Cathy" Dollanganger in the movie version of the V.C...
, director Simon Wincer
Simon Wincer
Simon Wincer is an Australian film director and film producer. He attended Cranbrook School, Bellevue Hill, Sydney from 1950 to 1961. On leaving school he worked as a stage hand at TV Station Channel 7. By the 1980s he directed over 200 hours of television. In 1986 he directed the made for TV...
, Frew-editor Jim Shepherd, George Olesen, Keith Williams, and president of the US Phantom fan club Friends of the Phantom, Ed Rhoades. The documentary was released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
in 2006.
To promote the 1996 Paramount Phantom movie, a HBO special called "Making of The Phantom" was made. It featured behind-the-scenes information on the movie and the comic.
An original documentary presentation called History of the Phantom was shown at the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention in September 2008.
MythBusters "Superhero Hour"
On MythBustersMythBusters
MythBusters is a science entertainment TV program created and produced by Beyond Television Productions for the Discovery Channel. The series is screened by numerous international broadcasters, including Discovery Channel Australia, Discovery Channel Latin America, Discovery Channel Canada, Quest...
season 5, episode 17 "Superhero Hour", it was tested whether the Phantom's skull ring would make an imprint on someone when you punch them while wearing it, as it does in the comic. The result was the myth was "busted", in that hitting a person in the face hard enough to leave a ring imprint on the skin requires more than enough force to crush a human skull.
In the comic it has been revealed that the Phantom's ring has sharp edges and is covered with a permanent ink from plants in the depths of the Bengallan jungle, leaving a permanent scar-like mark. It is, in effect, an instant tattoo
Tattoo
A tattoo is made by inserting indelible ink into the dermis layer of the skin to change the pigment. Tattoos on humans are a type of body modification, and tattoos on other animals are most commonly used for identification purposes...
.
Stage
A musical about the Phantom was produced in Sweden in 1985. It was written by Peter Falck and Urban Wrethagen and starred Urban Wrethagen as the Phantom. A recording of the songs was released on LP and a comic adaption of the story was published in the Swedish Fantomen magazine. The Falck-Wrethagen musical was also performed in PerthPerth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
, Western Australia in 1989. The Phantom was played by Robert Peron.
Another musical called "Fantomets glade bryllup" ("The Phantom's Happy Wedding") was made in Norway, with actor Knut Husebø as Fantomet and popular Norwegian singer Jahn Teigen
Jahn Teigen
Jahn Teigen is a Norwegian singer and musician. Jahn received a knighthood from H.M. King Harald V. He represented Norway in the Eurovision Song Contest three times, in 1978, 1982 and 1983. His given name was Jan, he added the silent H later. Since October 2006 he has been living in Sweden...
composing the music and playing the antagonist
Antagonist
An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...
. This humorous take on the character included the Phantom clashing with Tarzan
Tarzan
Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...
. Teigen also had a hit song about the Phantom's relationship with Diana Palmer.
In the 1990s, Toadshow produced a Rock Opera entitled Phantoad of the Opera, about the Phantoad, the Ghost Who Hops, a masked musical genius wanted to appear on Broadway. The show uses elements of many different stories including The Phantom, Phantom of the Opera, Greystoke
Greystoke
Greystoke may refer to:* Greystoke, Cumbria, a village and civil parish in Cumbria, England** Greystoke Castle in this village* Greystoke Park, an area of Newcastle upon Tyne, England* Greystoke Park, a modern housing development in Penrith, England...
, and even The Pirates of Penzance. This rock opera continues to be produced by schools.
A parody called "The Phantum" was written and directed by Zac Gillam and performed in 2002 by UDS with Brendon Fisher playing the lead as "The Ghost who Baulks".
Video games
The Phantom has appeared as a playable character in two video games, Phantom 2040Phantom 2040 (video game)
Phantom 2040 is a side-scrolling action-adventure video game developed by Hearst Entertainment and published by Viacom in 1995 for the Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo and Game Gear...
and Defenders of the Earth
Defenders of the Earth
Defenders of the Earth is an animated television series produced in 1986, narrated by Corey Burton and featuring characters from three comic strips distributed by King Features Syndicate—Flash Gordon, the Phantom, and Mandrake the Magician—battling the Flash Gordon villain Ming the Merciless in the...
. Both were based on the animated series with the same titles. However, in Defenders of the Earth, the Phantom was not the only playable character
Player character
A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
, as players were given the choice to control Mandrake the Magician and Flash Gordon as well.
In Phantom 2040, released on Sega Genesis, Game Gear and Super NES
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
, the Phantom was the only playable character. He had use of a number of his special skills and high-tech gadgets from the Phantom 2040 TV-series. The game had a complex storyline, and featured several different endings, dependent on the choices the player made during the game.
In 2003, a video game made for Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance
The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...
was announced, called "The Phantom: The Ghost Who Walks". It was developed by 7th Sense, and produced by Microids, and was described as a free-roaming jungle adventure. During the development process, Microids went bankrupt, and the game was never released.
In 2006, a The Phantom Mobile Game became available for cellphones, where the Phantom fought zombies, floating skulls and other magical creatures to find his kidnapped wife, Diana Palmer. It was described as a free-roaming jungle adventure, with a film-like plot.
Theme park
"Fantomenland" ("Phantom Land") was a part of the Swedish zoo Parken Zoo, EskilstunaEskilstuna
Eskilstuna is a city and the seat of Eskilstuna Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden with 60,185 inhabitants in 2005. Eskilstuna has a large Sweden Finn population....
, where audiences could visit the Skull Cave
Skull Cave
The Skull Cave is the hideout of The Phantom. The Skull Cave is hidden behind a largewaterfall in the Deep Woods of Bangalla.To find the cave, one must go through the waterfall...
, and several other places from the comic, like the Whispering Grove and the headquarters of the Jungle Patrol. Visitors could also meet actors dressed up as the Phantom, and witness short plays featuring the characters of the comic. Fantomenland was inaugurated by Lee Falk in 1986. Fantomenland closed in April 2012 due to the fact that The Phantom is not as well known among children as it used to be.
External links
- The Phantom at King Features
- Chronicle Chamber
- The Phantom Phorum - Discussion forum dedicated to The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician
- Comicon.con Pulse News (March 8, 2006): "Bullock & The Phantom Help Invisible Children", by Jennifer M. Contino
- Fantomen.com