When it comes to The Phantom, I've been lucky in a couple of ways - first, when I was growing up my local newspaper carried the daily comic strip starring The Ghost Who Walks.Second, I have a friend in Australia. (Hi, Mark!) The reason that's lucky is because The Phantom is hugely popular there, and has starred in his own comic book for more than 60 years.
Mark and I have done some long-distance book trading, and as a result I've received quite a few copies of these outstanding publications from Frew Publications.
How wonderful they are! This issue was published in September 1998, and is the 50th Anniversary issue for Frew. It includes six black-and-white stories of the Phantom, including a new story created just for the issue, a complete daily story from 1950 and four Sunday stories from 1950, '51, '73 and '74.
The original story is written by Tony De Paul, with art by Joan Boix. The reprints were written by Falk, with art by Wilson McCoy and Sy Barry (my personal favorite - his stories were the ones I read growing up).
For those who came in late, The Phantom is considered the first comics hero to wear the traditional skin-tight costume and a mask with no pupils showing. His first daily comic strip appearance was on February 17, 1936.
Created by Lee Falk (who also created Mandrake the Magician), the "modern-day" Phantom is the latest in a 400-year-long line of heroes who have worn the mask and the purple tights, devoting their lives to fighting evil.
Operating out of a hidden jungle base, the character has a rich mythology built up around him, a vast number of supporting characters and an amazing history to draw on.
The character was always one of my favorites. Like Batman, he has no super-powers to draw on - but he's smart, saavy and tough as nails. Oh, and he carries two pistols.
I was sad when I moved to a town that didn't carry the strip. It's wonderful to know that the legend lives on around the world, and I'm grateful to my pal Mark for sending these my way.
Hopefully someday, we'll see a local reprint along the lines of the Peanuts volumes dedicated to the Ghost Who Walks.
It's the least we can do for one of the Founding Fathers of comics heroes.
Grade: A
LATE NEWS: Talk about wishes coming true! As reader -> Ray points out in the comments, the collection The Phantom: The Complete Newspaper Dailies Volume 1: 1936-1938 is coming in December from Hermes Press! Is this a Golden Age of newspaper reprints or what? Thanks for setting me straight, Ray!
2 comments:
"The Phantom: The Complete Newspaper Dailies Volume 1: 1936-1938"
Hermes Press, coming in December!
Ray, It's funny - I was looking at some stuff on Amazon just now and came across this in my "recommendations" list! I jumped over here to mention it and you'd beaten me to it. I've got to add this to my Christmas list! Man, with 70 years of strips, that's going to be one hefty collection when it's all done.
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