The Phantom is the original superhero, or masked adventurer, or whatever you'd like to call him. But this mysterious creation of Lee Falk's has been a favorite of mine since even before I got into comic books, at a time when I was a wee lad just enjoying the Sunday funnies. I was lucky to grow up with a local paper that had a robust color funnies section with lots of classic strips such as Blondie, Bringing Up Father, Henry, and others. It also carried quite a few adventure strips like Prince Valiant, TimTyler's Luck, The Lone Ranger, and most importantly The Phantom.
Here was a surprisingly domestic though exotic hero, a husband and father who lived in a wonderland version of Africa and who defended his family, his people and even the world. Admittedly the strip was a little dry when I first encountered it, but the magic still worked. When I followed the Phantom over into the comic books, I found a more purely adventurous hero, and when Joe Gill and Don Newton took over the character I found a brand new version of the classic which made me rediscover all the greatness, and imagine more.
I've been a hardcore fan ever since of the Ghost Who Walks. That's true for much of the world where Lee Falk's iconic hero is popular still, though he always seems to find it a little tough to find a foothold in these United States.
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Don Newton and Jim Aparo were the best comic book artists for this hero!
ReplyDeleteI pretty much agree with that assessment. Newton brought aspects of the character's mystery which others had allowed to lapse. Sy Barry's version is the template though.
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The Phantom was one of the first heroes I read about. My mom bought one of those "three-fer" sets that they used to have at the Five & Dime and there was a Phantom comic, a Flash Gordon comic, and a Mandrake the Magician comic. I still have that Phantom comic somewhere, or what's left of it.
ReplyDeleteI loved the Don Newton era. I rediscovered The Phantom while he was illustrating it. I even found some of his newer adventures when Wowio published them.
Oh yeah, the days when comics were in the Five and Dime stores...oh the days when there were Five and Dime stores. I've been gathering most of those King runs, but I still need a few.
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I know nothing about the Phantom, unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteI envy you discovering him and his world.
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