The Phantom - The Charlton Years Volume One!

The folks at King Features discovered making comics was harder than they suspected, so after a year or so, they licensed their characters back to a full-time comics firm, this time Charlton got the nod. Charlton Comics was notorious then and now for its pecunious ways, but they were a company which had been making comics since the Golden Age and with the collapse of the "Action Hero" line, they needed heroes. Enter the Phantom. 

In a move which is pure Charlton, they picked up the numbering of the series with issue thirty, which meant they skipped over twenty-ninth. For whatever reason, this gap exists in the run. The cover for issue thirty above is by Frank McLaughlin the talented penciller and inker who created Judomaster. 

Above is the artwork which would have been the cover for issue twenty-nine. Another lift from the work of Sy Barry. 

And here is a fun creation by fan Jim Keefe, a faux issue twenty-nine to fill the imagination. The actual contents of the first Charlton issue were two stories, the first by artists Jose Delbo and inker Sal Trapani for "The Secret of the Golden Ransom" written by Pat Fortunato. This is an adaption of a story from the comic strip. The second Phantom story is by writer Gary Poole and artist McLaughlin and is titled "The Secret of the Phantom".

With issue thirty-one Charlton really puts their stamp on the character for all time by assigning artist Jim Aparo to the character. Aparo's run on the character is still very well thought of by Phantom fans. Aparo is joined by writer Dick Wood on a story titled "The Phantom of Shang-Ri-La". I love this first Aparo cover, as he makes the Phantom into a veritable giant, chiseled from the mountain. The Ghost Who Walks had always been presented in a sleek manner, but Aparo gave the character an imposing muscular presence. 

In issue thirty-two things get even weirder as The Phantom has to contend with a character rising from an Egyptian tomb and claiming to be the original Phantom who helped Cleopatra among others in ancient times. The battle between this "Phantom" and our own sturdy hero is a rugged one indeed, with the Ghost Who Walks getting more than a few shocks before it's all said and done. Is "The Pharaoh Phantom" for real? I'll let you guess. 

Issue thirty-three gives us two Phanton stories. The first story is titled "The Curse of Kallai" and in this Dick Wood written tale a killer cult comes to the Deep Woods to get the Phantom who they think is responsible for their success many years before. They are of course wrong and suffer in this tale drawn by Pat Boyette with Nicholas Alascia on inks. The second story begins with the Phantom falling to his "death" and then we see the consequences when thugs imagine they've actually done in the hero. It's no great surprise when the Ghost Who Walks, walks in and confronts the villains. This story was drawn by Aparo and written by Steve Skeates. 

In both stories in this issue the Phantom must contend with madmen. First in "The Cliff Kingdom" a brother and sister have their plane crash amidst a peaceful people, but the brother is driven mad and uses the people as his personal army. In the second story an anthropologist is obsessed with the apes of  Bengalla and when he is saved by the Phantom from a deadly attack by a bull ape goes mad and assumes his role. Jim Aparo is top form in both these tales written by D.J. Arneson under his "Norm DiPluhm" name again. 

"The Ghost Tribe" is apparently the story originally intended for the lost issue twenty-nine and sees the  return of Bill Harris and artist Bill Lignante to the Phantom pages under a sleek Aparo cover. This tribe seek to imitate the Phantom but instead of peace they bring discord. The Phantom must disguise himself to get to the bottom of this latest threat to the Deep Woods. 

Aparo and Arneson return with issue thirty-six with two stories. The first titled "The River that Never Ends" finds the Phantom and some allies swept into a maelstrom which descends into an isolated cavern. It's all he can do to find a way out when pirates attack the area to boot. "Very Special Timber" is about diamond smugglers who use a sawmill to make special logs to carry their booty out and away from suspecting eyes. It doesn't take the Ghost Who Walks long to break up this scheme and free some natives suspected of the crimes from false imprisonment., 

When Charlton first took control of the comic, we got long Phantom tales taking up a complete issue. Then it shifted to two stories per issue and by this time the new standard seems to be three complete Phantom tales in each issue.  I enjoyed the longer stories, but these vignettes have virtues as well. The regular team of Aparo and Arneson are still in command. The first of the three stories is "Bandar Betrayers" and has the loyal warriors attack the Phantom because of the blooming of the Kacia Tree which sends a scent that makes men turn on their allies. It's up to Hero and Devil to save the day. "Skyjack" has the Phantom intercede in the middle of a skyjack by pretending to be an ally of the skyjacker. It's up to Diana Palmer to whisk him away after this one. "Disband the Patrol!" is a strange story in which to improve discipline and moral the Phantom issues strange orders to the Patrol to see how they perform. 

We get three more stories in issue thirty-eight. This is Jim Aparo's final issue, and he leaves the Ghost Who Walks with a stunner of a cover. Aparo's style has been shifting throughout his run on The Phantom, becoming sleeker and more refined. Aparo was already drawing Aquaman for DC when he was still working on The Phantom, and you can see the same shift on style there. It is this style he will use on the pages of The Phantom Stranger and The Brave and the Bold. "The Dying Groud" has the Phantom trussed up in an elephant graveyard as the natives are upset that their ivory is being poached by woodcutters and they blame the Ghost Who Walks. "The Phantom's New Faith" shows the Phantom with a rare moment of doubt as he reflects on the great achievements of his forefathers. But when a volcano erupts, he gets his chance to do the deeds he necessary to carry on the heritage. "The Trap" features Diana Palmer as she comes to Bangalla to catalogue art treasures. She doesn't realize she's being followed by thieves. 

This Hermes volume features a number of pieces of original artwork by Aparo, making this tome a worthy testament to the skills of one of the best talents in comic book history. I've not mentioned it, but Aparo almost always insisted on lettering the artwork he produced and this practice, much in evidence in these stories, gives them a distinctive character unlike anything other folks were doing save perhaps for Pat Boyette. 

And that's ironic since Boyette will be Aparo's replacement on the comic, but more on that next time. 

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