The Phantom

The Phantom is a comic strip created by Lee Falk[?], recounting the adventures of a costumed crime-fighter called the Phantom. The series began with a daily newspaper strip in February of 1936, which was joined by a colour Sunday strip in May of 1939; both are still running.

The action of the series revolves around a mysterious man, descended from twenty previous generations of crime-fighters all with the same persona: The Phantom. It is notable that the hero has no supernatural powers, but is ascribed to have them by myths within the comic. After all, he appears immortal, "The Ghost who walks". He wears a mask, a purple skintight costume, and carries two .45 pistols. His base is in Africa where he is the secret commander of the Jungle Patrol, but he is not confined to the jungle. He is particularly the enemy of pirates. Frequently the strip highlights the adventures of previous Phantoms, set in the past, and some European publications have featured the Phantom's children as future crimefighters.

In addition to the two newspaper strips, original stories are published by Egmont Publications in Scandinavia (where the Phantom is very popular). Egmont publishes a fortnightly Phantom comic book in Norway (as Fantomet), Sweden (as Fantomen), and Finland (as Mustanaamio). Most of the writers and artists who have worked on the newspaper strips since Lee Falk's death have been members of Egmont's talent pool.

Another country where the Phantom is popular is Australia, where Frew Publications has published a fortnightly comic book, The Phantom, since 1948. Frew's book mostly contains reprints, from the newspaper strips and from Fantomen (in English translation), but has occasionally also included an original story.

External links

• The Deep Woods (http://www.deepwoods.org/) - fan site with very complete reference section; also the closest thing to an official Frew site
• A Phantom FAQ (http://members.aol.com/TGoldberg/phantom.txt) - includes list and short bios of the 24 known Phantoms